(how to write and set out a business_240 letter)

8/8/2019 (How to Write and Set Out a Business_240 Letter)

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How to Write And Set Out A Business Letter

Learn how to write a professional letter that conforms to

the traditional format of a standard business letter.

This section is generic to all business letters and goes a lot further than

information on letter format , letter structure and an example on how

to set out a letter . For instance, a guide to the use of capital letters is

provided, which is a major problem some people have when writing letters,

and " reading principles", which is important to everyone, particularly for people to whom English is a second language . See "what is on

this page." When you write a business letter, you create a lasting image of yourself and you business. The way you communicate on paper will alert your reader to your level of education, your personality and your level of professionalism. Your letter will most probably be a sales letter or it willcontain a message you want to get across clearly. The basic principles

for all types of letters will be the same. Writing business letters is an integral part of your job search strategy. Youwill write letters with different content in the course of your job search

journey, such as:-

An application letter directly to the employer for an advertised job.To third parties regarding an advertised job.Enquiry letters to recruitment agencies.Prospecting or cold calling / cold canvassing letters.Networking letters.For any other employment situation that requires writtencommunication:

All letters will be set out in the same way, using traditional business

letter format.

Specific Job Application Letter Content go to:-

www.proactivehrm.com/JobSearch/Job_Applications.html (8 different applications)

www.proactivehrm.com/JobSearch/Letter_content.html (important)

www.proactivehrm.com/JobSearch/Sample_Job_Applications.html (samples)

www.proactivehrm.com/JobSearch/Marketing_Techniques.html (important)

A good business letter is not just about the content of the letter.

The way format of the letter is very important. Reading Principles is

very important factor to consider in the way you set out a business

letter.

Reading Principles

Reading principles is a sales strategy that identifies how the reader scansa page. It is crucial to understand how to set out a letter using specificmargin settings and where to place the most important content on thepage for maximum visual impact. This format applies to any businessletter.

On this page

Reading principles

Guide to English comprehension and

grammar

Business letter structure / format

Example of a business letter format

Business letter example

Example of a letterhead

Your Signature - what colour ink?

Guide to the use of capital letters

Format and presentation

Business Letter Writing- style and tone

Sending documents through the post

Job Application le tters

JOB SEARCH SUPPORT

•Job Search Assistance / Resource

Centre Index

• Employment and Career Opportunities

• How to Look For Work

• Recruitment Methods

• Develop an Action Plan

• How to Network

• Tips on How To Cold Call• Job Interview : Tips

•Interview Process : Question and

Answers

• Job Search Resources

• Job Search Articles

LETTERS

• Job Application Letters

•Writing Job Application Letters Using

Marketing Techniques

• How to Write a Business Letter

•Write An Application Letter For an

Advertised Job

• Sample Job Applications

CAREER SUPPORT

• Writing Selection Criteria

• Career Development Resources

• Career Development Articles

• Article Archives

• Useful Career Sites

• Newsletter Archives

Download Amazing Cover Letters Now

and start writing instant job application

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Reading principles are very important in any letter or document where youwant to ensure the main points of the message will be read. Note:-

English readers start reading in the top left hand corner and

end in the bottom right in the shape of a fan panel. The

exception is speed readers, who read down the middle. So keepthese principles in mind at all times.

Where you begin the letter content is important. If you have to

start writing your letter too far down the page you lose the advantage

of using reading principles. This is why it is advisable to make up aletterhead (see later) for all your correspondence.

Justifying the letter is not recommended. Justifying a line means

that the lines end neatly with the margin flushed against the rightcolumn Many people find it very difficult to skim a justified letter.

Do not start sentences right over to the right of the page andleave gaping white spaces on the left. This is against readingprinciples

When writers talk about leaving lots of white space they aretalking about margin size and leaving 2 spaces betweenparagraphs.

Margins should be no more than 3 - 3.5cm left and right. Youcan use 3cm if you have a lot of information. Also it just doesn'tmake sense to provide a lot of white space on the left.

Guide to English comprehension and grammar Common Errors in EnglishThis is an excellent free resource and easy to use. Punctuation is very important and the use of texting has created a

generation who does not know how to use commas, colons, inverted

commas, periods (full stops) and hyphens, for example. Some people sayit is not important, but most employer's will disagree, especial older employers. For this information you will have to look at some other Business Letter writing resources.

Business letter structure / format

Letter should be planned and contain a beginning, middle and an

end

You need to be clear on:-

Who you are targeting.The purpose of the letter.What you want the reader to do.

(See letter-marketing techniques) Business letter format and layout (An example letter is provided further

down).

