Letter Writing Guide

Writing a letter with rules is the fundamental skill which will come into use when you are in school, office and society. The rules are mostly applicable to formal letters but apart from the rules there are many other things one should know before writing a letter. Letter Writing Rules deal with the structure of the letter but there is more in a letter apart from the structure. That is the composition and other minor details which will help you in writing a good letter. Some of the guiding tips mentioned below are applicable to informal letters also.

Outline you Letter - Create a Framework for your Letter so that you have all the content before you start writing. This is truer for formal letters. When you know the outline, you can easily organise all the key elements of your letter. These elements can be references, reports and any other supporting document which will aid you in writing the letter. Use them in a chronological order so that a continuum is being maintained. It comes easy to the eyes of the reader and also impresses the reader.

Drafting – Drafting is a rough copy of your actual letter. The information that you collected now requires to be utilised. You may come up with 2-3 rough letters before you decide upon the one which will be used. Your senior or your boss may require the drafts to finalise the letter. You may need consultation with co-worker, colleague, friend, relatives etc. before you can decide which one to send. Here the purpose is to come up with the most suitable and easy to understand information. It also keeps the length of your letter in check and since it is a rough copy you can rectify the mistakes later.

Body - The Body of the letter displays Communication or the Message. The style of writing the body depends upon the kind of letter one is writing. Letter to a friend will be entirely different from the style of the letter to be written to an official and so on. The body is the mainstay of a letter and irrespective of to whom it is being addressed, there are certain rules to be kept in mind, like:

• Divide the letter into paragraphs, to mark changes of subject-matter etc.
• Use simple and direct language in short sentences. It will make the message clear and to the point
• Always try to be complete. For this think out what you want to say before the beginning of writing of letter; and put down all the point in logical manner.
• Write neatly to avoid inconvenience to the reader because of your bad penmanship.
• Take care of the punctuation and be consistent with it. Incorrect punctuation may alter the whole meaning of the sentence.

Subscription - It is the Courteous Leave-taking or Conclusion part of the letter. In other words it is the End of the letter, thus it should be in accordance with the starting of the letter. A letter must not end abruptly as it is awkward and considered as rude. Therefore certain forms of polite leave taking are prescribed which are to be written after the last words of the letter on the left hand side corner of the lines after the body. It should start with a Capital letter and end with a comma.

Tidy Appearance - Tidy appearance means that the letter should have legible words, one which can be easily read from a hands distance. Alphabets shouldn't be too small, that one has to make an effort in understanding the words, reading such letters becomes cumbersome. Words should be evenly placed and proper spacing should be maintained between paragraphs. Cutting and criss-cross patterns over unintended words makes the letter a clutter. Try to fit all the content on one side of the paper so that the impression of the writing or transparency of page doesn't make it illegible.

Typed or Handwritten – Letters should be typed in formal letters as it is the formal etiquette in letter writing. But most informal letters have to be written by hand to show importance to the recipient. A typed letter is a conventional practice for writing formal letters. These are typed because the alphabets and figures have a uniform structure and can be read easily. A handwritten letter may not legible to the reader. Handwritten words do not have that much uniformity as typed ones.

Keep it Simple - Use simple and words which are more often used than using those which are a less used. Use short words and avoid long sentences whose full stops don't seem to be in vicinity, it also makes one lose the track of what is being said. Don't try to use words whose meaning you are not fully aware as you may convey a wrong message.

Consistent Tone – Be consistent in tone of the language used. If you are writing a formal letter keep and maintain the language formal throughout the letter. It shouldn’t be that you lose the track of the formality. Inability to maintain consistency can confuse the reader.

Spell Check - Avoid spelling and poor grammar while writing letter as some word may convey an incorrect meaning like - Center-Centre, Their-There and various similar sounding words. Don't use slang language especially the regional ones, these and the mistakes put a bad impression on not only the receiver but anyone who reads it.

Fonts – Using certain fonts is more of a formal letters thing. Certain fonts like Times New Roman and Arial are considered professional fonts, they should be used throughout the letter and not just some paragraphs. Formal letters can be written in any preferred font.

Size does matter - Writing large sized words will cover up more space and will lead to multiple page letters. Keep your size of words to normal so that the message can be completely displayed in 1 or 2 pages. But this varies on case to case basis as 1-2 pages may not be enough to display all the information

Keep it Short - Modern world is a busy world, people don't have time for their health so don't expect them to take time for reading a letter, especially if it is a lengthy one. Try to be as brief as possible. Long letters are a turn off. Use short sentences and short paragraphs. If you happen to use long sentences, use dashes to separate long passages into easy-to-read sections.

Write in time - Make sure your letter is timely. Sending a letter too long after an event is inappropriate and the reader may have forgotten the situation you are writing about. When you do write, give the reader ample time to respond.

Signature - Signature does not essentially mean the actual signature of person. It commonly refers to the - Name of the writer. The Signature of the writer of the letter should be written below the subscription. In a letter to the stranger, the signature should be clearly written so that he could know whom to address in reply.

Proofreading - Proofreading is the method of revising your letter. Though you have drafted the letter and are sure that you have written a flawless letter, there might be some mistakes that you may have missed. Read the letter aloud to yourself to figure out mistakes which are missed out in writing. You can also ask your friends or colleagues to read the letter as our own eyes may miss the mistakes. This makes your letter perfect. Remember your letter may be kept in official records, so even if the reader misses out any mistake, your mistakes are still stored.

Letter Margins – Letter Margins in MS word come pre defined in the Page layout menu bar. On the Margins Tab, a drop down box displays various options like – Normal, Narrow, Moderate etc. They also show the Top, Bottom, Left and Right margins in inches. These can be adjusted manually as per individual requirements.