Structure of a formal LETTER

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When speaking, writing or communicating in Spanish we have the possibility of using two registers: formal and informal. The choice between one or the other always depends on the place, the communicative situation and, also, the type of receiver; that is, the degree of trust and familiarity that we can maintain with him.

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to focus our analysis on the study of structure of a formal letter. And for this, we will first begin by reviewing the concept of formal registration, its characteristics and, finally, we will analyze which are the main elements that should not be missing in a formal letter.

Index

1. What is formal registration?
2. The formal letter
3. Elements that constitute a formal letter

As we have said before in the introduction, the formal registration it is directly opposed to informal registration, typical of everyday situations in which we communicate with our closest family and friends.

Instead, the formal record is the record we use to convey a message in a serious or important communication situation, in which we are, we speak with recipients with whom we do not have confidence, or we do not know or even belong to a social or labor category superior to ours.

The formal record can be used both orally, in a work meeting with our boss, for example, or in writing, when we have to communicate a proposal to a manager of another company or request a document from a public administration, among many others situations.

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A formal letter is a document that we write to a person (s) or entity that we do not know or that supposes an authoritarian body to which we must show a degree of respect and cordiality, treating the subject we are writing about with formality. Likewise, a formal letter supposes a type of informational text, since through it we communicate a decision or ask for information related to something.

One of the main characteristics of formal letters is that they must be clear, short and concise; that is, the information has to be easily understandable by the receiver and at the same time, It has to be clearly structured and organized in different sections, which we will see at continuation. It is a type of text that is part of the epistolary gender.

The parts fundamental in the structure of a formal letter are as follows:

• Date: the formal letter must begin with a date, which is the first thing to be written, just in the upper margin, either right or left.
• Header: below the date, we must place the name of the person to whom our letter is addressed, as well as his position or the position he occupies within the company or entity where he works.
• Greeting formulaBefore we begin to properly write our formal letter, we must begin with a polite and formal greeting, such as "Dear Mr. Director."
• Presentation of the reason for the letter: The first paragraph of the formal letter should contain a brief summary of why it was written; that is, we have to clearly and concisely explain the reason for our letter. For this, we can use formulas to start such as: "I am writing to you to request ..."; "I am writing to you on the occasion of ...", etc.
• Body: after the introductory paragraph, we proceed to write our formal letter properly, taking into account that it should not be very long nor complex to read, so it is necessary to use a formal and clear language, giving important data for the understanding of the herself.
• Farewell and thanks: to finish our formal letter, we must conclude with a short paragraph in which we thank to our receiver the time he has devoted to reading the letter and noting that it is just. To do this, we must make a brief synthesis that collects the most important previous information.
• Firm: Finally, the end of the formal letter must be stamped with the signature, together with the name and position of the sender of the message.

Image: Learning Spanish

If you want to read more articles similar to Structure of a formal letter, we recommend that you enter our category of Writing.

• Bezus, S. FORMAL LETTER.
• Delgado Fajardo, S. J. (2018). Discovering the letter (Master's thesis, National University of Education).