BUSINESS LETTER

WRITING
 Good
Business
Letter
 Effective business letter should
have the following characteristics (Stewart,
Lanham, and Zimmer, 1968):
1. Creates favorable impression
2. Appeals to the reader’s point of view
3. Correct in every detail
4. Courteous, friendly and sincere
5. Promotes goodwill
6. Coherent and well-paragraphed
7. Employs highly the business jargon
Ten Commandments
of a Good
Correspondent
(Satterwhite, et al:
2010)
In order to construct an effective business
letter, the following rules must be applied:

1. Always be dignified, respectful, and

gracious. Never hurt anyone’s feelings on
purpose.

2. Never let your position or company’s

name affect how you write business
letters, to the point that your words take on
an arrogant tone.
In order to construct an effective business
letter, the following rules must be applied:

3. Write your letters in a concise manner

and avoid using words that your readers
may not understand easily.

4. If you have any mistakes, admit them

without hesitation.
In order to construct an effective business
letter, the following rules must be applied:

5. Never forget that the personal ideas and

sentiments of an individual are important
to him/her, and therefore should not be
cast aside, no matter how trivial they may
seem.

6. Maintain a calm demeanor at all times

In order to construct an effective business
letter, the following rules must be applied:

7. Don’t flaunt your company’s policies to

your reader. Make no attempt to insult your
reader or prove him/her wrong.

8. Never write a business letter unless you

have truly understood the situation
wherein the letter will be written.
In order to construct an effective business
letter, the following rules must be applied:

9. Never resort to name-calling. Never talk

down to your reader.

10. Try your best to create goodwill for

your company with every letter you write.
2 Elements of
Business
Letter
 1. FORM
 Form consists of the formatting of the
letter

 The “format” of the letter is important

because it creates the so-called “first
impression”, which could affect how the
reader reacts to the content.

 consists of the physical appearance

 PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

 kind of paper used,

 margins,
 spacing and
 other details such as punctuation and
indentation.
 2. SUBSTANCE

 involves the message of the letter

Stationery
 STATIONERY

 should be of good quality

 The paper must have a smooth finish

 White stationery is recommended for

business letters.
 Business Stationery
 comes in different sizes but it is
advisable to use the standard size 8 ½”
x 11”

 Other sizes are 7” x 9 ½”, 7”x10”, 8”x 10

½” (executive size stationery).

 The second page onwards should be

plain and should have no letterhead, but
it should match the first page in all
The Seven C’s
 Before sending the letter, the
writer should make sure that the
letter follows the 7 Cs:
1. Clearness
2. Conciseness
3. Concreteness
4. Completeness
5. Correctness
6. Consideration
7. Courtesy
Parts of the
Business
Letter
 A. Basic Parts
1. Heading or Letterhead
2. Date Line
3. Inside Address
4. Salutation
5. Body
6. Complimentary Close
7. Signature
8. Reference Initials
Note: A business letter with missing basic
parts is a wrong letter.
 B. Optional Parts
1. Attention Line
2. Subject Line
3. Enclosure Notation
4. CC Notation
5. BCC Notation
6. Postscripts
7. Mailing notation
Note: Optional parts may or may not be
included in the letter.
 A. Basic Parts
1. Heading or Letterhead

Heading – This part tells the address of

the writer which includes the street
address, town, province, country, and zip
code, which are typed on the top lines

Letterhead – This contains the name of

the firm, a statement of its business (if
this is necessary), its address, and other
essential parts such as telephone number,
 A. Basic Parts
2. Dateline

Dateline – The date forms part of the

heading.

Wrong: Jan. 4, 2003 or 1 -4-2003 or

1/4/2003
Right: January 4, 2003 or 4 January 2003
 A. Basic Parts
3. Inside Address

Inside Address – This indicates who the

reader is, whether it is a person, a firm or
an organization.

- The inside address is typed two or three

spaces from the dateline.
 A. Basic Parts
4. Salutation

Salutation - serves as a greeting for the

addressee.
- It is typed two spaces below the inside
address.
- This first word and all the names in the
salutation are capitalized.
A. Basic Parts
4. Salutation
 A. Basic Parts
5. Body of the letter

Body of the letter – This contains the

message of the letter.
 A. Basic Parts
6. Complimentary Close

Complimentary Close – This is typed two

spaces below the last line of the body.

- Only the first word is capitalized.

- This refers to the words of courtesy at

the end of the letter.
 A. Basic Parts
7. Signature Block

Signature Block – The writer’s name is

typed four to five spaces below the
complimentary close.

- The company’s name is typed in all bold

letters two spaces below the
complimentary close and the writer’s
name at least four to five spaces below
the
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
1. Attention Line
 A letter may be addressed to a person in
two ways.

 It may be addressed to him directly or it

may be addressed to the firm where he
is connected and
his name mentioned in the attention line.

 The attention line is found only in letters

 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
1. Attention Line

 Furthermore, in letters containing an

attention line, the firm is greeted in the
salutation and not the person whose
name is mentioned in the attention line.
 The attention line is placed two line
spaces below the last line of the inside
address and two line spaces above the
salutation.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
1. Attention Line

 It may be typed flush with the left-hand

margin or centered.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
2. Subject Line

 summarizes the contents of the letter

 typed two spaces below them salutation

and may be written flush with the left-
hand margin or centered

 The word “Subject” may be typed in all

capitals or just the first letter capitalized.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
2. Subject Line

 The subject caption is useful since it

helps in tracing past correspondences
without having to read the whole letter
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
3. Mailing Direction Notation

 This notation appears in the letter when

instructions are given to the
stenographer that the letter is to be sent
other than by ordinary mail.

 This notation appears in the letter when

instructions aregiven to the
stenographer that the letter is to be sent
other than by ordinary mail.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
3. Mailing Direction Notation

 It is placed two spaces after the

reference initials notations

 It indicates whether the letter is to be

sent by special delivery, registered,
airmail, by messenger, or by hand.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
4. Enclosure Notation

 appears two line-spaces after the

reference initials notation

 It is used when anything is sent along

with the letter.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
5. Carbon Copy Notation

 This notation may be indicated flush

with left-hand margin two spaces after
the enclosure line or any other notation
that comes before it.
 It means that a copy or copies of the
letter have been forwarded to other
persons.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
6. B.C.C. Notation

 When the writer wants to send a copy of

his letter to another person but does not
want the addressee to be aware of this,
he uses the blind carbon copy
notation (B.C.C.).

This notation does not appear on the

original but only on the duplicate copies.
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
7. Postscripts (P.S.) Notation

 the least important of all the parts of the

letter

 It may be used to transmit a personal

message.

 Another use of the postscript is to

stress an important point already
 B. OPTIONAL PARTS
7. Postscripts (P.S.) Notation

 This notation is found two-line spaces

below a previous notation flush with the
left-hand margin.

 it is single spaced regardless of

whether the body itself is single spaced
or double-spaced.
PUNCTUATIO
N STYLES
Three styles of punctuation used
in the business letter:

1. open

2. close

3. standard.
 OPEN PUCTUATION

 The open punctuation is characterized

by the omission of any punctuation
marks after the salutation, the
complimentary close, and the end-of-
the-lines in the return address (if this is
typewritten) and the inside address.

 Abbreviations, however, are punctuated

as usual
 CLOSE PUNCTUATION

 punctuation marks appear at the end

of
every line except the message.
 STANDARD PUNCTUATION

 the salutations and the complimentary

close are
followed by the punctuation mark

 A colon follows the salutation and a

comment follows the complimentary
close
The Layout of
the Business
Letter