Lesson 12 — Activity 1: Business Letters
Completion requirements
Lesson 12 — Activity 1: Business Letters
Many of us use e-mail and texting to communicate with people we know well.
There will be times, however, when you will need to know how to write a business letter.
You might want to:
There will be times, however, when you will need to know how to write a business letter.
You might want to:
- write a letter to the newspaper to compliment somebody in your community
- write a letter to apply for a scholarship
- invite a guest speaker to attend a ceremony
- write to a company to complain about a faulty product you received
- write a letter to thank someone for a donation
When you write paragraphs or communicate in other ways, you need to
focus on your audience and purpose. This is the same when you write a
letter.
- Your audience is most likely someone you do not know well, so you will need to be careful to use appropriate language.
- Your purpose in writing the letter will vary depending on the situation, but it will be important to design all of your paragraphs so that they focus on your purpose.
Business letters contain more than one paragraph. In order to express your point clearly, here is how you should structure a business letter:
- In the first paragraph, state your purpose for writing.
For
example, you might say something like, “I am writing to thank you for
...” Or “This letter is in regard to ...” so that the reader knows
immediately why you are writing the letter.
- In the second paragraph, give the reasons why you are writing.
You might need more than one paragraph for this if you have a lot of reasons for writing!
- In the final paragraph, restate your reason for writing the letter and thank the person for his or her time.
Here's an example of a business letter template:
Knowledge and Employability Studio Alberta Learning