Parts and Styles of a Business Letter

Letterhead or Heading

• When using letterhead stationery, an address heading is not required. A letterhead generally contains the sender's information already. Only include the sender's address in the "header" section of the document if you are not using letterhead stationery and are writing a business letter in a word processing program.

  In this header area, include the company name, phone number, fax number or e-mail address. Exit the header area, skip down several paragraphs and enter the current date. It is important to include the date.

Inside Address

• For the recipient's address, each segment of the address appears on its own line, such as it appears on an envelope. Write the inside address as complete as possible including titles and appropriate name. Again skip two lines and if you are adding a subject line, insert it here by typing "Re:" and then tab over and type in the subject matter. Hit enter and skip two paragraphs before entering the greeting.

Greeting

• The greeting of a business style letter is also called the salutation. Start the greeting by entering "Dear" and the person's first name, depending on the formality of the relationship, or enter a title such as "Mr.," "Ms.," "Mrs.," or "Dr." and the recipient's last name. Enter a colon after their name and skip one line to begin the body of the letter.

Body

• Type the body of the letter as text in blocks of paragraphs. After each paragraph, skip a line between them. After completing the body of the letter, hit enter and skip one line.

Closing

• Write a short and polite closing in the left margin or the left side of the paper center such as cordially, sincerely or respectfully with a comma after it.

Signature Line

• The signature line includes the signature of the person writing the letter. Skip three to four lines for the wet signature between the closing of the letter and type out the sender's name. When signing the letter use blue or black ink.

Block and Modified Block Style

• To complete a business letter in the "modified block style," ensure the recipient's address, subject line, greeting and the letter body aligns with the left margin. Tab over to just past the center of the document when inputting the close and signature line so that it aligns closely to the right side of the letter.

  Align all elements of the business letter along the left margin to complete the letter in the "block style."