Impress potential employers or make a business proposition with a formal letter. Formal letters used for business or serious purposes follow a specific format to communicate the relevant message. For someone to apply for a job interview, an official letter is ideal to show career skills and education.

Besides, prospective employees will want to include a resume or other necessary documentation with the formal letter. As the digital age facilitates communication between businesses and potential employees, the format of enclosures and carbon copy (CC) notations in formal messages has changed slightly.

Use of Enclosure Notation at the End of a Formal Letter

Before electronic mail became a standard way to deliver messages formally or informally, people typed formal letters. A typed letter designated formality and message clarity. In a formal letter, the enclosure follows the closing or signature section. Skip four lines and then include the word enclosure.

In the enclosure section, you'll designate the number of enclosures and the respective names. For instance, if you type a formal job opportunity letter, you want to include a resume. After the word enclosure, type (1) to indicate the number of additional documents following your formal typed letter. If you have more than one enclosure, use a colon after the enclosure section.

Then, indicate the number and the name of the document you're sending with your letter. Avoid overwhelming your reader with too many enclosures unless it's necessary. You should submit no more than three enclosures. Finally, formal typed letters typically use enclosures to include separate documents in addition to the letter. Electronic mail delivers more opportunities to send messages and materials to more people at one time.

Reasons to Use CC at the Bottom of a Formal Letter

Much like enclosures indicate documents that are being sent with a formal letter, you might want to send it to multiple people at the same time. With a formal typed letter, this is possible by including a carbon copy notation at the end of your message. After your enclosure section, type the notation CC followed by a colon. Next, include the name of the person you're sending the letter to. For multiple senders, include each name on a separate line.

With electronic mail (email), the email address portion of your email heading consists of the version of CC. In this case, you'd include the names of the people you're sending the corresponding email. If you have more than one name, add a comma between names. A combination of enclosure and CC typically design a formal letter that carries a business message and relevant documentation to your reader.