Written
--Business Letters
--Newsletters & Brochures
--Business Memos
Business Letters
Being an effective communicator requires knowing how to write good business letters. The main reason for writing good letters is that your writings reflect you. A sloppy letter represents a sloppy person or organization. On the contrary, clearly stated views and good written communication skills represent a strong organization.
Difference In Letters and Memos
To be an effective communicator, you must know when to send a letter as opposed to a memo. Letters generally go to people outside an organization, while memos go to people inside an organization. However, sometimes in large organizations, people will send letters to different departments instead of memos. The only other major distinctions are the audience and format.
Keys to Good Letters
Good grammar and use of punctuation is essential in an effective letter. There is no excuse for poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation in business letters. Do not rely on spelling and grammar checkers to find all of your errors. A letter submitted with an error that is overlooked states that the letter was not important enough to double check, and can show a lack of effort.
Format
Knowledge of the letter formats is essential. Consistency is good; people do not want to read a letter with components of multiple formats. This makes a letter sloppy and less attractive to readers. Block, modified block, and AMS (American Management Society) Simplified are three different formats letters can have.
Block lines the whole letter up at the left margin, are single spaced in paragraphs, and double-spaced between paragraphs. Headings are optional, and if used they are bold-faced. The first paragraph never has a heading and the paragraphs are not indented.
The only difference in block and modified block is that modified block lines the date line and signature block up together over two-thirds to right margin. Here, paragraph indentation is optional.
AMS Simplified is a little different than block and modified block. The subject line is in all capital letters. If a list is used in the letter, the items in the list should be double-spaced between. There is no salutation line in AMS and headings are optional as well. The author’s name is placed at the bottom in all capital letters in place of a signature.