Akademik

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

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.

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.

You begin a formal letter with the person's title and surname, for example `Dear Mr Jenkins', `Dear Mrs Carstairs', or `Dear Miss Stephenson'. See entry at ↑ Names and titles for information on titles.

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.

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.

If you are writing a letter to a friend or relative, you use informal language, as in the example opposite. Informal letters are usually handwritten, although some people type them.

You put your address and the date, or just the date, in the top right-hand corner. You do not put the address of the person you are writing to at the top of the letter.

You normally begin an informal letter to a friend using `Dear' and the person's first name, for example `Dear Louise'. When people are writing to a relative, they use the person's `relative' title, for example `Dear Mum', `Dear Grandpa', or `Dear Grandma'. If you are very fond of the friend or relative you are writing to, you can begin your letter with something like `My dearest Sara' or `Darling Alison'.

In a handwritten letter, people usually begin the first sentence under the end of the person's name, and start each paragraph a little way in from the left-hand side of the page.

The expression you use to end an informal letter with depends on whether you are a man or a woman. `Love' is used by women in most informal letters, but by men only when writing to close female friends or relatives. `Yours', `Best wishes', and `All the best' are used by men in most informal letters, and by women who are writing to someone they are not particularly fond of. `Lots of love' is used by men and women when writing to someone they are very fond of, but is not often used by men writing to men.

The expression at the end of an informal letter is usually written towards the right of the page, with the signature a little further to the right.

The example at the top of the next page shows how to write the name and address on an envelope. Some people put a comma at the end of each line, and a full stop after the county or country.

You usually use the title, initial or initials, and surname of the person you are writing to. When writing to a married couple, you usually use only the husband's initials, for example `Mr and Mrs G T Black'.

When writing to a married woman, people used to use her husband's initials. However, people nowadays tend to use the woman's own initials, unless they are sending a very formal letter or writing to someone who prefers the old style of address.

You can also use the person's title, first name, and surname: `Miss Sarah Wilkins'. When the letter is informal, you can just use their first name and surname, or their initial (or initials) and surname: `Sarah Wilkins' or `S Wilkins'.

If you are writing to someone who is temporarily staying with someone else or staying in a particular place, you put their name first and then, on the line below, put `c/o' in front of the name of the other person or the place, as in the example below. `c/o' stands for `care of'.

When sending a letter to a place in Britain or the USA, you should put the postcode or zip code (the set of letters and numbers at the end of the address) on a separate line.