A business letter is a letter from one company to another, or such organizations and their customers, clients, or other external parties. The overall style of letter depends on the relationship between the parties concerned. Business letters can have many types of content, for example to request direct information or action from another party, to order supplies from a supplier, to point out a mistake by the letter's recipient, to reply directly to a request, to apologize for a wrong, or to convey goodwill. A business letter is sometimes useful because it produces a permanent written record, and may be taken more seriously by the recipient than other forms of communication. It is written in formal language.Newman & Ober. ''Business Communication: In Person, In Print, Online''. South-Western, 2013. p. 503–506.

General format

Margins

Typically, side, top and bottom margins are inches, and one-page letters and memos are vertically centered.

Font formatting

No special character or font formatting is used, except for the subject line, which is usually underlined.

Punctuation

The

salutation A salutation is a greeting used in a letter or other communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter is wed by the recipient's given name or title. For each style of salutation there i ...

or greeting is generally followed by a

comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...

in British style, whereas in the United States a colon is used in formal contexts and a comma otherwise. The

valediction A valediction (derivation from Latin ''vale dicere'', "to say farewell"), or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message,comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...

Form

The following is the general format, excluding indentation used in various formats:

ENDER'S COMPANY NAME 




''Ender's Game'' is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an  insectoid alien species they dub ...
 ENDER'S ADDRESS (optional if placed at bottom) ENDER'S PHONE ENDER'S E-MAIL (optional)
ATE 
Ate or ATE may refer to:
 Organizations
* Active Training and Education Trust, a not-for-profit organization providing "Superweeks", holidays for children in the United Kingdom
* Association of Technical Employees, a trade union, now called the Nat ...

 ECIPIENT W/O PREFIX ECIPIENT'S COMPANY ECIPIENT'S ADDRESS
(Optional) Attention  EPARTMENT/PERSON
Dear  ECIPIENT W/ PREFIX irst Salutation then Subject in Business letters
 ONTENT
 ONTENT
 OMPLIMENTARY CLOSING (Sincerely, Respectfully, Regards, etc.)
ENDER 
Ender may refer to:

 Given name
*  Ender Alkan, Turkish footballer
*  Ender Arslan, Turkish basketball player
*  Ender Inciarte, Venezuelan baseball player
*  Ender Konca, Turkish footballer
 Surname
* Erika Ender (born 1974), Panamanian singer, s ...
 ENDER'S TITLE (optional) ENDER'S ADDRESS (optional if placed at top)
Enclosures ( UMBER OF ENCLOSURES

Indentation formats

Business letters conform to generally one of six indentation formats: standard, open, block, semi-block, modified block, and modified semi-block. Put simply, "semi-" means that the first lines of paragraphs are indented; "modified" means that the sender's address, date, and closing are significantly indented.

Open

The open-format letter does not use punctuation after the salutation and no punctuation after the complimentary closing.

Block

In a block-format letter, all text is left aligned and paragraphs are not indented.

Modified block

In a modified-block format letter, all text is left aligned (except the author's address, date, and closing), paragraphs are not indented, and the author's address, date, and closing begin at the center point. company name and address date TO

Semi-block

Semi-block format is similar to the Modified block format, except that the first line of each paragraph is indented.

Modified semi-block

In a modified semi-block format letter, all text is left aligned (except the author's address, date, and closing), paragraphs are indented, and the author's address, date, and closing are usually indented in the same position.

References

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