Order of inside address

LETTERS

Sender's address

In correspondence that does not have a letterhead, the sender's address is placed in the top right-hand corner of the page. It is also acceptable, but less common, to place it in the top left-hand corner. Punctuation is rarely used in addresses these days.

The blocked style is the most widely used, i.e. each line starts directly below the one above.

In contrast with practice in some other countries, in the UK it is not usual to write the sender's name before his or her address.

Date

The date is written directly below the sender's address, separated from it by a space. It the case of correspondence with a letterhead, it is usually written on the right-hand side of the page.

The month in the date should not be written in figures as this can be confusing; for example 11.3.03 means 11 March 2003 in British English, where the sequence is day-month-year, but 3 November 2003 in American English, where the sequence is month-day-year.

It is acceptable to write the date with or without the abbreviations -th and -nd, e.g. 24th October or 24 October, and to transpose the date and the month, e.g. October 24 or 24 October. These are matters of personal preference, but whatever you choose you should be consistent throughout your correspondence.

Inside address

The inside address is written below the sender's address and on the left-hand side of the page.

Surname know

If you know the name of the person you are writing to, write it as the first line of the address. Include either the person's initial/s or his or her first given name, e.g. Mr. J.E. Smith or Mr. John Smith, not Mr. Smith.

Courtesy titles used in addresses are as follows:

- Mr. is the usual courtesy title for a man. The unabbreviated form Mister should not be used.

- Mrs. is used for a married woman.

- Miss is used for an unmarried woman.

- Ms. is used for both married and unmarried women. It is advisable to use this form of address when you are unsure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not, or do not know which title she prefers.

- Messrs is used occasionally for two or more men, e.g. Messrs P. Jones and B.L Parket, but more commonly forms part of the name of a company, e.g. Messrs Collier, Clark & Co. It is rather old-fashioned.

Other courtesy titles include academic or medical titles, e.g. Doctor (Dr.), Professor (Prof.); military titles, e.g. Captain (Capt.), Major (Maj.), Colonel (Col.), General (Gen.); and aristocratic titles, e.g. Sir, Date, Lord, Lady. Sir means that the addresses is a knight, and is always followed by a first name, e.g. Sir John Brown, never Sir J. Brown or Sir Brown. It should not be confused with the salutation Dear Sir.

Esq., abbreviation for Esquire, is seldom used now. It can only be used instead of Mr., and is placed after the name. Do not use Esq. And Mr. at the same time, e.g. Bruce Hill Esq., not Mr. Bruce Hill Esq.

All these courtesy titles, except Esq., are also used in salutations. Note that a full stop is often used at the end of the abbreviation if it takes the form of the first few letters of the word, e.g. Prof. (Professor), but is not necessary if it takes the form of the first and last letter of the word, e.g. Dr (Doctor). However, some people prefer to write, e.g. Mr., Mrs., with a full stop. Again, whatever you choose to do, you should be consistent throughout your correspondence.

Job title known

If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, but know their job title, you can use that, e.g. The Sales Manager, The Finance Director, in the inside address.

Department known

Alternatively, you can address your letter to a particular department of the company, e.g. the Sales Department, The Accounts Department.

Company known

Finally, if you know nothing about the company and do not know which person or department your letter should go to, you can simply address the letter to the company itself, e.g. Compuvision Ltd, Messrs Collier, Clark & Co.

Order of inside address

After the name of the person and / or company receiving the letter, the recommended order and style of addresses in the UK is as follows.

- Name of house or building

- Number of building and name of street, road, avenue, etc.

- Name of town or city and postcode

- Name of country

In other European countries, the number of the building may be placed after the name of the street. It is also common to substitute the name of the country with an initial before the district code number. These two examples are from Italy and Germany ('Deutschland') respectively.

It is simplest to follow the above order and style, though variations are possible: for example the name of the country, e.g. Lancashire, may, if known, be included on the postcode may be written on a separate line; the name of the town, as well as the country, may be in capital letters.

Attention line

An alternative to including the recipient's name or job title in the address is to use an attention line.

Salutation

Dear Sir opens a letter written to a man whose name you do you not know. Dear Sirs is used to address a company. (In American English a letter to a company usually opens with Gentlemen.)

Dear Madam is used to address a woman, whether single or married, whose name you do not know.

Dear Sir or Madam (or Dear Sir / Madam) is used to address a person when you do you not know their name or gender. Notice that Ms. Kaasen in the letter on page 9 uses this form, i.e. she does not assume that the sales manager of Compuvision Ltd is a man.

When you know the name of the person you are writing to, but do not know them well, the salutation takes the form of Dear followed by a courtesy title and the person's surname. Initials or first names are not used with courtesy titles, e.g. Dear Mr. Smith, not Dear Mr. J. Smith or Dear Mr. John Smith. Business associates who you know well can be addressed using just their first name, e.g. Dear John.

A comma after the salutation is optional, i.e. Dear Mr. Smith, or Dear Mr. Smith. (In American English a colon is usually used after the salutation, e.g. Dear Mr. Smith:, Gentlemen:).

Body of the letter

The blocked style is the one most often used for the body of the letter. It is usual to leave a line space between paragraphs.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1448