A Thank you Letter otherwise known as a Letter of Thanks refers to a letter that is normally used in a situation where one person wishes to express appreciation to another person. It is usually written as a standard business letter or personal letter and it is recommended that its length shouldn’t exceed one page. For thank you letters that are meant for friends, relatives or an acquaintance, the writer can choose to handwrite them. Letters of gratitude can also be used to refer to these kind of letters.

Most of these letters are usually written in the form of formal business letters.

The use of thank you letters in business;

There are situations in business that may necessitate the need to write a thank you letter, these include but are not limited to:

  • As an appreciation for a special consideration that has been extended to a person or business by another organization
  • As a way of appreciating a speaker who presented during a board meeting
  • There are also customer appreciation letters to thank them for their exclusive patronage
  • As way of thanking employees in business for the astounding performance
  • To thank an individual for a customer referral
  • To appreciate the efforts of volunteer workers due to their significant contributions to a given public campaign

The use of thank you letters for person reasons;

In the same way that thank you letters are quite vital for a business, individuals could also be compelled to send thank you letters in a number of situations;

  • As a follow-up letter just after a job-interview or a job offer
  • To appreciate a company or organization for the commendable customer service extended to one
  • They can be used to thank friends or relatives who were with one during the difficult times in their lives
  • To thank friends or relatives for their wedding gifts
  • As a way of thanking service clubs or agencies for their support to one’s family members.
  • Other many appreciatory gestures for various social functions or situations

Thank you Letter Templates

Thank you Letter Format

The following is a chronological order of the format of a thank you letter, especially one that acts as follow-up letter after a job interview;

  1. Your contact information: include your name, your address, your city, state or zip code, your phone number as well as your email address
  2. The date when it was written
  3. The contact information of the person you are writing to. Include their name, the title, company, address as well as their city, state and zip code
  4. The greeting/salutation. Usually written as Dear Mr./ Mrs. Last name
  5. The Body of the thank you letter
    The letter needs to simple and focused in nature. You should single space the letter and remember to leave a space between the paragraphs. The standard format is to use plain fonts like Arial, Times New Roman or Verdana with a font that is between 10-12 points.
    If it is a job interview follow-up letter, the first paragraph should revolve around you thanking the manager for setting aside time to interview you.
    The second paragraph should then outline the reasons why you are an illegible candidate for a given job. You could list the specific skills that you possess that are quite key for a given job.
    In case you forgot to mention some significant qualifications during the job interview you can include this information in your thank you letter in the next paragraph.
    The closing paragraph in the thank you letter should reiterate your gratefulness for being considered for the job interview. You should also mention that you are looking forward to a positive response from them as soon as possible.
  6. The closing usually ends in the form of Best regards
  7. The signature which should be handwritten for a letter that is to be mailed. It could also be a typed signature.

In case you find yourself to be in a situation in which the company has chosen to make the hiring decision quickly, it would be appropriate to write an email thank you message to them. This will ensure that the manager gets you response in good time.

 

How to Write a Thank you Letter

This is the format for writing a thank you letter in the good old fashioned way. It’s in three section for purposes of logical illustration.

