Presentation Techniques
Throughout the letter normal line spacing is used. This is because this does not use up too much space and looks very tidy therefore making the letter look more professional.
In the letterhead many forms of text formatting have been used. The company name and address are both highlighted in bold. This is to make this information stand out to the reader. This is so that the reader can immediately identify who has sent the letter. Within the letterhead all the information is also centre aligned. This is so that it looks balanced therefore making it look tidy and therefore professional.
The information in the footer is centre aligned and formatted in blue. The title of the footer is also centre aligned and highlighted in bold. This is so the reader can easily identify what the information is about. This is important because this information may not always be linked directly to the information contained within the letter.
The letter closes with a complimentary close in the last paragraph to show the company is grateful for the custom. This leaves the reader with a good friendly impression of the company. This therefore means that the next time the customer thinks about dealing with the company they remember that they were very friendly to deal with.
The letter ends with a valediction of “Yours Sincerely”. This is a formal way of ending a letter when it is addressed to someone using their name.
Purpose
The purpose of the letter is to inform the receiver and to confirm that their payment for the renewal of their childminder insurance has been received and processed. It does this very well through using many techniques. To improve the letter colour could be used to draw the attention of the reader to certain parts of the letter, for example the company logo.
Formal letter 2 – ‘Lloyds TSB’
This is a formal letter informing a customer of new details concerning the bank and various products that it has to offer.
Layout
When you look at this letter you immediately notice that there is a lot of white space. The use of white space on the letter is very poor. This is shown by the fact that there is a lot of white space in random sections of the letter and it is not balanced. This makes the letter look informal and unprofessional.
The letter is split into two columns so that information can be displayed in shorter paragraphs. This would be okay if the address of the company and the address of the addressee where not centre aligned within columns. The address of the company is also left justified. This like the poor use of white space makes the letter look informal and unprofessional. To improve this the address of the company at the top of the letter in the right hand column could be right aligned and right justified and the address of the addressee in the left hand column could be left aligned as well as being left justified.
The letter does not contain a letterhead but it does contain a small footer. The information in the footer is both centre aligned and centre justified.
The letter is of a portrait orientation for the same reason as the first formal letter I evaluated; it is the logical order in presenting text. It enables the reader to follow the text from left to right.
Structure
The main information in the letter is displayed in the middle third of the letter. It is split between the two columns with one following the other. Within the first column (the left side column) the information follows directly on from the “dear customer” with a sub heading. After this follows two small paragraphs of information. The next and final paragraph is in the next column leaving a lot of free space at the end of the fist column. This is very poor use of white space. After the final paragraph there even more poor use of white space. The validation is at the bottom of column. To improve this it could follow straight on from the final paragraph. This would improve the letter and make it look more professional.
The bottom third of the letter is filled with colour. This contains separates the section from the rest of the letter in a way that no lines are needed. This section however is very large and could be reduced slightly in size to improve it.
Presentation Techniques
Within the text in the letter normal line spacing is used. This does not use up too much space and makes the letter look and appear more professional.
Throughout the whole letter text formatting has only been applied in four places. One instance of this is the heading of the information in the in first column where one word has been enlarged and made bold. This is so that it stands out and therefore when the reader reads the letter they will immediately know what the letter is about. Another instance of text formatting is two sub headings of paragraphs that are in bold. These are also in bold to stand out so that the reader can simple read it and find out what the following paragraph of information is about. The final instance of text formatting in the letter is the name of the person whom the letter is from which is in bold. This is also so that it stands out therefore meaning the reader doesn’t have to look for a long time to find out whom the letter is from.
The letter ends with the validation of “Yours sincerely”. This is a formal way of ending a letter when it is addressed to someone using their name.
Purpose
The purpose of the letter is to inform the reader of the available functions the bank offers them. It does not do this very well. To improve the letter many things can be done. For example the text could be in a larger size font. This would take up more space that is not scarce and therefore it would make better use of white space. To make even better use of white space the letter could be balanced and this would also look more professional.
Formal letter 3 – ‘Callington Community College’
This is a formal letter informing the parents of a pupil at the college about a ‘young driver education programme’ that students will be undertaking on Thursday 5th February 2004.
Layout
The first thing you notice when you look at this letter is the college logo in the top left corner. This is for a few reasons. One is that it is one of the few things in the letter that is in colour. Another reason is that when you look at a letter you tend to look at the top first and therefore if the logo is also colourful it increases the chances it will be seen before anything else. This is important so that the reader knows immediately whom the letter is from.
At the top of the letter next to the college logo is a letterhead. This contains information about the college and would be saved as a template in the college computer network so that when a letter needs to be created they can simply load the letterhead. This would save a lot of time. The letterhead is at the top of the letter because it contains information about the college including the address and contact numbers.
At the bottom of the letter is a footer. This contains company/service names and company/service logos of various companies and services that are linked and/or involved with the college. The footer is fairly noticeable because all the logos are coloured blue. This gives the letter a good balance because it has colour at both the top and the bottom of the letter. This is also a very good use of white space.
Between the letterhead and the footer is the main information. This is all left aligned.
The letter is of a portrait orientation for the same reason as the other two formal letters I have evaluated; it is the logical order in presenting text. It enables the reader to follow the text from left to right.
Structure
As I mentioned early there is a letterhead at the top of the letter. This is at the top of the letter because it contains information about the college, for example the address, contact numbers, e-mail address and the college website address.
There is a footer at the bottom of the letter and this is positioned here because the information it contains is not necessary to the information that the letter is about.
The main information in the letter is between the letterhead and the footer. This information is all left aligned with the main information that is split up into five paragraphs also fully justified. This is fully justified so that the letter is balanced and therefore making it look professional.
Presentation Techniques
In the main body of the letter normal line spacing is used. However in the letterhead 1.5 line spacing is used. This is because the size of the font in the letterhead is smaller than the rest of the letter. It is also because the information does not flow directly from one line to the next and so it is spaced out to show this.
Within the letterhead of the letter text formatting has been applied. For example the name of the college at the top of the page is in bold and in all upper case letters. This is in order to make it stand out so that the reader can easily see whom the letter is from. The word headteacher is also in bold. This is for a similar reason but this time to show a representative of the college.
All the text information in the letter is left aligned and all the information other than the main text information is also left justified. The main information is fully justified. This is to make the letter balanced and therefore making it appear more professional.
The letter closes with a complimentary close. This shows the reader that the college is supporting them. This means therefore that the reader ends the letter with a good impression of the college.
The letter ends with the validation “Yours sincerely”. This is a formal way of ending a letter when it is addressed to someone using their name.
Purpose
The purpose of the letter is to inform the reader of the ‘young driver programme’ that their son will undertake at college. It does this very well by using combinations of techniques. To improve the letter the main body of the text could be moved up so that it fit on the page without overlapping the footer. This would make better use of the white space.
Conclusion
Out of the three formal letters I have evaluated I think that the ‘Callington Community College’ is the most effective in serving its purpose as a formal letter. This is mainly due to the fact that it combines all the information to use the white space effectively and the use of colour to attract the reader and draw their attention to various pieces information.