How to Write a Business Letter

This is a tutorial on how to write a business letter with an example of how to format as well as an example of an actual letter of recommendation that follows the format.

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hi everyone this is a quick tutorial on
how to write a business letter
so I'm going to go through and cover
some quick basics to some quick tips to
get started
so when writing a business letter it's
important that you think about keeping
your language pretty formal so when
you're writing a letter to a friend you
can be very casual but business letters
tend to be more formal in nature
so you want to avoid contractions so you
want to write isn't doesn't shouldn't
you want to write out the full words
because it sounds more formal did not
should not
cannot you want to make sure your tone
is always polite and respectful
throughout even if for example you're
writing like I've written a business
letter when I've had a when I bought
something like I had a really great back
or a briefcase and it fell apart really
quickly after buying it
so I wrote the company a letter
explaining that I was really
disappointed that i had bought this this
briefcase and it falling apart
but even in that i was hoping to get a
new briefcase or at least a credit and
so I wanted to be polite and respectful
so they didn't just disregard what I was
writing because it was too emotionally
charged
you also don't want to use slang or any
conversational type of phrases that are
again
informal you want to keep that tone
really formal throughout so it's
important that you know who is your
audience who are you writing
what is the purpose of your letter that
way you can use the appropriate tone
so if you're writing you know a business
letter because you're applying for
either it's a cover letter for a college
or maybe you're applying for
scholarships or you're trying to get a
job you want to make sure you sound
confident that you sound professional
you use strong vocabulary so you sound
intelligent you just want to make sure
that you use the appropriate tone for
the purpose and the audience so before
you ever start writing a business letter
figure out who's going to read this
letter and what
what kind of emotion what kind of
attitude should you be showing towards
that reader and the subject you're
writing about and that will tell you
what your
home is and just think about tone as in
like your tone of voice
so a person's tone of voice really
communicates a lot about how they're
feeling and the same thing in your
writing
you definitely have a clear tone
sometimes that tone and is angry and
aggressive and sometimes it's really
respectful and polite so you want to
make sure that you're aware of your tone
and the owl Purdue owl site which is
just a fantastic resource for anybody
doing any kind of writing says that the
best approach to a business letter is to
quote strive for an overall tone that is
confident courteous and sincere
so I want to walk you through an example
and then if you need more detail or you
want another example because mine isn't
clicking for you then I would go to
writing a basic business letter at the
owl Purdue site and this is the URL
where you can get there
so if you need to pause this recording
to write down the URL or grab at some
way
please do that someone's shift over to
my word document
so the first one I want to walk you
through is really just a basic
formatting documents you can kind of see
along with the explanation what you're
supposed to let me make this a little
bit bigger
looks like that's gonna have to work ok
so the very top of your business letter
which should start on the first lines
you have one inch margins which should
be what your margins are set out on a
word document but at the first line
you're going to write your address so
this is your street address
then you have your city state and zip
code
I would follow that with your phone
number or a phone number where you don't
mind being reached on whatever topic
you're writing about
so if I'm writing about something for
work I probably put my working phone
number if I was writing something that
was a that I wanted a response and I
want them to call me up my personal
number
I probably put my cell phone or my home
phone and then now is becoming more and
more customary for people to also
include their email address as a way to
get a response from a business letter
so you'll notice is all single spaced
the formatting for a business letter the
most common is called block form
adding that means you have everything
left hand justified so everything starts
here on the left-hand side and its
single spaced
but you do have a space between each
paragraph so you double space between
the paragraph so then you have this kind
of empty space between them
so after you have your contact
information your address phone number
and email you skip a line so there's a
visible space and you write the date
now you don't want to use slashes or
shorten it just numbers like 1 - 1 - 2 -
2011
instead you want to write out the month
again this just looks more formal
once you have the date again you're
going to skip to line so we're going to
have that visible line and then if you
know the person's name you're writing to
you want to start with that
now a lot of times we write a business
letter we don't know exactly who's going
to read our business letter
so you may have to skip this so you only
include the persons name
if that's available if you know the
person's name and you know what their
title is also include their title after
their title you're going to put the
company name or the organization name
you're writing - and then again you
include your their address and then
there's their their street address and
then the state city state zip code
we're going to skip two more lines so
again you have that visibles space
between the person's name and title and
the company name and their address and
your salutation
so you're going to start with one of two
things if you're not sure who you're
who's going to actually read your letter
you're just writing to a company or an
organization or college or some business
where you're hoping to get a job
you start with to whom it may concern
it's important that you capitalize each
of these words to whom it may concern
and then you finish with the : so you'll
see that little these two dots one on
top of the other
that's the : that is what you use when
you're writing a business letter
never never use a comma now if you know
the person's name that you're writing -
you're going to say dear dear mr. and
mrs. and then more formally use their
last name and again
