In general, an English business letter contains several basic parts:

Letter Head
This part usually contains certain information about the company which sent the letter. Such information may include : Trade marks and/or the name of the company, address (post box), telephone No., Fax No., E-mail address …etc.

Inside Address
The inside address of a letter is the recipient’s address. Usually this part will also include the recipient’s name, title or position, department, and the name and the address of the company.

Date
Usually the date in a letter is the time that this letter was finished (or sent). There are several ways to write the date in a letter. For example :

．March 22, 2002 (American Style)
．22 March 2002 (British Style)
．22. 3. 2002
．3 – 22 -2002
．03 22 2002

Salutation
In this part, if you know the name of the recipient, you may use her/his last name in the salutation. Sometimes, in order to show respect, you can add the person’s position or title before the last name. If you don’t exactly know the recipient’s name, it is best to use one of the followings:

．Dear Sir or Madam
．Dear Sir
．Dear Sirs
．Dear Madam
．Ladies and Gentlemen

And if you know the receiver pretty well, you may use the person’s first name like:

．Dear John / Dear Samantha

Body of the Letter
This is the most important part of a letter. Sometimes a letter might contain a couple of sentences while others might be more complicated with several paragraph or even pages.

Closing
The closings of a letter will depend on the relation between you and the receiver, or the importance of the letter. For example, if you are writing a formal letter, you may use:

．Yours sincerely, / Sincerely yours,
．Yours truly, / Truly yours,
．Yours faithfully, / Faithfully yours,

On the other hand, if this is a personal letter, you may use:

．Best regards, / Regards,
．Best wishes,

Signature
A signature immediately follows a complimentary closing. In order to leave some spaces to let the individual sign his/ her name personally, a blank of at least three- lines should be left between the closing and the typed full name. The position or title of the person should be typed just below the typed full name. For example:

．Yours sincerely,

Johnny Lee (signature)

Johnny Lee
Manager