Letter Writing

Types of Letters

• There are broadly two Formal and Informal Letters. But a

few types of letters based on their contents, formalities,
the purpose of letter writing etc.
• Formal Letter: These letters are strictly kept professional
in nature, and directly address the issues concerned. Any
type of business letter or letter to authorities falls within
this given category.
• Informal Letter: Informal letters are generally written to
friends, acquaintances, relatives etc.
 Formal Letters
• Business Letter: This letter is written among business correspondents,
generally contains commercial information such as quotations, orders,
complaints, claims, letters for collections etc. Such letters are always strictly
formal and follow a structure and pattern of formalities.
• Official Letter: This type of letter is written to inform offices, branches,
subordinates of official information. It usually relays official information like
rules, regulations, procedures, events, or any other such information. Official
letters are also formal in nature and follow certain structure and decorum.
• Circular Letter: A letter that announces information to a large number of
people is a circular letter. The same letter is circulated to a large group of
people to correspond some important information like a change of address,
change in management, the retirement of a partner etc.
• Employment Letters: Any letters with respect to the employment process,
like joining letter, promotion letter, application letter etc.
 Informal Letter
• Parts of a friendly letter
1. The Heading
Placed usually in the upper
right-hand corner of the first
page, the heading gives in three
lines three pieces of information
in which your correspondent
may be interested: your street
address; your city and state,
separated by a comma and
followed by your ZIP code
number; the date, with a comma
between the day and the year.
 Informal Letter

• An alternative position for your address and the date is placed with
the left-hand margin just below the signature, as shown below.
 Informal Letter
2. The Salutation
The salutation is placed a short
distance down the page from the
heading, and it began at the left-
hand margin, It is followed by a
comma not a colon. In a friendly
letter almost any salutation is
permissible, but Dear ______, is
always proper.
The Body
• The body of a friendly letter,
the letter itself should begin
either directly below the end
of the salutation, or after an
indentation of an inch from the
left margin. Subsequently,
paragraphs should be indented
uniformly with the first
paragraph. At the end of the
letter avoid such outmoded
formalities as “Hoping to hear
from you, I remain,” or “I am,”
etc.
The closing:
The closing or leave-taking
follows just below the final line of
the letter. It is begun just to the
right of the middle of the page
and is usually followed by a
comma, Although, you may use
whatever closing you wish,
sincerely, or sincerely yours, is
always proper. Yours truly, and
very truly yours, should be used
only in business letters.
The Signature
Write your name below the
closing . Since you usually sign
only your first name, center it
under the closing. Even though
the letter is typed, your name
should always be written in
longhand.
 Invitation Letter (Formal)
• When you are giving a party at home and wish your invitations to be
somewhat more formal than they would be if given over the
telephone or passed casually in the corridors at school, a brief note is
appropriate.
 Invitation Letter
• When you write an invitation to a married faculty members and you wish
him to bring his wife, or her to bring her husband, you should make this clear
either by addressing the invitation to both or by saying in the invitation that
you would like to have both come, it is not, as a rule, good manner to invite
a married faculty member to a dance or other affair to which guests come in
couples, without including the husband or wife in the invitation.
 Model Informal Reply
• Whether you can accept an invitation or not, you must answer it
promptly/on time – the day you receive it. Your reply, if you can
accept, need not be long and chatty. Your acceptance should indicate
to your hostess, however, that you have understood correctly the
time, place, and nature of the occasion. If you must decline the
invitation, you will wish to give some explanation.
Model Informal Reply
An Example of Thank-You Note
 The Bread-and-Butter Note
• The bread-and-butter note is the note you write to your hostess to
thank her for her hospitality. Often such a note becomes a full-length
letter but, depending on the circumstances, it may or may not be long.
Model of Wedding Invitation
• Your reply should be hand written in a special form. It must always
follow the exact wording of the invitation . The acceptance should
repeat the date; it is always written in the third person; numbers are
spelled out.
Formal Acceptance reply for
formal social event
Formal Regret reply for formal
social event
 Business Letter ( for orders, complaints, claims)
• Six parts of a
business
letter
 The Heading
• Business firms use stationary
bearing their letterhead, which
makes it unnecessary for the
writer to supply any thing but the
date in the heading. When you
write a business letter without a
letterhead, you must give a
complete heading: street address
with a comma between the city
and state; date on the third line
with a comma between the day
and the year. If you use
abbreviations, use them
consistently.
The inside address
• This is the part of a business letter which is not
a part of a friendly letter. In the inside address
you give the name of the person or the firm (or
both) to whom you are writing and the address
with the usual comma between city and
state/country. Business letter file copies of the
letters they write. Since the copies are filed
under the name of the person or firm to which
they are written, it is necessary to have an
inside address on each letter. Ordinarily the
inside address is placed below the heading or
date and placed with the left hand margin.
• If you wish to include the title or position of the person to whom you
are writing, if the title is long, on a separate line below.
Examples
Mr. Ali Ahmed Khan
Principal
Lahore Grammar School
Johar Town, Lahore 54000
The salutation
• The salutation, or greetings, is
placed below the inside address
(two spaces in the type writer)
and placed with the left- hand
margin. It is always followed by a
colon. The salutation varies with
the nature of the inside address
as follows:
• If you are writing to a firm or a
group, not to any individual, the
proper salutation is Gentlemen:
(Ladies: or, rarely, Mesdames: for
an exclusively female concern)
Example
 The Body
• A business letter
obviously is a
means forward
achieving a
particular result.
The first line of the
body of a business
letter is placed two
type writer spaces
below the salutation.
• Order
Letter