1)
Letter Head
A letter head consists of a name and
address of a firm that sends a business letter. It sometimes consists of
telephone number, address of branch of offices, names of CEO. It is usually printed on the top of
the paper.
Examples :
a.
ENGLET
& BROT LTD115 Downing Street
LONDON- ENGLAND
b.
GOOGLE MILLS INCORPORATION
499 NORTH WARREN AVENUE
SYRACUSE 2, NEW YORK
499 NORTH WARREN AVENUE
SYRACUSE 2, NEW YORK
Phone :
1499
President: Francois Carlos
Established : 19992) Date Line
It consists of date, month, year or (month, date, year). If there is no Letter Head, make sure you put the name of the city before the date line.
Examples :
23rd November, 2013 or November 23rd, 2013
28 July, 2013 or July 28, 2013
If there is no letter head in a letter, you must write a full address of the sender, example :
115 Downing Street, London
June 28th, 2009
3) Inside Address
It usually consists of 3 or 4 lines, :
The name of a person or the firm you are writing to.
Number, the name of the street
The name of city ( A country when applicable)
Examples :
Mr. Prana Pramudya
115 Downing Street
London
Mmes. Robert Thompson & Audrey
112, Downing Street
London E.C. 2, England
4) Attention
Line
Business letters are usually more
addressed to companies than to one person. But, sometimes this form of written
communication should take place between company and company or
between company and a person and vice versa. In this situation we need to use
what people call "attention line". We mostly use attention
line for the following three reasons :
·
We
want the letter directly delivered to a certain people in a company.
·
We
do not know the person's name we are writing to and we decide to write to the
company he or she works in.
·
We
want the letter to reach a person we are writing to faster.
Attention
line is usually
put after inside address.
Example :
Gifted Restaurant
16771 Fifteen Avenue
New york, N. Y.
Attention : Miss Rachel White
Example :
Gifted Restaurant
16771 Fifteen Avenue
New york, N. Y.
Attention : Miss Rachel White
5) Salutation
a. British Style
Examples:
· Dear Sir,
· Sir,
· Dear Sirs,
· Dear Madam,
· Mesdames,
b. American Style
Examples:
· Dear Sir:
· Sir:
· Gentlemen:
· Dear Madam:
· Mesdames:
If you know the person you are writing to, you can use the style below which is more personal or informal:
· Dear Mr. Brown,
· My dear Madam Tiara,
6) Subject Line
Subject Line is usually capitalized and underlined.
Examples:
CHEAP CRUISE TO SCANDINAVIA
SCANDINAVIAN VACATION
7) Body of The Letter
A good letter body should fulfill the following requirements :
- Concise / short : Never make up sentences just to make a letter look longer.
- Simple : Avoid making up complex sentences. Try to make up a simple sentence.
- Systematic : Always put your ideas in order from A to Z. ( From opening paragraph to closing paragraph there should not be any repetitions)
Body of The Letter consists of 3 paragraphs :
·
The
Opening Paragraph
·
The
Content Paragraph
·
The
Closing Paragraph
8) Complimentary
Closes
Complementary Closing usually consists of 2 lines:
·
Closing
Words / Expressions
·
Name
of Firm
Examples:
Yours truly,
Wisnu & Ninda LTD
Truly Yours,
Wisnu & Ninda LTD
9) Signature Line
Business letter signature line usually consists of signature of the person who writes the business letter. Below the signature we usually put our name. Below our name, sometimes we put our title or position in the company or institution we work in. Mostly, this is just to inform the person who has not known us before.
Examples :
Signature
Adam Williams
Customer Relation Manager
10)
Identification Initials
Identification Initials are usually used by large-sized
companies for administrative purposes only. Identification
Initials mainly have two functions :
a. to give information about the
secretary or the author of a business letter.
b. to provide data in case of some
incidents or errors.
Identification
Initials are
generally put at the left-hand bottom, just after the signature line. They are
sometimes put at the same line with the date line.
Example:
J.B./m.h.
The identification initials mean that the author is Jack Brown and the secretary/clerk is Meredith Harrison.
Example:
J.B./m.h.
The identification initials mean that the author is Jack Brown and the secretary/clerk is Meredith Harrison.
When our business letter has one or more attachments, such
as price list, collection letter, brochure, invoice, resume etc., we must make
sure that we state it in the main letter. The statement that we send another
paper other than the main letter is called enclosure reference.
This enclosure reference is usually shortened as Enc. or ENC.or Inc. or Encl. or Incl..
Example:
Example:
Encl. : 1 (one) Illustrated price list
Incl. : 1 (one) Invoice
Enc. : Our 2010 Catalog
Inc. : Cheque no. 954646/B
Incl. : 1 (one) Invoice
Enc. : Our 2010 Catalog
Inc. : Cheque no. 954646/B
Business Letter Styles
Business
letter styles have
developed gradually. This development is caused by the creative ideas on how to
do things better. By now there are a lot of business letter styles we
can choose. A certain company usually choose one certain business letter style because
most of the companies usually print their letter head in special paper
for practicability in order that they do not
have to manually type the letter
head again. Nevertheless, sometimes it is not easy for us to write a
business letter because we cannot figure out what a business letter should
contain. Business letter styles that
we normally use consist of five styles,
they are full block styles,
modified block styles, semi
block styles, indented styles, hanging paragraph styles. The followings are business
letter templates you might need someday.
1. Full Block Style
It is the popular and easiest style of formatting business letter. In a full block format letter, all text or part is aligned or starting from the left margin. Paragraphs are not indented. Therefore, no time is lost in typing adjustment.
2. Modified
Block Style
In a Modified Block Style letter, we usually put all text
aligned to the left margin, except for the author's address, date, and
complimentary closing. All paragraphs we write in a modified block style
are not indented. The author's address, date, and closing begin at the
center point.
3. Semi Block
Style
Semi Block Style. The followings are the
characteristics of a Semi-Block Style :
1. All text is aligned to the left
margin, except the date, attention line, and complimentary close.
2. Paragraphs are indented.
3. Paragraphs are separated by double
or triple spacing.
4. Indented Style
It is the oldest style of writing business letters. In an indented format letter, the first word of every paragraph is written leaving some (two or four) spaces from the left margin. Other parts are arranged- date is right margin, inside address left margin, subject is in the middle of two margins and complement close in the right margin, etc.
5. Hanging Paragraph Style
In a Hanging format letter, second and subsequent lines of a paragraph start leaving one or two words from the first word of the first line. Here parts of the letter can be arranged according to the block or indented style. This style is identical to the semi-block style with one exception. Instead of the first line being indented all other lines in each paragraph is aligned with the left margin.
Sumber :
Kelas : 3EB10
