Writing a Business Letter

Writing a Business Letter General Guidelines • • • • • • Know your audience/reader. Write in a clear style. Be polite and positive. Be brief. Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Be “you” oriented. Appeal to the reader. How does this benefit the reader? • • • Structuring the Document Message: Can the reader know at a glance what the letter is about? Organization: Is the letter easy to follow? Style: Is it written single-spaced, with double-spacing between paragraphs? Components of the Letter • • • • • • • Heading: Includes the date and the sender’s address. Sender’s address is included only if the letter is not sent on company letterhead. Inside address: Name of the person addressed, person’s title, organization name, and full address Salutation: Formal greeting appears two lines below the inside address. Salutations in formal letters end with a colon. Examples: Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Reverend. Body: The paragraphs in the letter are single-spaced, with double spaces between paragraphs. Complimentary close: Two lines below the last line of the body. Examples: Sincerely, Sincerely yours, Yours truly. When the close contains two words, only the first is capitalized. The complimentary close is followed by a comma. Your typed name: Four lines below the complimentary close. Your signed name: Appears between the complimentary close and your typed name. Body of the Letter • • • Hook: Let the reader know immediately what the letter is about. This appears in the first paragraph. Bait: Let the reader know how what you’re asking for benefits the reader or the reader’s organization. This may take one to three paragraphs. Reel-in: Let the reader know what you want. Your letter should have some “call to action” – what you want or need. You need to ask! There’s nothing worse than reading an entire letter and not having a clue about what the reader is supposed to do. Business Letter Writing Tips • • Get a real name of a real person to address the letter to. Spell the person’s name correctly. The executive director of an agricultural commodity organization is named Michele, with one “l.” She says she sorts her mail by the way her name is spelled on the envelope. Those who have taken the time to find out how to spell her name correctly – with one “l,” instead of two “l’s” – are placed at the top of the pile. When writing cover letters, especially, getting names right is important. You don’t want to be left out because you included one too many “l’s.” Make sure you know if you’re writing a letter to a man or woman if the name can be male or female, such as Casey, Chris, Tracy, or Ashley. Get to the point (and quickly). Keep your paragraphs “bite-sized.” Limit yourself to one page, if possible. Word-processor tools are an asset, so use them creatively, but do so wisely. Don’t overdo underlining, boldfacing, italicizing, or bulleted lists. Handwritten notes are only as good as your handwriting. If your handwriting is awful, then type. Speling wurds korrectly iz importunt. (Spelling words correctly is important, if you couldn’t make that out.) Proper grammar and punctuation also are important. For added emphasis, use a highlighter marker to point out a specific word or phrase that you want the reader’s attention drawn to. P.S., use a post-script, if your letter lends itself to it. Research shows a P.S. is the first thing read. • • • • • • • • Example Business Letter Heading (including date and sender’s address) May 25, 2005 3444 Turner Street Tallahassee, FL 35676 Bob Manners 4657 Dover Lane Topeka, KS 89999 Dear Mr. Manners: The first paragraph of a typical business letter is used to state the main point of the letter. Begin with a friendly opening; then quickly transition into the purpose of your letter. Use a couple of sentences to explain the purpose, but do not go in to detail until the next paragraph. Beginning with the second paragraph, state the supporting details to justify your purpose. These may take the form of background information, statistics or first-hand accounts. A few short paragraphs within the body of the letter should be enough to support your reasoning. Finally, in the closing paragraph, briefly restate your purpose and why it is important. If the purpose of your letter is employment related, consider ending your letter with your contact information. However, if the purpose is informational, think about closing with gratitude for the reader’s time. Inside address: recipient’s address Salutation Body of the letter Complimentary close Your signed name Your typed name Sincerely, Lucy Lane Adapted from Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_basicbusletter.html