Transcript No Slide Title

PARTS OF A
BUSINESS LETTERS
Required Parts
Letterhead or return
address
Date
Inside Address
Re:
Body
Complimentary Closing
Author/Typist initials
Salutation
3
Karen J. Hurley
• Letterhead or return address – the letterhead is
usually preprinted and is used by a business—
see below. The return address is the address of
the SENDER and appears above the date and is
used when an individual is sending a letter and
not a company—see next slide.
• Personal letter with return address above
date
• Date – use the current date
• Inside address – address of the person you
are sending the letter to
• Re: this stands for “reference”. Tells the
reader what letter is about
• Salutation – this is the Dear so and so part
• Body – all the paragraphs that make up the
letter. Each paragraph is separated by a
double return. Body is single spaced
• Complimentary Closing – this is the sincerely, very truly
yours, etc. part
– You type your closing and then hit your return key FOUR times
and then type your name. You sign your name between the
closing and the typed version of your name
• Author’s initials/Typist initials
– This goes back in time when most business people had
secretaries. Most bosses type their own letters these days.
• KJH/kch – this would mean I’m the author (boss) and my daughter typed
it for me.
• JS/kjh – this would mean Mr. Stewart is the author and I typed it for him.
• KJH/bms – this would mean I’m the author and I typed it (bms=by
myself )
• NOTE: typist initials are NOT needed. Can just be author’s initials
Styles
• There are 3 styles of letter format
– Full Blocked – every line is at left margin
– Modified Blocked – every line but date and closing is
at left margin. Date and Closing BEGIN at center (tab
to half way point) – they ARE NOT centered.
– Modified Blocked with indented paragraphs – the
same as modified block but paragraphs are indented.
• See examples on next slides and notice left hand
margin.
Full Blocked
900 Dallas St.
Grosse Ile, MI 48138
Modified Block
900 Dallas St.
Grosse Ile, MI 48138
Modified Block – indented paragraphs
900 Dallas St.
Grosse Ile, MI 48138
Spacing for a
letter
Letter reminders
• Letters should be centered on the page from top to bottom. To do
this: File, Page Setup, Layout tab, go to Vertical Placement field
and choose center
• Letters generally have one-inch left and right margins. This is the
default in Word. If the letter is extremely short, the margins can
be changed to 1.5.
• The font size should be no smaller than 10 and no bigger than 12
• The date is always is the format: month, day and year
• The date is always followed by four returns to the inside address
• There are two returns after the inside address, salutation, between
paragraphs, after the author’s name, and typist’s initials
• The salutation is followed by a colon (:). Dear Mr. Smith:
• The complimentary closing (Sincerely, Cordially, Very truly yours,
etc.) is followed by a comma and then followed by 4 returns
• Only the first word in the complimentary closing is capitalized
• Typist’s initials are always lowercase – author’s are always
uppercase