Business Letter WritingBusiness Letter—layoutL Basic Layout: Note the position of1. Letterhead2. The dateline3. The opening (inside address)4. The salutation5. The body6. The Closing7. The signature and name8. P・S・ (Postscript)There are two styles of composing letters. One is indented style, and the other is block style. Nowadays, block style is more popular especially in business world. For indented style, you should indented 4 letters at the beginning of each paragraph, and you need not leave space between paragraphs. While for the block style, you need to leave space between paragraphs, but you need not indented 4 letters at the beginning. Just write along side.1.. LetterheadThe letterhead is also called return address, which is the full address of the writer. It is typed in the upper right- hand corner of the first page. In business world, letterhead is normally printed on the top of the letter paper in the middle. Thus you need not to write it again. Just write the date. For personal letter, you also need not to write the letterhead.Notes for letterhead:1) You should be aware of the order you write letterhead is just reversed from that in Chinese ,i.e・, from the smallest unit to the biggest unit. For example, the number of the room, number of the building, number of the street, city, province and then the country.2. DatesBe careful!In China the 14th April 2003 is written 2003/04/14In England the 14th April 2003 is written 14/4/2003 or 14/04/2003In America the 14th April 2003 is written 4/14/2003 or 04/14/2003It is probably safest to write 14th April, 2003 or April 14, 2003 !!!3・ The openingThe opening is also called the inside address, which is the address exactly the same as that on envelope. The opening goes above the salutation on the left, which is always omitted in personal letters. The order of the inside address is the same as the order of letterhead. While in business world, if you know the receivers name and position, you should write them before the company name and address.4. The salutationThe salutation is the greeting, which goes one or two spaces below the opening at the left-hand margin. Usually it is best to say "Dear../" if you know the name of the receiver, or just "Dear Sir/Madam^ if you do not know the receivers name. Then you should use a comma (J or nothing. We Chinese normally use a colon (:) After the salutation, while, in English letter, colon should not be used. It is not correct.In salutation, you still should pay much attention to the title, Mr. for male, Mrs., Miss, Ms. For female. They should be followed by surname, family name. For example, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown (husband^ surname), Ms. Smith, Miss White etc. Note: In China, people always address the title of ones position, such as manager, director, and teacher etc. In English, however, these are not the addressing. It is not correctly used that you write "Dear Teacher Zhang笃 “ Dear Manager Yang冷 and so on and so forth.5. The bodyIt is the most important part of the letter—the content of the letter. It is one or two spaces bellow the salutation. The length of the line should be adjusted to the length of the pape匚 Leave margins on either side. The paragraph should be blocked or indented, according to the style chosen. Usually it is single一spaced for a business letter. It usually consists of at least two paragraphs一even if the second paragraph is nothing more than “ Thanks and best wishes to you/9 or something. It contains introduction, purpose and conclusion in the body of the letters.6. The closingIt is the way of saying goodbye. In business writing, it is always the complimentary closing. There are various of words to choose in English closing. It should match the tone established by the salutation and carried through the body of the lette匚 It is usually two spaces bellow the body of the letter, together with the signature group.How a letter is closed depends on how it is opened. The closing should match the opening. If you use a comma (J after the salutation, you should use a comma after the closing. If you use nothing after the salutation, you also should use nothing after the closing.Dear Sir or Dear MadamDear Sir/MadamYours faithfullyDear Mr. Smith,Yours sincerely,Dear Mrs. Wang,Dear Ms. Lee,Yours truly,*Dear RoseDear JackBest wishesWith kind regardsYoursLove (informal, close friends)Cordially yours,7. The signature and nameThe signature is the last part of a letter. Skip a line after the closing and sign your name in line with the first word of the closing. In business letters, you should sign your full name. Your name should be typed also in another line. In order to make the people know how to address you when reply, lady writers should list Mrs. Ms., Or Miss in parenthesis after your name. However, in personal letters, you can sign your full name, first name or nick name according to the relationship with the rece。