Letter is a common style in daily life, and it is an important tool for negotiating affairs, transmitting information, exchanging ideas, connecting feelings and enhancing understanding. Letters can generally be divided into two categories: business letters or official letters and personal letters. It is worth noting that there are some obvious differences between English letters and Chinese letters, which should be distinguished in particular.

English letters usually include the following components: tail, address, title, body, conclusion, signature, attachment, reopening, etc. We will introduce them one by one below.

1. Title

The letterhead is the letterhead, which generally includes the address and the date of writing. At the end of some formal letters, the telephone number, telegram registration, telex, fax and postal code of the sender or unit are also included.

In some western countries, there is even the name, position and title of the person in charge of the unit.

The purpose of the end of the letter is to let the receiver know at a glance where the letter came from and when it was sent, which is convenient for reply and reference. When writing a letter on ordinary stationery, the end of the letter should be written in the upper right corner of the stationery. If there are many words, you can start from the middle or right side of the stationery. If the number of words is small, you can move it to the right more appropriately, so that the center of gravity of the whole terminal falls on the upper right corner.

There are two main ways to write the letter tail: parallel and oblique. Judging from the current situation, the former is more commonly used.

When using typesetting, the beginning of each line should be aligned to the left; When diagonal form is adopted, the beginning of each line is moved to the right by two or three letters.

take for example

(1) Parallel type

Fuxing Street 16

Haidian District

Beijing

Postal code: 100035

People's Republic of China (PRC)

Tel: 632 1 1234

August 20(th), 2004

(2) Indentation format

Fuxing Street 16

Haidian District

Beijing

Postal code: 100035

People's Republic of China (PRC)

Tel: 632 1 1234

August 20(th), 2004

When writing a letter, first write the address of the sender, and place names are arranged in order from small to large, plus other items and the date of mailing. The specific order is: the first line writes the house number and street name; On the second line, write the name of the district, city (county) and province (state, state), and the name of the country in the letter sent abroad; Add the postal code before the country name, then write the telephone number, and write the mailing date in the last line. If the writer's address is the name of the organization, it will be the first line. If the author's unit has no house number and street name, you can write the name of the class or professional group on the first line; On the second line, write the name of the department, department and room; Write the name of the school on the third line; Write the name of the city (county) and province (state) in the fourth line; Then write down the postal code, country name, telephone number, mailing date, etc.

If punctuation is used, put a comma at the end of each line and a period at the end of the last line. However, in current letters, punctuation is not used at the end of most lines, but punctuation should still be used where punctuation should be used in each line.

In particular, put a comma between the house number and the street name. Commas are not allowed between the month and the date. In western countries, letters or numbers (such as new york, 103) are often written after the city name, indicating the postal code of the city.

Regarding the writing of the mailing date, we should pay attention to the following points:

(1) year should be written completely, and no abbreviations are allowed.

② Use English names instead of numbers for months.

(3) The name of the month is usually abbreviated. But May, June and July cannot be abbreviated because they are short.

④ When writing the date, you can use the cardinal number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... 28, 29, 30, 3 1, or the ordinal number lst, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... 28th, 29th, 30th and 3655. But using cardinality is simple and clear.

Dates can be written in the following ways:

①20041October 20th

② 10 may. , 2004

③ June 3, 2004

④ September 2004 16.

Among them, ① is the most common.

2. Internal address (inductive address)

The name and address of the recipient in the letter should be written in the upper left corner of the letter paper, starting from the top box on the left side of the letter paper, one or two lines lower than the address and mailing date of the writer, and also divided into parallel columns and diagonal columns, but it should be consistent with the writing format at the end of the letter. The order is to write the name, title and company name of the recipient first, accounting for one or two lines, and then write the address, which can account for two or four lines, such as:

(1) parallel

Ms Joanna Kerry

Peking University

Haidian District, 10087 1

Beijing

Porcelain; (China) China

(2) Diagonal type

Ms Joanna Kerry

Peking University

Haidian District, 10087 1

Beijing

Porcelain; (China) China

Step 3 say hello

The recipient's address should be written on his own line, one or two lines lower than the address in the letter, starting from the top box on the left side of the stationery. The first letter of each word should be capitalized. As for the symbols at the end, the British use commas, and Americans and Canadians use colons. Address forms depend on the relationship between the writer and the receiver.

