Writing Skills Series

Opening and Closing a Letter or E-mail

Opening
Most letters begin with Dear (name). However, in e-mails and faxes, people often write "Hi (name) when writing to people they know well. This is common even in business correspondence. In e-mails, many people also simply write the person's name with no greeting (e.g. John). We do not use both names, e.g. "Dear Margaret Black. If you do not know the name of the person to whom you are writing, you should write: "Dear Sir or Madam" (or the less commonly used To whom it may concern). It is no longer usual to write Dear Sirs" (British) or "Gentlemen" (American).

Titles
If you know the person well, you can use just his or her first name: "Dear Jim". If you don't know the person, you normally use a title, e.g. "Dear Ms Jones". The most commonly used titles are: Mr, Ms, Mrs or Dr. Ms is a neutral title used for women. If you are unsure whether a woman is married or not, use Ms. However, you may use one of the traditional forms ("Mrs" for a married woman and "Miss" for an unmarried woman) if you already know that the woman uses this form.

Punctuation
Titles are usually written without full stops in British English (e.g. Ms) and with full stops (US: periods) in American English (e.g. Ms.). In Britain, most people put no punctuation after either the opening or the closing greeting, whereas in North America, it is common to put a comma after both the opening and closing greeting or a colon after the opening greeting. This is shown in the table below.

Opening greeting

Closing greeting Kind regards Kind regards,

UK US

Dear Bill Dear Bill, Dear Bill:

GnosisLearning, 2008

Writing Skills Series Closing

The closing of an email or letter has to match the opening greeting stylistically. When you finish writing, check that you have used a suitable closing that matches your opening greeting. The table below lists which closing phrases match which opening greeting.

Opening greeting Dear Sir or Madam(,) To whom it may concern(,)

Closing greeting Yours faithfully (UK) Sincerely (yours), (US) Yours truly, (US) Yours sincerely (UK) Sincerely (yours), (US) Yours truly, (US) Best wishes (UK and US) Kind regards (UK and US) Regards (UK and US)

Dear Mr James (UK) Dear Mr. James, (US) Dear Cindy(,) Hi Ken(,) Ken(,)

GnosisLearning, 2008