How to Write a Letter

Learn how to write a professional letter that conforms to the layout and format of a standard business letter.

In the course of your job search you will need to write several types of  letters, from an application letter for an advertised position, prospecting letters for cold calling / cold canvassing and networking - or for any other employment situation that requires written communication.  While the way you set out the letter is the same.

• Application Letter For an Advertised Job  (invaluable letter content) 

• Job Application Letter - Using Marketing Techniques  ( a must read)

• How to Write a Letter  (Business Letter Format and Reading Principles)

•  Job Application - Letters

It is strongly recommend that you look at what is in The Resource Centre - includes free unique job search information aimed to assist you to get that job of  your choice.

Job application letters are an integral part of your job search marketing strategy. You will write letters with different content in the course of your job search journey. They will all require to be set out in the same way, using traditional business letter format.

This section goes a lot further than how to set out a letter and providing an example letter. For example, a guide to the use of capital letters is provided, which is a major problem some people have when writing letters, through to reading principles. Reading principles is a sales strategy and would be hard to find on any other job search site. Therefore it is crucial to understand why margins are so important and where to place the most important content of the page for visual impact.

Reading principles

Reading principles are also very important in any marketing document. A good letter, or any document, will follow reading principles. Unless reading Sanskrit, the reader starts in the top left hand corner and ends in the bottom right in the shape of a fan panel. The exception is speed readers, who read down the middle. So keep these principles in mind at all times.  If you have to start writing your letter too far down the page you lose the advantage of reading principles.

For this reason, justifying the sentence so it ends neatly in a line on the right, is not recommended.  Many people find it very difficult to skim a justified letter.

Nor should you start sentences right over to the right of the page and leave gaping white spaces on the left. This is against reading principles. Margins should be no more than 3 - 3.5cm left and right. You can use 3cm if you have a lot of information.

This is set out in the sample letter,  How to write an application for an advertised position

Guide to English comprehension and grammar

Common Errors in English

This is an excellent free resource and easy to use.

How to set out a letter

You may want to consider creating you own business letterhead  as it will give you more room for the content.  If not, use this format. However it may interfere with reading principles as stated above if you name and address and contact numbers take up too much room..

Ensure you address your letter to the appropriate person. This is the 'salutation' which is the greeting.

Address the letter to a person by name not title. If the name of the recipient of the letter is not known you must ring the company and find out who to address the letter to and ensure you have the correct spelling of the name. Under no circumstances use Dear Sir/Madam. Jimmy Sweeney, from Amazing cover letter software, provides advice on how to get around this when you cannot get a name. --> See More

Example of a professional business letter format

There is no need to put full stops in the address in this format which was developed for word processing when PC's  first came out.  An exception is when a full stop can separate words that usually have a full stop, like your postal box. Put full stops in the rest of the text.  This example letter relates to a job, but it will be the same for any type of letter.

The Beginning

James Bond

27 The Rise

Thornleigh Heights WA 6111

Ph:  9423 1796

2 line spacing

27 October 2006

 2 line spacing

Mr A Whittaker                                                       

Whittaker and Sands Pty Ltd                                

87 Mosman Road

Perth WA 6000

2 line spacing

Dear Mr Whittaker   

The salutation (name of the person who you are writing to) must be personalised to the recruitment person which will need to be researched if not given.  Never Sir/Madam.  Attn: Recruitment Officer is better than Sir/Madam if you cannot get a name, but still not good, so persist until you get a name.

2 line spacing before the subject Job title. Centre the text. Use upper and lower case and bolded.

Accounts Clerk

The end 

Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?

Golden Rule is:-

Yours faithfully is used when the person’s name is not known

Yours sincerely is used when the person’s name is known

Always in lower case

However, it is becoming more popular to use a less formal signing off such as “regards” or "kind regards."

Sign your name with a BLUE pen - never use your signature created by the computer unless you are emailing the application.

Leave about 2 lines after the sign off above the line below.

Yours sincerely

4-5 lines

______________________

John Smith

Type your name.  Not you full name and use the name you are known by  i.e.

Margaret (Maggie)  Fergusson

If the letter is unbalanced centre it on the page.

Your signature - How do you sign your letter

The colour of the ink is important .   In his "Instant Cover letters" software, Jimmy Sweeny states that the colour of the ink you choose to write your signature is important.

"It has been shown, believe it or not, that the color of your pen can improve the response to your Cover Letter. If possible, you should always sign your letter by hand using a blue or green felt-tip pen. We don't recommend using a black pen."  See how this software can make your letters sizzle!

Using PS. at the end of your letter is a powerful sales strategy

Many marketers say the PS at the end of a letter is very powerful and attention grabbing when used in a sales letter.  For example, you may say.  PS.  I omitted to tell you that I am doing a 5 course in XYZ, at XYZ, next week which will provide me with the skills to do XYZ.

