Letters

Some phrases for the different steps of writing letters.

Beginning and Ending

• Dear Sir / Madam
• Dear Ms. Johnson
• Dear David

Reason for writing

• I am writing for apologize for / enquire about / thank you for / express our dissatisfaction with…
• I am writing in answer to your letter / advertisement / enquiry about…
• Following our recent meeting / telephone conversation, I am writing to…
• I was given your name by…, who suggested you might be able to help us to…

The background

• As you may know, Gimbles Ltd is an electronics manufacturer based in…
• As you will recall, three weeks ago we…
• Recently, we…

The result

• As the result of this, we have had to…
• Consequently, we would like to…
• The result of this is that…

The next step

• What I propose is that…
• In order to resolve this matter, I suggest that…
• We would appreciate it if you could…
• We would be grateful if you could now…

Further communication

• Please do not hesitate to contact me / us if you wish to discuss any of the above.
• I look forward to hearing from you / receiving…

Signing off

• Thank you again for your custom / interest / understanding.
• Once again, my apologies for the delay / misunderstanding / error.
• I hope you find this solution satisfactory.