English letters usually consist of the following five parts:
A title
The letterhead includes the address of the writer and the date of writing, which is generally written in the upper right corner of the letterhead. In correspondence between friends who are familiar with each other, the address of the writer can often be omitted. Only the date was written on the stationery of this class, and there was no address of the writer. There are usually two methods to determine the date: (a) month, day and year: for example, 8 15200 _ _
(b) Day, month and year: for example, 15 August, 200__
The address is generally from small to uppercase, such as house number, street name, city (county) name, province name and country name (the postal code is usually written after the city name). This is completely contrary to the address writing in Chinese letters. The address can be written in 1 ~ 3 lines, and the date can be written below the address (see letterhead format).
B greeting
Address refers to the address of the writer to the recipient, such as dear Xiaojun, written at the bottom of the letterhead and to the left of the letterhead. Salutations usually begin with dear … or my dear …, followed by commas.
C body (body)
This is the main part of the letter, which is what the writer wants to express. Writing requires fluency, clear hierarchy and clear meaning. You can write by hand or type.
D. Conclusion (full conclusion)
It is a compliment at the end of the letter, which is equivalent to "good wishes" and "salute" at the end of the letter in this class. The "best wishes" in the letter is the conclusion.
e-signature
Signature is usually signed at the bottom of the conclusion, such as Charlie in this lesson letter. The signature should be handwritten, even if the letter is typed, you should still sign at the end. At the top of the signature, according to the relationship between the writer and the recipient, you can write sincere Yours/ your sincerity (for elders or friends) or respectful Yours/ your respect (for elders or superiors).
Differences of English Letter Format Appellations
Business English letters refer to the means of communication used in transactions. In the United States, business writing is very common, including letters, telegrams, telephones, telex, reports, postcards and so on. There are some differences between Britain and the United States in the style of letters, such as the letterhead and address, the format, wording and ending etiquette of letters.
Generally speaking, English letters are conservative. Many British people like to use old-fashioned letters with formal and rigid words, while American letters are very lively, energetic and simple in format. Therefore, when we write to Britain or its old colonial country, we should use standard English Queen English; . If this letter is addressed to the United States or areas within its sphere of influence, American English should be used. Of course, the English language and culture have also changed in recent years, but on the whole, the differences between them are obvious.
Business English letters are generally required to be printed neatly by typewriter or computer, and the lines on the left are vertical at the beginning, which is called vertical or square, which is commonly used in the United States. The first word of each paragraph is indented, which is called indentation. This format is very common in Britain. The vertical position and signature are in the left column. This form is widely used in American companies that value work efficiency. Formal business English letters should write the name and address of the receiving company or the full name, position and address of the recipient above the address. It's called an internal address. The writing of the address inside can also be divided into vertical and indentation. Vertical and American parallel lines, indented or British style indented lines in turn.
But recently, the addresses in British business letters have not been indented in turn, as if they were the same as those in the United States. In addition, there is a popular way to write the address of ordinary recipients in the United States, which is to omit the house number and street name from the inside address of letters. In English letters, honorifics are used, and the most common honorifics are Mr. Mrs and Miss (for unmarried women). English people often use esq. (short for esquire) after men's names, but in business, they are slowly changing to Mr. MMES (plural form of madam) for more than two women. Messrs (plural form of Mr) is used for more than two people, or for companies or groups composed of more than two people. In British English letters, Mr. Messrs tends to add abbreviated periods in progressive and free American English, rather than abbreviated periods, such as Mr., Mrs., Messrs ... There are two most common forms of address in business: gentleman (American) and dear Sirs (British), which are equivalent to "Dear Sir" or "Dear Sir" in China. If the letter is addressed to a company, Gentlemen is used in American English and Dear Sirs is used in English. If there is only one person in the other company, you must use Sir/ Dear Sir. Punctuation marks are generally used after salutations, with commas in Britain and semicolons in America. There are many polite endings at the end of letters. It is equivalent to "salute", "salute" and "southern Jiangsu" used at the end of Chinese letters. The most typical American expressions are sincere and best greetings, and the typical English expressions are your sincerity (an acquaintance or knowing the name of the other person), best wishes, cordial greetings and your loyalty (unknown name). In addition, English polite expressions also have special polite formats.