{S:X;X;0;0;A Business Letter{ITR-X}by Gerald L Fitton}
{S:X;X;0;1;I have been asked on many occasions \“What is the \‘correct\’ format for a business letter?\” Well, undoubtedly there are many and I think it would be incorrect to say that there is only one correct format. However, some formats are better and more usual than others\\\; the one I shall describe is fairly common and almost universally accepted as having \‘good\’ style.}
{S:X;X;0;2;An example letter is the file [Letter] in this directory. Load it and have a look at it. First I describe the style (not to be confused with a Wordz Style) in which [Letter] is written.}
{S:X;X;0;3;Style}
{S:X;X;0;4;[Letter] is written in the style called \“Fully Blocked with Open Punctuation\”. The first thing that you may notice is that every paragraph starts at the left edge without an indent. That is what is meant by \“Fully Blocked\” (sometimes abbreviated to \“Blocked\”). Perhaps more subtly, the sender\’s address (Abacus Training etc) is also blocked left but against a left tab. The address of the intended recipient is also \“Blocked\” but against the left margin. Even more subtly you will see that the word \“Reference\” in \“Our Reference\” and \“Your Reference\” are aligned right by the word \“Reference\” against the first tab, a right tab, and that the references (\“GLF-16\” and \“RM/27\”) are \“Blocked\” left against the second tab.}
{S:X;X;0;5;The second thing you will notice is the absence of punctuation in or after the references, the date, the names, the addresses, in the salutation \“Dear Sirs\” and the complimentary close \“Yours faithfully\”. With \“Open Punctuation\” the full stop is omitted from all abbreviated words such as \“am\” for (ante meridiem \– afternoon), in (inches), Km (kilometres). Note that there is never an \“s\” in the abbreviated form of units such as inches\\\; perhaps our European colleagues are ahead of us but they never use punctuation in metric abbreviations, even when full punctuation is used. Qualifications etc are written without full stops but with a comma and space between groups of letters. An example of open punctuation is BSc, BA, ARCS, CPhys, MBIM, MIIM, MRI. Numbered items in the text have no full stop after the numbers so we might have:}
{S:X;X;0;7;The Wordz style I am using does have a \‘space below paragraph\’ so you may wonder how I have avoided such a space between the four rows just above this paragraph and between the rows of an address. The answer is that all the lines of the address are within the same paragraph. What you may not have spotted in the Wordz handbook is that if, at the end of a line, you hold down <Ctrl> whilst tapping the <Return> key then you can start the new line within the same paragraph! That is the way in which I have kept the address lines together.}
{S:X;X;0;8;The order in which the items appear \– ie the references, the date, the addressee, the salutation, subject heading (\“Wordz\”), subject matter (sometimes called \“Body text\”), complimentary close, company name, name of signatory, designation and enclosure\—these are all standard. The spacing between the various items is also standard. In particular, there are four line spaces between the company name and the name of the signatory (achieved with two taps of <Return> without holding down <Ctrl> so that the Space below paragraph adds about one line\’s depth to each <Return>). Some signatories may ask for extra space because of the large scale to which they sign their signature.}
{S:X;X;0;9;One final point. The date has been included using the sub menu Extra \– Inserts \– Date . . . so that it remains \‘Live\’. If you look at the date you will find that it is the current date and not the date on which I typed this article.}
