Ending a formal letter

Letter writing

When you are writing a letter, the language you use and the layout of the letter will depend on how formal the letter is.

Formal letters

If you are writing a formal letter, such as a business letter or an application for a job, you use formal language, as in the example below.

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Address and date

You put your address in the top right-hand corner. You can put a comma at the end of each line, and a full stop at the end of the last one, but this is not necessary. You do not put your name above the address.

You put the date under your address. If you are using headed notepaper, you put the date above the address of the person you are writing to or at the right-hand side of the page. You can write the date in several different ways, for example `29.4.92', `29/4/92', `29 April 1992', or `April 29th, 1992'. Note that in American English the month is put in front of the day, for example `4/29/92'.

You put the name or job title and the address of the person you are writing to on the left-hand side of the page, usually starting on the line below the date.

Beginning a formal letter

You begin a formal letter with the person's title and surname, for example `Dear Mr Jenkins', `Dear Mrs Carstairs', or `Dear Miss Stephenson'.

If you do not know whether the woman you are writing to is married or not, you can use the title `Ms'. Some younger women prefer `Ms' to `Mrs' and `Miss', especially if they have married but not changed their surname. However, some older women do not like this title.

In less formal letters, people sometimes use the person's first name and surname after `Dear', for example `Dear Fiona Smart'.

If you are writing a very formal letter, or do not know the person's name, you use `Dear Sir' or `Dear Madam'. If you are not sure whether the person you are writing to is a man or a woman, it is safest to write `Dear Sir or Madam'. When writing to a company, `Dear Sirs' is used in British English and `Gentlemen' in American English.

People writing in the American style put a colon after the `Dear...' expression, for example `Dear Mr. Jones:'. If you are writing in the British style, you can either use a comma or have no punctuation.

ending a formal letter

If you begin the letter using the person's title and surname (for example `Dear Mrs Carstairs'), you finish with `Yours sincerely'. If you want to be less formal, you can finish with `Yours'. If you begin your letter with `Dear Sir', `Dear Madam', or `Dear Sirs', you finish with `Yours faithfully'.

In American English, the usual way of finishing a letter is with the expression `Sincerely yours' or, more formally, `Very truly yours'.

You write your signature underneath the expression you finish with. You can type your name (or write it in capitals) underneath your signature. If you are writing a business letter, you can also put your job title.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14