When writing English letters to foreigners, we should pay attention to the following points in addressing terms:

People without titles are usually called Mr .. Mr is used before surnames or surnames and first names, but not just before names. For example, the title of right should be Mr. or Mr. White, not Mr. Phil. If you address more than one man, use the plural form of Mr. messrs before the name. This kind of address is often used in companies and enterprises with names, such as Black Brothers.

Generally speaking, women are called Mrs., Mrs. or Miss. Mrs. is used before the surname of a married female husband, or before the surname and first name, but generally not before the first name. The word Madam can be used alone or before the husband's name. There is no plural form. If you address more than one woman, use the plural form mmes. before the name, and companies and enterprises named after women can be called mesdames. Miss is mostly used for unmarried women, and this word can be abbreviated as Ms. It is used before the surname or surname and first name, and generally not before the first name.

The address of the recipient can also be a title or position, regardless of gender. For example, professor (abbreviated as professor. ), doctor (abbreviated as Dr.) and general (abbreviated as Gen.). These titles are all placed before surnames or surnames and first names, such as professors. (Phil) White and so on.

(4) The addresses of the recipients in foreign official letters can be gentlemen (not gentlemen), dear gentlemen (friends) and my dear gentlemen (friends). You can't add dear before a gentleman, and you can't bring your name after a gentleman. When using sirs, the word "dear" is often used in front, but sir can also be used alone. If the recipient is a woman, madam or its plural can be used alone, whether she is married or unmarried.

⑤ Addressing senior foreign officials, such as heads of state, heads of government, ministers, ambassadors, envoys, can be (dear) Mr., (dear) Mr. President, (dear) Mr. Prime Minister, (dear) Mr. Ambassador, your Excellency (plural).

6. For male monarchs such as kings and emperors in monarchical countries, they can be called Mr., and for female monarchs such as queens, queens and queens, they can be called Mrs.. Sometimes it's called your majesty Politeness and respect your majesty can refer to both men and women, and its plural is your majesty.

⑦ For members of the royal family, such as princes, princes, princesses and princesses, you can generally use (dear) Mr. or (dear) Mrs., but in formal honorifics, you usually use (plural as Your Highness).

The recipient's address

Sir (man)

Madam (married) madam

Miss (unmarried) miss

Mrs. and miss are collectively referred to as Ms.

This couple is a couple.

Two or more men, sir

Two or more women (married)

Two or more ladies (unmarried)

Common titles (Chinese and English) are as follows:

Professor, professor

Doctor (doctor)

Doctor of Medicine

President or chief president

Chairman or Chairman Chairman Chairman

Vice chairman or vice chairman

Vice president or vice president

Prime minister

premier

Governor or governor

Mayor. Mayor.

Senator. Senator.

Ambassador ambassador

Secretary general

First Secretary

second secretary

Dean dean

Vice president and deputy director

Dean, dean, dean, dean

Chief librarian and curator

Your Excellency

Father. Father.

4. The body of the letter

The first line of each paragraph in the body should be indented four to five letters to the right. When writing a business letter, the text is generally straight to the point, the content is simple and clear, and the organization is clear. When writing a personal letter, if there are any omissions after writing the letter, you can use P.S. to supplement it.

5. Concluding remarks (overall conclusion)

The conclusion is a courtesy of the writer to the recipient. It only occupies one line, one or two lines lower than the text, starting from the middle or right side of the stationery. The first word should start with a capital letter and end with a comma. The conclusion depends on the relationship between the writer and the receiver. For example, a letter to an organization, group or an unknown person usually uses:

Your (very) sincerity, your (very) loyalty, your (very) sincerity, etc.

Letters to superiors and elders generally include:

Your (very) reverence, your (very) obedience, your gratitude, your appreciation, your obedient servant, and so on.

Letters to comrades or colleagues generally include:

Brotherly you, gay you, and so on.

Letters to acquaintances or friends can be written in:

Yours, everyone's, your affection, as always, your sincerity, your loyalty, your (most) love, your excitement, your intimacy, and so on.

Letters to relatives or close friends are generally written in the following ways:

Yours is always yours, always yours, always yours, you are affectionate, affectionate, yours, (very) love, love, your dear son, your most affectionate, your loyal friend, wholeheartedly, and so on. Yours, forever yours, your dear, your beloved son (children, sisters, nephews, nieces, grandmothers), your best friend, etc.

Letters to close friends can sometimes be used:

Your haste, your haste, your haste, and so on.

When writing an apology to a close friend, you can use:

Controversy is yours, regret is yours, regret is yours, deeply regret is yours, and so on.

