ERI NURYAMAN: Correspondence (Bagian dan Bentuk

BUSINESS LETTER PARTS

1. Letter Head

2. Date Line

3. Inside Address

4. Salutation

5. Subject Line

6. Body of The Letter

7. Complimentary Closes

8. Signature Line

9. Identification Initials

10. Enclosure Reference

11. Attention Line

1. LETTER HEAD

A letter head consists of a name and address of a firm that sends a business letter. It sometimes consists of telephone number, address of branch of offices, names of CEO. It is usually printed on the top of the paper.

Examples:

a. ENGLET & BROT LTD

115 Downing Street

LONDON- ENGLAND

b. GOOGLE MILLS INCORPORATION

499 NORTH WARREN AVENUE

SYRACUSE 2, NEW YORK

Phone : 1499

President: Francois Carlos Established: 1999

2. DATE LINE

It consists of date, month, year or (month, date, year). If there is no Letter Head, make sure you put the name of the city before the date line.

Examples:

23rd November, 1999 or November 23rd, 1999

28 July, 1999 or July 28, 1999

If there is no letter head in a letter, you must write a full address of the sender, example:

115 Downing Street, London

June 28th, 2009

3. INSIDE ADDRESS

It usually consists of 3 or 4 lines,:

The name of a person or the firm you are

Writing to.

Number, the name of the street

The name of city ( A country when applicable)

Examples:

Mr. Prana Pramudya

115 Downing Street

London

Mmes. Robert Thompson & Audrey

112, Downing Street

London E.C. 2, England

4. SALUTATION

British Style

Examples:

Dear Sir,

Sir,

Dear Sirs,

Dear Madam,

Mesdames,

American Style

Examples:

Dear Sir:

Sir:

Gentlemen:

Dear Madam:

Mesdames:

If you know the person you are writing to, you can use the style below which is more personal or informal:

Dear Mr. Brown,

My dear Madam Tiara,

For more information about business letters see also the followings:

Business Letter Software

Sales Letter Creator

5. SUBJECT LINE

Subject Line is usually capitalized and underlined:

Examples:

CHEAP CRUISE TO SCANDINAVIA

SCANDINAVIAN VACATION

6. BODY OF THE LETTER

A good letter body should fulfill the following requirements:

Concise / short: Never make up sentences just to make a letter look longer.

Simple: Avoid making up complex sentences. Try to make up a simple sentence.

Systematic: Always put your ideas in order from A to Z. (From opening paragraph to closing paragraph there should not any repetitions)

Body of the Letter consists of 3 paragraphs:

· The opening paragraph

· The content paragraph

· The closing paragraph

7. COMPLIMENTARY CLOSES

Complementary Closing usually consists of 2 lines:

· Closing Words / Expressions

· Name of Firm

Examples:

Yours truly,

Wisnu & Ninda LTD

Truly Yours,

Wisnu & Ninda LTD

8. SIGNATURE LINE

Business letter signature line usually consists of signature of the person who writes the business letter. Below the signature we usually put our name. Below our name, sometimes we put our title or position in the company or institution we work in. Mostly, this is just to inform the person who has not known us before.

Examples:

Signature

Adam Williams

Customer Relation Manager

Signature

Adam Williams

9. IDENTIFICATION INITIALS

Identification Initials are usually used by the big-sized company for administrative purposes only. Identification Initials mainly have two functions:

a. to give information about the secretary or the author of a business letter.

b. to provide data in case of some incidents or errors.

Identification Initials are generally put at the left-hand bottom just after the signature line. They are sometimes put at the same line with the date line.

Example:

J.B./m.h.

The identification initials mean that the author is Jack Brown and the secretary/clerk is Meredith Harrison.

10. ENCLOSE REFERENCE

When our business letter has one or more attachments, such as price list, collection letter, brochure, invoice, resume etc., we must make sure that we state it in the main letter. The statement that we send another paper other than the main letter is called enclosure reference. This enclosure reference is usually shortened as Enc. or ENC. or Inc. or Encl. or Incl..

Example:

Encl. : 1 (one) Illustrated price list

Incl. : 1 (one) Invoice

Enc. : Our 2010 Catalog

Inc. : Cheque no. 954646/B

11. ATTENTION LINE

Business letters are usually more addressed to companies than to one person. But, sometimes this form of written communication should take place between company and company or between company and a person and vice versa. In this situation we need to use what people call "attention line". We mostly use attention line for the following three reasons :

We want the letter directly delivered to a certain people in a company.

We do not know the person's name we are writing to and we decide to write to the company he or she works in.

We want the letter to reach a person we are writing to faster.

Attention line is usually put after inside address.

Example:

Gifted Restaurant

16771 Fifteen Avenue

New york, N. Y.

Attention: Miss Rachel White

BENTUK - BENTUK SURAT

Sebelum membahas berbagai bentuk surat, ada baiknya mengetahui lebih dahulu apa itu bentuk surat. Yang dimaksud dengan bentuk surat ialah tata letak atau posisi bagian-bagian surat. Masing-masing bagian itu mempunyai posisi tertentu sesuai dengan fungsi dan perannya, terutama sebagai petunjuk atau identifikasi untuk memproses surat tersebut. Ada berbagai bentuk surat, yang satu sama lain berbeda pemakaiannya sesuai dengan kebiasaan instansi atau gaya masyarakat tertentu.

Pada dasarnya hanya dua bentuk surat yang dapat dibedakan secara tajam, sedangkan bentuk-bentuk lainnya sekedar variasi-variasi yang merupakan modifikasi dari kedua bentuk utama tersebut.

Kedua bentuk utama itu adalah bentuk lurus atau bentuk balok ( block style ) dan bentuk lekuk atau bentuk bergerigi ( indenteed style ). Sedangkan variannya yang berdiri di antara keduanya ialah bentuk setengah lurus atau bentuk setengah balok ( semi block style ).

Selain itu masih ada bentuk lurus penuh ( full block style ), dan bentuk surat dinas / resmi ( official style ).

Bentuk-bentuk surat tersebut sebenarnya adalah model / bentuk surat Eropa dan Amerika. Bentuk lekuk ( indenteed style ) adalah model Eropa lama, bentuk lurus ( block style ) adalah model Amerika, sedang bentuk setengah lurus ( semi block style ) adalah model Eropa baru.

Keterangan bentuk surat :
a. Kepala surat ( kop surat ).
b. Nomor surat.
c. Tanggal.
d. Alamat yang dituju.
e. Hal atau perihal.
f. Salam pembuka.
g. Pembuka surat.
h. Isi surat.
i. Penutup surat.
j. Salam penutup.
k. Nama perusahaan.
l. Nama penanda tangan surat.
m. Nama jabatan.
n. Lampiran.
o. Tembusan = tindisan.
p. Singkatan nama = inisial.

Untuk jelasnya, lihat contoh-contoh bentuk surat, berikut :

a. Full Block Style