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Letters require very little punctuation, apart from whatever is needed for
independent reasons. The address on the envelope looks like this:
- Joanna Barker
- 54 Cedar Grove
- Brighton BN1 7ZR
There is no punctuation at all here. Note especially that the number 54
is not
followed by a comma. In Britain, it was formerly common practice to put a
comma in this position, but such commas are pointless and are no longer usual.
The same goes for the two addresses in the letter itself: your own
address (the return address), usually placed in the top right-hand corner, and the
recipient's address (the internal address), usually placed at the left-hand margin,
below the return address:
168 Trent Avenue
Newark NG6 7TJ
17 March 2011
Joanna Barker
54 Cedar Grove
Brighton BN1 7ZR
Note the position of the date, and note that the date requires no punctuation.
In British English, the greeting is always followed by a comma:
- Dear Esther, or
- Dear Mr Jackson,
In American usage, only a personal letter takes a comma here, while a business
letter takes a colon:
- Dear Esther, but
- Dear Mr. Jackson:
If you are writing to a firm or an institution, and you have no name, you may
use the greeting Dear Sir/Madam.
The closing always takes a comma:
- Yours lovingly, or
- Yours faithfully,
Note that only the first word of the closing is capitalized. In British usage,
it is
traditional to close with Yours sincerely when writing to a named person
but
Yours faithfully when using the Dear Sir/Madam greeting, but this
distinction is
anything but crucial. American usage prefers Yours sincerely or Sincerely
yours (A) for all business letters. Things like Yours exasperatedly
are only
appropriate, if at all, in letters to newspapers.
In a personal letter, of course, you can use any closing you like: Yours
lovingly, Looking forward to seeing you, It's not much fun without you, or
whatever.