Letter Writing made easy for you.

Is Letter Writing Difficult for You?

I can’t write letters. I am not confident in writing letters. Do you run away from writing letters? Do you think that you can’t write official letters / applications?


You are good at writing anything to your friends but when you have to write an application, you have to take support of your friends. When you start writing a letter, do you feel that you are not sure where a particular piece of information should be written? Or do you feel bankrupt of words in some situations? Should I write yours sincerely or yours obediently? Is it ‘yours’ or ‘your’s’? You have poor level of confidence because many of your questions are unanswered.

Don’t worry. I am here to answer all your questions.

Actually, you must know the basics of letter writing

  

The Art of Letter Writing

 

Basics of Letter Writing

You know letter writing is very common among people. Students have to write letters in their language studies and language learning. However, people do not take the job of letter writing very seriously. They have a casual approach towards letter writing. The advent of cell phone which facilitates Email and messaging has increased this casualness towards letter writing. People write letters as they wish without a thought for its format and appropriateness of the language. People are not aware of where to use formal language and where to use informal language.

But I advise you to take this job seriously and first of all know the basics of letter writing.

There are two basic things about the letters that you must know:-

1. Format- (Which piece of information to be written where)

2. Language:-  ( What language I have to use with which person)

1. Format- The first thing is that the letters have to be written in a proper format otherwise there shall be no difference between a paragraph and a letter. All kinds of letters have a distinct format.

2. Language:- Another thing is language. You can’t use same type of language with all the people you are writing letter. You have to decide your language with the person before you according to your relation with him/her. We can use informal language if we are writing an informal letter i.e. the letter to our friends, relatives and family members. Similarly, formal language must be used in formal or official letters.

The elements of courtesy for the beginning and ending of the letters too differ from each other.

Your language depends upon whether you have informal relation with the person or formal relations.

The category of the letter decides this fact.

 









Informal Letter

All the letters that we write to the people with whom we have informal relationship e.g. our friends and relatives (father, mother, uncle, aunt, sister, brother etc.) are called informal letters.

Formal Letter

All the letters that we write to the people with whom we have formal relationship e.g. the head of an institution/ a government organization/business organization etc come under the category of formal letters.

These are the letters that we address to the Principal of a school, the head of a government office, or the head of an office belonging to business organization or an office bearer. All the business letters are formal letters.

 

Formats of letters

Lay out of an Informal Letter

Block Style

 

1 . Return Address


2. Date


3. Salutation ( Dear friend, Dear Father etc.)


4. Main Body of the letter

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


5. Complimentary Close

(Yours affectionately

Yours truly etc)


6. Signature

(Your name).

 

Sample Letter



Lay out of an Informal Letter

Complete Block Style



1 . Return Address


2. Date


3. Salutation ( Dear friend, Dear Father etc.)


4. Main Body of the letter

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


5. Complimentary Close

(Yours affectionately

Yours truly etc)


6. Signature

(Your name).

Sample Letter Complete Block Style

Elements of an Informal Letter

1. Return Address- This is the address of the letter writer (sender).
2. Date- Under the address, the date of writing the letter is written. Usually the date should be written in the following manner e.g. 14 October, 2003 or 14 Oct, 2003.

3. Salutation-Salutation is the respectful beginning of the letter. You begin writing the letter with some informal address like Dear friend or Dear father, Dear Dad, Dear Mom, Dear Mom. Dear Pinky, Dear father Dear brother, Dear sister etc .

4. Main Body- Your message is the main body of the letter, which contains all the important information. You may start the main body of the letter in the following way:-“I am quite well here and hope for the same to you. ” Or “I am quite fine here and hope for the same to you.” or “I am quite fine here and hope that this letters of mine finds you in the best of your health and cheerful mood” This is right. If you have any other version, that is also welcome. But remember if there has been a tragic incident at your friend’s home, you should not write the above mentioned sentences. However, you should start it in the following way: - “I am very sorry to know that…” “I am awfully sorry to know that……………” or “I am extremely sorry to know that…………………”

5. Complimentary Close- Complimentary close is the respectful ending of the letter. Most common complimentary closes are  “Yours sincerely”, “Yours lovingly”, “Yours affectionately”. Write “Yours affectionately”, “Your loving son/daughter” to the members of you family and “Yours sincerely” or “Your loving friend” to your friend. Remember that the first letter of the complimentary close must be capital. You can write “Yours sincerely” or “Sincerely yours”. Both are correct. You can also write “Regards” or “Best regards” or “Kind regards” or “With best wishes” or “Sincerely” whichever you find suitable. There is another set of complimentary closes e.g. “Yours forever” or “Warms regards” or “With warm regards” which will depend upon your relation with the receiver of the letter.