Selecting the Format of the Thank you Letter

  1. You can either choose to handwrite the letter or type it. Both options are acceptable but the handwritten thank you letter will have a personal touch to it. In case you find it more comfortable to type a thank you letter feel free to do that as your effort will be appreciated either way. Here are a few tips to follow while at it;
    • In case you have chosen to handwrite the letter using a black or blue pen is recommended. Writing in print or the cursive way is totally up to you, just make sure that is legible.
    • For the ones who choose to type the letter it is best to use a font that’s easy to read. The use of Times New Roman or Arial is recommended. This mostly applies to professional thank you letters
  2. Select nice stationary or a thank you letter card. The recipient will consider it more polite for you to use nice pieces of stationary or alternatively the use of a card. This demonstrates your sincerity.
    • It is not necessary to use fancy stationary but the use of heavy weight paper or any other quality material is recommended.
    • You could alternatively look for thank you cards that can be found in stationary shops or drug stores. It is good to keep a stock of these for future use.
  3. You can keep it professional or go the casual way depending on the circumstances. The recipient of your letter will dictate the style settled on. The style to be used will also be determined by the nature of the gift received. The end result is to present the letter in best way that reveals you sincere gratitude for a given occasion or gesture.
    • In case you are sending a thank you letter to your boss, it will be best to keep it professional to the formal office setting. This will also make you to consider the use of high quality stationary and the style and fonts of writing will be akin to that of a professional business letter.
    • For a casual letter to a friend or a relative, you may be a little bit relaxed and decide to show more of your personality. The letter can then turn out to be funny in a way and you could use the stationary of your choice.
  4. It is good to know the most appropriate time for sending an email. It is okay to send thank you email occasionally but this should be determined by the reason for doing so. For a gift or appreciation of dedicating a lot of time for your benefit, it would be prudent to use a mailed letter to show that you can also underwent the trouble of doing so, just as your recipient did.
    • If you want to thank someone or an organization for giving you an actual gift, such as a donation or setting aside a significant amount of their time, it will be best to write an actual thank you letter to them. The extra time taken for writing a donation thank you letter will be appreciated.
    • If you choose to send an email it will be good to take you time while coming up with it. This is to ensure that it is well-composed and as thoughtful as well.

 

On composing the Thank you Letter

  1. Start with the salutation. This should be in a way that feels so natural to you. In the event of your friendship being informal you can use a nickname or a short form. But for a professional thank you letter, the salutation should be formal in nature. Starting with Dear is widely accepted and this would work for any thank you letter. Friends or close relatives could be addressed with a less informal tone.
  2. Expressing your gratitude in the most sincere way. The first paragraph should be used to expressed how grateful your are. Keep your thankn you letter short and precise especially for professional thank you letters. Try as much as possible to be specific to what has made you to be grateful and you could give a brief description of the same to give the letter a personal feel.
  3. Jot down a few lines on how the gift has had an impact on you. After being grateful you could open your heart and express how much you are overjoyed to have received the gift. This is meant to make the person or organization feel appreciated and encouraged to do even better in case of a next time. It is good to be honest and sincere while doing this.
  4. For an informal thank you letter, you could inquire about the intended recipient. This will help to express how much you care and appreciate the person. You could be inquistive and you could share some interesting recent developments in your life. By touching on other areas part from the being grateful bit, you will differentiate your letter from the casual dash-off thank you letter. This also has the effect of making the other person feel pleasurable and more receptive of your appreciatory remarks.
  5. Closing the thank you letter can be tricky as your desire should be to end it in a way that keeps the recipient happy. For a professional thank you letter you would also not want to get to the point of overstepping your formal boundaries. It is good to put all these factors into consideration and choose what will be most appropriate for a given thank you letter.

Some thank you letter etiquette you need to stick to

  1. Try as much as possible to make the letter’s length to correspond to the gift one has received. A gift or donation that is thoughtful and expensive deserves to be addressed in a lengthy letter. For small gestures a few lines would do but don’t give the impression that you don’t consider it to be as much valuable as the former.
  2. If you chose to use a thank you letter card and you have little to write, you can start halfway down. In case you don’t have much to talk about in a card that has lots of empty space, the standard practice is to start halfway down on the right half or the bottom half of the card. This should be done with respect to the size of the gift that you have received.
  3. You need to send the thank you letter as promptly as possible. The most appropriate time is during the first few days or weeks after receiving the gift or sign of good gesture. This will help confirm that you have recieved the gift and that you are also grateful for it.

 

This site offers you with thank you letter templates. These include templates for thank you letter to your boss, professional thank you letters, thank you letter for scholarships as well as thank you letters for donations. Try them out and enjoy the easy and convenience that they will provide in your quest to write good thank you letters.

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TemplateLab April 29th, 2021