How to Write an Approval Letter

An approval letter can be written for a number of reasons. Some common uses for an approval letter are to give permission at work (vacation, expenditure, sick leave); to approve or endorse a building project; or, to approve finances or a loan. In general, if you are an employer with staff, or a creditor, or working on a council or some other government body, chances are you will need to know how to write a good approval letter. This means being aware of the writing style you should use for an approval letter, and using good proofreading software to make sure your letter is professional and communicative.

All types of approval letter have some things in common:

  1.     The writing style should be friendly and relaxed - it can still be in a formal style for some types of approval letters, but the general tone should be warm. For the right effect, the letter should be free of English grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.
  2.     Open with the confirmation of the approval, and also give the reasons for the approval if it is appropriate for the context.
  3.     If further actions are required by the person the letter is addressed to, state them clearly.
  4.     If the approval is contingent on a timeline, outline this timeline in the approval letter. This could mean a date on which the approval starts, or a period of time in which to act upon the approval.
  5.     Close your letter in a congratulatory tone if appropriate.


With these tips, you will be in a good position to write an effective approval letter. As well as following these tips, ensuring that your English writing is of a high standard with a rich vocabulary is essential. A quality grammar checking software is needed, as is a good spell checker. Below, we look at an example approval letter. This example is a letter to approve a raise for an have taken the original letter as an example of 'bad' writing in an approval letter, and, following our simple tips and using WhiteSmoke to proofread, turned the letter into a fine example of English writing.

Original Approval Letter

Dear Frederick,
On behalf of the entire team in GlassONE Studios, I congratulate you on your performance during the first three month trial employment period. Your results have beat our expectations and been very good.

Your new status means a $7,000 yearly raise, and a 9% superannuation package, effectiv immediately. Thank you for you great work and we all looking forward to continuing our work.

Peter Glass

Letter after WhiteSmoke

Dear Frederick,
On behalf of the entire team at GlassONE Studios, I heartily congratulate you on your performance during the first three month trial employment period. Your results have exceeded our expectations in every facet of the work, and we are happy to make you a permanent employee - an integral part of the GlassONE team.

Your new status means a $7,000 annual raise, and a 9% superannuation package, effective immediately.

Thank you for your great work to date, and we all look forward to continuing our working relationship.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter Glass


In the above example, we have taken a badly written approval letter and improved it with some simple tips and the WhiteSmoke online writing tool. It is often the case that an otherwise good letter is let down by sub-standard English grammar and spelling. Writing is often done quickly, and sometimes there just isn't time to do a proper proofread of all your letters. This is where WhiteSmoke comes to the rescue.

Get WhiteSmoke!