Business Letter

BUSINESS LETTER

LETTER

            A letter is a written message containing information from one party to another. The role of letters in communication has changed significantly since the nineteenth century. Historically, letters (in paper form) were the only reliable means of communication between two people in different locations.

As communication technology has diversified, posted letters have become less important as a routine form of communication; they however still remain but in a modified form. For example, the development of the telegraph shortened the time taken to send a letter by transferring the letter as an electrical signal (for example in Morse code) between distant points. At the telegraph office closest to the destination of the letter, the signal was transferred back into a hardcopy format and sent as a normal mail to the person's home. This allowed the normal speed of communication to be drastically shortened for larger and larger distances. This required specialised technicians to encode and decode the letter. The facsimile (fax) machine took this one step further: an entire letter could be completely transferred electrically from the sender's house to the receiver's house by means of the telephone network as an image.

Advantage

Letters are still used, particularly by law firms and businesses, for official (public) notifications, sometimes advertising. This is because of three main advantages:

• No special device needed - almost everybody has a residence or other place at which he or she can receive mail. A mailbox is all that the intended recipient needs - unlike e-mail or phone calls, where the intended recipient needs access to a computer and an e-mail account or a telephone respectively.
• "Catch-all" advertising- unlike e-mails, where the recipient needs an individual e-mail address to receive messages, individuals are not necessarily chosen, by rather can widely cover many or all addresses in a given locality.
• Physical record - important messages that need to be retained (e.g. invoices; government notification such as tax or immigration) can be kept relatively easily and securely.

BUSINESS LETTER

A commercial business letter is a letter written in formal language, usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties. The overall style of letter will depend on the relationship between the parties concerned. There are many reasons to write a business letter. It could be to request direct information or action from another party, to order supplies from a supplier, to identify a mistake that was committed, to reply directly to a request, to apologize for a wrong or simply to convey goodwill. Even today, the business letter is still very useful because it produces a permanent record, is confidential, formal and delivers persuasive, well-considered messages.

General Format

There are two main styles of business letters:

1. Full block style: Align all elements on the left margin.
2. Modified block style with other elements on the left page margin.

Indentation Formats

Business letters conform to generally one of four indentation formats: Block, Semi-Block, Modified Block, and Modified Semi-Block. Put simply, "Semi-" means that the first lines of paragraphs are indented; "Modified" means that the sender's address, date, and closing are significantly indented.

Block

In a Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, (2) paragraphs are not indented. 3) paragraphs are separated by double or triple spacing.

Semi-Block

In a Semi-Block format letter (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, (2) paragraphs are indented.

Modified Block

In a Modified Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, except for the author's address, date, and closing; and (2) paragraphs are not indented. The author's address, date, and closing are usually indented three inches from the left margin, but can be set anywhere to the right of the middle of the page, as long as all three elements are indented to the same position.

Modified Semi-Block

In a Modified Semi-Block format letter, (1) all text is aligned to the left margin, except for the author's address, date, and closing; and (2) paragraphs are indented. The author's address, date, and closing are usually indented in same position.

Layout of Business Letter

And I will explain about the part of  Businnes Letter.

1.      LETTERHEAD

Companies usually use printed paper where heading or letterhead is specially designed at the top of the sheet. It bears all the necessary information about the organisation’s identity.

2.      DATE

Date is calendar that means pointing the day, month, and year. Placement calendar is usually located under right corner Letterhead.

Date in the form of writing a business letter can be devided into 2 form

• Date in British

Date in British style in the English Language, usually written before the day of the calendar month, for writing an exact date, you need to know before ordering in the British system, sorting in the United Kingdom as follows:

1. First (-st)

2. Second (-nd)

3. Third (-rd)

While writing the date ends with number 4 - 10. Can use the suffix (-th) the end of the number

For example: When writing the date of 2 March 2012, then that should be noted is the date ending in 2, then use the suffix at the end of -nd number two. So that the writing be 2^nd March 2012, if you are writing for the 7th of March 2012, then writing it is the 7th of March, 2012.

Example : (day/month/year)

26/August/2012

• Date in American style                                                                                                            October 19, 2005 (month-day-year)
  
  

3. INSIDE ADDRESS

                 In a business or formal letter you should give the address of the recipient after your own address. Include the recipient's name, company, address and postal code. Add job title if appropriate. Separate the recipient's name and title with a comma. Double check that you have the correct spelling of the recipient 's name.

