Learn How to Write a Business Letter Format – Formatting Your Business Letters
A business letter is usually a written letter from one business to another, usually between those companies and their clients, customers, or other authorized parties. The format of such letter mainly depends upon the relationship between the involved parties. Normally, we use the business letter format for formal communication, while it can be used if you are making informal communication. Formal communication is more formal and business letter format is more informal.
There is a business letter format that can be used for formal as well as informal communication. If you are going to make a formal communication with someone, you can use the Small Business Telephone Letter Headline. This template is very effective for small businesses. There are also certain software programs that you can use for making such letterheads.
Another kind of business letter format is the bullet point form. In this type, there is a single bullet or number at the end of the document that is used to indicate a particular transaction or agreement. In this kind, there is no need for the closing or any address information, unless if you want to call attention to certain points.
For informal business letter format, the most common format is the block format. This is also known as Single Line Block Format. In this kind of format, there are actually only blocks of four paragraphs. The first paragraph, in this kind of format, contains a block quote, enclosed within two single line blocks and the last paragraph, in this kind of format, should have the signature of the sender, enclosed within a block quote.
A good thing about using this kind of business letter format is that it is compatible with almost all kinds of software and there is no need to make changes in the content or layout of the content if one software will not be compatible with another software. A good example of a word processing software that comes with this kind of template is Microsoft Word (not PowerPoint, as some people tend to think). In this kind of template, there are actually six paragraph styles that are used. You can change these styles to create your own style, but you should be careful not to change the essence of the content.
You can choose to use the standard block quotes, single line quotes, italicized quotes, bold quotes and reverse quotes when you are learning how to write a business letter format. When you are dealing with formal matters, you should use the rules as stated by the International Business Letter Association (IBDA). Formal business letters, therefore, should always follow the basic format mentioned above, which is an outline followed by the body of the formal letter.