Every educated person should know how to write a clear and readable letter. Everyone has sometimes to write bussiness letters of some sort, and may have to face the problem of writing an important letter that will vitally affect his interests in life. The art of letterwriting is, therefore, no mere ornamental accomplishment, but something that every educated person must acquire for practical reasons.
I. THE FORM OF LETTERS Letters are messages, and certain letter-forms have been established by experience and custom as the most useful forms learned and used by every letter-writer, for neglect of them is a sign of ignorance and carelessness.
There are several different kinds of letters (such as friendly letters, business letters, etc.) each of which has its own particular form; but there are certain matters of form which apply to all, and these may be explained first. In all kinds of letters there are six points of form to be attended to, namely:-
1. The Heading consisting of (a) the writer's address and (b) the date. 2. The courteous Greeting or Salutation. 3. The Communication or Message-The body of the letter. 4. The subscription, or couteous Leave – talking, or conclusion.
5. The Signature. 6. The Superscription en the envelope.
1. The HEADING:- This informs the reader where you wrote the letter, and when. The where, (which should be the writer's full postal address) gives the address to which the reader may reply; and the when is for reference, as it gives him the date on which you wrote. The position of the heading is the top right-hand corner of the first page-the address above and the date just below it. The heading and the date may alternatively go on the left. 24 Poorvi Marg New Delhi 110 057 10 October 2001
The date may be written in any of the following ways: 4 June 2001 4th June 2001 June 4, 2001 4-6-2001 -- To a British person this means the fourth of 4.6.2001 -- June; to an American it is the sixth of April. 4/6/2001 -- (Americans put the month before the day.)
2. SALUTATION or Greeting. The form of Greeting will depend upon the relation in which you stand to the person to whom you are writing.
To members of your family, for example, it will be- Dear Father, My dear Mother, Dear Uncle, Dear Hari, etc.
To friends, it will be- Dear Shri Desai, or Dear Desai, or Dear Ramchandra, etc.
To business people, it will be- Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, etc. [Full examples will be given for each kind of letter later.] Note:- The use of the term Dear is purely formal, and is a mere polite expression, not necessarily implying any special affection.
The position of the Salutation is at the left-hand of the first page, at a lower level than the Heading.
3. The COMMUNICATION or Body of the letter:- This is, of course, the letter itself, and the style in which it is written will depend upon the kind of letter you wish to write. The style of a letter to anintimate friend will be very different from that of a purely business
letter or an official communication. But a few hints that apply to all letters are given below.
(a) Divide your letter (unless it is very short) into paragraphs, to mark changes of Subject-matter, etc. (b) Use simple and direct language and short sentences. Do not try to be eloquent, and drag in long words, just because they are long words. Be clear about what you want to say, and say it as directly as possible. (c) Try to be complete. It is a sign of slovenly thinking when you have to add postscripts at the end of a letter. Think out what you want to say before you begin to write; and put down your points in some: logical order. (d) Write neatly. Remember that your correspondent has to read what you write, and do not give him unnecessary trouble with bad penmenship and slovenly writing.
(e) Mind your punctuation, and put in commas and semicolons and full stops in their proper places. Incorrect punctuation may alter the whole meaning of a sentence.
4. The SUBSCRIPTION or courteous Leave-taking:- A letter must not end abruptly, simply with the writer's name. This would look rude. So certain forms of polite leavetaking are prescribed. Such as:-
Yours sincerely, Your sincere friend, Yours faithfully, etc.
[Different leave-taking forms are used in different kinds of letters, and these will be given under their proper heads.]
The subscription, or Leave-taking phrase, must be written below the last words of the letter, and to the right side of the page. This is the traditional method. Note that today there is a growing tendency to place the subscription on the left side.
Note:- The first word of the Subscription must begin with a capital letter; e.g., Sincerely yours
5. The SIGNATURE or name of the writer:- This must come below the Subscription. Thus :
Yours sincerely, K.R. Deshpande
In letters to strangers, the signature should be clearly written, so that the reader may know whom to address in reply.
A woman should prefix to the name Miss or Mrs (or: Kumari or Smt) in brackets. Ms can be used by a woman who does not wish to be called Miss or Mrs. Yours faithfully, (Mrs.) J.L. Desai
6. The address on the envelope (or postcard): The address on the envelope or postcard should be written clearly, like this:
Postage Stamp MrB.N.Joshi 96 Hill Road Bandra Mumbai 400050 To sum up:-
In writing a letter, first write your address and under it the date in the top right-hand corner of the first page. You may alternatively write them on the left.
