Formal correspondence: letters, applications, notices and e-mail
LUG-105 English and Legal Language, Unit III: Formal correspondence. · LLB · 60 min
Formal and informal correspondence compared; the parts and the block format of a formal letter; the language of courtesy and precision; and a model for every letter the papers have asked: to the Registrar for a bona fide certificate, to the Editor on women empowerment and on sexual offences against women, to the Station House Officer reporting a theft, and to the editor of a legal journal submitting an article. The lawyer's own letters, the legal notice and the application to a court, and e-mail etiquette complete the topic.
Objectives
- Distinguish formal from informal correspondence by purpose, layout, tone and language, with examples.
- Name the parts of a formal letter in order and lay them out in block style.
- Write a letter of request to an authority, a letter to the editor and a letter reporting an offence in full format.
- Draft a simple legal notice and an application to a court, and explain the conventions of e-mail in professional use.
- Avoid the common faults: wrong salutation and close, missing subject line, vague body, discourtesy.
Slides
- Formal and informal correspondence
- The parts of a formal letter and the block format
- The language of a formal letter
- Application to an authority: the bona fide certificate (2025-26, Q.3c)
- Letter to the editor I: Women Empowerment (2022-23, Q.5a)
- Letter to the editor II and a report to the police (2017-18, Q.B5)
- Letter to the editor of a legal journal (2023-24, Q.5b)
- The lawyer's letters: legal notice and application to a court
- E-mail etiquette for the law student and the lawyer
- How the examiner asks it
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