Business letter format and conventions

Notice the following points:

Writer’s address or company letterhead: at the top or in the top right-hand corner. The writer’s name is not at the top of the letter.

Reader’s name, position and address: on the left. If you are writing to another country, write the country in the address.

Date: on the right. Various forms of the date are possible.

Opening salutation: Use the name of the reader if you know it, without the initial. If you do not, write Dear Sirs to a company, Dear Sir to a man, Dear Madam to a woman or Dear Sir or Madam if you don’t know the sex of the reader.

Body of the letter: Start a new paragraph for each new idea or subject. Leave a line space between each paragraph. Do not break words at the end of a line.

Closing salutation: Yours faithfully if you do not know the reader’s name, Yours sincerely if you do. (US Yours truly or Sincerely yours).

Writer’s name and title (and position in the company, if appropriate). A man uses the title Mr.

The title Mrs shows that a woman is married; Miss shows that she is unmarried; Ms shows only that she is a woman.

Punctuation: in modern business letters punctuation is not used in the headings and endings of a letter. Normal punctuation is used in the body of the letter.

Here is an example of a standard letter.

Please pay special attention to the business letter terminology in the below letter.

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