Formal letters are those letters which have set defined rules and regulation. These letters have impersonal tone and formal content. Formal letters especially are written for the formal communication such as communication at office, organizations, companies, etc. totally professional in nature.
Formal letters are written for official purposes to authorities, dignitaries, colleagues, seniors etch and not to personal contact or family members. These letters hold specific format and layout, which gives them a professional touch as well as make formal communication effective.
Format of Formal Letters-
Well-cultivated formal letters tone should be serious but not complex. In formal letters, content is literal in nature and to the point. To write effective formal letters, an individual should adhere to the basic pattern mentioned below.
- Sender’s Address
- Date
- Receiver’s Address
- Subject of the letter
- Salutation
- Main body [i- Introduction of the matter, ii- Explanation of the matter, iii- conclusion]
- Complimentary close.
Let’s detail the parts of a formal letter:
- Sender’s Address- Address of the sender with detail like Name, Title, company, e-mail, contact no, city, state and postal code.
- Date- undated letters gives a bad impression. The date should always be written in full. A date can be written with two different styles. Example- DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY
- Address- Address of the receiver should be written at left side after the date. It consists of the full and clear address of the recipient preceded by the courtesy title like ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’
- Subject- It gives a brief introduction of the content of the letter. It should be written in one line. The subject of the letter should be bold and underline.
- Salutation- If you know the recipient’s name, you can write like Dear Mr. XYZ or Dear Dr ABC and if not aware with the name, Dear Sir/Madam. If there are two recipients or more than two, we address them like Dear Messrs. Alex and smith Lambert / Dear Messrs.
- Main body- It is the most important component of the business letter. The main body of the letter has three part of division:
[i] Introduction – This part of the letter tells the main purpose of writing.
[ii] Explanation – This part elaborates relevant details concerning purpose of I paragraph.
[iii] Conclusion – The last paragraph concluded the relevant details as well as talk about the actions of the recipient expected by the sender.
- Complimentary close- It is mandatory to end the letter politely by using a complimentary close. The most common closes are “yours faithfully/yours sincerely”. It is also followed by the signature, name and designation of the sender.
Sample of formal letter-
Do’s at the time of writing Formal letters-
- Firstly, the foremost thing to write a formal letter effectively is to adhere to format and layout.
- The content of the formal letter should to be the point and specific in nature.
- Addresses of the sender and recipient’s must be clearly written.
- There will be no comma followed by the salutation, Sir.
- Proper line spacing should be given at the time of writing a letter.
- Outlook of the letter should be neat and clean.
- Main body of the paragraph should be properly divided into Introduction, main speech and conclusion.
- Complimentary close like Yours faithfully/Yours sincerely; in this, there will be no apostrophes at yours.
- All the parts of a formal letter aligned to left margin.
- Subject of the letter should be underlined and bold.
Don’ts at the time of writing Formal letters-
- Don’t be careless at the time of writing recipient’s name, title, gender, and designation.
- Do not use fragmented ideas as it leads to create ambiguity.
- Do not use decorated words and highly embellished phrases.
- Don’t commit grammar and spelling error as it gives a wrong impression to the reader.
- Do not use slang, jargons, and colloquial language.
- Do not use personal pronoun, i.e. I, you, we.
- Do not write letters in the passive voice.
- Do not use long sentences as it sometimes diverted the real meaning.
- Do not rely so much on spell-check. Always proofread before sending the letter.
- Do not make formal letters colorful and choose font style aptly.