A LAYOUT OF AN ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTER
The parts of a business letter
are as follows:
1. Sender's address (Letterhead) 2. Date of The Letter
3. Inside address
4. Attention line
5. Salutation
6. Body of the letter
7. Complimentary close
8. Signature
9. Enclosures
10. Carbon Copy Notation
11. Reference
12. Postscript
Letterhead is
the heading at the top of a sheet of letter paper (stationery). That heading
usually consists of a name and an address, and a logo or corporate design, and
sometimes a background pattern. The term "letterhead" is often used
to refer to the whole sheet imprinted with such a heading.
In some regions, there have been various
legal constraints on the items included in a letterhead: for example in England
and Wales, a letterhead may include the names of all directors or none, but not
a selection from those names.
Note that the suburb name is in capitals
and that there is NO punctuation in the address
This is the address you are sending your
letter to. Make it as complete as possible. Include titles, names, and routing
information if you know them.
This is always on the left margin.
Skip a line after the heading before the
inside address. Skip another line after the inside address before the greeting.
The date is very
important, since it can be useful in determining priorities, for filing and it
also can have legal ramification. In a typed address letter, the date goes immediately
under your address. In a letterhead letter, the date can go on the left-hand
side or the right-side, immediately under the letterhead.
Example:
Write101.com
32
MacDonnell Road
MARGATE
BEACH 4019
1
January 2020
Date in American and British style:
Write101.com
32
MacDonnell Road
MARGATE
BEACH 4019
1st
January, 2020
The inside
address contains the mailing information belonging to the recipient and should
be justified to the left margin of the letter and placed two spaces below the
date (for very short letters four spaces is acceptable).
As in the
heading, the inside address includes the street, city, state and zip code of
the recipient, all of which should be placed below the name of the business or
organization to whom the letter is being written. Identifying words such as
Avenue, Circle, Court, Drive, and Street should be spelled out rather than
abbreviated.
When the
recipient' name, title and position are known, they should be included as the
first two lines in the inside address and placed directly above the name of the
business or organization.
The inside
address begins with the name of the company or – if you know the name of the
person you are writing to – you can begin with his / her name. Courtesy titles
are used before names: Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Messrs, M.Sc, Dr, Prof., Capt., Maj.,
Col., Gen.
Abbreviations
may be used with or without a fullstop, but we must remain consistent
throughout our correspondence.
The address can
also begin with a job title or a department (if you do not know the name): The
Sales Manager, The Accounts Department.
The items that
follow are:
-
the
name of the house or building
-
the
number of the building and the name of the street
-
the
name of the town and the postcode
-
the
name of the country
If
you know the person's name:
Dear Ms / Miss / Mrs / Mr / Dr + surname
Dear Mr Miller
You can also write the person's full
name. In this case, leave out the title (Mr/Mrs). This way of writing the
salutation is very handy if you don't know the gender of the person.
Dear Chris Miller
Attention line is an alternative to
putting the recipient's name in the address.
A salutation is
a greeting used in a letter or other written communication, such as an email.
Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in a
letter is Dear followed by the recipient's given name or title. For each style
of salutation there is an accompanying style of complimentary close, known as
valediction.
If
you don't know the person's name:
salutation
|
When to use
|
Dear
Sir / Dear Sirs
|
male
addressee (esp. in British English)
|
Gentlemen
|
male
addressee (esp. in American English)
|
Dear
madam
|
female
addressee (esp. in British English)
|
Ladies
|
female
addressee (esp. in American English)
|
Dear
Sir or Madam
|
gender
unknown (esp. in British English)
|
Ladies
and Gentlemen
|
gender
unknown (esp. in American English)
|
To
whom it may concern
|
gender
unknown (esp. in American English)
|
Business partners often call each other
by their first names. In this case, write the salutation as follows:
Dear
Sue
Punctuation
In British
English,
don't use any punctuation mark or use a comma.
Dear
Mr Miller or Dear Mr Miller,
In
American English,
use a colon:
Dear
Mr. Miller:
For
examples see → Subject.
Ms,
Miss or Mrs?
Mrs
– to address a married woman
Miss
– to address an unmarried woman (rarely used now)
Ms
– to address a woman whose marital status you don't know; also used to address
an unmarried woman
The main part of the letter,
or the body, should begin on the hne below the salutation. The following
arrangement is a good one:
Bucksport, Maine,
July 15, 1904.
Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 46 East 14th
St.,
New York City.
Dear Sirs :
Kindly mail me a copy of "Self-Cultivation in
English," by Professor George H. Palmer. I inclose thirty-five cents in
stamps.
Very truly yours,
Wendell R. Barrow.
A letter, like a talk, may be one composition or
it may consist of several compositions. If it deals with one subject only, it
should, like any other composition, have an orderly arrangement of thought and
grow in interest to the end. If, like most conversations, it consists of
several compositions, the writer should attend to each of them in turn; it is
also desirable that such a letter should grow in interest. In all letters there
is need of careful paragraphing.
The
complimentary close is related to the salutations:
-
If
the letter begins Dear Sir / Sirs / Madam / Sir or Madam, thecomplimentary
close should be Yours faithfully
-
If
the letter begins with a personal name, e.g. Dear Mr James, itshould be Yours
sincerely
-
A
letter to someone you know well may end with Best wishes.
A comma after
the complimentary close is optional.
Signature always
type your name and possibly your job title below your handwritten signature
(the so called signature block).
