How Do I Write a Formal Business Letter?
Monday, September 3, 2007 at 04:39AM Good to see you again. Ok, so what is this Lunch Box business? Well it's a concept and in this instance, a stress reliever. It is designed for all of you who hate to write but have to. That includes international employees, employees who multi-task, graduate students and those going from homemaker to bread-maker. It is called "Lunch box Learning" because the information is compact, can be absorbed easily, and applied in the time that it takes a busy person to eat lunch. Cute, huh?
Well, recently spoke to a friend who is going back into the work world after spending a "lifetime" raising the kids. (well, that's how she felt) but anyway she has great office skills and couldn't wait to get back into the saddle; that is , until she realized that she no longer knew how to write a formal business letter. Seems crazy, but things have changed. So I thought this would be a good place to start our Lunch Box Learning. And for all of you who are a little rusty at it or those of you who are new at it, here we go...
The biggest favor you can do for yourself is to get good at surfing the internet. The information there is easy to understand and thorough. Do not try to memorize the different rules that apply to each style of business letter, but instead make a reference packet from your search that contains a template for each type of letter. Keep it handy and refer to it when necessary. Saves you time, stress, and improves your performance. Just type into the Google search engine “how to write business letters” and you will find all the information that you need.
FYI: A resume, cover letter, job reference letter, or resignation letter is not a business letter. Those that fall under the category of “business” are letters to clients/customers and correspondence from one business to another .
All the Working Parts
The Business letter has a structure that includes approximately fifteen standard sections:
Return address – Sender’s address
Date – Month, day, and year
Reference Line –Job reference # or invoice #
Special Mailing Notations –Certified, Air mail, etc.
On-Arrival Notations – Personal, Confidential
Inside address – where letter is going to
Attention line- Name of person receiving letter
Salutation – Dear Sir, Madam, or Name, etc
Subject line - Gist of letter
Body – where purpose of letter is discussed
Complimentary Close – Yours truly, Respectfully yours
Signature Block- space for signature
Identification Initials – initials of typist and/or person letter is being typed for
Enclosure Notation – indication that there are additional documents in the letter
cc: - Courtesy copies list of names of those receiving copies
Whew! That's a bunch. Remember; don’t stress yourself trying to memorize this list. Use that search engine. Collect your data and make that crib sheet; and when you have written enough business letters, you will have memorized the structure automatically, without having to add frustrating study time to your busy schedule.
Format
The body of a letter has three formats, Block, Modified Block, and Simi- Block . Don’t know how to formulate them? Again, just Google “business templates”. Problem solved.
Maintain that Professional Edge
Make sure spelling and grammar are correct and document is neat and clean. Either self-edit or have someone read it aloud before mailing or read it aloud to yourself. Funny, how when you hear the written word you can find mistakes that you couldn’t find when you were reading silently. Guess it’s a brain thing. Do not forget to revise. Owl Purdue Writing Lab offers some sound advice on revising business letters.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_revisebus.html
Now, go get em’ tiger!
Next post I'll give you a 'think' break and we'll talk about something a little controversial...accents in the workplace. Well, the accents aren't controversial, but attitudes towards them are, so I titled the article "Should the Foreign Accent be a Problem in a Diverse Workplace?" Get your opinions ready. Search bar upper right--Don't forget to hit the RSS button because this topic will be Hot.
If you are a visual learner, here are some sample templates for your convenience.
Please note, cut and paste was a little tricky and the format is a bit off. Inside addresses, return addresses, please single space. And the closing at the bottom...Donald Thompson goes under Sincerely. I'm sure the ones you find with Google will look a lot better.
BLOCK STYLE- Formal
Merc Law Offices
Street • City • State • Zip Code
Phone # • Fax phone # • Messages phone # • Email
R R. Stoddard, Esq.
Merc Law Offices
34 Main St .
Chicago , Illinois 55555
422 990-0098
August 12, 2007
Re: Return
CERTIFIED MAIL
PERSONAL
Ms. Monica Berry
Alonica, Inc.
333 E. Mills Ave.
Penn Hills , Pa. 15234
Attention: Ms. Monica Berry
Dear Ms. Berry,
Vitamin Shipment
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
R.R. Stoddard, Esq.
dr
Enclosure (2)
cc: Mr. Donald Rodgers, Sales Mgr.
Mr. Samuel Kent, V.P. Acquisitions
MODIFIED SEMI BLOCK STYLE – Less formal
CERTIFIED MAIL
PERSONAL
Mr. Ron Jordan, Manager Mr Randolph Jesse, Administrator
Essex House, Inc. 5776 E. 23rd Avenue
Newark , New York 44320 Chicago, Ill. 98776
510 876-0098
Attention Mr. Jordan August 28, 2007
Dear Mr. Jordan, Re: Textiles
Delayed Meeting
On Thursday, July 17th___________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
During the course of______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
Mr. Randolph Jesse, Administrator
rj
Enc. (2)
cc: Mr. R. Johnson
Mrs. Luther Savage
MODIFIED BLOCK STYLE
CERTIFIED MAIL
PERSONAL
Mr. Keneth Toley, Flash Player QE Team Lead Donald Thompson, Developer
Adobe Systems Incorporated Sysco Systems
601 Townsend Street 39 Broadway
San Francisco, Ca. 97765 Los Angeles, Ca. 61155
August 29, 2007
Attention: Mr. Kenneth Toley In Re: Styles
Dear Mr. Toley,
Customer Support
According to our previous correspondence___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It has been called to our attention_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
Donald Thompson, Developer
dt
Enc. (4)
cc: Roger Duval
Janet Simms
I am soooo glad that's over 
See you soon,
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