AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE
Structure of a business letter
- Four considerations of a business letter
The four areas you must take into consideration for each business letter are listed below. If you do not consider each one of them, your letter will be ineffective.
1. Subject 3. Purpose
2. Audience 4. Style/Organization
-Organization
The basic organization for the body of a business letter can be as follows.
Part 1: State your purpose.
Part 2: Explain what you want to happen or explain the information you have.
Part 3: Request a dated action, conclude or thank the reader for his response.
Styles
Style is how you write the letter. Business letter used to be written in what might be called “businesses”, a format, stiff language. The SEVEN “C” of style will make your letter more effective.
Parts of a business letter
Format of a business letter
Business letter formats have changed over the year. If you went to school prior to the 1970s, you probably learned one basic form of business letter now called the Modified Semi-Block. It was the bone of every beginning typist because of its strict rules concerning spacing. Luckily, the movement in business has been to simplify and provide choices. Now you have a choice of six different forms, some extremely simple, others more complex. This chapter will review the various forms. The six forms of business letters most commonly used are: