Letter Writing Rules

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
  • The Body of the letter -Communication or the Message-.
  • The Subscription -Courteous Leave-taking, or Conclusion-.
  • The Signature -Name of the writer-
  • 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
Delhi-160032
June 12, 2010
Examination Hall
A.B.C.
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 Blood Relations
My dear Father,
My dear Mother,
My dear Kavita,

To Friends
Dear Rajesh,
My dear Ajay,

Note: – Dear Friend or My dear Friend is never 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 be 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

I shall be obliged, if you kindly…
I shall be glad, if you send me…
Would you be kind enough to send me the following articles…
May I draw your kind attention to…

Endings

Thanking you,
Thanking you in anticipation,
Hoping to be favoured with an early reply.

 

 

                                                  Official Letter and Applications Writing Format
Starting

I beg to submit…
I beg to state…
I have the honour to report…
I have the honour, to bring to your kind notice…
With reference to your advertisement in the ‘Times of India’…

Endings

Thanking you,
Thanking you in anticipation,
Hoping to be favoured with an early reply.

 

4.  The Subscription of the letter ie 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) Preetinder Kaur

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

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