Letter to Father

Letter of Condolence


Questions:-
1. Write a letter to your father asking him to send you Rs 1000 for books.
2. Write a letter to your friend congratulating him on his success in NEET examination.
3. Write a letter of consolation to your friend who could not qualify NEET examination.
4. Write a letter to your friend describing him what you want to do after 12 th. 

Formal Letters
There are a number of formal letters that are written in our formal life. We can broadly divide them into four categories
Personal Official Correspondence
It is your personal formal correspondence with any office or any organization e.g. application to the principal, application/letter to the collector or any other head of the department of government or private organization or application letter for job etc. Its one end is personal and other official.
Business Correspondence
It is the correspondence that a business organization enters into with another organization. Sales letter, letter of quotation,/enquiry, placing the order, letter of complaint and credit and collection letter come under this category.
Inter office correspondence
This is the correspondence that takes place between two people / offices of the same organization 
Social Correspondence 
Invitation to dinner, birth day parties, functions, celebrations or their replies or condolence messages come under this categories. 

Application to the Principal

Lay out of an Application to the Principal

 

1. Inside Address 

The Principal

XYZ School/College

Address ................

2. Salutation

(Respected Sir)

3. Subject Line:

4. Main Body

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

5. Complimentary Close

(Yours faithfully

or

Yours obediently)

6. Signature

(Your name)

7. Place

8. Date

 


1.Inside Address-Inside Address is the address of the receiver of the letter/application.

Write at place no.1:- 

The Principal

The Address of the School/College

 ( You can write “To The Principal” also however ‘To’ is not necessary because  this place is meant for the receiver of the application. But remember that “P” must be capital when you write “The Principal”.)


 Write the address of the school or college under “The Principal”.


2. Salutation-Write “Respected Sir” Or “Sir” at place no 2.


3. Subject- It should be as brief as possible.


4.Main Body-You may start the main body of application in the following manner:-

 I beg to say that.............

Or

I beg to state that................

Or

Sir,

    Most respectfully I beg to say that.................

Or

You may come directly on the point


5. Complimentary Close- You may write “Yours faithfully” or “Yours obediently” for complimentary close of the application at place no 6.


6. Signature- Put down your signature under complimentary close and then write your name.  

7+ 8- Besides this, on the left margin, you should write the date (Always spell the name of the month) and the name of the place from where you are writing the letter/application. 


Lay out of an application to the Collector or The Head of any institution / government institution

 

1 . Return Address

2. Date

3. Inside Address 

The Collector/ The Manager

XYZ Department / Organisation,

Address ................

4. Salutation ( Respected Sir / Dear Sir / Sir etc.)

5. Subject Line: 

6. Main Body of the letter

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

7. Complimentary Close

(Yours faithfully

Yours truly etc)

8. Signature

(Your name)



Business Letter

Lay Out for a Business Letter

A business letter has more elements than an informal letter or any other formal letter therefore it needs greater attention. You can see the following figure to check all the important elements of a business letter.

Elements of structure

1. Letterhead

This is the top side of the letter. It is an already printed parted of the letter popularly known as letterhead or heading. It contains the name and address of the organization along with phone numbers, fax numbers,  e-mail address, and website.. (Place no 1 in the figure)

2. Date

 The date is printed two spaces below the last line of the letterhead. You can write the date at place no 2 as shown in the figure. like

23July, 2008

OR

July23, 2008

3. Reference

It is a unique identity of a letter. Every out going letter is assigned with a unique number and put in records for future. The Receipt and Dispatch Department of an organization keeps the record of all the incoming and outgoing letters. Every entry is maintained on the basis of this number.

