A business letter is a formal means of communication between two people or two companies. Since it is an official way of communication, strict rules of composition need to be followed.

First of all, a business letter has to be clear and concise so that each and every part of the letter is understood by the reader. Secondly, a courteous tone needs to be applied.

Always keep in mind that business letter is supposed to be formal and not conversational. Readers will notice grammatical and spelling mistakes so make sure the letter is grammatically correct as well. Lastly, official letters shouldn’t be written by hand unless explicitly required.

Write the heading

The heading should consist of your name along with your address. You can either type this or have a letterhead designed just for this purpose.

Name

Address 1

Address 2

Phone no.:

Cell no.:

E-mail:

Web page:

Date

The date should come below your name and address. The date is important for legal purposes. You should write the date clearly, don’t just write in numbers.

Heading

Date

Write details of the person you are addressing

Write the name of the person along with his designation and address. Make sure you have got the spelling and designation correct. The address should also be correct.

Name

Designation

Address 1

Address 2

Address the person

Use Dear name if you are addressing one person. In case you are writing the same letter to different people you can use Dear Sir/Madam,

Write the body of the letter

This is part of the letter where you write the purpose of the letter. This can be anything from informing to addressing business issues. You should be courteous, but at the same time be clear and concise. The main purpose of the letter is to convey the message across properly. You need not write a whole page to do this.

Signing of the letter

You can sign off letter using either “Yours sincerely” or “Yours faithfully” depending on how formal the letter is. In case the body of your letter is not very formal, you can sign off using Regards or Kind regards. After this you should leave space for your signature followed by your name.

Below is a simple format that can used to write a business letter.

1. Heading

(Name

Address 1

Address 2

Phone no.:

Cell no.:

E-mail:

Web page:)

2. Date

(Date: Day Month Year)

3. Details of person whom we address

(Name

Designation

Address 1

Address 2)

4. Addressing the person

(Dear Sir/Madam,)

5. Body of the letter

6. Signing of the letter

(Thanking you,

“Yours sincerely” or “Yours faithfully”

Your name

Designation)

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