How to Write a Letter

Consider how formal the letter you are writing is. How you write a letter to a person depends on your relationship with that person. Take a look at the following principles:

• If you’re writing to government officials, prospective employers, people in high positions, teachers, or anyone with whom you expect a professional relationship, the wording of the letter should be formal.
• If you’re writing to your current employer, rarely seen co-workers, someone you don’t know, or an elderly relative, generally someone you know but aren’t very close to, your wording needs to be a little more formal. .

Decide whether you will send a handwritten letter or an email. The way you send a letter also indicates the level of formality.

• Most formal letters will be typed and mailed. Only when the time is too short or the recipient requests, an exception is given to sending an email.
• For informal letters, you can send them one of two ways.
• For partially formal letters, it’s a good idea to call before sending. If they ask to receive e-mail, do so. If you don’t know, handwritten letter is the surest way.

Use letterhead, or write your address at the top of the letter (formal letters only). If you’re writing a letter for a business purpose and you have a letterhead with your business’s name on it, take advantage of it. Or, if you want to add a bit of professionalism, you can use drafting software to design your letterhead. If not, simply enter your full address, and align it to the left. Enter the street/street address on the first line; province, city and postal code in the second line.

Write the date (for all letter types). After entering the address, space a newline space and then write the date. Or you can first write the date before, with the same left margin as when writing the address.

• Write the full date. “September 19, 2014” or “September 19, 2014”
• If it is a partially formal letter or an informal email, no date is needed – the time in the email is already recorded.

Write the recipient’s name, title, and address (formal only). One line down after the date, write the sender’s name with the title, on the next line write the name of the company or organization (if any), write the address on line 3 and postal code on line 4.

• For email, there is no need to do so.
• It is also not necessary for partially formal or informal letters. That information just needs to be written on the envelope.
• If you are writing a request to a company without knowing the specific recipient, simply write the name of the company or organization with the address.

Begin your letter with a greeting. The greeting depends on the formality as well as the relationship between you and the recipient. A few possible cases are:

• For a formal letter that is not addressed to a specific person, the greeting can be “Dear interested parties:” with a colon after the word “relevant”.
• If you don’t know who the recipient is but only know their gender is male or female, then you have more ways of greeting. It could be “Dear Mr/Mrs” or “Dear Mr/Mrs”. You also have to be careful, because if you don’t address it properly, the reader will misunderstand that you are insulting them before they can read or open your letter.
• For formal situations where you now know the recipient’s name, the safest opening sentence would be “Dear Mr/Ms…”. If this feels too close, you can write the recipient’s name more politely and end it with a comma (For example, “Dear Mrs. A,…”).
• For a partially formal letter, “Dear” or “Hello” is most appropriate.
• If it’s not formal, you can use everyday greetings like “Hello,” or more commonly, “Hi.”

Write the recipient’s name after the greeting.

• In formal cases, use titles like “Doctor”, “Professor”, “Mr”, “Mrs”… or military or government positions. After the position will be the last name of the recipient.
• For something that is partially formal, you have to consider carefully whether you can call them by their first name. Still use positional words to be safe.
• With informal letters, you are generally allowed to address them by first name and nothing more. The only exception is that when sending to an elder in the family such as “Mr” or “Miss”, their name can be used.

Start writing letters. How to enter a line to write if typed, and handwritten, just need to enter a line.

• If you’re writing a personal letter, start by asking how you’re doing. Usually “How are you these days?” or “Hope you stay healthy.”
• If you’re writing for business or other formal occasions, get straight to the point. Time is money, and you don’t want to waste the recipient’s time.

Decide what to exchange in the letter. The main purpose of the mail is the exchange of information. So before writing, think about what information the person in the letter will receive. Think about whether you need to let them know the price of the product, or simply tell people how much you miss them, or thank you for the birthday present… Whatever kind of information it is, practice focus on it.

• You also need to know what “shouldn’t” write. A letter written in anger filled with rude words should not be sent at all. When you’ve accidentally written such a letter and are wondering if you should send it, leave it for a few days – maybe you’ll change your mind!

Start writing letters. In each section, state one main idea. Make sure you use correct punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Review the letter you write. Before you send it, read it over and over a few times to make sure it conveys exactly what you want, and without any typographical or grammatical errors. Use the spell check feature in your editing software or have a friend check it for you and make some changes if needed.

Use a closing letter. Here’s how to establish a new relationship with the recipient. After you have finished writing the last paragraph, make a single line to write the closing sentence.

• For formal letters, use “Thank you very much,” “It is a pleasure,” or “Have a nice day.”
• For partially formal letters, you can use the above or shorter sentences like “Sincerely” or “Good Luck”.
• For casual letters, the conclusion should reflect the relationship with the recipient. If you are writing a letter to your lover or spouse, close friend or family, you should use “I love you.” or “Love you all so much.”, etc
• If you have ambitions for a relationship, you can use the same old-fashioned closing as you would in a formal letter (or if you’re writing to a dear friend you treasure). Make the closing sentence part of the body sentence. For example, at the end, write “As always, I hope…”, after writing this sentence, go down the line one line and write “Thank you very much.” This way, you’ve made the closing sentence the “concluding paragraph” of the letter because it links the body to the paragraph above. Not just one way, create more unique endings.

Sign. How you sign depends on the content of the letter.

• For typed letters, the signature should space about 4 lines between the closing line and your fully typed name line just below. Sign in blue or black ink between those two lines.
• In the case of formal emailing, type your full name after the closing line.
• If you want, you can add your title after the name. If Mr. A wants the recipient to know that he is a professor, his signature will say “Professor A”.
• For partially formal letters, it’s up to you to decide whether to use your first name or your full name. You can sign and then specify your name as you would for a formal letter, or simply signing is enough.
• For informal letters, there is no need to write your name after signing. Enter your name at the bottom of the letter for email messages and sign for handwritten letters.

If you want to add more after you have signed, use “Postscript” (PS) and then write a few lines of what you want.

• In case there is still something to say, use “Postscript” (PPS). Use only when you want to add a second paragraph to a certain paragraph in the message.

Fold the letter (optional). If mailing, fold the letter in three. First fold the bottom of the letter up 1/3 of the paper, straightening. Then fold the top of the letter over the bottom folded edge. Folding the letter this way will make sure it fits inside the envelope.

Write the address on the envelope (optional). In the middle of the envelope, including the width and length, is where you will write the recipient’s address, the way to write is as follows:

• Mr. Nguyen Van A
• 123 Vo Thi Sau Street
• Hanoi City, Vietnam