How To Write Business Letters
- Letter Head
- Date Line
- Inside Address
- Attention Line (When necessary)
- Subject Line (When necessary)
- Salutation
- Letter Body
- Complimentary Closes
- Signature Line
- Identification Initials (When necessary, used by large organizations)
- Enclose Reference (When necessary)
Choosing Business Letter Formats
There are a few formats you can choose before you start writing business letter. See different formats of business letter here.
Steps To Write Business Letters
Letter Head
Most of companies have printed their letter head on the top of the papers they are going to use. It usually consists of the company’s name, logo and its address, website address etc. You can type it if your company does not print its letter head. If we write a personal letter, we usually write our own name and address.
Date Line
Below the letter head or our name and address, we put the date of the letter. Make sure you write the form that is really clear to everyone. We know American and British Styles are different.
Inside Address
After we put the date of the letter, we put the name of a person or organization we are writing to. Do not forget to put the complete address.
Attention Line (optional)
If we like, we can put attention line after the organization address. With this attention line, the letter will be sent directly to the person or division we write on this line. For example : Attention : Mr. Brian Smith.
Salutation
After we write the inside address, we put a salutation such as “Dear Sir”, “Dear Madam”, “Dear Mr. Williams”, “Dear Mrs. White,” etc.
Subject/Reference
Just before the first paragraph of the body of the letter, we can put a subject or reference. For example : Subject : Your Order Confirmation .
Body of The Letter
After subject line, we can start writing the body of the letter. It usually consists of the opening paragraph, the content paragraph, the closing paragraph.
Complimentary Closing
Just before we put our signature, we usually the complementary closing such as : Sincerely, Sincerely yours.
Signature Line
We put our signature here.
Identification Initials (optional)
It is usually used by a large organization or company. Identification initials is usually the initials of the typists.
Enclosure Reference:
When we have one or two attachments, we state it at this part of a letter so that the recipient is aware of this.
Useful Links
Business Letter Format and Examples
How to Write a Formal Business Letter