A letter of apology can be a personal or business letter depending on the context in which the letter is written as well as the format of the letter.
A letter of apology is simple what its name suggests. You are writing to an individual to express regret for an action you have done or a statement that you have made. In short, you are saying that you are sorry for whatever offence you have made.
In the CSEC English A and B syllabus, a letter of apology falls under the topic of Expository Discourse along with other business letters. Just a reminder, questions that are expository in nature falls under Section B of the CSEC English A exam paper. These types of questions are worth 30 marks (content 10, organization 10 and grammar 10).
Today we are going to focus on writing the Business Letter of Apology by examining the structure of the body of the letter.
Paragraph 1
- Outline the reason you are writing and state you are sorry.
Paragraph 2
- Clearly state the problem and explain as much as possible what went wrong.
Paragraph 3
- Try to solve the problem, and give examples of how you can do this.
Paragraph 4
- Apologize again at end the letter.
When writing a personal letter of apology…
- Begin the letter by saying you’re sorry.
- Admit what you did wrong and take responsibility.
- Ask if there is any way you can help resolve the situation, and offer to do that.
- Reassure the other party that you will do your best to prevent the problem from happening again.
- Apologize again to close the letter.
- Be sincere