Then write the Salutation {e.g., Dear Shri Desai,) lower down at the left side of the page, beginning with a capital and putting a comma after it.
Next begin your letter (with a capital letter) on the next lower line, to the right of the salutation.
At the end of the letter write the Subscription, or words of leave-taking (e.g., Yours sincerely), at the right/left side of the page, with your signature below it. For Example:-
16 North Usman Road Chennai 600 017 4 October 2001
Dear Sir, I shall be much obliged if you send me as soon as possible the books which I ordered a week ago.
Yours faithfully, Abdul Ghani
II. CLASSIFICATION OF LETTERS Letters may be classified according to their different purposes. Thus : (1) Social Letters, including Friendly Letters and Notes of Invitations. (2) Business Letters; including Letters of Application, Letters to government officers and
Letters to Newspapers. These have different characteristics which must be considered.
I. Social Letters
1. FRIENDLY LETTERS Letters to relations and intimate friends should be written in an easy, conversational style. They are really of the nature of friendly chat; and, being as a rule unpremeditated and spontaneous compositions, they are informal and free-and-easy as compared with essays. Just as in friendly talk, so in friendly letters, we can touch on many subjects and in any order we like; and we can use colloquial expressions which would in formal essays be quite out of place. But this does not mean that we can be careless and slovenly in dashing off our letters, for it is insulting to ask a friend to decipher a badly-written, ill-composed and confused scrawl; so we must take some care and preserve some order in expressing our thoughts. Above all, it must be remembered that, however free-and- easy may be our style, we are just as much bound by the rules of spelling, punctuation, grammar and idiom in writing a letter as we are in writing the most formal essay. Such ungrammatical expressions as “an advice” “those sort of things” and "he met my brother and I," are no more permissible in a friendly letter than in a literary article. Mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar at once stamp a letter-writer as uneducated.
Forms of address:- In friendly letters to relations and intimate friends, the proper form of address is the name (without title) of the person to whom you are writing, prefixed by such qualifying terms as Dear, My dear, Dearest, etc. For example:-
Dear Father or Mother, Dear Brother, Dearest Sister, Dear Edward, My dear Abdul, etc.
But if you are writing to an ordinary friend who is much older than you are, or of superior rank, it is respectful to use a prefix like Mr. Mrs. Shri. etc. e.g. Dear Mr Krishna Rao. (N.B.-Students writing)
friendly letters to their teachers or professors, should always address them thus). The forms of subscription are varied. The following can be used in letters to relatives and near friends:- Yours affectionately, Your affectionate (or loving) son, or brother or friend, Yours very sincerely (to friends); or you can use some such form as this:-
With love and best wishes, From your affectionate friend, Ahmad Hassan
In concluding letters to friends or acquaintances whom you address as "Shri or Mr " (e.g., My Dear Shri Durga Prasad) you should use the word sincerely or very sincerely, in the subscription; and this may be preceded by With kind (or very kind or kindest) regards. Thus:-
With kind regards, Yours sincerely, Chaman Lal
(N.B:- Sincerely should not be used in letters beginning with the formal Dear Sir, after which the proper word of subscription is faithfully or truly.)
[To your uncle on his 70th birthday] 18 Patel Road Mumbai 400014 24 Sept. 2001
My dear Uncle, I have just remembered that it is your birthday on Saturday and so I must send you a birthday letter at once And I begin with the old greeting, Many happy returns of the day ! I hope the day itself will be peaceful and happy for you and. that you will be spared in happiness and health to us all for years yet. You have always been a kind and generous uncle to me, and I take this opportunity of thanking you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done for me. And I know all your nieces and other nephews feel the same. I was so glad to hear from father that you are still hale and hearty, and can take your fourmile walk every day, and still play a good set of tennis.
I am sending you a book which I think you will like. You were always a great reader, and I am glad that your eyesight remains as good as ever-so father says.
I am getting on well in my business and hope to enlarge it considerably before the end of the year.
With love and best wishes, Your loving nephew,
Sohrab [From a boy in a boarding-school to his mother, telling her that he dislikes the life of a boarder.]
