Types of Letter Writing

A Question & an Answer

There is a famous story of the shortest letter in history. Victor Hugo, a famous French author, wrote his publisher to ask how sales of his new book, Les Misérables, were doing. His letter consisted of only a question mark. The response from his publisher was only a big exclamation point. Hugo's new book was selling very well.

Two Main Types of Letters

There are many types of letters. However, most types of letters fall into two main categories: inquiry letters, like Victor Hugo's letter, and information letters, like his publisher's response. Inquiry letters request something: an action, a request for knowledge, or a change of some type. Information letters give details and important, useful pieces of information and knowledge.

In other words, letters usually ask for something or give something. Old-fashioned friendship letters or postcards asked for information or gave information about someone's life or a trip they took. Thank you letters give information thanking someone for something. Even love letters give information about how someone feels or ask for love in return.

Let's now take a look at some more specific types of letters. These will fall under two main categories: business and professional letters and legal letters. Though of course, there are many others - too many for this brief lesson - but let's dive in and see what these writings are all about.

Business & Professional Letters

There are many kinds of business and professional letters, and they generally fall into the inquiry and information letter type. One major type of business letter are complaint letters. Complaint letters are letters to a business or a local, state, or national government official talking about a problem or asking a question about services. These letters usually have an idea of how to fix the problem or are asking for a solution.

Employment letters are very important because they are usually considered legal documents between you and potential, current, or previous employers. Employment letters include job search letters, which ask a company or organization if there are jobs available. There are also cover letters that go along with many job applications. These are professional letters telling your interest in an available position, what you did in previous employment, and what you could do for the company.

Employment letters also include recommendation and reference letters, which tell of a person's qualities and characteristics. They can either come from previous employers or colleagues and trusted people with important positions. The same is true for resignation letters, which are used when someone decides to leave a company or organization.

There are also many of types of legal letters that sometimes overlap with business letters. These are legal representations of a person, a company, or an organization. Perhaps the most important type of legal letter is the contract or proposal letter. These letters and ideas for projects and services are the basis for contracts. Once agreed upon and signed, these letters are legally binding documents for good and services.

However, service letters are either information about specific services provided or a request to have a service performed. We also have credit or collection letters, which are legal documents involving personal credit or information about an attempt by a company or organization to collect payment. There are also notice letters, which give important information about things like a delay in service or a request to leave an apartment because of failure to pay.

Legal letters also include policy letters, meant to express the accepted and standard guidelines of a company or organization. Customer affairs and public relations letters, on the other hand, are legal letters that respond to customer complaints or requests. These letters can also build goodwill for an organization, like a promotional giveaway of new computers. Also, since business is regulated by law, human resource letters are considered vital legal letters that deal with employers and employees and how they act and communicate with each other. There are also discipline letters that usually fall under human resource letters. These documents are carefully written letters informing a person of action being taken to correct employment behavior.