XI IPA 3: September 2020

WRITING LETTER

Defination Letter (Surat)

Letter is a written message from one of the other parties that contains information.

A letter is a written message that can be handwritten or printed on paper. It is usually sent to the recipient via mail or post in an envelope, although this is not a requirement as such. Any such message that is transferred via post is a letter, a written conversation between two parties.

Its function includes five things:

• Means of notification

•Request

•Idea

• Ideas

The 5 steps to Writing a Letter

Step 1. The Heading: This includes your address and the date. Write it in the upper-right corner of the page and spell out the name of the month to avoid confusion.

Step 2. The Salutation: This is the “hello” part of your letter and is also known as the greeting. It is located on the next line after the heading, but it is placed on the left side of the page about an inch from the edge. The name of the person should be capitalized and followed by a comma.

Step 3. The Body: Here is where you express thoughts and ideas. In other words, it is the reason for writing the letter. Start under the salutation, an inch from the left edge or the page (5 spaces).

Step 4: The Closing: This is the “good-bye” part of the letter. Usually, words such as “Your truly” or “Love” are used here. Closings should make the reader feel like you really care or that you really mean what you have written. Place the closing about two-thirds of the way across the page from the left side or in the line with the heading. The first word in the closing should be capitalized. The last word in the closing should be followed by a comma. Also, if you letter is more than one page long, be sure to number each page after the first.

Step 5: The Signature: Sing the letter in your own handwriting just below the closing.

Types of Letters

There are two types of letters:

· Formal Letter: These letters follow a certain pattern and formality. They are strictly kept professional in nature, and directly address the issues concerned. Any type of business letter or letter to authorities falls within this given category.

· Informal Letter: These are personal letters. They need not follow any set pattern or adhere to any formalities. They contain personal information or are a written conversation. Informal letters are generally written to friends, acquaintances, relatives etc.

Steps in writing an informal letter

· Skip a line and include the date.

· Skip a line and place the recipient's full address. Here, you'll want to include the company name, the recipient's name and title, and mailing address.

· Skip one more line to insert the greeting. This is called the salutation. In a formal letter, you can use a generic, "To whom it may concern:" or, "Dear Mr. Henry:" Formal letters tend to require a colon after the greeting, and informal letters take a comma.

· Skip a line and begin the letter. In the body of your letter, separate your thoughts into paragraphs. You never want to draft one big block of text. For each new set of thoughts or ideas, begin a new paragraph.

· Skip one of your final lines to include a complimentary close. The closing can be as simple as, "Sincerely," "Yours truly," or "Gratefully." This should end with a comma.

· Skip three lines (where you'll insert your handwritten signature), and type your full name. You may also include your title on the next line.

· If you're including any attachments with your letter, skip one more line and type "Enclosure." If there's more than one attachment, indicate how many there are in parentheses, as in "Enclosure (4).".

Structure of Personal Letters consists of:

· Heading or letterhead containing the address and date.

· Greeting; usually begins with the word "Dear" and the recipient's name and a comma.

· Body, namely the contents of the letter.

· Closing or closing; usually a short expression such as "Sincerely" or "Love" followed by a comma.

· Signature; Signature affixed above the sender's name.

Linguistic Elements the characteristics of the Personal Letter text language are:

· Using the Simple Present Tense.

· Sometimes also use the Simple Past Tense if the information conveyed happened in the past.

Steps in writing an formal letter

· If you are a representative of some company and writing not from your person, you need to include the address of your office or official address of the company.

· Also, check what phone number you should include: your private, office or company’s official.

· You can also use a corporate pages of your company with a logo or place your logo near your address.

· The date should be placed below the address of the sender. There are lots of reason why you need to include the date of your letter. Usually, it is for your recipient to set the time frame for the reply or to include to the report.

· If you decide to use some certain format in your letter, you should use it all over it with no exceptions.

· Do not forget to set a comma between the year and month.

· Sometimes it is useful to include recipient’s job title after their name.

· There is nothing wrong if you use recipient's first name only in case you know them well.

· Usually, this type of papers is written with just one draft with no editing afterwards. But, of course, you may create few drafts and proofread the entire letter. It is always useful.

Sample letter formal

PT. MAJU MUNDUR

Jl. Perjuangan No. 123

Jakarta

Jakarta, April 7, 2018

To:

Mr. Bagus Setiawan

Customer Service Manager

Super Electronics

Pahlawan Street No 67

Bandar Lampung, Lampung

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to make complaint regarding the product that I purchased recently. I bought a washing machine with serial number no. 1234.567 and product model no. 9876.432 from one of your outlet in Dirgantara Street, no. 15, Metro, Lampung.

The product did not work properly. Its water player cannot move and when it operates the machine became very hot quickly. I have lodged a complaint on your customer service center, but there is no respond or action taken till now.

I have been a customer of your outlet for long, but this incident made me disappointed with the service you provide. Therefore, I ask want you to take an action to resolve this problem as early as possible. I attached a copy of the bill and photos of the product.

Sincerely,

Lancar Jaya

Sample letter informal