How to write a Letter

How to writing a Letter

The art of writing a letter takes practice, knowledge about proper form and the ability to put into words your feelings, thoughts, and/or ideas. If you learn the basic parts of a letter, it will help you to create letters for a variety of occasions.

Parts of the Letter:

Your address
At the top of your letter, you will put your address, so the reader will know where to send their reply to.

Date
Put the date on which the letter was written in the format Month Day Year i.e. June, 15, 2009.

Inside Address
The inside address is only required for a business letter and will include the address of the person you are writing to along with the name of the recipient, their title and company name. If you are not sure who the letter should be addressed to either leave it blank or try to put in a title, i.e. "Director of Human Resources".

The Greeting
The greeting will address the individual that the letter is being sent to. This is usually completed in the form of "Dear Anne" or "Hey Anne", for less formal letters.

The Introductory Paragraph
The first paragraph and will generally outline the purpose for the letter and the reason that the letter is being sent. This can address any issues that are outstanding and is used to set the tone for the entire rest of the letter. In this first paragraph, the summary of the letter can be found and the intentions which will be displayed through the rest of the letter should be outlined. From the first paragraph of the letter, the introductory paragraph, the individual should be able to note the tone of the letter.

The Body
The body of the letter will expand upon the introductory paragraph and the individual can extend their thoughts and feelings further when it comes to the letter. The body of the letter can be anywhere from multiple pages for personal letters, to one page or two pages for most business letters and other types of proposals.

The Closing
In the closing of the letter, the individual will close the letter and finish any thoughts that have been mentioned. The closing of the letter comes in various forms from yours truly, for those individuals that are familiar with one another, to a traditional sincerely which is a versatile closing that can be used in a variety of letters detailing many situations.

The Presentation of the Letter
The presentation of the letter can be hand-written for less formal letters that are addressed to friends and family members, especially thank-you letters. In the case that you have illegible handwriting, you may want to consider typing the letter in these cases, although proper etiquette dictates against this type of behavior.
Formal letters which are written on behalf of businesses to or professional contacts should remain typewritten and grammatical and spelling error free. These types of letters should be legible and professional and therefore typing the letter is one of the most effective ways to ensure that the letter demonstrates a professional appearance through the entire course of the letter, thereby creating a positive impression on the recipient of the letter.

As well as outward presentation, it is important to determine the tone which will be written in the letter, including a professional tone or a tone that will be taken with friends or family members in a more informal setting. Read through the letter once it has been completed to ensure that the tone remains the same. The tone can be adjusted based on the language which is used through the letter, as well as the greetings.

Letter Writing Tips

•     Always proofread your letter after writing it, check for sentence structure, grammar, spelling mistakes...
•     Proofread your letter again (and again) after you have revised it.
•     Keep the recipient in mind, and write in a way that he/she can easily understand the letter.
•     Don't use abbreviated dates, i.e. use November 19, 2004, and not 11/19/04
•     Be respectful when you write, even if you are writing a letter of complaint.

Business letter writing tips

•     Be concise and keep to the point, but don't leave out any important information.
•     Try to keep your letter short enough so that it fits on one page.
•     If your letter is more than a page long, use another page, don't use the back of the page.
•     If you have access to company (or personal) stationary with a letterhead on it, use that instead of regular paper.

Addressing an Envelope

•     Addressing an envelope should be fairly simple.
•     In the upper-left hand corner should be your name, and underneath that should be your return address.
•     In the upper-right hand corner should be the postage stamp (with the correct postage amount).
•     In the middle-center should be the recipient's name and recipient's address.
•     If you are writing to a different country, make sure you put it at on the last line of your return address and the recipient's address.
•     If you are writing a friendly letter with a small envelope, you can write the return address on the flap of the envelope if their is no room on the top-left hand corner

Guidelines and Rules of Email Etiquette

•     Use a descriptive subject line, avoid leaving it blank or putting an irrelevant or general subject.
•     Address the recipient by name to add a personal touch to your letter.
•     DO NOT USE ALL CAPS!
•     Avoid over using punctuation marks.
•     Avoid using abbreviations, such as IMHO (in my humble opinion) or TTYL (talk to you later), not everyone is familiar with them.
•     Skip a line when starting a new paragraph, avoid using tabs to signify a new paragraph, different email programs read tabs in different ways.
•     Avoid using HTML in your e-mails, not everyone can view it and it takes away from the professional image of the letter.
•     If you are sending an attachment, make note of it and describe what the attachment is for in the body, some people are very wary of attachments due to the threat of computer viruses.
•     Keep your emails as concise as possible without leaving out any important information.
•     Keep usage of quoted text to a minimum.
•     Always leave a signature line, don't assume the person already knows who you are.
•     Do not keep on sending the same message to the same person over and over again, if they don't respond after a few days, send them an e-mail enquiring if they received your first email.
•     Use spell check and proof read and revise your letter after it's done.
•     Use threads, if you get a message from someone and you are going to respond, don't send a new message, simply hit the reply option on your email, this keeps the original subject line with "Re:" in front of it.
•     If you are sending out an email to a large private list don't use CC: (carbon copy) use BCC: (blind carbon copy) to protect the addresses of the recipients.
•     Remember most emails are never completely private, there is always a chance of someone else besides the intended recipient reading it, so avoid writing any personal attacks which are unprofesional to begin with.
•     When reading emails treat them as if they are private messages (unless you know you are allowed to share it with others).
•     When you receive a message reply to it as soon as you have time to.