Anne Lawtons Writing Tips

Tips for Writing Business Letters
by Anne Lawton,
Management Richard T. Farmer School of Business Administration

FORMAT
A business letter contains the following the basic elements:

Heading or Letterhead:
For assignments, assume you are writing on letterhead. If you are writing a letter on ordinary stationery, you need to provide your name, company name, and address in the upper right-hand corner of the letter.

Date: Spell out the date, e.g., January 17, 1997, not 1/1/97.

Address of Recipient: About 3-4 lines below the date, provide the name, title (if applicable), company name, and address of the person to whom you are writing. Make certain that the address is flush with the letter

Salutation:
Unless you are on friendly terms with the letter recipient, you should err on the side of formality. In other words, use "Mr.," "Ms.," "Professor," etc. If you do not have the name of the person to whom you are writing, but know their title, department, or company write, "Dear Procter & Gamble," for example. If you don't know any of that information, your salutation should be "Dear Sir or Madam."

Text of the Letter:
Start the text of the letter two lines down from the salutation. If the letter writer knows you, then your first paragraph should explain why you are writing the letter. Example: "In your letter of January 5, 1997, you asked me to review your company's health insurance plan to determine whether it covered plastic surgery for birth deformities. My review of the policy suggests that while the policy does not cover elective surgical procedures, e.g., facelifts, it does cover plastic surgery recommended by a physician for medical reasons." If the reader does not know who you are, you should introduce yourself prior to explaining the purpose of the letter.

After the introductory paragraph that identifies you, if necessary, and the purpose of the letter, you should use the remainder of the letter to providing supporting arguments or information for the conclusion or recommendation that you make in the introductory paragraph. Remember to use separate paragraphs for separate ideas.

Single-space the text of the letter. Double-space between paragraphs. For the "Full Block" format, paragraphs should be flush with the left-hand margin. For the "Block" format, paragraphs either should be indented or be flush with the left-hand margin. Either style is acceptable.

Complimentary Close:
This may be any of the following:
(1) Sincerely yours
(2) Sincerely
(3) Yours truly.

Signature:
Sign your name.

Stenographic reference:
Applies if someone else types a letter for you. The capital letters are your initials, followed by a R/S and the initials, in lower case, of the secretary who typed the letter. Enclosures or Copies: If you enclose materials with the letter or if you provide copies to others besides the recipient, you need to indicate that at the bottom of the letter. You may use any of the following:

Enclosures:
If you enclose materials with the letter or if you provide copies to others besides the recipient, you need to indicate that as the bottom of the letter. You man use any of the following:

Enclosures:
Enclosures: 2
Encl: 2

Copies:
cc:James Darr, Esq.
Place the reference for enclosures or copies one line below the stenographic reference or several lines below the complimentary close, flush with the left-hand margin of the letter.

Advice on Writing
You should keep the following points in mind when writing a business letter:

Outline before you write. If you sit down and write one draft of your letter, without outlining your thoughts, you most likely will have a poorly organized letter. A well-organized paper more effectively communicates your ideas.

Be concise, yet complete. Offer the reader only relevant information. This requires you to sift through the facts, analyze them, and determine what is relevant to the legal case. This is an important analytical skill. For example, suppose you are evaluating the merits of a negligence case. The plaintiff has sued your client, claiming that your client carelessly ran a red light in her 1996 silver gray Mercedes Benz. Giving the model year, color, and make of the automobile is not relevant to whether your client ran the red light. It is extraneous information.

Present an analysis, not simply a recapitulation, of the facts. Do not simply restate the facts. Explain the significance of those facts. For example, suppose your client sues his employer for disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Two factors that courts consider in determining whether an employer is able to make certain accommodations for disabled workers are the size and financial health of the company. If you say that the company had annual sales of $20 million in fiscal year 1995, you simply have restated a fact. Explain the significance of the fact: "The company had annual sales of $20 million in fiscal year 1995. This made it one of the top ten companies in its field. The annual sales indicate strong financial health and an ability to absorb costs that a smaller, less well-established firm might find financially disabling."

Use active voice. Compare the following examples. (1) A decision was reached by the committee last Friday. (2) The committee reached a decision last Friday. The second sentence is preferable because it uses active voice. Active voice sounds stronger and usually requires fewer words.

Check your facts. Make certain that your facts are correct. Your analysis depends on the facts. If you have the facts wrong, your analysis also may be wrong.

Proofread. Check your typing or writing. Correct spelling is important, as is proper word use. If you are uncertain about a word, look it up in the dictionary.