Today I'm going to discuss and teach you how to write a civilian letter but first let's seek what is the definition of it and its purpose. So what is a Civilian letter? A purely civilian letter is used when communication with the President of a Country for example the President of the Philippines, its department secretaries, provincial governors, city or municipal mayors, manager of a existing company such as like Coca-cola Bottling Company and etc.
Civilian letter, unlike the subject-to letter, has different forms because the former is particular on symmetry or a well-balanced appearance. Also, a civilian letter has different phraseology and its paragraphing is not numbered, not unless in tabulation and enumeration.
Parts of Civilian letter
The civilian letter is consist of heading, dateline, inside address, salutation, body, complimentary close, and signature are important parts of a business letter. Other parts mentioned here are optional. These parts are the following:
Heading
- a typed or a printed letterhead may be used. The former includes writer's address usually blocked with the dateline (no abbreviation for the month, street, district, city or country).
- the latter, usually used n business firms, includes these pieces of information: name of the company, its address, telephone number and ZIP (Zone International Program) code, if any. Sometimes a company slogan or trade mark is written.
-the use of identifying reference is optional depending instruction issued by the chief or head of office. If ever used, it is placed at the left margin two spaces below the letterhead and on the line with the current date.
Dateline
- Month, day, and year in that order is the dateline. In business correspondence the month is never abbreviated; it is spelled out. Also st (as in 1st), nd (as in 2nd), rd ( as in 3rd), or th (as in 4th, 5th, 6th) is also used after the month.
There should always be a comma between the day and the year.
Inside Address
- the addressee's name should be written fully. It should always preceded by a courtesy title, except in the case of M.D., Ph.D., and a few others. The first line shows the addressee's nae and designation, if any;the second line, the name of the company or the unit of the addressee belongs to; the third and following lines, the address of the company. If not belong any office, the addressee's local or home address will do.
Attention Line
- to speed up handling of the letter, the attention line is used when the letter is addressed to a company or to an individual or a particular apartment of a company or to an individual aside from the addressee.
Salutation
- the salutation greets the reader and the greeting may be formal, informal, cordial or personal.
Body
- letters inside context.
This is parts are needed which is essential to make a civilian letter. You need to be careful in order to make your letter be efficient and meaningful so that readers will be interested in reading it. And also avoid word and idea repetitions so that readers won't find it cliché and uninteresting.