St. Dominic's Pune 411 002 24th October 2001
Dearest Mother, I was so glad to get your letter yesterday. Thank you so much! I read it just after morning school; but it made me feel very homesick. It seems years since I left home thought it is really only about a month. It seems a month. It seems ages to the Christmas holidays, when I shall be able to come home. It was much nicer when I was at the day-school, and came home every afternoon.
I do hate being a boarder. I am in a big dormitory, with about twenty other boys. Some of them are all right; but the bigger boys are always playing nasty jokes on us smaller ones; and we daren't say anything, or we should get a most awful licking. The master comes round to see all lights out, but all the larking goes on after he has gone; so he knows nothing about it. And I don't like the masters. They simply make you work all day, and cane you for every fault. Most of the boys are horrid; but 1 like two or three.
Please ask Dad to put me into a day-school again. I should be much happier there.
With Love, From your loving Tommy
[The mother's reply] Hill-top House Matheran 26th October, 2001
My dear Tommy, Thank you for your letter. But I am sorry you are so unhappy at St. Dominic's. I don't wonder you feel rather homesick, for it is the first time you have been away from home; and I, too, often want you home again, my child. But you know, we can't always have what we want in life. If I were selfish, I would keep you always at home, for I don't like any of my children to be away; but then how would you ever get your education and grow up to be a man able to manage your own life ? Your father thinks that a few years at a boarding-school is necessary for all boys, to make men of them; and he knows best.
So my dear boy, you must be brave and stick to your school. I am sure you will soon get to like it, as other boys do. Don't mind the jokes boys play on you, and if you do, don't letthem know you do. When they see you don't mind, they will soon get tired of teasing you. So cheer up ! and be a brave laddie.
With much love, From your loving Mother
Exercise 135 Write a short letter:- 1. To your cousin, requesting the loan of a camera during your holidays. 2. From a boy in a boarding-school to his mother who is keeping poor health.
3. To your father who has been away from home for a fortnight, about anything of interest that has taken place in his absence. 4. To your cousin about what particularly pleased you at the circus. 5. From a boy at a boarding-school to his parents on the approaching vacation. 6. From a son to his father, stating how he hopes to fare in the approaching SchoolLeaving Examination. 7. To your younger brother, scolding him for having neglected his studies. 8. Reply to the above. 9. From a mother to her daughter, on receiving a bad report from her boarding-school. 10. Reply to the above.
( SOURCE : GRAMMAR BOOK BY WREN AND MARTIN)
I. THE FORM OF LETTERS Letters are messages, and certain letter-forms have been established by experience and custom as the most useful forms learned and used by every letter-writer, for neglect of them is a sign of ignorance and carelessness.
There are several different kinds of letters (such as friendly letters, business letters, etc.) each of which has its own particular form; but there are certain matters of form which apply to all, and these may be explained first. In all kinds of letters there are six points of form to be attended to, namely:-
1. The Heading consisting of (a) the writer's address and (b) the date. 2. The courteous Greeting or Salutation. 3. The Communication or Message-The body of the letter. 4. The subscription, or couteous Leave – talking, or conclusion.
5. The Signature. 6. The Superscription en the envelope.
1. The HEADING:- This informs the reader where you wrote the letter, and when. The where, (which should be the writer's full postal address) gives the address to which the reader may reply; and the when is for reference, as it gives him the date on which you wrote. The position of the heading is the top right-hand corner of the first page-the address above and the date just below it. The heading and the date may alternatively go on the left. 24 Poorvi Marg New Delhi 110 057 10 October 2001
The date may be written in any of the following ways: 4 June 2001 4th June 2001 June 4, 2001 4-6-2001 -- To a British person this means the fourth of 4.6.2001 -- June; to an American it is the sixth of April. 4/6/2001 -- (Americans put the month before the day.)
2. SALUTATION or Greeting. The form of Greeting will depend upon the relation in which you stand to the person to whom you are writing.
To members of your family, for example, it will be- Dear Father, My dear Mother, Dear Uncle, Dear Hari, etc.
To friends, it will be- Dear Shri Desai, or Dear Desai, or Dear Ramchandra, etc.
To business people, it will be- Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, etc. [Full examples will be given for each kind of letter later.] Note:- The use of the term Dear is purely formal, and is a mere polite expression, not necessarily implying any special affection.
The position of the Salutation is at the left-hand of the first page, at a lower level than the Heading.