1. Letterhead or set out with name, address and contact details.

2. Date

3. inside address

4. Attention line - who the letter is addressed to

5. Salutation ( Greeting)

6. Subject heading

7. Body of letter - max 5 paragraphs - Approx 25 words each sentence

cover e ers. n us

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letter to fit the employer's needs .

See Newsletter Archives for additional

material

See examples of our employment letters.

They all use correct business letter

format

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8. Complimentary close

9. Signature

10. Reference

11. Abbreviation "enc"

12. Abbreviation "c" or "cc"

Letter Format : Further explanation on how to set out the letter 1 . Create your own business letterhead as it will give you more room

for the content. If not, use the format in the example letter. However it may interfere with reading principles as stated above if you name and address and contact numbers take up too much room. 2. Date: Use English dates at all times spelling out the month. XX Day XX

month XX year. 3. Inside address: Full company address.

4. Attention Line - Who it is going to person or department.

5. Salutation is the greeting. Ensure you address your letter to the

appropriate person . You cannot write a good letter if you don't know

anything about the company or more specifically the person you are writing to. What is there title and job within the organisation, for example. Is

he/she the decision maker?

Address the letter to a person by name not title . If the name of the

recipient of the letter is not known, you must ring the company and find out

who to address the letter to and ensure you have the correct spelling of thename. Under no circumstances use Dear Sir/Madam. Jimmy Sweeney,from Amazing cover letter software , provides advice on how to get

around this when you cannot get a name. --> See More 6. What is the letter about: Quote any invoice or other reference number

of state the subject of the letter. Be brief - few words. Should be centered

and bolded. Use of reference - "Re" i.e. "Re: Incorrect payment invoice12345" is not necessary. Personal preference. 7. Body of the letter. 8. Complimentary close. Yours sincerely or Yours faithfully? Upper

or lower case? Most people will use yours sincerely or your faithfully, however it isbecoming more popular to use a less formal close such as regards or kindregards. Golden Rule is:-

Yoursfaithfully

is us ed when the person’s name isnot

known

Yours sincerely is us ed when the person’s name is known -

always. Both faithfully and s incerely in lower case

9. Your signature. If you want to be known as Mrs or Miss don't put Mrs

James, for example. Put in brackets at the end of the name i.e. AdrianaJames (Mrs). This can be useful if your name can be both male andfemale and also if you are a female, it clarifies to the reader how toaddress you when they answer your letter. Non native English speakersoften call themselves by their title, Mr Jones, for example. It is too formaland un-australian or un-American. Brits can do this occasionally butplease don't.

10. A reference : A company might want to put a reference number or

show that the letter was signed by another person for the manager for example. Rarely used these days. Businesses usually put referencenumbers in the letterhead area.





11. Abbreviation - Enclosing documents with a letter.If you enclose any documents you must refer to them at the end of theletter. For example, enc. resume, brochure, application form. 12. Abbreviation - If you are sending a duplicate letter to anther person

as well as the recipient you must advise both parties, For example, c.c.Mr Alec Shields, Supervisor of Finance Division (or just the name) at thebottom of the letter. (You see this in all email programmes).

Example of a professional business letter There is no need to put full stops in the address in this format which wasdeveloped for word processing when PC's first came out. An exception iswhen a full stop can separate words that usually have a full stop, like your postal box. Put full stops in the rest of the text. This example letter relatesto a job, but it will be the same for any type of business letter. Note" It is best to use a letterhead. Example of a Letterhead

James Bond

27 The Rise, Thornleigh Heights WA 6111. Ph: (08) 9423 1796Email: [email protected]

I f you don't use a letterhead set out as below. ________________________________________ The Beginning James Bond

27 The RiseThornleigh Heights WA 6111Ph: (08) 9423 1796(email address only if you are sure you want a respons e to be received by email)

2 line spacing

27 October 2008 2 line spacing

Mr A Whittaker Whittaker and Sands Pty Ltd87 Mosman RoadPerth WA 6000 2 line spacing Dear Mr Whittaker (salutation)

2 line spacing before the subject /Job title. Centre the text. Use upper and lower case

and bolded.

Re: account 123456 (attention or subject)

The middle

(Add body of the letter - what is the letter about)

The end

Leave about 2 lines after the s ign off above the line below.

Yours sincerely

4-5 line spacing This can be 4 lines if running out of space





______________________

John Smith (Signature) Type your name and underline. Not you full name and use the name you are known by in brackets i.e. Margaret (Maggie) Fergusson

Note: If the letter is unbalanced , adjust it on the page - top and bottom margins

should be equal.

Additional explanation on setting out of a business letter.

Your signature - How do you sign your letter Sign your name with a BLUE pen - never use your signature created by

the computer. Signature and the colour of the ink you should use. In his "InstantCover letters" software, Jimmy Sweeny states that the colour of the inkyou choose to write your signature is important.