In some European countries, yours is often put before sincerity. In countries like the United States and Canada, yourss and your are often used after serious. The word yours can sometimes be omitted.

Step 6 sign

The signature at the end of the letter is generally one or two lines lower than the conclusion, starting from the middle of the stationery to the right. If the writer is a woman and doesn't know the recipient, she will usually enclose Miss, Mrs. or Ms. in brackets before signing, so that the other party will know how to address her when replying. Some also sign their names and write down their professional titles, positions or titles.

7. Annex (Annex)

If there is an attachment in the letter, please indicate the attachment. Or enc In the lower left corner. If there is more than one attachment, you should write 2 (or 3, 4, 5, etc. ) attachment. , for example:

Attachment: Resume

Attachment: Grade Certificate

8. restart (postscript, abbreviated as p.s.)

If the reopening part is used to supplement the omission in the text, it should generally be used as little as possible and should be avoided in formal letters.

Second, matters needing attention

First of all, the writer should put himself in the other's shoes and respect the other's customs and habits.

Secondly, English letters should be fluent, concise and avoid verbosity. In other words, the writer should use as few words as possible to express the information he must convey, and the writer should express the information he needs to convey clearly to avoid misunderstanding. Communication also needs to be polite. Therefore, in the process of writing letters, we should avoid hurting each other's feelings and choose more polite and euphemistic words in wording.

Finally, in addition to avoiding mistakes in grammar, spelling and punctuation, the historical materials and data cited in the letter should also be accurate.

Third, common sentence patterns

Common acronyms are:

Thank you for your letter of1February 22nd.

Thank you very much for your letter of September 5 1997.

Thank you very much for your letter of 5 June 1997.

Your letter of 1 1 22nd was received this morning.

The letter you received this morning gave me great comfort.

In reply to your letter of July 4, I want to say …

Thank you very much for your letter of August 2 and the gift you gave me on Christmas Eve.

I'm so glad to receive your letter of May 5th!

It's always exciting to see your beautiful handwriting.

First of all, I must thank you for your kind help and high attention.

I am very glad to learn from your letter on Sunday that …

I am very pleased to inform you that my visit to your country has been approved.

I'd like to apply for the teaching position you offered.

I am so excited and happy to hear your good news.

Thank you very much for your warm congratulations. …

The common conclusion is:

1) Waiting for your good news,

2) Looking forward to your early reply,

3) I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

We are waiting for your good news.

I hope to hear from you soon.

6) We look forward to your early reply.

I look forward to our next meeting in Los Angeles.

We would appreciate your early reply.

If you need any other details, we will be happy to send them to you.

10) I really cherish your help.

1 1) I hope you are all right.

12) If you need more information, please let us know.

13) I hope you will have a good time forever.

I wish you a successful career in the new year.

Please give my regards to your family.

Say hello to your family.

17) All the best.

With love and good wishes.

Four. Classification example

1) Personal letter of introduction.

Example 1

One of your classmates and friends, Li Fang, will study in a university in new york for several months. Please write a letter to an American friend in new york and introduce Li Fang to him/her. About 100 words, no need to write the address.

Dear Mrs. Mark,

I will give this letter of introduction to my classmate, Miss Fang Li, and I will introduce her to you and Mr. Mark when she comes to new york. Miss Li is my good friend. She was invited by a university to study there for several months. She is a kind young girl. I believe you will like to meet and get to know each other and become friends. I hope you can kindly invite her to stay at your house for a few days.

Sincere greetings

Very affectionate,

×××

I hope ... is a strong sentence, which means I hope.

Stay at your house and say stay at your house.

Example 2

Your friend mary brown is going to Washington, D.C. next month. Write a letter to Tony there and introduce Mary to him. You should write about 100 words, and you don't need to write the address.

Dear Tony:

This letter will introduce my best friend mary brown, whom you often hear me mention. She will give a speech in Washington D.C. next month. I really want her to meet you there.

This seems to be an excellent opportunity for you to meet. I think you two will have a lot in common. As far as I know, you are both interested in modern literature. Once you meet her, you will really enjoy her company. I will be grateful for any kindness to her.

Your dear,

×××

This is a letter of introduction to introduce a friend. Tony and Mary are both friends of the writer. In his opinion, they have the same interests and hobbies, so I hope they can get to know each other. The letter said, "You are both interested in modern literature. Once you meet her, you will like being with her very much. "