3. The COMMUNICATION or Body of the letter:- This is, of course, the letter itself, and the style in which it is written will depend upon the kind of letter you wish to write. The style of a letter to anintimate friend will be very different from that of a purely business
letter or an official communication. But a few hints that apply to all letters are given below.
(a) Divide your letter (unless it is very short) into paragraphs, to mark changes of Subject-matter, etc. (b) Use simple and direct language and short sentences. Do not try to be eloquent, and drag in long words, just because they are long words. Be clear about what you want to say, and say it as directly as possible. (c) Try to be complete. It is a sign of slovenly thinking when you have to add postscripts at the end of a letter. Think out what you want to say before you begin to write; and put down your points in some: logical order. (d) Write neatly. Remember that your correspondent has to read what you write, and do not give him unnecessary trouble with bad penmenship and slovenly writing.
(e) Mind your punctuation, and put in commas and semicolons and full stops in their proper places. Incorrect punctuation may alter the whole meaning of a sentence.
4. The SUBSCRIPTION or courteous Leave-taking:- A letter must not end abruptly, simply with the writer's name. This would look rude. So certain forms of polite leavetaking are prescribed. Such as:-
Yours sincerely, Your sincere friend, Yours faithfully, etc.
[Different leave-taking forms are used in different kinds of letters, and these will be given under their proper heads.]
The subscription, or Leave-taking phrase, must be written below the last words of the letter, and to the right side of the page. This is the traditional method. Note that today there is a growing tendency to place the subscription on the left side.
Note:- The first word of the Subscription must begin with a capital letter; e.g., Sincerely yours
5. The SIGNATURE or name of the writer:- This must come below the Subscription. Thus :
Yours sincerely, K.R. Deshpande
In letters to strangers, the signature should be clearly written, so that the reader may know whom to address in reply.
A woman should prefix to the name Miss or Mrs (or: Kumari or Smt) in brackets. Ms can be used by a woman who does not wish to be called Miss or Mrs. Yours faithfully, (Mrs.) J.L. Desai
6. The address on the envelope (or postcard): The address on the envelope or postcard should be written clearly, like this:
Postage Stamp MrB.N.Joshi 96 Hill Road Bandra Mumbai 400050 To sum up:-
In writing a letter, first write your address and under it the date in the top right-hand corner of the first page. You may alternatively write them on the left.
Then write the Salutation {e.g., Dear Shri Desai,) lower down at the left side of the page, beginning with a capital and putting a comma after it.
Next begin your letter (with a capital letter) on the next lower line, to the right of the salutation.
At the end of the letter write the Subscription, or words of leave-taking (e.g., Yours sincerely), at the right/left side of the page, with your signature below it. For Example:-
16 North Usman Road Chennai 600 017 4 October 2001
Dear Sir, I shall be much obliged if you send me as soon as possible the books which I ordered a week ago.
Yours faithfully, Abdul Ghani
II. CLASSIFICATION OF LETTERS Letters may be classified according to their different purposes. Thus : (1) Social Letters, including Friendly Letters and Notes of Invitations. (2) Business Letters; including Letters of Application, Letters to government officers and
Letters to Newspapers. These have different characteristics which must be considered.
I. Social Letters
1. FRIENDLY LETTERS Letters to relations and intimate friends should be written in an easy, conversational style. They are really of the nature of friendly chat; and, being as a rule unpremeditated and spontaneous compositions, they are informal and free-and-easy as compared with essays. Just as in friendly talk, so in friendly letters, we can touch on many subjects and in any order we like; and we can use colloquial expressions which would in formal essays be quite out of place. But this does not mean that we can be careless and slovenly in dashing off our letters, for it is insulting to ask a friend to decipher a badly-written, ill-composed and confused scrawl; so we must take some care and preserve some order in expressing our thoughts. Above all, it must be remembered that, however free-and- easy may be our style, we are just as much bound by the rules of spelling, punctuation, grammar and idiom in writing a letter as we are in writing the most formal essay. Such ungrammatical expressions as “an advice” “those sort of things” and "he met my brother and I," are no more permissible in a friendly letter than in a literary article. Mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar at once stamp a letter-writer as uneducated.
Forms of address:- In friendly letters to relations and intimate friends, the proper form of address is the name (without title) of the person to whom you are writing, prefixed by such qualifying terms as Dear, My dear, Dearest, etc. For example:-
Dear Father or Mother, Dear Brother, Dearest Sister, Dear Edward, My dear Abdul, etc.
