Business Letters
Business letters can be used for information, making complaints, passing on appreciation, requests for action, requests for information, transmission of ideas, gathering or presenting facts, gathering or presenting ideas, a proposal, social correspondence through business and many more applications. First we will start with the basics. Always when writing a business letter your point will carry more weight if it is presented to the reader on high quality plain white paper. Writing your letter in a single spaced format leaving an extra line between paragraphs is paramount or if you are actually writing this letter always use blue or black ink. Use one inch margins all the way around the page and center your letter on the page. Use one side of each sheet of paper with the proposed one inch margins below the body. Always check for misspellings and grammar issues before submission and never use white out, markings or erasers. Your business letter should include six parts, A heading, at least three supporting paragraphs, the acknowledgment, the body, and a closing paragraph. Always use a signature with your credentials listed below your name in either a block form where all margins are left aligned in the same fashion as the entire page or with the modified form where the closing and the heading are along a line just the right of the center of the page. The heading will include three lines, which are your address, your address continued and the date you are writing the business letter. The heading or inside address will be addressed to the specific person or group of people you are intending to read the business letter such as Mr., Ms, Mrs., Dr., professor, owner, sales manager or to whom it may concern. The acknowledgment will be the greeting and should be dear, ladies and gentlemen or you can use a title or position of the specific person which you are writing to. The Closing salutation should always be presented in a respectable and courteous manner and often include yours truly, respectfully, regards or sincerely and always capitalize the first word in the closing of your business letter. If possible always write your signature in blue or black ink below your printed name.
For business letters some tips for effective writing and communication are, decide what the end result of your letter is going to be. Make a list of the ideas which you want to convey to the reader and make an assessment of what is important and what you should leave out. Good business letters have a sense of purpose with strong supporting evidence to back up the main idea. Get to the main idea across in the opening paragraph and state the intention of your business letter. By stating this point early you will be giving the reader the point of the business letter in the case that they do not fully read the entire page. By doing this the reader of your business letter will at least be left with an idea of what you are trying to say. A good way to write an effective business letter is to put yourself in the shoes of the reader and think about if you were reading this how would you respond, and write with this in mind. Another common mistake of business letter is being too technical, speak to the reader as you would like to be spoken to and your point of view will not be abstracted by technical jargon.