Personal Letter ? Personal Business Letter ?
Advertisement
Purpose of a Personal Business Letter
A personal business letter is typewritten communication between colleagues who are personally acquainted, but work for different companies. For example, if one of your peers works for a company that received praise for award-winning technology, you could write a congratulatory letter to your professional colleague for being a member of the team that developed the technology. Personal business letters maintain relationships with professional contacts made through networking or business transactions. A cover letter transmitting your resume is also considered a personal business letter.Purpose of a Personal Letter
A personal letter is a communication between two acquaintances, or friends, concerning non-business matters. An example of a personal letter is a holiday greeting sent to a friend who lives abroad with wishes for a happy holiday season and updates on personal highlights from the past year. Personal letters renew and maintain relationships with people whom you consider to be friends. Personal letters can be typewritten if they are lengthy; however, it is also acceptable to handwrite a personal letter provided your handwriting is legible.Stationery for Personal Business Letters
Custom-printed letterhead is widely accepted as a standard for business letters. Business letterhead contains the organization's name, logo and contact information such as address, telephone and facsimile numbers, and website URL. Letterhead for personal business letters is much the same, in that it contains your name, address, contact information and your personal website URL, if you have one. Some business letterhead, particularly for non-profit organizations, lists the names of officers or names of the organization's board of directors. Business letterhead is usually formal; many experts recommend using a neutral color for stationery, such as off-white or eggshell.Stationery for Personal Letters
Some etiquette experts lament the lost art of letter-writing and suggest the use of printed stationery to enhance the experience of writing a letter instead of simply sending an email to friends. Stationery for personal letters can often reflect your personal style through the use of a creative font, design or colored paper. In Lisa Mirza Grotts' article in The Huffington Post, she writes: "The look and feel of a handwritten note is incomparable and deeply personal. Compared to e-mail, e-vites, and everything else electronic, paper stands the test of time."More Explanation
A personal business letter, by virtue of its purpose, is written in a formal tone to convey your message in a professional manner. Transmitting a resume via a personal business letter demonstrates your interest in a career; therefore, your cover letter illustrates your ability to communicate in a business-like fashion. On the other hand, a personal letter, especially one to a close friend, can be informal and may even contain colloquialisms which would normally be unacceptable in business communications.
Advertisement
Save Complete Educational Notes as PDF
Download a clean, printer-friendly formatted PDF of this note for offline revision.
Share with Classmates & Study Groups:
Help fellow students
5.0 / 5.0
Found this study material helpful?
Rate our website service and free notes repository on Google Reviews!
Discussion & Study Inquiries (0)
Ask questions, request missing past papers, or share revision notes
No comments yet. Be the first student to start the discussion or request past papers!