But if you are writing to an ordinary friend who is much older than you are, or of superior rank, it is respectful to use a prefix like Mr. Mrs. Shri. etc. e.g. Dear Mr Krishna Rao. (N.B.-Students writing)
friendly letters to their teachers or professors, should always address them thus). The forms of subscription are varied. The following can be used in letters to relatives and near friends:- Yours affectionately, Your affectionate (or loving) son, or brother or friend, Yours very sincerely (to friends); or you can use some such form as this:-
With love and best wishes, From your affectionate friend, Ahmad Hassan
In concluding letters to friends or acquaintances whom you address as "Shri or Mr " (e.g., My Dear Shri Durga Prasad) you should use the word sincerely or very sincerely, in the subscription; and this may be preceded by With kind (or very kind or kindest) regards. Thus:-
With kind regards, Yours sincerely, Chaman Lal
(N.B:- Sincerely should not be used in letters beginning with the formal Dear Sir, after which the proper word of subscription is faithfully or truly.)
[To your uncle on his 70th birthday] 18 Patel Road Mumbai 400014 24 Sept. 2001
My dear Uncle, I have just remembered that it is your birthday on Saturday and so I must send you a birthday letter at once And I begin with the old greeting, Many happy returns of the day ! I hope the day itself will be peaceful and happy for you and. that you will be spared in happiness and health to us all for years yet. You have always been a kind and generous uncle to me, and I take this opportunity of thanking you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done for me. And I know all your nieces and other nephews feel the same. I was so glad to hear from father that you are still hale and hearty, and can take your fourmile walk every day, and still play a good set of tennis.
I am sending you a book which I think you will like. You were always a great reader, and I am glad that your eyesight remains as good as ever-so father says.
I am getting on well in my business and hope to enlarge it considerably before the end of the year.
With love and best wishes, Your loving nephew,
Sohrab [From a boy in a boarding-school to his mother, telling her that he dislikes the life of a boarder.]
St. Dominic's Pune 411 002 24th October 2001
Dearest Mother, I was so glad to get your letter yesterday. Thank you so much! I read it just after morning school; but it made me feel very homesick. It seems years since I left home thought it is really only about a month. It seems a month. It seems ages to the Christmas holidays, when I shall be able to come home. It was much nicer when I was at the day-school, and came home every afternoon.
I do hate being a boarder. I am in a big dormitory, with about twenty other boys. Some of them are all right; but the bigger boys are always playing nasty jokes on us smaller ones; and we daren't say anything, or we should get a most awful licking. The master comes round to see all lights out, but all the larking goes on after he has gone; so he knows nothing about it. And I don't like the masters. They simply make you work all day, and cane you for every fault. Most of the boys are horrid; but 1 like two or three.
Please ask Dad to put me into a day-school again. I should be much happier there.
With Love, From your loving Tommy
[The mother's reply] Hill-top House Matheran 26th October, 2001
My dear Tommy, Thank you for your letter. But I am sorry you are so unhappy at St. Dominic's. I don't wonder you feel rather homesick, for it is the first time you have been away from home; and I, too, often want you home again, my child. But you know, we can't always have what we want in life. If I were selfish, I would keep you always at home, for I don't like any of my children to be away; but then how would you ever get your education and grow up to be a man able to manage your own life ? Your father thinks that a few years at a boarding-school is necessary for all boys, to make men of them; and he knows best.
So my dear boy, you must be brave and stick to your school. I am sure you will soon get to like it, as other boys do. Don't mind the jokes boys play on you, and if you do, don't letthem know you do. When they see you don't mind, they will soon get tired of teasing you. So cheer up ! and be a brave laddie.
With much love, From your loving Mother
Exercise 135 Write a short letter:- 1. To your cousin, requesting the loan of a camera during your holidays. 2. From a boy in a boarding-school to his mother who is keeping poor health.
3. To your father who has been away from home for a fortnight, about anything of interest that has taken place in his absence. 4. To your cousin about what particularly pleased you at the circus. 5. From a boy at a boarding-school to his parents on the approaching vacation. 6. From a son to his father, stating how he hopes to fare in the approaching SchoolLeaving Examination. 7. To your younger brother, scolding him for having neglected his studies. 8. Reply to the above. 9. From a mother to her daughter, on receiving a bad report from her boarding-school. 10. Reply to the above.
( SOURCE : GRAMMAR BOOK BY WREN AND MARTIN)
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