BASIC PARTS OF THE

BUSINESS LETTER
LETTERHEAD 1
This part of a business letter includes the company name, company
mailing address, and company contact numbers. It may also contain
the company logo or symbol of the organization.
In case you will write a business letter not on behalf of any company,
you may use a heading or a return address. A heading/return address
is composed of your complete, correct, and specific address.
DATELINE 2
This part contains the month, day, and year when the business letter
was written. There are certain rules in writing the correct dateline:
 You should not use abbreviations when writing the dateline. For
1 example, 10-13-92 or 10-13-1992 or 10/13/92 or Oct. 13, 1992.

You should not include st, nd, or th after the day of the month. For
2 example, September 1st , October 2nd , or November 3rd .

3 You may use the conventional style, January 15, 2007 or the military
style, 15 January 2007.
INSIDE ADDRESS 3
This part consists of three, four or five lines which include the
complete name as well as the job title/s of the receiver on the first
line, the complete position of the receiver on the second line,
the complete name division or department of the receiver on the
third line, followed by the complete address of the company or
organization.

PROF. RICHMOND J. PAGARAN

EXAMPLE Faculty, Languages Discipline
This University
SALUTATION 4
Is composed of the word “Dear” followed by the last name of the
receiver of the letter. Use the colon at the end of the salutation.
cont’d…
Has common forms such as:

o Sir/Madam: (formal and official)

o Dear Sir/Madam:
o To Whom It May Concern:
BODY OF THE LETTER 5
This consists the message of the writer. Some claim that the first and
last sentences are the most important parts of the body of the letter.
The first sentence should make the reader feel at ease and the last
sentence should make the reader pleased and content.
The body is the meat of your letter. For block
and modified block letter formats, single space
and left justify each paragraph. 

Contains the actual message and is divided

into:
o Introductory part – draws the attention to
previous correspondence or references.
cont’d…
o Main part - contains the subject matter or
purpose of the letter.
o Conclusion - may reflect the sender’s
intentions and expectations as well as
expressions of gratitude.
COMPLIMENTARY CLOSE 6
This is sometimes called closing, the part where sender says goodbye
to the receiver of the letter in a formal way. You may use the standard
complimentary close such as Sincerely or Sincerely yours or
Respectfully or Very respectfully yours.
Other forms of complimentary closure:

o Respectfully yours (very formal)

o Sincerely yours (typical, less formal)
o Very truly yours (polite, neutral); and
o Cordially yours (friendly, formal)
SIGNATURE LINE 7
This is composed of the complete typewritten name of the writer and
his official designation, or the name of the company.
cont’d…
Respectfully yours,

EXAMPLE PROF. JONREY Y. TORREVILLAS

Faculty, Languages Discipline
WRITTEN SIGNATURE 8
This refers to the sender clearly scribing or affixing his specimen
signature on the space between the complimentary close and the
printed name.
END NOTATIONS 9
Business letters sometimes require additional information that is
placed at the left margin, two spaces below the typed name and title
of the writer in a long letter, four spaces below in a short letter.
cont’d…

 Enclosure: Final Safety Report

EXAMPLE  Enclosures (2)
 Enc. or Encs.
 Date

Salutation Inside Address

Introductory

Main part
Complementary Conclusion
Close
Signature Line
OPTIONAL PARTS OF A
BUSINESS LETTER
ATTENTION LINE 1
This is used when the letter urgently needs to be received by the best
person who can handle it. Commonly, the attention line is at the
center.
cont’d…

Elysian Events Specialist

EXAMPLE San Mateo, Rizal
Attention: Miss Armie Joie A. Rivera
SUBJECT LINE 2
This is used in short reports to let the reader know the content of the
letter immediately. It may be placed above or below the inside
address; maybe flushed to the left, indented, or centered.
cont’d…

Elysian Events Specialist

San Mateo, Rizal
EXAMPLE
Subject: Inquiry on Wedding Package
ENCLOSURES 3
This is composed of the attached materials on the letter. This is
usually abbreviated Incl.
cont’d…

Incl. 1. Grade Sheets

EXAMPLE 2. Class Records
3. Anecdotal Records
If you have any enclosed document such as: resume or
curriculum vitae, you can indicate this by typing
“Enclosures” one line below the listing.

You also may include the name of each document.

COPY CIRCULATION 4
Lists persons who received copies of the letter aside from the
addressee.
cont’d…

cc: Mr. John Paolo Sacre

EXAMPLE cc: Human Resource Department
POSTSCRIPT 5
Used only when the sender would add information not presented in
the body of the letter.
 WRITING ACTIVITY #1

INSTRUCTION:
Imagine you are the president of the Student Council.
Write a letter addressed to the college dean requesting for
a possible venue for an upcoming freshmen orientation for
the school year.

