If you arrived at this page looking for something called a “professional letter” that’s good because below I’m going to explain what professional letters really are. (I created this page because my keyword research revealed that a lot of people are searching for something called “professional letter”.)
In reality, there is NO SUCH THING as a specific purpose “professional letter” in the sense of other specific purpose letters such as: recommendation letters, cover letters, complaint letters, sales letters, resignation letters, and many more.
As you can see from the examples I just listed above, the purpose of a typical specific purpose letter is always evident from its name. A recommendation letter is to recommend someone, a cover letter covers a resume or business document, a complaint letter makes a complaint, and so on.
However, one does not “professional” something, or request a “professional”.
The term “professional” when used in conjunction with “letter” is an adjective that generally describes the attributes of a letter. It means that it is a letter that is used for a “professional purpose” (typically business) and/or it is written by a professional to be used for professional purposes — as opposed to personal and/or friendly letters.
Sample Professional Letters
Over the past number of years, I have studied the letter writing information needs of literally millions of visitors who have come to my various writing help websites. As such, this has qualified me as one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of writing ALL TYPES of letters
By studying the clickthrough patterns of those visitors, I have been able to gain an in-depth understanding of the entire subject of their “letter writing needs” in the sense of practical day-to-day letter writing requirements of the typical visitor to my websites.
Accordingly, based on what I have learned from my website visitors over the years, there are TWO broad categories of letters: Business Letters and Personal Letters. Each one of these can be further divided into additional sub-categories.
The following link will take you to the two major professional letter categories where you will find links to real-life sample letter templates for each sub-category.
http://www.writinghelp-central.com/sample-letters.html
Personal Letter Writing Format
Finding a suitable format for your letter can be confusing if you consult textbooks or look around at examples online.
As an expert in this area I have done a lot of research into the subject over the years and have found that there is no single overall international standard for formatting letters. That’s right; there is no single accepted standard.
So, after studying the literally dozens of letter writing formats out there, I developed a couple of my own letter writing standard formats; one for personal letters and one for business letters (a third one for business memos as well).
My criteria for these letter formats were: 1.) simplicity, and 2.) balanced presentation that is pleasing to the eye.
Below is my format for writing “personal letters”. That is, letters of a personal nature that are NOT formal business letters related to your company or organization.
These are formal or semi-formal personal business letters for situations in which you are writing your letter, as an individual to: a business, an institution, a government department or agency, or another person.
Following is the personal letter writing format that I recommend:
Personal Letter Writing Format
The above format is used for personal business letters such as: complaint letters to retailers, letters of inquiry to companies, responses to requests for information from government agencies, letters to banks and credit card companies, letters to school officials, etc. These are typical examples. Essentially, it is any letter that you would want to write in a somewhat formal fashion that is related to any type of personal business.
Letter Writing Formats
If you spend some time searching around the Net you will find there are many different letter writing formats for various types of letters, both business letters and personal letters.
It seems that the letter format that will be recommended for your situation will depend on who you are asking.
Believe me, a few years ago when I was researching both my Instant Business Letter Kit and then my Instant Letter Writing Kit, I was surprised to discover that there seemed to be no accepted international standard for formatting letters. In fact, just about every text I consulted had different letter formats than the ones I had checked previously.
So, I decided to do something about this confusing situation before writing my own letter-writing books. The first thing I did was to consult a number of leading texts and authorities on the subject of “letter writing formats” for different types of situations. I then studied the similarities and differences among these so-called experts and authorities and came up with my own “hybrid” set of letter formats. These are the ones that I now use and recommend in my various letter writing toolkits.
The two main criteria I used when selecting my chosen letter writing formats were: overall appearance and effectiveness. Overall appearance includes both visual attractiveness and visual balance. Effectiveness includes the clarity of presentation of both the primary message and the secondary parameters.