A business letter is a skillfully written file that is used for professional communication between two or more parties. Such stakeholders may include employees, clients, and other people or companies that are part of a new or established relationship or agreement. Business letters are also often defined as letters that are used during a business transaction to confirm the details and purpose of the transaction. In business letters, it is not essential for the sender and receiver to know each other. Creating professional business letters can sometimes be a difficult and time-consuming task especially for someone without the relevant skill or experience. As such many people welcome pre-prepared business letter templates that can be easily edit to suit their own needs as this is of major help.
How to write a formal business letter?
Writing business letters are very important. Business letter are used for many purposes which includes requesting information (information letter), providing information (sales letter), ordering good and services (order letter), acknowledgment of order (acknowledgement letter), confirming information (confirmation letter), expressing appreciation (Thank you letter), conveying news (Message Letter). In general businesses letters are very crucial for collaboration.
Block, modified block, and semi-block styles
There the three main styles of business letters:
- Block Format- The most common layout of a business letter is known as block format. Using this format, the entire letter is left justified and single spaced except for a double space between paragraphs. When writing block letters, no lines are indented.
- Modified Block Format- Another commonly used letter format is known as the modified block format, in which the body of the letter and the sender's and recipient's addresses are left justified and single-spaced. However, the difference with a Block format, is that in Modified Block format, the date and closing, have a tab to the center point of the letter, and that is where you begin to type. It is more suitable to use this format on less formal occasions.
- Semi-Block Format- The last and less commonly used letter style is the Semi-Block format. It is like the modified block style except that each paragraph is indented instead of left-justified. Semi-block letters are like 'Modified block letters', with the exception the paragraphs are indented. Modified semi-block business letters are considered a little less formal than full block letters.
It also serves the purpose of written evidence of the communication between the parties involved. Some of the examples of business letters are memos, circulars, magazines, manuals, etc. Business letters serve the purpose of communication between parties involved in a business deal and can be saved for record-keeping purposes.
