It may happen that a formal letter will be one of the topics of graduation style work. We will advise you how to write it to get the full points for it.
What is a formal letter?
It is a letter addressed to the person to whom you hold formal respect, for example, a teacher, a clerk, a mayor, or a superior. Conversely, if the addressee is a friend or relative, you will write an informal or personal letter.
Formal letters include official letters (requests, complaints, open letter or petition), as well as business letters (offer, demand, order, complaint, claim or reminder).
A letter of motivation is also a formal letter that is written when applying for a job. Each of these letters has specific rules for writing, but some things have in common.
What language to choose?
For a formal letter, it is necessary to use standard language and avoid colloquial expressions, especially vulgarities. Express yourself politely and politely, beware of misspellings. It is important to have objective, concise and accurate expression. It is therefore necessary to clarify before writing what you want to say by letter and what you want to achieve after the recipient reads the letter. Limit yourself to the most relevant information.
For better understanding, it is advisable to choose shorter sentences and complex sentences as well as shorter paragraphs. The text should not contain foreign words and technical terms that the recipient might not understand, the same applies to abbreviations.
In practice, the length of a letter should not exceed one page, but follow the required number of words in the school leaving exam.
What is the formal letter to have?
Any formal letter should, according to the standard, meet the following requirements:
Sender’s address – in the case of a natural person’s letter to a legal entity, the first is always stated, for a legal person the address may be in the letterhead or at the bottom of the page.
Recipient’s address
Place and date – the place of departure is stated in the 1st fall, no comma is written between the place and the date, the month is expressed numerically (Prague, April 11, 2018).
Subject of the letter – a motto expression of its content, for example, Request, Complaint or Offer
Salutation – Each letter begins by addressing in the 5th fall, if the recipient is unknown, write Dear, a single-line space is inserted below the addressee.
Letter text – personal and possessive pronouns You, yours, write to you as an expression of respect and courtesy always with a capital letter, whether you address an individual or a group of people. (The text is justified to the left or to the block, there are single-line spaces between the paragraphs, and a space is inserted above the final greeting.)
Signature – writes left. Beyond the Farewell Farewell (for example, Sincerely), no comma is written.
The number of attachments, or the number of copies – attachments notifications are listed below the last line of text (with 1-3 lines) and marked in bold. Attachments can be specified by their number, listed directly (with a small number), or enumerated on individual lines under the Attachments heading in bold without a colon. If there is more than one copy, the list of recipients will be listed under Bold without a colon.