"It has been shown, believe it or not, that the color of your pen can improve the

response to your Cover Letter. If possible, you should always sign your letter by

hand using a blue or green felt-tip pen. We don't recommend using a black pen."

See how this software can make your letters sizzle!

Using PS. at the end of your letter is a powerful sales strategy

Many marketers say the PS at the end of a letter is very powerful and attention

grabbing when used in a sales letter. For example, you may say. PS. I omitted to

tell you that I am doing a 5 course in XYZ, at XYZ, next week which will provide me

with the skills to do XYZ.

Guide to the use of capital letters

• The first word of a sentence

• All proper names of people

• Names of governments and government departments

• Official titles

• Titles of Statutes i.e. laws, bills, acts of Parliamentand “The” before these titles

• Races and cultures

• Languages

• Geographical places

• Names of holidays and other public events

• Trading names

• Main words of the title of: -

Courses Films

Books Plays

Reports PoemsChapters Works of art

Guide to business letter format and presentation

Make up a plain letter head.Document should be typed and printed out on a quality printer.Use only white paper and black ink.Lots of white space - margins 3cm or 3.5 either side.Single line spacing in sentences.Leave two lines between paragraphs. However, this can take up alot of room. A solution is to manually adjust the line spacing byplacing the cursor between the line and put in size such as size 8 -

two spaces. Be consistent.Font and font size - Use the same font as resume which should beTimes New Roman or Arial, size 11 or maybe 10 if you have a lot of content. (Today we are more used to size 10 font - once consideredtoo small).Do not justify the margins (see reading principles).





Custom Search

Max 5 short paragraphsApprox 25 words in each sentence.Use simple wordsUse point form where appropriateUse punctuation to assist in understanding the content.

Business letter writing style and tone

The tone needs to be professional but not too formal, It should be

genuine, positive and enthusiastic. Use your own language style (within application and theseguidelines)Strike a balance between your own verbal communication style anda professional approach.Avoid using jargon, smart comments and clichés.Eliminate negative words.Use bullet points in the middle of the letter if appropriate for clarity.Be concise and take out all fillers.Make follow up action clear (for all letters not just job search).Alert the reader to attachments. i.e. "enclosed, resume andreferences". Put this in after your signature.

Check thoroughly for grammatical mistakes and typing errors. Haveit proofread by another person - even two people.Leave for one day if possible before you send so that you can lookat it again with a fresh eye to proof read.

If writing a sales letter or self marketing letter such as an employmentletter, use good marketing techniques and do not boast or come on toostrong, arrogant or smart.

Didn't find what you wanted? Search Google for business letter

writing and examples of business letters with keyword phrases

business letters OR business letter writingSearch

Sending accompanying documents through the post

You should be aware that documents can go astray and may never

reach the recipient. (the person it was addressed to). They also get

chewed up by machinery in the postal exchange (In Perth). Yes, truly, thisis first hand knowledge.

It is wise to follow these rules if sending accompanying documents.

• Your name and page number must appear on all documents,

preferably in a footer, if using word.

• Ensure you have the name of the person it is going to on the letter.

i.e. Attention Julia Jones.

• Do not put your documentation in a folder.

• Do not use staples – use modern silver clips, not the old paper

clips. They are expensive but worth it. If it is a resume the employer will want to scan it or make additional copies. They will not behappy if they have to un-staple it. On the other hand, they do notwant to lose it.

• Another reason for not using staples, as mentioned, is that as your may get eaten by postal sorting machines. Silver clips are not asbulky but you have to take a chance.

• Don't fold your documents.

• Put “do not bend” on the envelope.

• You must use the envelope that has the postcode on the right





bottom corner. (Australia) If it doesn't it could be held up for daysbecause it will have to be manually sorted. Pay extra for theseenvelopes.

• Ensure your envelope is directed to the appropriate person or

shows a reference number if requested.

• Make sure you have your return address on the envelope.

Hints for job search letters

• If making a quality contact through networking, you may use

parchment paper and/or a folder if you insist.• A folder, and an additional master copy, may be appropriate for

executive jobs where the company is the main contact point, and if applying for jobs where there is less competition. Also a folder isappropriate if the jobseeker as been headhunted. But also enclose an unbound copy.

• If cold calling, do not assume the address is the same as in the

phone book. A) The company may have a private box and letterscan get lost. B) Sometimes the company has moved premises,although they use the same phone number. This happens quite alot. (See information on spam re cold calling).

• In job search make sure the job title is on the envelope. Re:

Accounts payable position - number 12345. Note:

lf you are embedding your resume into a data base it may need to be

set out in plain text formatting and may need reconstruction. See

How to submit your resume online

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