The business letter consists of 7 parts: 1) letterhead with company information, 2) date, 3) recipient's name and address, 4) salutation like "Dear Sir", 5) message/body, 6) complimentary closing like "Yours faithfully", and 7) the writer's signature without title. The letterhead establishes the company's identity. Dates, names, addresses, and titles should be correctly formatted. The message should clearly state the purpose and be concise using short paragraphs and sentences.

1. PARTS OF BUSINESS
LETTER

2. The business letter consists of seven
principal parts:
1. The letter head
2. The date
3. The inside name and address
4. The salutation
5. The message
6. The complimentary closure
7. The writer’s signature and official position

3. 1. The letter head
• The letter head expresses a firm’s personality.
• Many firms engage experts to design
attractive notepaper heading
• Styles vary considerably, but they all give
similar information, the name and address,
the telephone number, telegraphic addresses.

4. 2. The date
• Always type the date in full, in the logical
order of day, month, year
• EXAMPLE:
12th October 2011

5. 3. The inside name and address
• Take care to spell his/her name correctly,
because people usually proud of their names
• The usual practice is to set out the name and
address of one’s correspondent at the head of
the letter.

6. Cont….
• Courtesy titles
The courtesy title used in correspondence are Mr, Mrs, Miss, Messr
(messieur)
• Foreign correspondence.
When you write letters to other countries, always include the name of
the country, even if the town mentioned is the country’s capital. For
example: Boston in England and another in United States, London in
England and other in Canada, Tripoli in Libya and another in Lebanon.
• Postcodes.

7. 4. The salutation
This is the greeting with which every letter begins. The
customary greeting in business letter is Dear sir, others
are:
• Dear Madam (for both single and married woman)
• Dear sirs (when a partnership is addressed)
• Mesdames (when the partnership consists of women
only)
• When your correspondent is unknown to you, always
use the form dear sir.

8. 5. The message
This forms the body of the letter and is the
part that really matters. Before you begin to
write:
• What is my aim in writing this letter
• What do I hope to achieve by it?
• What is the best way to go about it?

9. Cont….
• Don’t waste words on unnecessary remarks.
Keep your paragraph short and. Short
sentence and paragraph provides easier
reading and are easy to understand.

10. • Some letters are very short and may consists of
one paragraph. Example of framework of a three
paragraph plan:
1. The first paragraph ---introduction or
acknowledgment if there is a previous
correspondence.
2. The second gives information and states the fact
3. The third refers to the future action

11. 6.The complimentary closure
• Yours faithfully
• Yours sincerely
• Yours truly

12. 7. The writer’s signature and official
position
• Always sign your letter by hand and in ink. To
stamp with a rubber stamp is a form of
discourtesy – it suggest that the reader is not
important enough to deserve the personal
touch of n original signature.
• A signature must not carry a title, it must be
the plain signature of the writer.