Physical Presentation of Letters,
Memos, and Reports
• The appearance of a letter, memo, or report plays a significant role in communicating the message.
• Attractively presented massages reflect favorably on the writer and the writer’s company.
• They give an impression of competence and care.
• It reflects the good business etiquette of the writer.
• Sloppy work reflects unfavorably on the writer, the company, and the message itself.
• Thus, messages to be attractively displayed.
• Several word processors help users create custom formats (or templates) from existing documents.
• The user simply identifies the document and the software will build
the format.
BASICS FOR ALL DOCUMENT PREPARATION
• To understand formats most effectively. we should know their basic components and
how they are used for the documents you create.
• These basic components are presented here after a discussion of elements that are common to all
documents:
layout, type and media.
Layout
• Common layout decisions include grids, spacing and margins.
• Grids are non printed horizontal and vertical lines that determine
placement of your document on the page.
• They allow to place the text and graphics on page for consistency.
space
• External spacing: white spaces, (surrounding the text and graphics)
• Internal space: (vertical and horizontal spacing) - spacing b/n letters
on a line is called as KERNING.
• Adjusting the closeness of lines vertically is called Leading.
Margin
• A document as framed picture, margin is used.
• A balanced margin in document
Type
• Type will enhance the appearance.
• Typeface: is font and shape of characters.
• Typestyle: bold, italic, bold italic
• Size: one inch height is of font 72.
• Body text: 9 to 15
• Heading 15 and above
Media
• Transmit our documents.
• Short messages, emails or any other transmission portals.
• Selection of media conveys how updated the sender is to current
technology.
• Selection of paper size , thickness and quality.
Form (Format) of Business Letters
• The layout of letter is the shape on the page.
• Layout play a major role in impressing reader.
• The ideal letter layout should have the same shape throughout letter.
• There is no strict agreement on parts of letters.
• The most used and authorative subparts of letters are discussed here.
• The word processor includes templates and can import few of
subparts in letters
• Dateline
• Return Address
• Inside Address
• Attention Line
• Salutation
• Mixed or Open Punctuation
• Subject Line
• Second page Heading
• Closing
• Signature Block
• Information Notations
• Postscripts
• Folding
• Envelope Address
• Dateline : use conventional date form with month,day,year (September 17,
2004). Don’t use informal date formats like 10-05-2000
• Return Address : Return address is printed on letterhead or filled .
• Inside Address: The Mailing Address, with title of person, with Mr.,Mrs. Ms. Etc..
• Attention Line: Some executives prefer company address rather than individual.
An attention line is included after inside address.
Attention: Mr. Donovan Price , Vice president
• Salutation: salutation is based on your familiarities with reader and the
formality of situation. Example : Dear John, Dear Mr. John.
If you don’t know the name , you can use designation.
• Mixed or Open Punctuation : The punctuation following the salutation
and the closing is either mixed or open.
Mixed punctuation employs a colon after salutation and comma after
the close. open uses no punctuation after salutation and none after
close.
• Subject Line : the subject line tells what the letter is about.
• Second page Heading : when the length of letter exceeds one page, we
should setup following pages for identification. We can use plain sheet
and continued page number and date and the receivers name.
• Closing : The most commonly used complimentary close is sincerely.
You can also use yours, respectfully, cordially.
• Signature Block: the printed signature conventionally appears on the
fourth line below closing .
• Information Notations: In the lower left corner of letter , a
abbreviated notations for enclosures and the initials of writer appears.
May also include Indications of copies prepared for other readers
Enc. 1 : Employee List
CC: Sharon Gorbet
• Postscripts : Referred as PS ,are placed after notations
• Folding: the carelessly folded letter is off to bad start.
• Make the letter clearly in its cover
• Making letter easy to remove
• Making it to appear neat when it is removed.
• Two fold pattern is easiest
• Three fold pattern is used for small covers
• Envelope Address: Some OCR(optical character recognition) and
Scanners are used to sort mail.
The US postal service request all envelopes to be typed in following
way.
• Place address in scanable area
• Use block address format
• Use single space
• Use uppercase
• Don’t use punctuations, except pincode
