Writing Business Letters – Tutorial 2: Parts of a Business Letter

In this short tutorial, you will learn about the different parts of a business letter and what they are used for. You are already familiar with most of the parts, but you may not know their names or all of their functions.

Parts of a letter

Parker Morgan Finnigan

Lawyers

P.O. Box 2345

SYDNEY NSW 2000

[The part above is called the sender’s address block]

October 29, 2010

[This is, of course the date of the letter and it should be in long format]

Mrs. Janette Jameison

PO Box 34687

NORTHERN SYDNEY NSW 2005

[This is the Receiver’s address block]

Dear Mrs. Jameison

[Complimentary address or opening]

CONTRACT WITH ACME FINANCE CORPORATION – OUR PPB: 234/239/10

[Subject line – usually block letters and bold]

I am referring to our previous correspondence requesting a copy of the contract between you and Acme Finance Corporation.

[The first sentence is called the opening sentence which we’ll discuss in depth in a later tutorial]

If you do not provide us with a copy of the original contract, I am afraid that we will not be able to act on your behalf. We need the contract to accurately assess the claims you have made and to question Acme Finance Corporation legal personnel.

Please send us a copy of the contract as soon as possible so that we can get this matter up and running.

Yours sincerely [Complimentary close]

Parker Johannson

Principal Legal Consultant

PARKER MORGAN FINNIGAN

[Subscription block]

Complementary annotations

At the bottom of your cards, you may have some or all of the following notations:

Included or Included (3) [This advises that something is enclosed with the letter]

Att or (Att (3) [This advises that something is attached to the letter]

Both annotations are intended to inform mailroom employees that an attachment or attachment was required to be inserted / attached prior to mailing the letter. Also, it warns the person who receives it at the other end that something is supposed to be attached or attached. If not, then the recipient can call the sender and inform him that the attachment / attachment is missing from the envelope.

Rh [If someone else types the letter for signature, his/her initials may appear underneath]

DC [This stands for ‘carbon copy’, but as nobody uses carbon copy paper anymore, should be changed to PC for photocopy]

BCC [Blind Carbon Copy – never shown on the original, only on the file copy indicates to whom copies have been sent without the knowledge of the original addressee. Should now perhaps be changed to BPC]

Handling file references

The file reference may cite either the sender’s reference or the recipient’s reference and should clearly indicate which it is. Some people use a separate line for file references, often in the first line of the letter above the address block. I’d rather put it with the subject line, but that’s purely a

Personal decision.

By now you should be familiar with the parts of a letter and, if you’ve read Tutorial One, how to format them. Tutorial Three advises how to write a good quality letter and has tips for opening and ending sentences.

Copyright 2005 Robin Henry