The business letter format serves to establish guidelines for professional correspondences between individuals or companies. Use this format to persuade or to present a professional opinion.
Scholars and scientists established the APA format in 1929 in order to make scientific writing more uniform, and promote easier comprehension of the articles. Use the APA format for documents like research reports, empirical studies, theoretical reviews and case studies. Marketing research and findings in similar studies come in APA format.
The business letter format consists of six parts: heading, inside address, salutation, body, closing and enclosures. The heading and inside address consist, respectively, of the sender and recipient's name and contact information. The salutation and closing serve as formalities, and enclosures simply list any documents included with the letter. The body of the letter is the most important. The writer presents his entire argument and resolution within this portion of the document.
A paper in APA format contains eight parts: Title page, abstract, intro, method, results, discussion, references and appendices. The title page names the paper and identifies the author while the abstract provides readers with a brief overview of paper. The remaining pieces work to give order and organization to the presentation of the writers information.
Business letters call for block format. To use block format, justify the entire letter to the left. Single-space your lines except between paragraphs and parts of the letter (i.e. double-space between the salutation and body). Keep new paragraphs justified left. Don't indent them. For font, keep it simple and use 12-point Times New Roman. This is the standard font accepted by the vast majority of businesses and organizations.
When following APA format guidelines, double-space your entire document. Justify the text to the left margin. Indent new paragraphs one-half inch. Use Times New Roman 12-point font for all of your paper except figure labels. Use Arial font for figure labels.
A document written in the business letter format aims to persuade. Use a professional but convincing tone. Present your argument clearly and concisely. Address potential rebuttal points, and be sure to offer solutions to the problem at hand. Perhaps most importantly, use a tone appropriate to the audience. Do not talk down to or condescend the person or people to whom you're writing. Address them as equals.
Use a professional and academic tone when writing a paper in APA format. Be clear and concise. Most importantly, strive to remove any sort of biased language from the document. APA documents seek merely to provide pure information. Be aware of preferred names when referring to ethnic or cultural groups; be as specific as possible when describing your research group. Avoid terms referring to gender, race or ethnicity unless they're absolutely necessary to your research.