FORMAL AND INFORMAL LETTERS Introduction: In our lives we need…

FORMAL AND INFORMAL LETTERS
Introduction:
In our lives we need to communicate with people on a daily basis. The easiest way is
to talk to them face to face or over the telephone. Even while speaking we need to be careful
who we are talking to and keeps our conversation either formal or informal, accordingly. Writing
letters is another way of communicating but even while writing letters one is governed by a few
principles of letter writing.
Letter writing can be broadly classified under two headings
(i) Informal or Friendly Letters.
(ii) Formal or Business Letters.
Under this broad framework may fall further subdivisions. Certain rules have to be
followed in writing both friendly as well as business Letters. We shall first provide a simple format
for an informal letter and also a brief description of the rules that should be kept in mind while
writing one.
(i) Informal or Friendly Letter
Informal, friendly or social letters can be written to friends and relations. The tone of such
letters is friendly/intimate and the style is casual and conversational. It may read almost as though
you are talking to the person you are writing to. Such letters can touch on a variety of subjects,
but you should always be careful about your spellings, punctuation and grammar. Remember also
that letters should be written out neatly on a clean sheet of paper.
Given below are the basic rules for writing an informal letter.
(i) Your address: This is your address to which a reply to your letter can be sent.
This is written on the right hand side of the page. Write only your street address
in the first line and then the city, state and code in the second line. As mentioned
above, the most popular format of writing informal letters begins on the right hand
side of the page and then moves towards the left.
(ii) Date: After writing your address, write the date on which the letter was written.
You may follow the format of writing the month first followed by the date and then
the year eg: January, 15, 2007.
(iii) Salutation: Between the date and the salutation you need to leave a line blank.
Then begin your salutation or greeting by addressing the person you are writing to.
Address the person as Dear (the name of the person), My dear…… Put a comma
after the salutation eg Dear Nimmi, If you have begun your letter by writing your
address in the right hand corner then salutation should be written towards the left
side of the page and rest of the letter will also keep towards the left margin.
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(iv) Main text: This is the main body of the letter and begins in the next line just after
the salutation. The main text should be divided into short paragraphs with a blank
line between each paragraph.
(v) Closing: This indicates that the letter has ended. It comes in the line just after the
main text is over and usually ends with Sincerely, Sincerely yours, Affectionately
yours, Thank you etc. Only the first letter of the closing begins with a capital letter.
(vi) Signature: Your signature will come in the next line right after ‘Sincerely yours.’
After having written out the letter, the format for it would look somewhat like the
samples provided below. In the first sample we have followed the block format in
which all of the writing is towards the left margin. In sample 2 we have followed
the second format in which we begin the letter on the right hand side then move
left and then write the closing again towards the right.

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