Business Letter

The Differences Between 

British Business Letter

with

American Business Letter

As we know that there are some differences between them, and the differences between UK and US are quite significant. Start from how to write it, until we finish it, and here, I will discuss about it below.

1. Address of sender

• in American way :  it can either go on the top left or with the signatures in the bottom of the page

• in British way : it goes on right

*but actually the recipient’s address is left-aligned in both countries ( finally they agree with something),in American way just add it after providing two line spaces between the addresses.

 2. Date

• in American way : it written  "December 25, 2012 " and always on the left

• in British way : it written "25th December 2012"  on the right or left of the page

3. If you’re addressing someone whose name you know 

• in American way : you’d add a fullstop/period after their title .i.e. : Mr., Mrs., Ms.

• in British way : where in the UK we’ve done away with the point leaving the title thus : Mr, Mrs, Ms 

*but each starts with "Dear..."

4. Subject line

• in American way : the Subject is given in between the recipient’s address and the salutation having a blank line in between.

• in British way : the subject line is placed between salutation and body of the letter.

5.  After mention a name or surname ( Salutation)

• in American way : you’d now enter a colon (:) like " Dear Mr. Raviolli :"

• in British way : in the UK used comma (,) like " Dear Mr Raviolli , "

*If you have a subject you want to add, much like the subject line in an email, add it under the salutation. To draw attention both US and UK prefer to use bold and/or upper-case letters

6. Closing

• in American way : your close should be aligned with YOUR address. i.e. : In the US, however (thank you, Karen!) the most common closings in a formal letter are ‘Sincerely,’ ‘Sincerely yours,’ and ‘Very truly yours’, (‘Cordially’ and ‘Best regards’ also make a show at times).

• in British way : in the UK it’s always left-aligned : In the UK, if you know the recipient’s name ‘Yours sincerely,’ is standard, and ‘Yours faithfully,’ when you don’t. ‘Kind regards,’ and his pleasant variants are acceptable, but they do prefer their cyber domain to paper.

7.  Post Script

• in American way : in the UK ‘p.s.’ still holds true

• in British way : in the US, ‘PS’ or ‘ps’ is the accepted norm

 

 Full and Modified Block Format

Whatever you're, whatever you do, when you Apply a job, or doing some business, sometimes you have to write a formal business letter. So, we can't avoid it. Here I'll mention about it. The main format of business letter are called full and modified block. You must know about it before, but do you know about the difference between them? lets check about it.. 

 

1. 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 

2. Modified Block Format

means that some elements of the letter are shifted over to the right. Nowadays, this style is appropriate in most contexts.

As a General , the body and structures of both type are not different, just about the position , so, both of them can be use in formal way.

Please give a thumbs for this article , and Thanks for reading :)

Arranged by : Akhira Kautsara Wikastri (20214702) 3EB19

References (source) :

1. http://www.lucycripps.com

2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/british-american-business-letters-differences-types-academy-bea-

3. http://www.indiastudychannel.com/english/2694-Writing-a-Business-Letter-in-American-and-British-Style.aspx

4. https://www.reference.com/business-finance/modified-block-format-7999110902b719b6