How to a write a Formal Letter

How to a write a Formal Letter ||In this article I will be sharing with you how to write a Formal Letter, the appropriate way, as part of the discussion you will be exposed to sections of a type of letter as this, the kind of persons who you can write to. But I want you to do me a favour, stay on this page till the end as we proceed.

What is a Formal Letter?

One may ask what a Formal Letter is. A formal letter is type of a letter written to persons who are not related or intimate. The definition is short and precise, on like an informal letter you write only to persons who you know or are related with, like your father, mother, siblings, relatives like uncle, aunt etc. The mode of communicate can be chatty, which is to say one can say “ Hello have you bought the dress you needed for the occasion”, “is your dad back from his business trip” and so on. 

But in a Formal letter, you go straight to the point, there is no room for frivolities or random chats. People have this opinion that formal letters are only used in Job Applications, the answer is no.

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To whom is a Formal Letter written?

Here like I stated earlier at the previous section, this kind of letter is been written to persons, with little or no intimacy in common. A Formal Letter can be written to any Employer of Labour, Governor, President, Manager, Director, Chancellor, Headmaster, Principal etc.  Now do we still write Formal letters manually, amidst technology through the available of smart phones, laptops, computers etc? Yes formal letters are still hand written. Take for instance in a place of work where you are working, or in your school as a student you want to take permission for exemption, you have to write to the manager or the Dean of your faculty, Class teacher etc. Even though you intend having a talk with them, it is advisable and reasonable to write to them first before meeting them. Though formal letters are still written digitally through the use of mailing platforms like Yahoo, Gmail and the rest them. But it doesn’t contain the full features of it and it isn’t advisable for one who does not know how to write a Formal Letter.

How to write a Formal Letter

Now we have gotten to the Climax of our discussion,  having known facts about this letter prior to this it is important you know how to write. Writing a letter like this isn’t hard, it is pretty easy.

There are certain things which must be included in your writing as to make it complete and not ill-written, they include:

1. Address
2. Salutation
3. Heading
4. Body of the Letter
5. Conclusion

And must be written with the format enumerated above.

Address: A Formal Letter has two addresses, namely the writers and the recipients address. The writers address is been written on the right hand of the paper while the recipients address is been written on the left hand side under the writers address, let’s say a line after the writers address. It is been written in this format;

No. 23 Kelvin Close,

Aba

Abia State,

23rd July, 2003. 

While the recipients address for instance if you are writting to the Dean of your faculty.

The Dean 

Faculty of Chemical/Petrochemical Engineering

University of  Abia

Abia

The above is the appropriate way to write a writer and recipient address for a Formal letter.

Salutation: When we talk about salutation, we are referring to greeting, here you do not say Good Morning, Madam or Sir, it is been written like this “Dear Sir/Madam”. The Madam/Sir is always needed in case you do not know the gender of the personality, it is written under the recipients address, having the first letter capitalized.

Heading: Here you state while you are writing in a sentence, it is just like the theme, explaining  what the letter is all about. It is been written in Block letters or First Letter capitalized, below is a format of what am talking about.

“ Application For The Post  of A Clerical Staff” or “APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF A CLERICAL  STAFF”. It is preferable to use the first format, this is always written after the salutation having the first format Underlined while the other not underlined.

Body of the Letter: In writing a letter generally, one must ensure to write in well indented paragraphs, as a matter of fact, the first paragraph must be in this format or its equivalent “I write to apply for the post of a Clerifical Staff”, which is summary of while you are writing, the next paragraphs contains a brief  introduction about yourself, which includes your date of birth, age, locality, state etc, goals for the organization. The last paragraph should contain a statement that shows you are interested in the approval of the recipient, which should be something like this “I will be grateful if my request is  been granted” or “ I look forward to hearing from you”.

Conclusion: This is the last part of this letter, which is to say this where the writing  ends. It is been written in this format; “Yours faithfully” followed by the full name of the writer underneath, and is always at the right hand side of the paper after the last paragraph.

Now it is obvious that I have fully educated you on how to write a formal letter, do me favour if this article was helpful, do share it to a good number of people as to make it viral, using the available media options provided in this page.