Business letter

A business letter is usually a letter from one company to another, or between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties. The overall style of letter depends on the relationship between the parties concerned. Business letters can have many types of contents, for example to request direct information or action from another party, to order supplies from a supplier, to point out a mistake by the letter's recipient, to reply directly to a request, to apologize for a wrong, or to convey goodwill. A business letter is sometimes useful because it produces a permanent written record, and may be taken more seriously by the recipient than other forms of communication.

Side, top and bottom margins should be 1 to 1 1/4 inches (the general default settings in programs such as Microsoft Word). One-page letters and memos should be vertically centered.

No special character or font formatting is used, except for the subject line, which is usually underlined.

The salutation or greeting is generally followed by a comma in British style, whereas in the United States a colon is used. The valediction or closing is followed by a comma.

The following is the general format, excluding indentation used in various formats:

Business letters conform to generally one of six indentation formats: standard, open, block, semi-block, modified block, and modified semi-block. Put simply, "semi-" means that the first lines of paragraphs are indented; "modified" means that the sender's address, date, and closing are significantly indented.

The standard-format letter uses a colon after the salutation and a comma after the complimentary closing.

The open-format letter does not use punctuation after the salutation and no punctuation after the complimentary closing.

In a block-format letter, all text is left aligned and paragraphs are not indented.

In a semi-block format letter, all text is left aligned, paragraphs are indented, and paragraphs are separated by double or triple spacing.

In a modified-block format letter, all text is left aligned (except the author's address, date, and closing), paragraphs are not indented, and the author's address, date, and closing begin at the center point.

In a modified semi-block format letter, all text is left aligned (except the author's address, date, and closing), paragraphs are indented, and the author's address, date, and closing are usually indented in same position.

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