Example : Dr. Calvin Carson

Cross Country Coach

Dept. of Athletics

Colorado Community College at Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek CO 80678

4. REFERENCE

Include a reference line to identify a file or case number, invoice number or any other internal identifying information, if your company requires one. Some companies have specific reference codes that they place either in a reference line below the date, or at the very bottom of the letter.

      example :

• Re: Job # 625-01
• Re: Your letter dated 1/1/200x.

5. SALUTATION

The salutation is your greeting. Most salutations begin with “Dear” followed by either the recipient’s first name, or title and last name. Endeavor to address all letters to an actual person. 

If you know the name:

Dear Ms / Miss / Mrs / Mr / Dr + Name

Example:  Dear Mr Miller

If you do not know the name:

here are several ways to write the welcome if you do not know the name of the person you want to go, namely as under this:

British English

• Dear Sir / Dear Sirs   = If the recipient man
• Dear Madam = If  the recipient woman
• Dear Sir or Madam  = If the recipient is unknown sex

American English

• Gentlemen = If the recipient man
• Ladies  = If  the recipient woman
• Ladies and Gentlemen = If the recipient is unknown sex, or
• To whom it may concern = If the recipient is unknown sex

6.  SUBJECT

Its inclusion can help the recipient in dealing successfully with the aims of your letter. Normally the subject sentence is preceded with the word Subject: or Re: Subject line may be emphasized by underlining, using bold font, or all captial letters. It is usually placed one line below the greeting but alternatively can be located directly after the "inside address," before the "greeting."

Notice the difference of writing ' subject' between british english and american english as under this:

1. British English

Located between greeting and Content Letter, as follows :

Dear Mr. Hunt

Subject: Request No. 145

Referring to your ...

b.      American English

Located before greeting, as follows :

Subject: Request No. 145

Dear Mr. Hunt:

Referring to your ...

7.  BODY OF LETTER

The body is where you explain why you’re writing. It’s the main part of the business letter. Make sure the receiver knows who you are and why you are writing but try to avoid starting with "I". Use a new paragraph when you wish to introduce a new idea or element into your letter. Depending on the letter style you choose, paragraphs may be indented. Regardless of format, skip a line between paragraphs.

8.  COMPLIMENTARY CLOSE

Complimentary close are very closely connected with the salutation. Usually there are a few rules of the game that we have to pay attention. Served and also different between British English and American English as the following explanation:

    British English

·         If you use the recipient's name on the salutation, then hail the complimentary close is “ Yours sincerely “ or “ Sincerely yours “.

·         If you don’t use the recipient's name on the salutation, then hail the complimentary close is “ Yours faithfully " or " Faithfully yours "

    American English

Use the “ sincerely” or a “ yours is sincerely “ for all cases, namely you want to use the name of the receiver or not.

9.  SIGNATURE

The signature is the last part of the letter. You should sign your first and last names. The signature line may include a second line for a title, if appropriate. The signature should start directly above the first letter of the signature line in the space between the close and the signature line.

    Example :

10. ENCLOSURE

This section is only rendered if there are attachments-attachments will be included in the business. The writing of the Enclosure or attachment helps the author, recipient, and the Secretary to know-attachment the attachment observe the completeness that is included. If attachments-attachments is incomplete or does not correspond to the written, the control can be easily done, as for writing variation can be observed in the example Enclosure:

Enclosures :

1. Contract

2. Cheque

3. Memo

11.  POSTSCRIPT

To add information not necessarily related to the letter, like a personal note, include a postscript (P.S.) at the bottom.

     Example : 

P.S. The de-stapling machine works better than I would have believed possible.
(Letters of E.B. White, rev. ed., edited by Dorothy Lobrano White and Martha White. HarperCollins, 2006)

12. CARBON COPY NOTATION

Notation letters ( carbon copy notation ) only wrote when the writing of letters will convey duplicate the letter to certain parties, with the content of formats, and everything exactly equal to mail pieces original. In penulisannya, carbon copy notation can abbreviated to cc followed colon or point two, or can with an cc ( small type ) are also followed mark point two.

      Example :  cc : Headmaster

                       cc :  President Directur

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_(message)

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_letter

  http://smallbusiness.chron.com/basic-parts-business-letter-216.html

  http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/business-letter-parts.html

  http://ismailmidi.com/english-546408-business-letter.html
  http://iyank90.blogspot.com/2011/11/revisi-2-finish-english-business-letter_02.html