Formal letter

Formal Letter

When you write a formal letter, you will have a specific role, such as a customer, job applicant, or college applicant. A formal letter should be free of grammatical and spelling mistakes. You must be polite and formal at all times.

  • The register should be formal.
  • Grammatical structures should be appropriate to the content.
  • Make sure your sentences are complete and well structured.
  • Your tone should be formal & arguments must be solid.
  • Include an appropriate opening salutation. The most common salutation is ‘To Whom It May Concern, ‘Ms. X, Mr. X, Mrs., X’.
  • To conclude, you can use ‘Regards,’ ‘Kind Regards,’ ‘Sincerely,’ etc.
  • Your signature goes below the close. Use correct punctuation and formal vocabulary.
  • Start with your address and date.
  • Open and close the letter correctly with a formal salutation and ending.
  • Use paragraphs to structure your letter. In the first paragraph, start with a salutation and state the reason why you are writing. In the second paragraph, develop your ideas deep into the topic/idea. Finally, close to an opinion or suggested things to do.
  • Contractions, similes, idiomatic language are not acceptable.
  • Connect your ideas clearly.
  • Support your points and include only necessary information.
  • Audience: This will generally be a formal text for a specific individual with a specific professional role.
  • Context: The situation you decided to address.
  • Purpose: To apply, enquire, complain, apologize.
  • Saad AlDin, K. & Morley, K. (2018). English B: Second Edition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Page 348.
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