Salutation: (Two lines below the recipient’s address, or about 1Ǚ down the page) The person the letter is intended for. Avoid “Dear Sir/Madam” and especially “To Whom it May Concern” unless absolutely necessary; not directing a letter to an exact recipient suggests that you don’t care who reads it (or you would have made a call or checked their website) _ and may prevent the letter from reaching someone who can act on your letter.
The basic structure of a formal letter: The rules might be arbitrary, but taken together they create a formula that produces clarity. When a letter follows all the rules, the reader doesn’t have to struggle to figure out where a piece of information might be, what action they should take next, or who sent it _ everything can be found in its place. Knowing the rules of letter writing is, in that sense, akin to knowing the rules of page layout or web design _ the format of the document should support and clarify the content.