Enclosures – If
there are any documents enclosed with a letter, although they might be
mentioned in the body of the letter, it is common to write Enc. or Encl. below
the signature block.
Before invention of the photocopier, carbon paper was used to create duplicates of documents by
placing it between the original document and a blank piece of paper so that an
image of the original was transfered to the blank piece of paper as a document
was written or typed. A notation was placed at the bottom of the original
document indicating for whom a "carbon copy" was created. This notation
was typed, for example, as follows:
cc: John Smith
Even
with the advent of photocopiers, this traditional notation has carried on, but
in recent years some have begun to refer to this notation as a "courtesy
copy" notation or even recommend the use of a single "c" to
indicate a "copy" is being created to send to someone else. Some
reference guides even explain that "cc" also means
"copies," in the same way that "pp" means
"pages." Regardless of the method used to generate a dupicate of a
document, "cc" is still the most commonly used method to indicate
copies are being made.
Reference
is derived from Middle English referren, from Middle French
rèférer, from Latin
referre, "to carry back", formed from the prefix re-
and ferre, "to bear". A large number of words derive from this
root, including referee, reference, referendum,
all retaining the basic meaning of the original Latin as "a point, place
or source of origin" that something of comparable nature can be defined in
terms of. A referee is the provider of this source of origin, and a referent is
the possessor of the source of origin, whether it is knowledge,
matter
or energy.
Because of its meaning, the word reference is used
in every sphere of human knowledge, adopting shades of meaning particular to
the contexts in which it is used.
References can take on many forms, including: a
thought, a sensory perception that is audible
(onomatopoeia),
visual (text), olfactory,
or tactile, emotional
state, relationship with other, spacetime
coordinate, symbolic or alpha-numeric, a physical object or an energy
projection; but, other concrete and abstract contexts exist as methods of
defining references within the scope of the various fields that require an
origin, point of departure, or an original form. This includes methods that
intentionally hide the reference from some observers, as in cryptography
PostScript is a
dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock
and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for
its use as a page description language in the
electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe
PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging standard. Used by
print service providers, publishers, corporations, and government agencies
around the globe, Adobe PostScript enables reliable printing of visually rich
documents.
Format and style of English business letter
Business Letter
is an important part of business correspondence. The format used to write
business letter is specific. The way a business letter looks is important as it
creates an impression on the reader. The format of the business letter has a
lot to do in making an impression on the reader. A simple format of a letter
helps in conveying the message clearly to the readers.
Based on the
indentation of the paragraphs and alignment, there are four formats used while
writing Business letter.
There are certain standards for
formatting a business letter, though some variations are acceptable (for
example between European and North American business letters). Here are some
basic guidelines:
- Use A4 (European) or 8.5 x 11 inch (North American) paper or letterhead
- Use 2.5 cm or 1 inch margins on all four sides
- Use a simple font such as Times New Roman or Arial
- Use 10 to 12 point font
- Use a comma after the salutation (Dear Mr Bond,)
- Lay out the letter so that it fits the paper appropriately
- Single space within paragraphs
- Double space between paragraphs
- Double space between last sentence and closing (Sincerely, Best wishes)
- Leave three to fives spaces for a handwritten signature
- cc: (meaning "copies to") comes after the typed name (if necessary)
- enc: (meaning "enclosure") comes next (if necessary)
- Fold in three (horizontally) before placing in the envelope
- Use right ragged formatting (not justified on right side)
There are two main styles of business letters:
- Full block style:
Align all elements on the left margin.
- Modified block style:
Down the middle of the page, align the return address, date,
closing, signature, and typed name; align other elements on the left page
margin.
·
Margins
In
general, left and right margins are one inch (approx. 2.5 cm).
For
letters that are a full page or longer, top and bottom margins are likewise one
inch (approx. 2.5 cm).
For
letters shorter than a full page, the text is centered vertically so that the
top and bottom margins match.
·
Font Formatting
No
special character or font formatting is used, except for the subject line,
which is usually underlined
·
Punctuation
The
salutation/greeting
is generally followed by a comma, although in the United States a colon is often preferred. The valediction/closing
is followed by a comma.
There are three ways to set up your cover letter
format, which we illustrate later on this page: Block Style, Semi-block
Style, and Modified Block Style.
The importance of creating a good impression with
your cover letter cannot be under estimated. A sloppy, or poorly formatted
letter is only going to tell the person reading it that you don't care enough
to make an effort.
If your cover letter is poor quality, then it's
highly likely that your work will be as well. After all, if you are not going
to make some sort of an effort here, why would an employer think that you will
be any different if you got the job?
In todays competitve job market, you need every
advantage that you can get. And that starts right here - with your application
and cover letter! Do it right, and impress those that sort through the job
applications. You will stand a much better chance of passing that first initial
screening, and getting an interview.
-
Block Style: In this type of format, the entire text
is aligned to the left side of the paper and the paragraphs are not given an
indent, parts and paragraphs are separated by double or triple spacing.
-
Semi-block Style: In this
format, the text is left aligned and all the paragraphs in the letter are
indented.
-
Modified block Style:
This format has paragraphs that are not indented. The text is aligned to the left side of the paper. Only the writer's address, date and closing in the letter are indented towards the center or right side of the paper. The indentation is about three inches from left margin.
That’s what I
know about a Layout Letter in English, Mom. Thanks a lot for your attention.
REFERENCE
