Essential Components of formal Letter writing

Components of formal letter writing.

1. JIGME 1 LETTER WRITING Essential Components of Formal Letters

2. Seven Important Components of a Formal Letter 2 Sender’s Address Date Receiver’s Address Subject Salutation Body of the Letter Signing Off/Subscription

3. 1. SENDER’S ADDRESS 3 RULES & CONVENTIONS It usually begins with the sender’s address from smaller to the larger units of organization and boundary. Use of acronyms might make the address less formal though it is acceptable. Commas can be used at the ends but consistency should be maintained throughout. Use of capitals should be proper and uniform for all aspects of the address. Country name or code should be used if the letter is sent abroad. EXAMPLES Darla Middle Secondary School Darla Gewog Chhukha Dzongkhag Thuenpa Puenzhi Building Kawang Jangsa Thimphu Throm Bargonpa Lumang Gewog Trashigang District

4. 2. DATE 4 RULES & CONVENTIONS Titling date as Date: 12 th June 2021 is not necessary as it makes it redundant. We can write dates in any one of the standard formats: 02/05/2022 (Date/Month/Year) or 05/02/2022 (Month/Date/Year) or 2 nd May 2022 or May 2, 2022 It should not be written with the mixture or lack of ordinals as 12 th /06/2021 or 12 June 2021 A comma is needed to separate date from year as May 2, 2022 to clarify confusion. Don’t use dot at the end of the date as 2 nd May 2022. Either dots or slashes are used to separate the date, month and year: 02/05/2022 or 02.05.2022 EXAMPLES 2 nd May 2022 May 2, 2022 02/05/2022 02.05.2022

5. 3. RECEIVER’S ADDRESS 5 RULES & CONVENTIONS It usually begins with ‘ To ’ followed by the job title of the receiver and the address from smaller to the larger units of organization and boundary. Use of acronyms might make the address less formal though it is acceptable. Commas can be used at the ends but consistency should be maintained throughout. The use of capitals should be proper and uniform for all aspects of the address. Country name or code should be used if the receiver resides abroad. EXAMPLES To The Principal Darla Middle Secondary School Chhukha Dzongkhag To The Manager Pekhang Bookstore Norzin Lam Thimphu Throm

6. 4. SUBJECT EXAMPLES Application for Leave Request for Additional Supply of Goods Letter of Complaint Meritorious Promotion Order Invitation for School Picnic 6 RULES & CONVENTIONS It is not usually a complete sentence. Hence, the use of end marks are not required. It should be as catchy, concise, clear and short as the title of any important document. The key words of the title should be capitalised. It may be underlined to emphasize. It is NOT necessary to title the subject by mentioning it because it is obviously understood from the letter itself: Subject: Application for Leave

7. 5. SALUTATION 7 RULES & CONVENTIONS It should have necessary letters in capital forms for titles and designations. Salutations usually end with commas though the use of colons is also acceptable. Use of ‘ Dear ’ and ‘ Respected ’ are predominantly used as standard forms of salutation before titles. Use of ‘ Honourable ’ might be more applicable to high-ranking officials who bear the titles of ‘ Dasho ’ including the District Administration Heads, Dasho Dzongdas, Members of Parliaments, Heads of Autonomous Bodies or Judiciary Systems in Bhutan. Eg: Dear Sir/Madam or Honourable Dasho and should NOT be written as Dear sir/madam or respected Sir/Madam or honourable dasho Directly mentioning the title is also moderately acceptable though it looks a little incomplete. Eg: Sir, Madam, Coach , etc. If the gender of the receiver is not known, it is better and safer to write: Dear Sir/Madam, Sir/Madam, EXAMPLES Dear Sir, Respected Principal, Honourable Dasho, Dear Sir/Madam, Sir/Madam,

8. 8 RULES & CONVENTIONS It is usually written in well- organised three paragraphs ( Introductory, Body, and Concluding ). It ends with a thanking note in complete sentences as a separate paragraph (not put together with the signing off): Thanking you. / Thank you in advance. / Thanks a lot. EXAMPLE I, Lam Dorji, am the class captain of class VI B. On behalf of the class, I would like to request your good self regarding the subject cited above, please. To elaborate, our class has decided to go for a class picnic on 15 th May, 2022 towards the THPA Power House. We are led by our class teacher, Mr Karma Dorji. There are thirty- two students and five subject teachers with essential utensils and ration that we had purchased by making voluntary contributions. The programme will take a whole day because the spot we identified is quite far from school. However, our safety will be ensured under the guidance of our beloved teachers. Therefore, I would like to humbly request your esteemed office to approve the school bus for a day, please. Thanking you.

9. 7. SIGNING OFF/SUBSCRIPTION information within parenthesis. RULES & CONVENTIONS Following are some of the most common methods of signing off in formal letters: Yours faithfully, Faithfully yours, Yours truly, Yours sincerely, Yours obediently, It should be properly punctuated with the use of comma at the end. Yours faithfully , Writing Yours obediently, is appropriate if the receiver is a school staff (student’s point of view). Students ought not to use this signing off for the letters addressed to the people outside the school. ‘Yours faithfully,’ usually corresponds to the receiver who is unknown, whereas ‘Yours sincerely,’ is written to known individuals. However, some write in interchangeable order. ONLY the beginning letter of the first word is capitalized: Y ours faithfully, S incerely yours, The use of capital letters need to be taken care. Y ours sincerely, Check out for common errors: Your’s sincerely , Yours Sincerely , Your faithfully , Sincerly yours , yours sincerely It ends with a signature followed by full name and additional EXAMPLES Yours sincerely, Yours faithfully, Sincerely yours, Faithfully yours, Sincerely, LamDorji Lam Dorji (Class Captain)

10. THANK YOU!!!