3. Business Letter Formats
4 basic Letter Format Features
Full Block All letter parts begin at the left margin.
Modified Block
Indented
Paragraphs
Date, signature, and closing begin at the horizontal
center of the page. All body paragraphs are indented.
Blocked Paragraphs
Date, signature, and closing begin at the horizontal
center of the page. All body paragraphs begin at the left
margin.
Simplified
All letter parts begin at the left margin. This format
includes a subject line but omits the salutation and
signature.
4.
5.
6. Business Letter Template Fields:
• Date: Use month, day, year format, e.g., March 3, 2012 or 3 March
2012
• Inside Address: Use full name. Mr./Ms. is optional
• Salutation: Be sure to use a colon at the end of the name, not a
comma as in personal letters
• Closing "Call to Action": State what the reader needs to do and
what you will do to follow up
• Signature Block: Sign your letter in blue or black ink
7. Page, Font and File Settings
Page Settings
Letter Paper A4 Paper
Paper size (8.5x11.0)in (21.59x27.94)cm (8.27x11.69)in (21x29.7)cm
Top margin (1st page) 1.0in 2.54cm 1.0in 2.54cm
Top margin (rest) .75in 1.9cm 0.75in 1.9cm
Left margin 0.75in 1.9cm 0.75in 1.9cm
Right margin 0.75in 1.9cm 0.52in 1.32cm
Bottom margin 0.75in 1.9cm 1.44in 3.67cm
Text width 7.0in 17.78cm 7.0in 17.78cm
Text height 9.5in 24.13cm 9.5in 24.13cm
Column width 3.4in 8.63cm 3.4in 8.63cm
Column separation 0.2in 0.5cm 0.2in 0.5cm
8. Some popular choices for Serif fonts include but aren’t
limited to:
•Times Roman
•Times New Roman
•Bookman Old Style
•Century Gothic
•Georgia
Some popular Sans Serif font choices include:
•Arial
•Segoe UI Semibold
•Verdana
•Book Antiqua
•Calibri
Font Settings
Title 16pt
Author list 11pt
Section titles 10pt
Normal text 10pt
Table/Figure captions 10pt
Sub-scripts 8pt
Sub-sub-scripts 7pt
Footnotes 8pt
10. Preparing a covering letter
1. What a qualities are they looking for? Write three to
four points that show you have these qualities. Use the
same words as they use in the advertisement.
2. Address your letter to an individual. Only use ‘Dear Sir/
Madam’ when you can’t find out the recipient’s name.
3. Finish with a call to action. What is going to happen
next? Are you going to call them or should they call
you?
4. Explain why you are contacting them. What is the job?
Where have you seen it?
5. Use ‘Yours sincerely ’ if you know their name or ‘Yours
faithfully’ if you don’t.
11. 1. Dear Richard Smith
2. I’m writing to you regarding your advertisement
for a caretaker on Paradise Island which I saw
on www.findajob.com. I would like to submit an
application for the post please find my CV
attached.
As an experienced photo journalist who has
spent the last five years travelling around the
world, I believe that I meet all the requirements
you outline in your advertisement.
12. 3. Good communicator with broad IT skills: I’ve published
newspaper and magazine articles, given TV and radio
interviews and kept a journal and video weblog on my
website with up-to-date photos and stories of my
travels.
Interest in nature and conservation: During a six month
stay in Bermuda, I worked for a dolphin conservation
programm, where I had hands-on experience of
teaching visitors about these amazing animals and
why we need to protect them.
Proven ability in project management: before travelling the
world, I worked for a small company, organising
community projects.
13. 4. If you require any further information, or would
like to an arrange an interview, please call me
on 99999999 or email me at xman@yahoo.com
. I look forward to hearing from you at your
earliest convenience.
5. Yours sincerely,
Xman