Enclosures in business letters

Table of contents – enclosure

On this page you will find the following:

1. Using enclosures in business letters
2. Typical enclosures
3. Further explanations

How are enclosures announced in business letters?

In English business letters, the word enclosure for one or enclosures for several documents indicates additional material that is part of the message. It appears under the name or, if specified, under the writer’s job position. Regarding placement and form, the expression is located on the left margin and can also be abbreviated. It is not mandatory to list all enclosed documents. Standard abbreviations that signify these words are:

• Encl.
  • for one or more enclosures/documents
• Enc
  • for one document
• Encs
  • for several documents

Important: Note that the term enclosure is typically utilised for papers that belong to physical letters. For electronic material, such as emails, the term attachment is suitable instead.

Example

In a business letter, the section that indicates the additional text may look like this:

Mind the punctuation

The abbreviations may be written with or without a full stop. Nevertheless, you should pay attention whether you have used closed (with marks) or open punctuation (without marks) throughout the letter.

Further explanations relating to the ‘Enclosures in business letters’

The following explanations are related to the topic ‘Particularities about enclosures in English business letters’ and may be interesting as well:

• Structure of an English business letter
• Sample of a British business letter
• Sample of an American business letter