Business letter
Updated: 12/26/2023 by Computer Hope
A business letter is a formal letter addressed from one company or organization to another for a supply order, to address a mistake, recommend an employee, or other business-related reasons.
Parts of a business letter
A business letter consists of the following sections:
- A letterhead contains the contact information and logo of the business sending the letter.
- The date should be printed directly below the letterhead and with the full day, month, and year written out.
- Recipient, including the recipient's name and address.
- Salutation, including a greeting to the recipient. If the addressee is unknown, use a generic opening salutation, such as "Dear Sir or Madam."
- Body, which is the main part of the letter.
- Closing to show a mark of respect towards the recipient. For example, "Sincerely" is a common expression.
- An enclosure if additional documents such as a brochure or résumé are included. The enclosure should indicate the number of pages attached (e.g., "Enclosure[2]" indicates two additional pages).
Business letter example
The example below shows the layout of a business letter with only field names to demonstrate where information is placed.
[SENDER'S NAME] [SENDER'S COMPANY NAME] [SENDER'S ADDRESS] [SENDER'S PHONE] [SENDER'S E-MAIL (optional)]
[DATE]
[RECIPIENT'S NAME] [RECIPIENT'S COMPANY] [RECIPIENT'S ADDRESS]
(Optional) Attention [DEPARTMENT/PERSON]
Dear [RECIPIENT],
[BODY]
[CLOSING (e.g., Sincerely or Respectfully)],
[SENDER]
[ENCLOSURE (optional)]
Completed business letter example
Below is an example of a completed business letter that follows the structure of the example above.
Acme Inc. 123 Fake Street, New York, NY 12345 801-123-45679 [email protected]
December 18, 2023
Nathan Emberton Computer Hope PO BOX 1236, Riverton, UT 84065
Dear Nathan,
This example business letter is being written to help illustrate an example of a business letter for the Computer Hope website. I hope that by providing this example letter, your visitors can get a good idea of what a business letter is and how one could be written.
As seen in this example, the letter is written in block letter style, which means there is no indentation, and everything is left aligned.
This example should have provided your visitors with enough information to start writing a business letter.
Sincerely,
John Doe
<John Doe's written signature>