An effective letter must be clearly organized and carefully thought out. The following tips should make your task easier.

Address and date

Put your address at the top on the right. Put the smallest item first: house number, then street, then town. Post code and telephone number come last. Don’t put your name with the address.

Put the date directly under the address. A common way to write the date is to put the number of the day, followed by the month and year (e.g. 22 December 2007). In formal letters and business letters, put the name and address of the person you are writing to on the left side of the page, starting on the same level as the date or slightly below.

Different styles are common in formal letters on paper which has the address ready-printed at the top of the page. For example, the date may be put on the left, and the address of the person written to may come at the end of the letter.

In American usage, dates are written differently (month before day).

Salutation

Begin the letter on the left. In informal letters, it is common to address people by their first names: (e.g. Dear Alice). In more formal letters, titles and surnames can be used to address people: (e.g. Dear Ms Sullivan). Use Dear Sir(s), Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Madam to address people whose name you don’t know. Some people use the first name and surname (Dear Penny Hopkins) when writing to strangers or people they do not know well. Do not use a title like Mr together with a first name.

In American usage, Gentlemen is used instead of Dear Sirs. After the opening salutation, Americans may put a colon, especially in business letters (Dear Mr Parker:), or a comma.

Body of the letter

After ‘Dear X’, put a comma or nothing at all. In American English, a comma is preferred in personal letters, and a colon in business letters. Leave an empty line after ‘Dear X’ and start again on the left, or start again on the next line, a few spaces from the left. Do the same for each paragraph. Letters to strangers often begin with an explanation of the reason for writing.

Subscription or Leave-taking

Letters which begin Dear Sir or Dear Madam usually finish Yours faithfully. Formal letters which begin with the person’s name (e.g. Dear Susan Fernandez) usually finish Yours sincerely. Informal letters may finish, for example, Yours, See you, or Love. Note that Love is not usually used by one man to another. In formal letters, many people put a closing formula before Yours …, especially when writing to people they know: Common expressions are With best wishes and With kind regards. In American usage, Yours faithfully is not used. Common endings are Sincerely, Sincerely yours or Yours truly followed by a comma.

Signature

Sign with your first name (informal) or full name (formal). Don’t write any title (Mr/Ms/Dr/etc). In a formal typewritten letter, add your full typewritten name after your handwritten signature. Friendly business letters are often signed with the first name only above the fully typewritten name.

Americans are often addressed and sign their names with the first name in full, followed by the initial of a middle name (Allan J Parker).

In informal letters, afterthoughts that are added after the signature are usually introduced by P S (Latin post scriptum).

Addressing the envelope

When you address the envelope, follow the style you used in the letter. If you typed the letter, type the address on the envelope. The style should match. If you wrote the letter by hand, write the envelope by hand. Be sure your writing is legible. Here are a few more guidelines:

On the envelope, put the first name before the surname. People usually write a title (Mr, Mrs etc) before the name. You can write the first name in full (Mrs Susan Fernandez) or you can write one or more initials (Mrs S Fernandez). British people now usually write addresses, titles, initials, dates and opening and closing formula without commas or full stops. American usage is different. In American English, commas are sometimes used at the ends of lines in addresses; full stops may be used at the ends of addresses.

Center the recipient's name and address in the lower middle quadrant. Don't use Mr, Mrs, or Ms when you write your own name on the return address. Use only standard abbreviations for streets, states, and countries. To insure speedy delivery or return, include the zip code in both the recipient's address and your return address.