Commercial letter

The essential thing about the personal letter is that the language used needs to be flowing and homely. But the business letter calls for language that is precise and a tone that is more formal and dignified than that of personal letter.

“Effective letter are the result of good thinking and careful planning.”

Business letter form important part of business communication, as they are most economic and effective way of retaining and information. But in the modern era of technological advancement through fax and emails have taken place of old postal system, yet the basic art of letter writing has remain intact. One can handle business activities over phone but these system are either expensive or time consuming. Moreover people fail to retain more than 25% of what they hear and the chance of misunderstanding are high in oral; communication.

Business letter are one of the best mean’s to convey accurate as well as detailed message.

Functions of business letter

Record and reference

Evidence of contracts

Public relation

Business in remote

Types of letter

The various types of business letter can be classified as follows:

Request letter

Good news letter

Bad news letter

Persuasive letter

Parts of business letter

Heading

Date

Inside address

Salutation

Reference line

Body

Complementary close

Signatures

Initials

Enclosures

Heading

The heading of letter consist of letter head, mentioning the name of the company, telephonic or email address, symbols and trademarks.

Date

Two or three lines below the date of the letter is typed, which serves as an important reference for the future.

Inside address

Below this the address is mentioned, which contains the name, title or department, mailing address or pin code of the receiver.

Salutation

Below this complementary greeting, which depends on the writer’s relationship with correspondent? Usually it is ‘dear sir’ or ‘dear madam’ but forms like ‘dear mr.amit sharma’ is used.

Reference line

For inviting special attention to the subject, reference line inserted below salutation with word ‘subject’.

Body

Body is the main part which start two line down the salutation with number of paragraphs. If letter is large letter is divided into paragraphs, first intend to catch reader’s interest by referring to his needs, the second mention the services, product or other information you can offer that suits the reader. The last with the action that the writer likes the reader to take.

Complementary close

After the body complementary close is typed, like ‘sincerely’ etc.

Signatures

Two or three lines below complementary closure are left blank for signature, below which his name designation is typed.

Initials

At the space below complementary close the sender put his initials.

Enclosures

This is certain material enclosed with the letter for its indication.