4.3 Business Letters (General)
Writing business letters may be quite different than writing you may have done in the humanities, social sciences, or other academic disciplines. As we’ve discussed, technical writing strives to be clear and concise rather than evocative or creative; it stresses specificity, accuracy, and audience awareness.
When you write a business letter, you can assume that your audience has limited time in which to read it and is likely to skim the document in search of its main points. They want to know why you’re writing and what they need to do in response. The sections below provide guidelines for effectively formatting and structuring the standard block-style business letter.
Common Components of Business Letters
Heading: The heading contains the writer’s address and the date of the letter. The writer’s name is not included; only a date is needed in headings on letterhead stationery.
Inside address: The inside address shows the name and address of the recipient of the letter. This information can help prevent confusion at the recipient’s offices. Also, if the recipient has moved, the inside address helps to determine what to do with the letter. In the inside address, include the appropriate title of respect of the recipient and copy the name of the company exactly as that company writes it. When you do have the names of individuals, remember to address them appropriately: Mrs., Ms., Mr., Dr., and so on. If you are not sure what is correct for an individual, try to find out how that individual signs letters or consult the forms-of-address section in a dictionary.
Salutation: The salutation directly addresses the recipient of the letter and is followed by a colon (except when a friendly, familiar, sociable tone is intended, in which case a comma is used). Notice that in the simplified letter format, the salutation line is eliminated altogether. If you don’t know whether the recipient is a man or a woman, the traditional practice has been to write “Dear Sir” or “Dear Sirs”–but that’s sexist! To avoid this problem, salutations such as “Dear Sir or Madame,” “Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,” “Dear Friends,” or “Dear People” have been tried–but without much general acceptance. Deleting the salutation line altogether or inserting “To Whom It May Concern” in its place, is not ordinarily a good solution either–it’s impersonal.
The best solution is to make a quick, anonymous phone call to the organization and ask for a name; or address the salutation to a department name, committee name, or a position name: “Dear Personnel Department,” “Dear Recruitment Committee,” “Dear Chairperson,” or “Dear Director of Financial Aid,” for example.
Subject or reference line: As shown in the order letter, the subject line replaces the salutation or is included with it. The subject line announces the main business of the letter.
Body of the letter: The actual message, of course, is contained in the body of the letter–the paragraphs between the salutation