Letters

Word 3

All About Letters

The primary method of written communication before email was written letters

Even though email has become the most popular form of communication,

It is still considered informal

Letters

The general rule is that formal situations are better handled through

Written letters than through email

Letters can be broken into 2 categories, Personal and

business

Personal Letters

Personal Letters are sent from one person to another and deal with personal matters.

Examples:– Love Letters– Letters of apology– Congratulations or condolence

Business Letters

Business Letters are letters that individuals send to business or institutions that deal with business related matters.

Examples:– Letters of Recommendation– Letter of Application– Letters of Complaint

Letterhead

Letterhead is the heading at the top of a sheet of letter paper containing a business’s:

• Name• Address phone/fax number• Website• Logo/sloggan

Letterhead cont…

When no Letterhead exists, be sure to include the writers address in the letter.

It can appear in one of two places in a letter immediately above the date or

Two lines immediately below the sender and title

Letter Styles

Letters can be formatted in Block or Modified Block style.

In a block style letter, each line of the letter begins at the left margin.

In a modified block style letter the , Date, complimentary close, and signature block and sender/title

start at the horizontal center(3.25”) of the page.

Letter punctuation

Open punctuation has no punctuation

after the salutation or the

complimentary close.

Mixed punctuation has a colon (:) after the salutation

And a comma(,) after the complimentary close.

More Parts of a Letter

The signature block is the space between the complimentary close and the sender’s name

If the composer has someone else type the letter, the typist’s initials/ reference initials should be typed on the left a double space below the sender’s name and title.

Parts of a letter

The word attachment or enclosed at the bottom of a letter indicates there is something additional in the envelope.

The letters cc at the bottom of a letter indicate that someone has received a complimentary copy of the letter.

Letter Alignment

Letters should be vertically centered.

To vertically center a page, • Page Setup dialog box• Layout tab• page section• select center

and the body of a letter should be single spaced

Letter Margins

The margins for a letter should be set at 1 inch.

Formatting

The blank space around the outside of a document is called…

Margins

Alignment refers to the position of the text between the Margins

Left, Center, Right, Justify

More formatting

Line spacing refers to the amount of space between the Lines of text.

A bullet is any small character that appears before an item in a list.

The show/hide button shows the formatting in the document.

Tabs

Default tabs are set every ½ inch.

The four types of tabs are:Left └

Right ┘

Center ┴

Decimal ┴.

More Tabs

You can set tabs using the Tab Box located to the left of the ruler bar.

The path to set tabs using the Paragraph group:

Paragraph dialog box Tab Button

Tabs cont…

The tab dialog box can be opened by double clicking on a tab located on the ruler.

Solid, dotted or dashed lines which fill the blank space before a tab are called Leaders.

Clearing and Moving Tabs

To clear a tab from the ruler, click and drag the tab down off the ruler.

To move a tab on the ruler, click on the tab and drag it left or right.

Spacing and parts of a letter

DS

QS

ss

LetterheadDate

Inside Address

Salutation

Complimentary Close

Signature BlockAuthor

Indicates if something is with letterTypists initials

Letter Identification

• Modified Block – Mixed Punctuation

• Block Letter – Open Punctuation