Letter Writing

Letter Writing

Letter writing is one of the important tools of written correspondence. A good letter is of something that carries the writer’s/sender’s presence. There are two types of letters. They are business and personal letters.

A business letter is formal and written to communicate with an official or a business firms. It is different from personal letters in many ways like language, style, format and purpose. Information presented in a business letter should be straight, lucid and precise.

The purpose or the reason of the letter must be mentioned in the opening paragraph. Give complete details in clear terms in the body. State clearly the expected action in the closing paragraphs.

There are six important parts for a business letters. They are as follows:

1. The Heading: It consists of the sender’s address and the date on the last line. Generally there should be a one line gap for the address and date.There is no need to write the return address if letterhead of the company is used for this purpose.

2. The Receiver’s Address: Write receiver’s address clearly and completely.

There is a general rule that one line should be skipped between date and address line.

3. Salutation: It deals with how one addresses the receiver of the letter. In a business letter it has to be formal.

It starts with the word "Dear" and often includes the person's last name.

4. The Body: The body carries important details in detail. The language used should be lucid and courteous.

For each paragraph, one line should be skipped.

Also skip a line between the greeting and the body. Skip a line between the body and the close.

5. The Complimentary Close: This brief expression usually ends with a comma.

6. The Signature: Skip two lines and write your name and just above the signature should be done.

Women may indicate how they wish to be addressed by placing Miss, Mrs., Ms. or similar title in parentheses before their name.

Business Letter Styles

The following are some of the formats of the business letters. There are three accepted styles.

They are

1. Modified Block Style

2. Semi Block Style

3. Block Style

Of the three, the third one (Block Style) has been widely used in the modern day communication. In block style, punctuation marks like commas and full stops are omitted in many places. Comma should be given after salutation and leave taking lines.