Closing

PARTS OF A LETTER

These are the parts of a letter.

Closing

Signature

Typed Name

Enclosure

cc:

Return Address

The Return Address contains:

Your street address

Your city, state, and ZIP Code

A comma separates the city from the state or country.

Example:

Berkeley, California Madrid, Spain

City, State City, Country

A comma separates the state or province from the country.

Example:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

City, Province, Country

Date

The date of a letter can be put in several places in the letter. The date is usually (1)under the return address or (2) at the left margin. Some writers put the date (3) under the typed name at the bottom of the letter or (4) in the middle under the company address on the letterhead stationery.

Dates are not abbreviated in business letters. A comma separates the month and day from the year.

In international correspondence dates can be confusing if only numbers are used. You must sometimes clarify the date.

American Form: month/day/year Alternate Form: day/month/year
January 12, 1995 12 January, 1995

Address

The inside address contains:

The Addressee's Title, First Name, LastName

Job Title

Company Name

Street Address

City, State, ZIP Code

In the United States, the house or building number comes before the street. In some countries, the number comes after the street.

Examples:

Jan Hoisus

Manager, Public Relations Department

European Discs, Ltd.

Leliegracht, 46

Amsterdam 1015 DH

Netherlands

Mr. Bill Rubin

Vice President of Operations

Garnet Educational Services

1525 Dexter Avenue, Suite 200 Seattle, Washington 98109

S. Lukenbill

Director, Sales and Marketing

Data Computers

Bonnesfontaines, 18

1700 Fribourg

Switzerland

Greeting

The Greeting should use the reader's name if known.

When you know the reader's name: When you do NOT know the reader's

name:
Dear + (title) + Last Name: Use Sir or Madam: Dear Sir or Madam

Dear Mr. Maxwell:

Body

The body of a letter tells why you are writing. There are generally four parts to the body of a letter:

Opening: Give your reason for writing.

Purpose: Provide the details of why you are writing.

Action: Tell what will happen next.

Polite Expression: |Thank the reader.

Closing

There are two types of closing — formal and informal.

Formal: If you do not know the person's name or if you use the person's last name in the greeting, you may use either the formal or the standard closing.

Informal: If you use the person's first name in the greeting, you may use the informal closing.

Signature/Typed Name

The writer of the letter will have his or her name typed at the bottom of the letter with his or her title. This person will then sign the letter.

In some offices, a secretary will put his or her initials at the bottom of the letter. This shows who typed the letter. The writer's initials come first, and they are capitalized. The typist's initials come next, and they are not capitalized.

JP\rs (Writer\typist)

cc's

The letters cc stand for carbon copy, which is how copies were first made before photocopiers and computer printers. Today a " cc: " tells us who else received a copy of the letter.

Note: cc is not capitalized