What is Letter?

According to Oxford Dictionary, A letter is a message that is written down or printed on paper and
usually put in an envelope and sent to somebody.
From the above discussion, it can be said that a letter is a written message, printed or hand written, that
is sent to someone by other through post or mail or in some other way. Business Communication

Letter Writing

Letter is such a written message that we sent to persons who are far away from us and we want to
convey our message to them in a clear and forceful manner. We usually write letters to our friends and
relatives. Although advent of IT- Telephones, Mobile SMSs and Chat- has reduced the importance of
personal letter writing as we can send our messages through these mediums very easily but this art is
still required where there is need of formal communication. Some time we have to send an application
in the school for grant of leave and at other time we have to complain about someone. Same way we get
a lot of chances where we have to send formal letter. Thus this art of letter writing is no more an
ornamental accomplishment but something that every educated person must acquire for practical
purposes.

Informal Letter Writing

Business Letter Writing
Official Letter Writing
Letter Writing Rules
Letter Writing Examples
Letter Writing Samples

There are many types of letter writing but most of the english grammar letter writing deals with the
following given categories:-

Informal Letter Writing

These types of letter are written to relatives or friends. These can also include invitations etc. Such kinds
of letter are also known as Personal or Social Letters.

Business Letter Writing

These letters are used as a communicative tool in the business and are usually written by the traders,
firms and companies etc for business purposes. These kind of letter fall under the category of formal
letters.

Official Letter Writing

These include letter of application, letter to government officials and letter to Newspapers etc. These
letters are used for the official communication of the information from one department to another. Ex: -
Termination letter, Recommendation letter, Reference letter, job letter etc
Irrespective of the type of letter there is certain matter of forms which are applicable all and have to be
taken care of while writing any kind of letter to make it impressive and purposeful.

Letter Writing Rules

Main six Points that has to be taken care of while writing a letter are:-

1. Heading
2. The Salutation or Courteous Greetings
3. The Body of the letter -Communication or the Message-.
4. The Subscription -Courteous Leave-taking, or Conclusion-.
5. The Signature -Name of the writer-
6. The Address

1. Heading of a letter basically consists of Two Parts:

1. address of the writer followed by

2. The date on which the letter was written by him.

Heading can be written on the Right or Left (keep on changing with time-presently we follow the
convention of writing Heading in the left corner) corner of the first page of the letter.

Examples of a Heading are:-

63, Geeta Colony Examination Hall

Delhi-160032 A.B.C.
June 12, 2010 12th June, 2010

2. The Salutation in the letter will depend upon the depth of relationship of the writer with the person
to whom the letter is being written thus vary from letter to letter.

Salutation is written at the left hand of the page, at a lower level the Heading. The first and last word
of the salutation are always started in Capital Alphabets.

Examples of the Salutation are:

In Informal Letters To Friends

Dear Rajesh,
To Blood Relations My dear Ajay,
My dear Father,
My dear Mother, Note: - Dear Friend or My dear Friend is never
My dear Kavita, used as Salutations
In Business Letters

To Businessmen:

Dear Sir,
Dear Sirs,

In Official Letters

To Officials/Principal/Headmaster/Teachers
Sir,
Madam,

3. The Body itself is considered as the life of the letter and the style in which it is written will depend
upon the kind of letter one wishes to write. Like, the style of the letter to be written to a friend will be
entirely different from the style of the letter to be written to an official and so on. But few points that one
has to keep in mind irrespective of the style while writing the body of the letter are:-

Divide the letter into paragraphs, to mark changes of subject-matter etc.

Use simple and direct language in short sentences. It will make the message clear and to the
point
Always try to be complete. For this think out what you want to say before the beginning of
writing of letter; and put down all the point in logical manner.
Write neatly to avoid inconvenience to the reader because of your bad penmanship.
Take care of the punctuation and be consistent with it. Incorrect punctuation may alter the whole
meaning of the sentence.

Besides letter can make impressive to leave an indelible mark on the reader we can use following given
starting and ending to the various kind of letters:-

Informal Letter Writing Format

Starting
I got your letter yesterday.
I am in receipt of your letter.
I am glad to receive your letter.
It gives me pleasure to inform you.
It is long since I heard from you.
I cannot understand your long silence.
It has made me very anxious.
I am sorry I could not write to you earlier.
Endings
With Kind regards,
With best wishes,
Convey my best regard to your dear parents,
With love to your brother and sister,
Well, good bye for now,
Hoping to hear from you very soon,
With love from all of us.
With sincere sympathy in your distress
Wishing you still better luck.
Please remember me to all at home
 Business Letter Writing Format

Starting
Endings
I shall be obliged, if you kindly
I shall be glad, if you send me Thanking you,
Would you be kind enough to send me the Thanking you in anticipation,
following articles? Hoping to be favoured with an early reply.
May I draw your kind attention to?

Official Letter and Applications Writing Format

Starting
Endings
I beg to submit
I beg to state Thanking you,
I have the honour to report Thanking you in anticipation,
I have the honour, to bring to your kind Hoping to be favoured with an early reply.
notice

4. The Subscription of the letter i.e. the end should be according to the staring of the letter. A letter
must not end abruptly as this would look rude. So certain forms of polite leave taking are prescribed
That should be written after the last words of the letter on the left hand side corner of the lines after the
body. It should start with a Capital letter and end with a comma. Some examples of the subscription of
the letter of various kinds are:-

To Blood Relations: Yours affectionately,

To Friends: Yours Sincerely,
To Principal/Headmaster/Teacher etc.: Yours Obediently,
To Officials/Businessmen: Yours faithfully,
To Strangers: Yours truly,

Note: - Never use apostrophe () with yours in the subscription.

5. The Signature of the writer of the letter should be below the subscription. In a letter to the stranger,
the signature should be clearly written so that he could know whom to address in reply.

Note:-A women should prefix to the name Miss or Mrs. or Ms. in brackets before her name like

(Miss) Fatima Reyes

6. The Address is written on envelop of the post card very clearly with pin code.