Eight Parts Of A Business Letter (1944)

letters. Millions of them from every nook and corner of our land. We Americans are the world's greatest letter writers. Many thousands of clerks handle our mail. Letters are the endless lines of communication which lubricate the wheels of American business and government. We use every possible device to speed the delivery of mail. Much of it is sorted while traveling toward its destination. American letter writers produce so much mail that some of our big corporations in the ordinary routine of business handle thousands of air mail letters a day. America's army of letter carriers is doing a neverending job. According to Uncle Sam's postal statistics, we mail 16 billion pieces of first class matter a year, mainly letters. And these constitute a majority of the pieces making up the grand total of 29 billions. To speed up the endless procession of letters, the handling of business correspondents has become highly standardized. Although business firms vary somewhat in their style, every secretary uses stationery of a standard size, shape, and texture. Whether her firm is large or small, she prepares her letters to conform with the generally accepted rules. Even a penwritten letter prepared at home if it deals with a business subject should follow the standard style of correspondence. It should be folded in and addressed as carefully as a letter prepared in a business office. These small folded sheets of social stationery, 24 to a box with small envelopes to match, are not proper for business letters. Compare the size of social stationery with the size of business stationary. The small folded sheet is 5 1/2 in wide. The business letter sheet is 8 1/2 in wide. The piece of social stationery is 7 in long. Whereas the sheet of business letter stationery is 11 in long. The smaller sheets should be used only for social notes. Compare the envelopes. Note that the standard business envelope is 6 and 1/2 in wide. The social envelope is smaller than the business envelope. Here is a standard business letter file. Each drawer is built to hold folders containing letters of the standard size. Alphabetical guides likewise are cut to fit the standard letter size. Carbon paper for making extra copies is cut to fit the standard size letter. The typewriter is built to hold the standard letter head 8 and 1/2 in wide. Paper manufacturers have standardized letter paper in reams to be cut exactly in quarters without waste. Here are reams as they come from the manufacturer. Each ream contains 500 sheets of white paper size 17x 22, just four times the size of the standard letterhead. The stock is called bond paper because of its strong texture. It is suitable for both typewritten and penwritten letters. The 7 17in dimension is just twice the width of a letter head. And the 22-in dimension is just twice the length with a slight margin for trimming. The reams may be cut for printing letter heads two at a time or one at a time, but the finished letter heads are regularly 8 and 1/2 by 11. 500 sheets make 2,000 letter heads. Here you see letter heads being printed four at a time. These sheets, when cut in quarters, will make standard letter heads. The first part of a business letter is called the heading. If we use plain paper, we write the heading as a unit beginning at the middle of the page and at least an inch from the top. The heading includes the writer's address and the date. When using printed letter heads, we add the date. We omit punctuation at the ends of lines in the heading. Likewise, in part two, usually called the introduction, we omit punctuation at the ends of lines. This includes the name and address of the firm or person to whom the letter is written. Part three, the salutation is followed by a colon. Part four is the body of the letter. Note that we follow the block system. All lines beginning flush at the left. The experienced secretary has judged the space the letter will require and has left suitable margins at the sides. Note the double spacing between the parts. Part five is the complimentary close. This begins at the middle of the page with a capital Y and is followed by a comma. Part six is the signature. If the secretary signs the writer's name, she adds her initial below it. Part seven is the return address in the upper left corner of the envelope. Part eight is the outside address, identical with part two, the introductory address. The outside address is written below the middle of the envelope with equal margins at left and right. We fold the letter to within a/4 in of the top and crease it. Then we fold it in thirds and insert the folded edge. Now suppose the letter has been a long one requiring a second page. The succeeding page is plain unprinted. Across the top we write a oneline heading including the name of the address ee the number of the page and the date. The envelope instead of 6 and 1/2 in is 9 in wide. The letter instead of being folded in half and then in thirds is folded in thirds across the entire width to conform with the envelope. The outside address is always below the middle of the envelope. Now let us review the eight parts of the letter noting the general display and the clearly defined margins. Part one, the heading includes everything above the introduction. Two, the introduction. Three, the salutation. Four, the body. Five, the complimentary clothes. Six, the signature. Seven, the return address. Eight, the outside address. To save time, some firms use window envelopes so that part two, the introductory address, serves also as part eight, the outside address. The folding is just the reverse of the usual style so that the writing appears on the outside and can be seen through the transparency of the window. This type of envelope calls for accuracy in folding. The crease comes just below the salutation. Now let us outline the parts of a letter. The heading, the introduction, the salutation, the body, the complimentary close, the signature, the return address, the outside address. The need for trained secretaries is greater today than ever before. Students must learn the fundamentals of good form as quickly as possible and proceed to practice the many types of letters used in business and government. Inquiries, orders, claims, adjustments, collections, always remembering that good form is essential.