- About creating a letter
When writing a letter for any reason, you must continuously keep in mind both who your audience is (the person who is intended to read it) and the purpose of you writing. By doing this you will ensure that you neither patronize your reader nor deviate from the main reason you are getting in touch in the first place.
- Beginning the letter
To begin with, you must make sure that both your address and the recipients address are displayed clearly at the top of the page, with yours at the top left hand side and theirs slightly lower on the right.
The way that you start your letter is also very important: Keep in mind that as it seems like it is for work, and so most probably going to be kept on file, it is best to keep things formal and so on a surname basis.
If, however, you do not know the name of the person that you are writing to, then you should address them sir / madam.
- The content of the letter
The main thing to remember here is to keep to the point; the letter doesn't necessarily have to be lengthy as long as it includes the main points, facts and queries.
- Ending your letter
Make sure that you remember to thank the person you are addressing for the time they took to read; this may only seem like a small courtesy, but it is one that only takes a line and is definitely noticeable when missing.
How you finish your letter is very much dependent upon how you started it; 'yours sincerely' is used at the end if you began with the recipient's name and 'yours faithfully' if you did not.