Enclosing documents with a letter.

If you enclose any documents you must refer to them at the end of the letter. For example,

enc.  resume, brochure, application form.

If you are sending a duplicate letter to anther person as well as the recipient you must advise both parties,

For example,

C.c.   Mr Alec Shields, Supervisor of Finance Division (or just the name) at the bottom of the letter. (You see this in emails).

Guide to the use of capital letters 

·        The first word of a sentence

·        All proper names of people 

·        Names of governments and government departments 

·        Official titles 

·        Titles of Statutes   i.e. laws, bills, acts of Parliament and “The”

          before these titles 

·        Races and cultures 

·        Languages 

·        Geographical places 

·        Names of holidays and other public events 

·        Trading names  

·        Main words of the title of: -

      Courses                     Films

      Books                          Plays

      Reports                       Poems

      Chapters                     Works of art

---

 Re-Capping - Guide to letter format and presentation

• Make up a plain letter head.

• Document should be typed and printed out on a quality printer.

• Use only white paper and black ink.

• Single line spacing in paragraphs.

• Lots of white space - margins 3cm or 3.5 either side.

• Leave two lines between paragraphs. However, this can take up a lot of rooms. A solution is to manually adjust the line spacing by placing the cursor between the line and put in size such as size 8 - two spaces. Be consistent.

• Font and font size - Use the same font as resume which should be Times New Roman or Arial, size 11 or maybe 10 if you have a lot of content.

• Margins to fit with reading principles - Left 3cm and right can be 2.5cm-3.

• Do not justify the margins (see reading principles).

• Salutation - Use the name of the person you are writing to. Get spelling right.

• After the salutation put in the subject of the letter. If it is a job, use a job number if given.  Centre  the title. (see  Job Applications - Letters)

• Hand sign your letter in blue inked pen if posting your letter.

• Alert the reader to attachments. i.e. "enclosed, resume and references". Put this in after your signature.

• Check thoroughly for grammatical mistakes and typing errors. Have it  proofread by another person - even two people.

 Letter should be planned and contain a beginning, middle and an end

(See letter-marketing techniques)

Letter writing style and tone

Nowadays the tone needs to be professional but not too formal, It should be genuine, positive and enthusiastic.

·         Use your own language style (within application and these guidelines).

·         Strike a balance between your own verbal communication style and a professional approach.

·         Avoid using jargon, smart comments and clichés.

·         Eliminate negative words.

·         Do not provide personal information (ie "I am married with 3 beautiful children, who... ") Yes I have seen this and many other similar letters.

·         Follow the Job letter application principles

·         Use bullet points in the middle of the letter if appropriate for clarity.

·         Be concise. Take out all fillers.

·         Leave for one day if possible before you send  so that you can look at it again with a fresh eye.

·         If writing a sales letter or self marketing letter such as an employment letter, use good marketing techniques and do not boast or come on too strong, arrogant or smart.

Sending accompanying documents through the post

You should be aware that documents can go astray and may never reach the recipient. They also get chewed up by machinery in the post office. Yes, truly, I found out first hand and on more than one occasion, and this has been confirmed by postal employees.

Further, the resumes will probably be scanned so here are some tips to  

ensure you do not hinder the process.      

     It is wise to follow these rules. 

·         Your name and page number must appear on your resume, preferably in a footer.

·         Do not put your resume in a folder.

·         Do not use staples – use modern silver clips, not the old paper clips. They are expensive but worth it. If it is a resume the employer will want to scan it or make additional copies. They will not be happy if they have to un-staple it.  On the other hand, they do not want it loose.

·         Another reason for not using staples, as mentioned, is that as your resume may get eaten by postal sorting machines.

·         If making a contact through networking, you may use parchment paper and/or a folder if you insist.

·         A folder, and an additional master copy may be appropriate for executive jobs where the company is the main contact point, and if applying for jobs where there is less competition. Also a folder is appropriate if the jobseeker as been headhunted.

·         Put “do not bend” on the envelope.

·         You must use the envelope that has the postcode on the right bottom corner.  If it doesn't it could be held up for days because it will have to be manually sorted.

·         Don't fold your resume.

·         Ensure your envelope is directed to the appropriate person or shows a position number if requested.

·         Make sure you have your return address on the envelope.

·         If cold calling, do not assume the address is the same as in the phone book.   1) The company may have a private box and letters can get lost. 2) Sometimes the company has moved premises, although they use the same phone number.   This happens quite a lot.  (See information on Spam)

Note

lf you are embedding your resume into a data base it needs to be set out in plain text formatting and may need reconstruction.  See How to submit your resume online 

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