Place no.3 (two spaces below the date / last line of the letterhead).

4. Personal Notation

(Place no 4 in the figure) If the letter is a confidential, and it has to be read only by a particular person, the word Personal or Confidential is used at this place and on the envelop also. 

5. Inside Address

(Place no 5 in the figure)

The inside address is the receiver’s address. It is the name / designation of the person and / or the address of the organization to whom the letter is being written.

e.g.

The Chief Accounts Officer

Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd

Lajpat Nagar

New Delhi-110011

 

The Personal Manager

Prism Cement Ltd

Mankahari Satna (MP)

 

Or

Sri R K Shukla

Ultratech Cement Ltd.

Sarojini Nagar Jaipur-550045 

 

6. Attention Line

To ensure prompt attention especially in very big organizations a line of attention is added after the inside address:-

Attention: The Purchase Manager

Or

Attention: for Mr. Sudesh Gautam

Or

For the kind attention of Mr. Sudesh Gautam

 (See place no 6 in the figure)

7. Salutation

Salutation is the respectful beginning of the letter. It is like greeting a person when you meet him.

 (See place No 7 in the figure).

Most common salutation for business correspondence is ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Dear Madam’ or ‘Dear Sirs’ or ‘Dear Madams’

8. Subject 

(Place no 8 in the figure)

This line simply indicates what the letter is about therefore it should not exceed more than one line.

9. Main Body

(Place no 9 in the figure)

It is the main message. It is always better to disclose your purpose of writing at the very first line. Keep the language simple. Then You can mention the detail and end with what action n you require from the reader.

10. Complimentary Close

(Place no 10 in the figure)

Complimentary close is a polite way of ending the letter or taking leave courteously. The most common complimentary closes are ‘Yours faithfully’ and ‘Yours truly’ etc. 

11. Signature

(Place no 11 in the figure)

The person who writes/replies the letter has to sign here. It is placed below the complimentary close.

12. Identification Marks

(Place no 12 in the figure)

It is like a secret code denoting the persons involved in preparing the letter. If the assistant is Mr. Ravi Varma and The typist is Kusum Singh the identification may be written as:-

RV-KS

This mark is very necessary because it assigns responsibility and it is possible to trace who committed the mistake in the letter.

13. Mailing Notation

(Place no 13 in the figure). This notation states the method of mailing: whether the letter is sent registered, airmail, special delivery…etc, it is typed directly below the identification line or enclosure notation. It serves as a record to indicate that the letter was sent by other than   regular mail.

14. Enclosure

(Place no 14 in the figure)

If any document is attached with the letter, it is mentioned here as follows:-

Encl-2

Or

Enclosures-2

Or

Encls -1.    A copy of agreement (3Sep, 2003)

2.   A cheque of Rs 400000 No. 346877 SBI Jabalpur

Or

Enclosures - 1. A copy of agreement (3Sep, 2003)

                    2. A cheque of Rs 400000 No. 346877 SBI Jabalpur

15. CC: (Carbon Copy or Courtesy Copy)

 (Place no 15 in the figure)

If you are sending one or more copies of your letter to other office bearers/Heads of Departments, you need to mention all of them here as follows:-

Copy to 1. The Chief Minister of MP

             2. The Minister for Railways

            3. The Minister for Industries

     16. Postscript

Postscript is used to write forgotten material after the letter has been finalized or finally printed. It may be hand written also. But a good letter should not have a postscript because it does not reflect a good picture of the letter writer.

Question 1. -- Write a letter inviting quotation.

Answer:-

Question 2. -- Write a letter sending quotation.

Answer:-


Question 3. -- Write a letter placing the order.

Answer:-


Question 4. -- Write a letter of complaint.

Answer:




 


 

If you are interested in becoming expert in writing all types of letters,. you can search my books on Amazon. You have to type in search Rama Shankar Shukla Books and you will get all my books. You will find following books :-
1. All letters, Applications Business Letters and Business Email (Maximum samples and Exercises)
2. All letters, Applications Business Letters and Business Email 
3. Write Any Letter
4. Letter Writing 
5. Business Letter Writing
6. Business Correspondence
7. RGPV English for Communication

You can click below to see my books:-








 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 


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