Letter Writing

Business Letters
• The medium most often used for written messages outside the
organization.
• Judged on content, presentation and physical appearance.
• Planning the content and presentation is the responsibility of
the writer.
• Typing the message so that it is neat, accurate and attractive is
usually the Secretary’s job, but . . .
• When you have to sign your name, at the bottom of the letter,
you assume the final responsibility for EVERYTHING –
mechanics, proper layout, proper content. If the message
contains misspellings or grammatical errors, poor appearance,
the reader judges you, NOT your Secretary.
• You and your Secretary MUST work as a team to produce
effective and attractive messages.
• Recipients of business letters form their first
impressions even before reading the messages.
• The elements of appearance that help produce
favourable reactions are appropriate
stationery, correct letter parts and layouts
and properly addressed envelopes.
• Most business letters have seven standard
parts: (See next slide)
(1) Heading (2) Inside address (3) Salutation
(4) Body (5) Complimentary close
(6) Signature area (7) Reference initials.
• Heading

• (Letterhead
& type written Date (2 lines below
letterhead)
• Inside Address

• Salutation

• Body

• Complimentary Close

• Signature Area

• Reference Initials

• Initials
1. Heading
The letterhead and type written date comprise the
heading. It shows where the letter comes from and
when it was written. Usually the date is typed two
lines below the last line of the letterhead – at left
margin, centred, begun at centre, or placed so it
ends with the right margin.

2. Inside Address
Always blocked at the left hand margin, the inside
address of a letter to an individual includes that
person’s courtesy title, name, business or executive
title and address. In a letter addressed to a group,
the inside address consists of the group name and
address.
3. Salutation
The salutation is the friendly greeting that precedes the body of
the letter. Examples:

• Dear Mr. (or Ms. Mrs. Miss) Khanna.

• Dear Sanjay (or Neha or nickname).

• Dear Mr. or Ms. Khanna (or Dear Manager or Executive or

Director or an appropriate variation when the sex of the person
is unknown, because the name has only the initials.) Avoid
‘Dear Sir’ and ‘Dear Madam’.

• Ladies and Gentlemen (or reverse, or Gentlemen and

Gentlewomen, or Dear Members of . . . or Dear People.
‘Gentlemen’, if all are men and ‘Ladies’, if all are women.
4. Body
In the body you try to:
• Organize according to an appropriate plan.
• Keep your first and last paragraphs short – preferably less
than seven lines.
• Vary the intervening paragraph lengths.
• Make the average length of your sentences about 17 to 20
words.
• Achieve the ‘C’ qualities.
• Generally, all letters should be typed single space, with double
spacing between paragraphs, before and after the salutation
and before the complimentary close.
• When the body of the letter is two or more pages, each page
beyond the first is headed by a combination of the addressees
name, page number and date. This information is typed 1 to 2
inches from the top of the sheet.
5. Complimentary Close
The complimentary close should agree, with respect to formality
or informality, with your salutation. Most business letters use
only one of three words – sincerely, truly or cordially. Only the
first letter in the first word of any complimentary close is
capitalized. At times you may want to use a complimentary close
that ties in with your message or product for e.g.:
• Warmly Yours for fashion Yours for extra
profits
• Gratefully Yours for cleaner air Season’s Greetings
AVOID inappropriate ‘gimmick’ complimentary closes, like
the following:
• ‘Gastronomically yours’ (from a restaurant),
• ‘Hopefully yours’ (from a collector), or
• ‘Saltily yours’, (from a salt processor).
6. Signature Area
Can be included in the signature area for
separate identifications – name of your
company, your signature, your typewritten
name and your business title.

7. Reference Section
Your initials as dictator of the message and
those of your typist, usually appear at the left
margin on the same line with the last line of the
signature area (your name or title) or one or
two lines below that.
 Optional Parts of a Letter
When appropriate, any of these optional parts can
be included:
1. Attention Line.
2. Subject Line.
3. Enclosure(s) Notation.
4. Copy Notation.
5. File or Account Number.
6. Mailing Notation.
7. Postscript.
1. Attention Line
• This is a part of the ‘inside address’.
• Directs a letter to a particular person or title or
department when the letter is addressed to a company.
• Useful when the writer does not know an individual’s
name but wants the message to go to a particular title,
OR he knows only the individual’s surname and thus
cannot use that name on the first line of the inside
address, OR he expects that the addressee travels often
and the writer wants the letter to be attended to
promptly by whoever takes care of the addressee’s
business.
• The usual placement of the attention line is between the
inside address and salutation (a blank line before it and
after it), flush with the left margin, indented with the
paragraphs, or centered).
2. Subject Line
• Considered part of the body of the letter,
subject line helps to tell the reader at a glance
what the letter is all about.
• Helps in filing.
• Subject line may omit the word subject or
about.
• Usually placed either on the same line with the
salutation or double-spaced below the
salutation and centered.
3. Enclosure Notation
• Reminds whoever prepares the envelope for
mailing, that something is to be enclosed. The
enclosure notation is usually typed a single or
double space under the reference initials.
• Alerts the addressee’s incoming mail
department to check for enclosures.
• Is anything in an envelope other than the
message itself.
• Can consist of one or more pages.
• When more than one item is enclosed, the
numbers should be indicated: ‘Enclosures 3’
or ‘Enc. 3’.
4. Copy Notation
• When other persons are to receive a copy of the
letter written to the addressee, the names of
those persons (arranged in order of importance
or alphabetically), are typed after ‘cc’ (carbon
copy), ‘xc’ (Xerox copy), or a similar notation
just below the reference initials or the enclosure
notation (if any).
• If you do not wish the addressee to know that
other recipients are getting a copy of the letter,
you or the secretary can type “bcc” (blind
carbon copy) and the recipient’s names on the
carbon copies only.
5. File or Account Number / Mailing Notation
• Helps in filing/quick recognition for both, the
sender’s and the reader’s company.
• File, loan or account numbers are typed above
the body of the letter in a conspicuous place.
• Mailing notation words such as ‘Special
Delivery’, ‘Registered’, of ‘Certified Mail’,
when applicable, may be typed either below the
copy notation (or whatever is the last notation)
or on the second line below the date.
6. Postscript

• To emphasize a point already in the letter or to

include a personal brief message unrelated to
the letter, a postscript (typed or handwritten)
may be added – below everything else typed on
the page.

• If an important idea has been inadvertently

forgotten to be included in the letter body, it is
advisable to retype the letter than to add the
information in a postscript.