follow that with the : but you only do
that if you know exactly who's reading
or who's going to open your letter in
your first body paragraph in your
business letter
what you're doing is pretty simple you
want to introduce yourself and you want
to state the reason why you're writing
again this is block formatting so it
should it should be left hand justified
there's no indentation your single
spacing you're leaving a space between
each body paragraph of visible space but
the letter itself is single spaced so in
this first paragraph you introduce
yourself briefly and state briefly while
you're writing then in your second
possibly second third fourth paragraph
you develop the reason you're writing so
you provide more information more
details about your request
so sometimes this is just one paragraph
and sometimes this can become two or
three paragraphs depending on how much
you have to say your third paragraph so
if you only have one paragraph here your
next paragraph would state where you can
be reached if you're hoping for a
response
so if you know that this year we want
these people to respond to you or you
think they might have more questions
you're going to let them know that they
can reach you at the email address above
or they can contact you by phone and the
phone number above that way they know
exactly how to get in touch with you
and then the last paragraph is really
usually just a line where you're
thanking the reader for his or her time
you might thank them for their
consideration of some requests that
you've made so if i'm writing a letter
about this briefcase that broke and fell
apart and I'm really disappointed
because I just bought it was expensive
then maybe i'm requesting that they send
me another one a replacement or that
they give me a credit and so in the end
I would say I appreciate your time
reading this letter and considering my
request to replace this briefcase
then you're going to skip another
visible line and you're going to write
sincerely sincerely is the best ending
to your business letter
just make sure you spell it correctly
have a lot of students that sounded out
sincerely and they put 2 s's instead
SI NC e re ly and then you follow that
with the , and then you have to skip
four lines and you might be wondering
why skip all the space that's where your
hand written signature is going to go
so you skip four lines and then you type
your name and in the space you've
created after you print out your
business letter
that's where you're going to sign your
name because that's very formal puts the
and also / puts the personal touch on
your business letter so I want to read
you an example of a business letter that
I wrote it's actually for a student
recommendation
so I write a lot of student
recommendations for kids who are
applying to scholarships and college and
so I've ever moved the students last
name so for the four her privacy but i
have just include the the letter as they
wrote it so the student asked me to
write a letter of recommendation because
she was applying to UCLA UCLA is my alma
mater and so I said I would love to
so I'm going to walk you through what I
did here so i have actually my work
address so i put my the address of the
school and because this is work related
and then I put my phone number at the
school and my email address at the
school
then I skipped that visible line and i
put the date with which was September 13
, 2012
then I skipped a line and i put the UCLA
undergraduate admissions basically
address all the information that I had I
didn't know who was going to read it in
the admissions department because
there's lots and lots of people who work
in the admissions department but i did
put the Department of it and then I also
included the street address the city
state zip code
then I skipped another visible line and
i wrote to whom it may concern
all capitalized with the : I skipped
another line and this is my brief
introduction my first paragraph i said
my name is Katalin Tucker i'm an english
language arts teacher Windsor High
School
i am writing this letter of
recommendation on behalf of Sarah and so
here I've introduced who i am and why
I'm writing again
it's very brief
then I skip a line and I can go on to
say I've had the pleasure of teaching
sarah and my honors level english class
Sarah's maturity intellect diligence
creativity and work ethic make her a joy
to have in the classroom
she's continually working to improve her
skills and develop as a writer
she's demonstrated significant growth
and development in the time we've worked
together because she's receptive to
feedback and ask quality questions
so here I'm elaborating on why I would
write Sarah a recommendation right
because I'm going through and talking
about some of her really great qualities
i think make her a wonderful candidate
for UCLA
now i'm going to expand on that second
paragraph and it actually is
three paragraphs that explain why I
think she's such an incredible student
so I'm going to continue with that Sarah
prioritizes her schoolwork and
demonstrates a commitment to her
education
this commitment and dedication is
reflected in the quality of her work and
her interactions with her peers her
contributions both in class and in our
online discussion forum have continually
impressed me
sara is the rare student who is both
able to or who is able to communicate
collaborate and problem-solve
effectively with her peers in the
classroom she's kind communicative and
focused
she's respectful and supportive of her
peers she's the type of student that
could be put into any group with anyone
and successfully accomplish a task
she's patient open-minded and an
attentive listener
it has been an absolute pleasure to have
her in class you would be a wonderful
addition to any college campus
so again I have my brief first paragraph
and then the second paragraph which
expands on my reason for writing I've
actually it kind of made into three
separate paragraphs here and then i have
my next paragraph which tells the
admissions office where they can get in
touch with me so I say if you have any
additional questions you can reach me at
the email address above
thank you for your time so that's that
last paragraph thanking them for their
time
sincerely with the , and then i have
this big space where I'm gonna put my
signature once I've printed out the
piece of paper and I followed it with my
name typed and then if you have a title
so you could say whs student or when
and your student or if you have another
title so i put English teacher
Oh windsor high school ok so that's an
example of what a business that letter
might look like
that's been a little bit more developed