Writing a letter

1
Writing a letter

• Formal
• Business letters
• Letters of application
• Letters to people you dont know by name

• Informal
• Letters to friends
• Letters to people you know on a first-name-
• basis

2
Letter formats (1)

• My address
• Your name and address
• Date
• Salutation
• Text of my letter
• Close

• Marterstraat 45
• 6531 KA Nijmegen
• The Netherlands
• Jim Jones
• 10 Downing Street
• London W1
• United Kingdom
• 10/24/2010
• Dear Mr Jones,
• Text of my letter
• Yours sincerely,
• T. Eacher

3
Letter formats (2)

• My address
• Your name
• Address
• Date
• Salutation
• Text
• Close

• Marterstraat
  45
• 6531 KA
  Nijmegen
• Jim Jones the Netherlands
• 10 Downingstreet
• London W1
• United Kingdom
• 10/24/2010
  
• Dear Mr Jones,
• Text
• Yours sincerely,
• T. Eacher

4
Language

• Formal letter
• Formal language
• no slang, no street English
• no abbreviations Im, hes, write the full form

• Informal
• Informal language can be used, depending on who
  you are writing to
• abbreviations can be used

5
Writing the date

• There are many ways to write the date in English
• 15th October, 2010
• 15 October, 2010
• October 15th, 2010
• October 15, 2010
• 10/15/10 (mm/dd/yy !!!)
• 10.15.10 (mm/dd/yy !!!)
• Good advice choose one way to write the date,
  and use the same way every time!

6
Salutation (1)

• If you know the addressee on a first name basis,
  use that name
• Dear John,
• Dear Linda,
• 2. If you know the addressee by name, but not
  intimately
• Dear Mr Jones,
• Dear Ms Jones, (for all women)
• Dear Mrs Jones, (if you know this lady is
  married)
• Dear Miss Jones, (if you know shes single)

7
Salutation (2)

• If you dont know the addressees name, or you
  dont know who is going to read the letter
• Dear Sir, (if you know you are writing to a man)
• Dear Madam, (if you know you are writing to a
  woman)
• Dear Sir/Madam, (if you dont know who is going
  to read the letter)
• Dear Sirs, (generally used e.g. in a letter to
  the editor of a newspaper
• or in a letter of
  application)

8
Closing the letter (1)

• Formal
• Yours faithfully,
• (my signature)
• (my name)
• Yours sincerely,
• (my signature)
• (my name)

9
Closing the letter (2)

• Informal
• Yours (truly),
• Best wishes,
• (Kind) regards,
• Love,

10
Closing the letter (3)

• Please forget Greetz, Greetings
• and any other variations!!!
• That is not English!!!

11
The text of your letter

• A letter basically consists of three parts
• Introduction introduce yourself (if necessary),
  and explain why you write this letter
• Body the information you want to give or ask
  for
• Conclusion short summary of the point of your
  letter, followed by a complete closing sentence.
• Each part is a separate paragraph!

12
Some (good) advice!

1. Do what the assignment says!
2. Keep it simple!
3. Choose 1 format, and use the same one for every
   letter (practice and exam).
4. Write your text without using a dictionary, use
   the dictionary only to check your text when it is
   finished.