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January 16, 2006

Formats for Business Letters

Joel, one of the visitors to the Business Letter Blog, requested that I give some examples of the different formats used for business letters. It's a pretty general question, but I'll see what I can do to help you out!

In the United States, there are two formats for business letters that are generally accepted: block format and indented format.

The block format is the most common. When writing a business letter with this format you don't indent your paragraphs. The entire letter is aligned on the left side of the page. This article is an example of a block format. An example of a block format letter can be found at this website.

The second acceptable business letter format is the indented format. In this case, each paragraph includes an indent and the letter is not aligned on the left edge of the paper. When writing with an indented format, the sender's address is aligned on the right side of the page. The recipient's address and the greeting are aligned on the left. Each paragraph is indented and follow a line break. Finally, the signature is indented and aligned with the sender's address towards the right side of the page. Visit this site for an example of the indented format.

While these are the most common business letter formats, there are variations on these. Find out more at the About.com website and visit Business Letter Templates for more examples and resources.

Keep the questions coming!!! Just create a comment on any post, but no spam please. We read every comment before it is live on the site, so spammers, don't waste you time.

Posted by Jon at 3:44 PM | Comments (5)