Note: Late submission will not be accepted.

 BUSINESS LETTERS
PUNCTUATIONS AND STYLES
There are three ways on how to punctuate our business
letters. We can use Open Punctuation, Standard
Punctuation, and Mixed Punctuation.
OPEN PUNCTUATION 1
In writing a business letter, open punctuation does not include any
punctuation after any part of the letter except the body of the letter or
the message.
STANDARD
PUNCTUATION 2
This is the most common style of punctuating a business letter which
includes punctuation on salutation and complimentary close only. The
punctuation on salutation is colon while on complimentary close, it’s
comma.
MIXED PUNCTUATION 3
This format uses comma (British Style) or colon (American Style) after
the salutation and uses comma after the complimentary close.
BUSINESS LETTERS STYLES

There are several business letter styles that are accepted and being
used in the corporate world.
FULL BLOCK STYLE 1
In this style, some make use of Open Punctuation and some do not.
All parts of this business letter start at the left margin.
May 15, 2009

MR. GEORGE W. NAGEL

Director of Operations
Boston Transit Authority
57 West City Avenue
Boston, MA 02210

Dear Mr. Nagel:

Enclosed is our final report evaluating the safety measures for the Boston Intercity Transit System. We believe that
the report covers the issues you raised in our last meeting and that you will be pleased with the results. However,
if you have any further questions, we would be happy to meet with you again at your convenience.

We would also like to express our appreciation to Mr. L. K. Sullivan of your committee for his generous help during
our trips to Boston.

Sincerely,

CAROLYN BROWN
Director of Research
MODIFIED BLOCK STYLE 2
This style places the inside address and all paragraphs at the left
margin while the heading, dateline, complimentary close start at the
middle part of the paper or #3 on the top ruler of MS Word going to
the right margin.
 December 8, 2009

DR. CAROLYN BROWN

Director of Research
Evans and Associates
520 Niagara Street
Braintree, MA 02184

Dear Dr. Brown:

Thank you very much for allowing me to tour your testing facilities. The information I gained from the tour will be of
great help to me in preparing the report for my class at Marshall Institute. The tour has also given me some insight
into the work I may eventually do as a laboratory technician.

I especially appreciated the time and effort Vikram Singh spent in showing me your facilities. His comments and
advice were most helpful.

Sincerely,

LESLIE WARDEN
Director
SEMI-BLOCK STYLE 3
This style is like the Block style however it follows the rule of indention
to its paragraph. This style also makes use of standard punctuation.
December 8, 2009

DR. CAROLYN BROWN

Director of Research
Evans and Associates
520 Niagara Street
Braintree, MA 02184

Dear Dr. Brown:

Thank you very much for allowing me to tour your testing facilities. The information I gained from the tour will
be of great help to me in preparing the report for my class at Marshall Institute. The tour has also given me some
insight into the work I may eventually do as a laboratory technician.

I especially appreciated the time and effort Vikram Singh spent in showing me your facilities. His comments
and advice were most helpful.

Sincerely,

LESLIE WARDEN
Assistant, Research
SIMPLIFIED STYLE 4
This style is similar to the full block style, beginning all the parts of the
letter at the left margin. However, the heading is placed at the center
upper part of the letter.
 520 Niagara Street Braintree, MA 02184
Phone: (781) 787-1175
Fax: (781) 787-1213

December 8, 2009

DR. CAROLYN BROWN

Director of Research
Evans and Associates
520 Niagara Street
Braintree, MA 02184

Dear Dr. Brown:

Thank you very much for allowing me to tour your testing facilities. The information I gained from the tour will be of great help to
me in preparing the report for my class at Marshall Institute. The tour has also given me some insight into the work I may
eventually do as a laboratory technician.

I especially appreciated the time and effort Vikram Singh spent in showing me your facilities. His comments and advice were
most helpful.

Sincerely,

LESLIE WARDEN
Assistant, Research
INDENTED STYLE 5
This style makes use of indentions which has uneven number of
spaces in the various elements of the letter. Nowadays, this style is
rarely used because of its complexity of arranging the different
elements of the letter.
 520 Niagara Street Braintree, MA 02184
Phone: (781) 787-1175
Fax: (781) 787-1213

December 8, 2009

DR. CAROLYN BROWN

Director of Research
Evans and Associates
520 Niagara Street
Braintree, MA 02184

Dear Dr. Brown:

Thank you very much for allowing me to tour your testing facilities. The information I gained from the tour will be of
great help to me in preparing the report for my class at Marshall Institute. The tour has also given me some insight into the work I
may eventually do as a laboratory technician.

I especially appreciated the time and effort Vikram Singh spent in showing me your facilities. His comments and
advice were most helpful.
Sincerely,

LESLIE WARDEN
Assistant, Research