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§' How can I use boldfacing to emphasize parts of this
information?
§' Is there information I can leave out of this letter?
What information does the reader really not need to
know?
§' What is my take-home message?
CLOSING
End your letter with a polite good-bye. Here are some ways to close:
Sincerely, Best regards,
Sincerely yours, Yours truly,
Respectfully, Regards,
Cordially, Thank you,
Notice that only the first word is capitalized. The closing is followed by a comma.
SIGNATURE
Follow your closing with four blank lines. Then, type your full name. Beneath your typed name, type your
full title. If you plan to mail, fax, or hand-deliver a hard copy of your letter, you should sign your name in
the space between your closing and your typed full name. Sometimes, letters are sent electronically in this
case, it is not necessary to sign your name.
TYPIST S REFERENCE
In the past, this line has been used to indicate that someone other than the sender of the letter typed the let-
ter. For example, if your name is Donna Richardson and your secretary s name is Maria Sanchez, you might
use this reference at the end of your letter: DR/ms. Notice that the writer s initials are capitalized and the typ-
ist s initials are in lower case letters. This indicates that you wrote the letter, but your secretary typed it. With
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BETTER WRITING RIGHT NOW! LESSON 17 Writing Business Letters
T
I
P
G
N
I
T
I
R
W
the widespread use of computers and computer literacy these days, many people type their own letters. In
this case, you don t need to include your initials as the writer or the typist. However, you might use this line
to indicate how the document has been saved, filed, or stored on the computer.
ENCLOSURES
Often, you will need to include other documents with a business letter. When you do, you should include a
line to indicate that other documents are enclosed. It s a good idea to list the documents you are enclosing
so that you make your reader aware of what is supposed to be included in the letter. Here s an example:
Enclosures: Outline of proposed changes
Schedule of changes
Budget for making the changes
It s also acceptable to abbreviate: Enc. Here s an example:
Enc.: Appendix B
CC:/DISTRIBUTION
If you will be sending your letter to people other than the named recipient at the top of the letter, you can
list these other people here after the letters cc: or CC:. These letters stand for carbon copy. List the names of
the other recipients either in alphabetical order or by rank. You can include each person s title, if you would
like. Generally, if the information in the letter involves or references other people, you should consider send-
ing a copy of the letter to them as well.
FORMATTING BUSINESS LETTERS
There are three main ways to format a business letter: block format, modified semi-block format, and semi-
block format. Here is how they compare.
MODIFIED BLOCK
BLOCK FORMAT FORMAT SEMI-BLOCK FORMAT
Each part of the letter is left- The recipient s name, company, The recipient s name, company,
justified, or set up against the left address, salutation, and the body address, and salutation are all
margin. This is probably the most of the letter are all left-justified. left-justified. Each paragraph of
common and simplest format for The date, closing, and signature the body of the letter is left-justi-
business letters. are each aligned down the mid- fied and indented. The date, clos-
dle of the page. ing, and signature are each
aligned down the middle of the
page. This is probably the least
common format used for busi-
ness letters.
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Writing Business Letters LESSON 17 BETTER WRITING RIGHT NOW!
Many companies have their own guidelines
for writing business letters. If your company
has its own way of doing things even if it con-
tradicts this book you should follow your company s
guidelines.
Let s look at some examples of business letters and formats.
Example: Block Format
Block
American Mortgage Company
Format. Each
P.O. Box 19876, Minneapolis, MN 55440
item in the busi-
ness letter lines
1-800-555-3467
Body.
up with the left
Body para-
margin.
January 22, 2002
graphs are single
Salu-
spaced. They are
Sumita Patel
tation. Note
separated from one
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