Letter writing has been the best mode of communication from the times of the kings and is still been used by people. Letter writing find its applications in a number of areas. The letter writing has been classified into two types mainly depending on the type of message that you are giving in the letter and also depending on the recipient on the other end. Here we will take a look at the type of the letters, the people to whom they are written, the formats and then move on to formal letter for students, how the letters have to be written and finally see a crux of the data in the body in the letter.
The two types of letters are formal letters and informal letters. Informal letters are normal letters that are written to any people you know personally. It could be your friends, you classmates, your parents, your children, brother or sister, cousins, nephew, niece, etc. These letters just have a format for the structure in which the letter has to be written, there is no restriction in the words or the language the you have to use while writing the informal letter.
The next is the formal letter, the formal letters are the ones that are written for a specific purpose to people who are in some position. The recipient in the formal letter could be a manager, the CEO of an organisation, head of the department, your teacher, the editor of a newspaper or a magazine, principal of a school, etc. The formal letters have a purpose of writing the letter. The purpose of writing the letter could be any of the following, – it could be written for the application of a job, it could be for opening an account in a bank, it could be regarding an article you read in the magazine or a newspaper, it could be for taking leave for a few days, it could be requesting pardon for being absent in case the student couldn’t attend some classes. It could also be addressing some issue that you are facing and bringing it to the eyes of the mayor to find a solution.
Now, you have seen the recipients in the other end, the different reasons why formal letters are written, etc. now, we will take a look at the format of the formal letters.
The format of a formal letter will go like this- the first element is the place and the date. The place and date is written at the top right corner of the letter. The next element of the formal letter is the ‘from address’. The ‘from address’ will include the following – your name, your designation, your address that will include the name of the city in the last line of the address. The next element of the formal letter is the ‘to address’, the ‘to address’ will include the position of the person you are writing the letter to, the name of the company followed by the branch and then the city in the last line of the from address.
The next element that follows the from address in the formal letter is the subject. The subject is the reason why you are writing the letter, it is usually ended by the word reg (for regarding) in the end of the line. The subject is followed by the salutation. The salutation in the formal letter is usually “Sir/ Ma’am” or “Respected Sir/ Ma’am”. The next element in the formal letter after the salutation is the body of the formal letter. The next element in the formal letter after the body of the letter is the complimentary closing. The closing is normally with the words – “Thanking You” followed by “Yours faithfully/ Yours sincerely”. This is followed by your signature and then your name. All the elements in the complimentary closing part will come in the left corner of the page/ letter.
There is an alternative for the above mentioned format of the formal letter. The place and the date mentioned in the top right corner of the letter need not be given at all. Instead of that you can just fit the date in between the ‘from address’ and the ‘to address’ of the formal letter. The rest of the elements follow the same pattern or structure that is mentioned before.
Now that we have seen the format or the structure of the formal letter, we will take a look at the content to be included in the body of the letter. In any formal letter, irrespective of the person to whom the letter is being written to, the body will have mainly three parts (three paragraphs).
The first para is the reason why you are writing the letter to that respective person. It can start with an intro to how you came know the person or a particular event. For example, if it is regarding a newspaper article you read, than the body or the first para can start with the words – “I came across ….. in your newspaper article dated 27th May 2019 (an example)”. If you are writing it to a higher authority like the mayor regarding a problem, it could start like – “I wish to bring to your notice a problem we have been facing ……”.
The second part of the body of the formal letter should be an explanation to the problem and how the people are affected by it. In case of a formal letter for the application of a job, the second paragraph will include your expertise and things related to your skills in the job but that is not needed here as we are concentrating on the formal letter written by student. Here, the formal letter will include the problems faced. For example, if there are some stray dogs in the street on the way to school and students face problems and are constantly absent because of the same, you are taking responsibility as a student and writing a letter to a higher authority, you can mention how the students are affected in the second paragraph of the formal letter.
The third paragraph of the body of a formal letter will include solution to the problems faced. If you have solutions in your mind, your can mention them here and request the higher authorities to take actions to implement them. After giving the solutions or suggestions you had, you have to end the third part of the body of your letter by asking them the favour again. The line could be like this – “Hoping you would take the necessary actions and do the needful”.
The body of the letter is then followed by the complimentary closing as already mentioned. There are some things to be noticed while writing the letter, the subject should be only one line. the recipient being in a higher position would be a busy person and might not even read the letter if the subject is too long and does not sound important. Another thing to note is the complimentary closing. Make sure that there is no apostrophe in the “Yours”. It should be “Yours sincerely/ faithfully” and not “Your’s sincerely/ faithfully”.
So, we have discussed the format of a formal letter for a student. In case you ever need to write one, just make sure you follow the format mentioned here.
Author BIO: Web Solution Winner, a professional marketer but a true content creator. Having proven track record of Web Design, SEO and Writing can stretch into a wide variety of skillsets.