2. Formal Letters:
Formal Letters, also called Business Letters or Professional
Letters, are letters that are written in a strict and specific
format. Formal letters are naturally much more formal in
style than informal/friendly letters. Formal letters can be
written for a number of reasons such as,
to express your concerns while working in a professional
setup
to provide official information across your workspace
to order goods, to apply for employment, etc.
to the Editor of a newspaper addressing the problems faced
by various groups of people in different areas, etc.
3. formal letter should be,
Correct and accurate in all respects
Concise or brief, but not at the cost of clarity
Complete with all necessary details
Courteous and polite
Clear without any room for ambiguity
Structure of a Formal Letter:
As far as formal letters are concerned, the structure of the letter
changes depending on the type of letter. There are certain rules to
be followed to be able to draft a formal letter. Every sentence
should be well thought out and laid down in such a way that the
message you want to convey should be precise and clear to the
reader.
4. PARTS OF A FORMAL LETTER:
An official letter is written in a formal tone. There are certain elements
found in all official letters . These are listed below.
SENDER’S ADDRESS:
The address of the sender is placed at the top left corner of the page. It is
not punctuated in current practice. The address is on sited when official
letters are written on personal or company letterheads.
Date:
The date is placed below the sender's address.
5. INSIDE ADDRESS:
This is the name, designation and address of the receiver. It is placed
below the date. The inside address is not punctuated, and each line
of the address begins on the left margin.
SALUTATION:
The most common forms of salutation in an official letter are ‘Dear
sir’
(or ‘Dear sir’s’ if the organization and not a specific individual is
being addressed) and ‘Dear sir/ madam’ may be used.
In case you do not know whether the person to whom the letter is
being sent is a man or a woman, the salutation 'Dear sir/madam'
may be used.
If you know the name of the person you are writing to, address the
person by his or her sur name or full name, accompanied by a title,
as in, 'Dear Ms Uma Verma' or 'Dear Dr. Sharif .
6. SUBJECT:
This is a brief statement of the subject of the letter or what it is about.It is placed
below the salutation
Body of the letter:
This is the main part of any letter. An official letter should be brief, clear, precise
and complete w Body of the letter respect to the informationbeing conveyed.What
is just as importantis that your letter must be polite,evenwhen refusing an offer or
sayingsomething difficult for the receiver to accept.
Complimentary close:
The complimentaryclose is a word or phrase used to end a letter, and appears
above the signature.
Use the expression"Yours sincerelyif you have addressedthe receiver by
his/her title and a (eg, when your salutationwas 'Dear Ms Verma).
Use the receiver has not been addressedby name (eg, "Dear madam' and
similar salutation use 'Yours faithfully as the complimentaryclose.
7. This phrase 'With regards' used to be reserved for those situations in which the
addressee w someone you know well. Nowadays, it is increasingly acceptable in
almost all cases (except for a few rare very formal situations).
Note that forms like "Yours respectfully, "Yours obediently and "Your obedient
servant' are now dated and seem overly formal to the point of awkwardness.
