Formal or Business Letters

Formal letters are written to people you don't know personally. You may use a formal letter to write to a doctor if you have questions about an illness, or a company if you have a complaint about their product or you want to order something from them. The most important thing to remember about writing a formal letter is that you must be clear and brief. Writing with a purpose is very important when writing a formal letter. Get to the point in the first two or three sentences of the letter.

The format of the formal letter is the block style. Everything runs down the left hand side of the page. The only information you need to include in a formal letter that does not go into a friendly letter is an inside address (where you're sending the letter), a colon (:) after the greeting and room for your signature with your full printed name underneath. See the sample letter below:

(Date)                                       January 29, 1999 (Heading)               Suite 100, 2445 13th Avenue Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 0W2 Dr. Brown Medical and Dental Building       (Inside Address) 1223 Rose Street Regina, Saskatchewan S4T 2K2 Dear Dr. Brown:                          (Greeting) Thank you for your advice regarding Muscular Dystrophy. It was very informative. You suggested I contact you again if I was interested in learning more about the disease. I have decided to do some further research on the subject. Could you please send me some additional information, or a list of titles that I could find on my own? I appreciate any assistance you could give me and I thank you for your time. Sincerely,                 (Closing) R.Eber                    (Signature) Roger Eber               (Name)