English Business Letter FormatI. Demands of stationery—the

English Business Letter Format
    Good morning, everyone. I believe that some of English majors want to work for foreign trade companies after graduation. So today I will focus on English business letter format which is very useful.
    When a business that has letterhead stationery writes an English business letter, the first page of the letter uses paper with the printed letterhead and(1) succeeding pages, if any, use matching quality and color sheets without the letterhead. A business with very good quality printing might generate the letterhead graphic with an image embedded in a word processor document.(2) An individual normally won’t use letterhead stationery and won’t attempt to fake it. An attempt at letterhead that produces a tacky result or that conveys pompousness produces effects that you want to avoid.
    In an English business letter, everything that you "type" should be in the same typeface and in the same size. You should use "formal English" and you should very carefully check your grammar and spelling.(3) You should arrange things neatly.(4) You should consider the appearance of the letter "at arm’s length" as well as close up— use white space to produce an attractive sheet.
    In a conventional English business letter you should see these parts, in order top to bottom.
    The first part is return address. This item is the postal address of the author of the letter. Each line of it is left justified—either at a tab stop that puts the information toward the right side of the page or the left margin. Normally the return address is at the top of the page, but you can move it down a little to improve over-all appearance.(5) Do not put e-mail addresses here—if you need to convey an e-mail address: do it in the body of the letter.
    The second part is the date of the letter. It is aligned with the return address.(6) Formerly there was never white space between the return address and the date, but some current styles allow blank lines.
     (7) The third item, inside address, duplicates what goes on the envelope. It has the formal name of the intended recipient of the letter and that person’s postal address. Each line of the inside address is left justified at the left margin. No email addresses appear here. You can put blank lines between the date and the inside address to fill the page better and to improve the "arm’s length" appearance.
     (8) Next comes the salutation. This item formally addresses the recipient. If the addressee is not a friend, you should write "Dear Mr. Brown" or "Dear Mrs. Smith" or "Dear Ms. Jones" or "Dear Mr. Green" or the like. A letter to a close associate might say "Dear Mike" or "Dear Sally".
    There is at least one line of white space between the inside address and the salutation. You can put a little more to improve the over-all appearance.
    The fifth part is the core of the letter—the body. The body is single spaced. Ordinarily the body contains more than one paragraph. Avoid both extremely short and very long paragraphs.
     (9) You can use either indented paragraphs in which the first line is indented more than the rest or block paragraphs in which all lines begin at the left margin. With block paragraphs you must leave extra white space between paragraphs—one blank line or one "empty paragraph" is often used, but you can also use Word’s extra space before or after paragraph option: the extra space should probably not exceed the size of an empty paragraph. With indented paragraphs, extra space between paragraphs is common, but optional. Indented paragraphs should be avoided if the return address was aligned at the left margin.
    Special effects like bulleted lists and paragraphs whose left and right edges are both indented should be used very sparingly—avoid them as much as you can. Likewise, consider whether having your paragraphs fully justified, i. e. both left and right edges squared off, which will make the letter look too much like a form letter or a piece of junk mail.
     (10) What comes sixth is the closing. This item is something like " Yours truly," or " Sincerely". It is normally vertically aligned with the return address.
    Next item is the typed name of letter author, which is aligned with the return address, date, and closing. Leave enough white space above it for a signature.(11) If you have a job title and this letter is being written as part of that job, it is common to type the job title directly below the typed name. An individual writing a letter normally doesn’t include a job-title line.
     (12) Finally, if you are supplying copies to people other than the addressee, it is common to put a "cc" list at the bottom left of the last page—" cc" originally stood for " carbon copy to". It is assumed that you will keep a copy of the letter. When the letter is prepared by a professional typist, it is common for the initials of the typist to be supplied at her bottom.(13) If there are enclosures, that fact is often noted there too. An individual writing a letter usually omits these items.
    Furthermore, your instructor may have told you not to use a template. Do what your instructor told you.(14) Many of MS-Word’s templates appear to have been created more to show off weird or fancy effects that Word can do than to produce a well-done product useful to the ordinary user. Some of Word’s templates encourage you to produce a tacky document—resist the temptation. If you’re using Word 97, our friend "Office Bob" may pop up when you type the letter’s salutation.(15) If your instructor told you not to use templates, decline " Office Bob’s offer of help".
OK, today’s lecture is over. I hope it will enable you to know exactly how to write a business letter. Next lecture will be held on Monday. See you then.