1. The letterhead (Заголовок письма)

The heading bears the name of a company, its post address, telephone, fax, telex number, e-mail address as well as some other information: names of directors, the particular official to whom all correspondence to be addressed, spaces for letter in­dexes (references).

2. Sender's address (Адрес отправителя)

In business correspondence that does not have a printed let­terhead; the sender's address is written on the top right-hand side of the page. The address comprises the name and number of the build­ing, street, city or town, state (USA) or county (GB), post (UK) /zip (USA) code, and country.

3. References (Номер документа)

References are noted to indicate what a piece of correspond­ence refers to - "Your ref.", and the correspondence to refer to when replying - "Our ref.". References may appear in figures, e.g. 6661/17 in which 661 may refer to the chronological number of the letter and 17 to the number of the department. References like MV/PL/436 stand for the writer’s initials/ the secretary’s initials/ the chronological number of the letter. References are written below the let­terhead at the left (right) margin of the letter.

4. The date (Дата)

The date is printed on the right-hand side below the sender's address, sometimes separated from it by a space.

The month in the date is not recommended to write in figures which can be confusing, e.g. in GB and Europe: day, month, year; in the USA: month, day, year.

The traditional British variants: 11 Apr. 2003; 11 April, 2003; 11^th April, 2003.

The American variants: April 11, 2003; April 11^th, 2003.

5. Inside address (Адресат)

The addressee's name, job title, company name and address of a company are usually written below the references at the left margin of the letter. If the surname of the person is known, it should be preceded by a courtesy title and either the person’s initial(s) or his/her first name, e.g.:

Mr. P.J. Brown or Mr. Peter Brown. Courtesy titles are: Mr. / Mrs. /Miss / Ms. Special titles are: Dr. (Doctor), Prof. (Professor). In American English titles are used with a full stop.

After the addressee's name his posi­tion is written, e.g.:

Mr. G. Wright

Vice-President

If the addressee's name is unknown, it is written as follows: The Vice-President. You can address your letter to a particular department of the company: The Sales Department.

6. Attention line (Указание на желательность ознакомления)

“For the attention of” followed by a person’s name is used if the writer wants this particular person to receive the letter.

7. The salutation (Обращение)

"Dear Sir or Madam" is more widely used today instead of "Dear Sirs". The comma after salutation is optional.

If you know the name of the person you are writing to, the salutation takes the form of "Dear" followed by a courtesy title "Mr. / Mrs. /Miss/ Ms." and the person's surname. Initials or first name are not generally used in salutation. If you are in doubt whether a woman is married or not, you may use the title "Ms." [miz] instead of "Mrs." or "Miss".

"Dear Sir/Madam" opens a letter written to a man/woman whose name is not known. "Dear Sirs" is used to address a com­pany. In the USA a letter to a company may open with "Gentle­men: " followed by a colon.