A business letter is a letter written in a formal language, usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties. Business letters usually follow a block format.

The rules for a good layout

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Business letters are subject to more rules than personal letters, as this example shows:

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Dear Madam or Sir:

An up-to-date layout of English business letters

Thank you for your interest in some basic information about the modern way ‎of writing business letters in English-speaking countries.‎

A modern English business letter should contain the following parts:‎

1. letterhead (and sender’s address)
2. date
3. references ^*
4. inside address (of the addressee)‎
5. salutation / opening greeting ‎
6. subject heading ^*‎
7. body of the letter / text
8. complimentary closing
9. the writer's signature, name ‎and the writer's official position
10. indication of enclosure and/or ‎circulation ^*

An attention line (‘Attn: Ms ...’, ‘Attention: Ms ...’ or ‘For the attention of Mr ...’) ‎may be included after or within the inside address.

In English letters, various styles are acceptable. The main point is ‎that English letters should be short, precise, clear and polite. Use standard ‎phrases and do not try to be (too) creative.

‎We look forward to hearing from you again.‎

Yours faithfully

Letter & Style Ltd

signature(s)‎

Rainer Musterman(Mr), Birgitta Musterfrau(Ms)

Training Managers

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Addresses

Example 1 (within USA):

Jesse Maggio

101 Roaring Rd.

Shirley, NY 11967

Example 2 from UK to USA:

Registered / Recommander

Special Logistics Team Ltd ‎

Engineering Company ‎

Attn: Ms Jenny Testperson

‎2100 Harding Rd ‎

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

USA

Dates

The date can go in one of two places – beneath your address or beneath the reader’s address.

It is always best to write the month in full because the British dating system is different to the American dating system (eg: 8/10/2002 is 8th October 2002 in Britain but August 10th in America).

Note that you do not need to write ‘the’ or ‘of’ in a date (eg: ‘the 16th of October’ October 2004.

Names

Although rules have relaxed over the years, it is still important to address someone correctly. This will depend on your relationship with the reader:

Informal or Neutral: Dear Peter: …

Formal: Dear Mr. Galanaugh: …

The formal style is reserved for customers, members of the public or people in high authority. Unless a man is entitled to a different style, such as Rev. or Dr., then a man should be addressed as Mr (ie: Mr Grant). Never write out the title in full (ie: ‘Mister Grant’ is wrong).

The greeting should always end in a colon (:), not a comma.

When writing to a woman, you need to be aware of her marital status.

Married women: Mrs Collins

Status unknown: Ms Peterson

These days some women prefer to use the title Ms because they do not wish to reveal their marital status. Always check which title she has used in previous correspondence. If you’re not sure then the safest option is always Ms.

Greetings and endings

The word ‘dear’ always comes before the name of the person you are writing to, even if you don’t know them. However, what follows after ‘dear’ determines how you are going to write the ending of your business letter.

If your letter begins ‘Dear Ms Foster’, ‘Dear Gary Stewart’, ‘Dear Wendy’, etc, then your letter should end with ‘Yours sincerely’.

If your letter is informal or neutral in style and you know the person fairly well, then you can use ‘Best wishes’, or ‘Kind regards’ instead.

If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to then your greeting should be ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ and your ending should be ‘Yours faithfully’.

In the US, any business letter ends with 'Sincerely, Name'.

Headings

It is always best to give a heading to a business letter. This helps to ensure that your letter is dealt with as efficiently as possible.

Headings come immediately after the greeting, and should be underlined or typed in bold. Make your heading brief and specific. For example:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Closure of bank account no. 56777889

I would like to inform you ……..

Different countries, different styles

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Culture and society influence styles. Especially in the German speaking countries, formal rules are considered very important. An extreme example is the German industrial norm DIN 5008, which prescribes how to write German business letters in every detail from letterhead to closing as shown below and as explained in German here.

Examples:

These two examples from business trainings at schools are used to show how nice formal letters look.

Modern British and American business letter: