2. Business Letter Format and Letter Style

There is no standard by which the appropriateness or inappropriateness of a specific style can be firmly established. Since the differences among formats and styles concern the placement of letter parts, you will first review the various parts of business letters; then you will review the different arrangement styles of letters. In this way, you will be better able to present your ideas within an acceptable framework, leave the reader with a positive impression, and keep the reader's goodwill.

The letter writer works with many letter parts: the address, the salutation, the message, and the complimentary closing, to mention some. These parts must be arranged in a sequence that will make the letter meaningful and will contribute to attaining the purposes of the message. Usually letter is divided into four sections: the heading, the opening, the body, the closing.

The heading should include a letterhead and date line. Every company has its name, address, and telephone number. These identifying items, and often such additional data as the names of the company's top executives, its slogan are referred to collectively as the letterhead. The heading helps to project the company's image. The date line helps to get to know when a letter was written important to both reader and writer. Every letter should therefore carry a date line consisting of the month, day, and year.

The functions of the opening are to direct the letter to a specific individual company, department, or whatever, and to greet the reader. The opening is assurance that the letter is intended for you and that the writer is thoughtful enough to say "hello" before beginning to talk business.

The inside address. The name of the addressee, which should always be preceded by a courtesy title, is usually the first line of the inside address. The name of the addressee's company; the street address; and the city, state, and ZIP Code number are also included.

The Attention Line. When a letter is addressed to a company or to a department within a company rather than to a specific person, an attention line may be used to speed up handling of the letter.

The Salutation. There are several accepted forms of salutations, and each form reflects a different tone. Examples: Dear, Sir, Madam

The body is the most important section of the. Here the writer makes every effort to get his or her thoughts across to the reader effectively. The important thing to remember is that the body of the letter consists essentially of the message and may optionally include a subject line.

The Subject Line. The writer can give the reader advance notice of what the letter is about by including a subject line immediately below the salutation.

The Message. The message is the "body and soul" of the whole letter. The message of every business letter usually consists of at least two paragraphs.

The Closing. Business letter writer usually uses a complimentary closing. Sincerely, Cordially, Sincerely yours, Cordially yours, Best regards.

Letter Style. The social business style differs from regular business letter styles in a number of ways. Instead of opening the letter, the inside address may be typed at the left margin lines below the signature line. Reference notations, enclosure notations, carbon notations, and often the writer's typewritten signature are omitted.

Informal salutations, often followed by a comma instead of a colon, characterize the social lis style. Complimentary closings such as Cordially. Regards, Sincerely. Best and Yours also maintain the informality of this letter format.

Punctuation Style for Business Letters. The message part of the business letter is punctuated, of course, using the standard of punctuating sentences. Two parts that get special punctuation treatment are the salutation and the complimentary closing. The complimentary closing traditionally ends with a comma, and the salutation traditionally ends with a colon.

In conclusion, knowing all the letter parts and the arrangement styles will help you to prepare successful letters. However, you must also be sure that the typewriting quality he foster the positive image of your letters.

Business letters are more formal than friendly. BLs are written to gain information or to point out positive or negative situations to diff. groups of people. BLs have specific parts that need to be included. Parts of a BL: 1) heading (your address and date), 2) inside address (their address), 3) greeting ( use a comma or a colon after greeting-dear Mr. Burns,), 4) body (skip a space between paragraphs), 5) closing (use a comma after closing-sincerely,), 6) signature line, 7) typed-name line.

Style of writing in business correspondence can be subdivided into 2 main levels: formal, informal. There can be also a semi-formal style with the features of formal and informal levels. Fstyle, in usage is characterized by the absence of casual, contracted and colloquial forms, Istyle is suitable to casual, familiar with the usage of contracted forms and simple vocabulary. FS: 1)always uses complete sentences, 2) often uses longer, more complex sentences, 3)more often uses passive constructions, 4) uses formal vocabulary, 5) requests are longer, 6) doesn’t use contractions ( I will, I would).

The closing: formal-yours very truly, very truly yours, very sincerely yours; informal – sincerely yours, best regards, sincerely, cordially.

Block style: letters in which all the parts begin at the left margin are written in block style. Modified-block style: the typist usually changes only the position of the date line, the complimentary closing, and the writer’s identification. All these parts usually start at the horizontal center of the page.