Lay Out and Part of Business Letter

LAYOUT OF A BUSINESS LETTER

The parts of a business letter are as follows:
1. Sender's address
2. Date
3. Inside address
4. Attention line
5. Salutation
6. Body of the letter
7. Complimentary close
8. Signature
9. Enclosures
1. Sender's address is usually given in the letterhead, but if there is none, the
address can be typed in the top right- or left-hand corner of the letter.
2. The date is written below the sender's address. The month is usually not
written out as numbers – it could be confusing (different sequences):
20 December 2004 20th December, 2004
3. The inside address begins with the name of the company or – if you know
the name of the person you are writing to – you can begin with his / her
name. Courtesy titles are used before names: Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Messrs,
M.Sc, Dr, Prof., Capt., Maj., Col., Gen.
Abbreviations may be used with or without a fullstop, but we must remain
consistent throughout our correspondence.
The address can also begin with a job title or a department (if you do not
know the name): The Sales Manager, The Accounts Department.
The items that follow are:
- the name of the house or building
- the number of the building and the name of the street
- the name of the town and the postcode
- the name of the country
4. Attention line is an alternative to putting the recipient's name in the address.
5. The salutations are as follows:
- Dear Sir – to a man whose name you do not know
- Dear Sirs /Gentlemen – to a company
- Dear Madam – to a woman whose name you do not know
- Dear Sir or Madam – to a person whose name and sex you do not know
- Dear Mr Smith – to a person whose name you know, but you do not know
the person very well
- Dear John – to a person you know well
The British like to use the comma after the salutation: Dear Mrs Jones,
but the Americans prefer a colon: Gentlemen:
6. The body of the letter is usually written in the blocked style. A line of space is
left between the paragraphs.
7. The complimentary close is related to the salutations:
- If the letter begins Dear Sir / Sirs / Madam / Sir or Madam, the
complimentary close should be Yours faithfully
- If the letter begins with a personal name, e.g. Dear Mr James, it
should be Yours sincerely
- A letter to someone you know well may end with Best wishes.
A comma after the complimentary close is optional.
8. Signature – always type your name and possibly your job title below your
handwritten signature (the so called signature block).
9. Enclosures – If there are any documents enclosed with a letter, although they
might be mentioned in the body of the letter, it is common to write Enc. or
Encl. below the signature block.