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How to Format a Business Letter

Whether you’re a student, employed in an office job, or working as a freelancer I can guarantee that at some point in your life, you’ll need to sit down and write a formal business letter.

It might be to a customer, to an employer with a job that you want, or to apply for university funding. Perhaps it’ll even be to a literary agent or publisher who just might take on your undiscovered novel. Of course, you’ll want the letter to be well-written but almost as important is knowing how to format it correctly. This article is about US business letter format.

The main formats for business letters in the US are called full block format and modified block format.
  • Full block format means that all the elements of the letter are left-justified so that the start of each line is at the left-hand margin. This is the more formal style, so use it if you’re unsure which to go for.
  • Modified block format means that some elements of the letter are shifted over to the right. Nowadays, this style is appropriate in most contexts.
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