The first three areas Subject, Audience and Purpose dictates to the content, direction and emphasis of a letter while writing a business letter.

In-case if you have somehow missed reading about Subject, Audience and Purpose in writing business letter series, check out for references to the above at the end of this post.  Do read them as they are an important ingredient source to any business letter writing.

Well by now, you know;

WHAT you’re writing about — SUBJECT.

WHO you’re writing for — AUDIENCE.

WHY you’re writing — PURPOSE.

Now you are ready to be concerned with HOW you are going to write the letter. The first three areas can be determined in a matter of minutes if you are familiar with the ideas that need to be communicated. The fourth area — style and organization — takes more time.

However, the basic organization for the body of any business letter follows.

Part 1 of Body: State your purpose.

Part 2 of Body: Explain what you want or explain the information you have.

Part 3 of Body: Request a dated action, conclude or thank the reader for his response.

Notice that these are parts or sections rather than paragraphs.

In some cases, particularly Part 2, the parts may consist of more than one paragraph. Let’s take a look at each of these parts.

Part 1 of the Body

Get right to the point in the first sentence of the letter. When you read a novel, you expect to have background information before the story ever starts. When you read a business letter, you expect to be told immediately what will happen.

Part 2 of the Body

This is the bread and butter of the letter. It explains the information you are giving, or it explains what you want the recipient to do.

It doesn't need to be elaborated, but it does need to include all of the information the recipient needs or you want. If you have a lot of information, break it into short paragraphs.

Part 3 of the Body

This, like the first part, is usually a short paragraph. Depending on the purpose of your letter, it will do one of three things.

1. Conclude. In an informational letter, this allows you to point out the most important item or draw all your key points into one statement.

2. Request action. In letters that require a response, such as collection letters, you define the action you want the recipient to take. In this part, you tell the reader what to do and when to do it.Being vague gets vague results. Be specific.

3. Thank the reader. In some letters, this part is simply a thank you for the recipient’s attention, response or concern.

Mostly Business letters are sent with a specific subject and audience in mind but are not always clear with their purpose of writing a letter purpose.

To understand and obviously write a better letter.

Know why you are sending the letter, define its purpose -

Is the letter to inform?

Is it to request information?

Is it to offer congratulations?

Condolences?

Is it to get the recipient to act on a request?

All of these are very different purposes. You have probably received and sent many letters that, after reading it, left you confused because you didn't knew or could make out exactly what it said or had to say. The purpose were not clear in the letter.

Defining purpose while writing a letter helps the reader with clarity, and somehow it guarantees the letter to be responded.