Do and Don'ts While Starting and Closing Formal Letters
Before writing formal letter you must know about what kind of letter you are writing, if you write application letter you first know what purpose of this letter, application letter is act as cover letter, you mainly write when you applying for some post or even for college. If you writing letter of reference, you know how to write a letter of recommendation, how to start and end the letter because it’s very importance for you, it leave first impression on hiring authority. You must know how to greeting proper in formal letter and how to close formal letter, for this we distinguish different kind of greeting and closing statement.
Greeting: Appropriate Salutation
- Dear David Bowie (if you know the name of person than it good to write his/her full name)
- Dear Mr./Ms. Bowie (If you don’t know his/her first name then you can write last name but if you know person only first name then don’t write name atoll)
- Dear Mr./Ms. David Bowie
- Dear Hiring Manager (You can also write hiring manger if you applying for job)
- Dear Human Resources Manager
- Dear Sir or Madam
- To Whom It May Concern (If you don’t know when ever its male or female you can also say “To Whom It May Concern”)
- Dear NextAndCompany Recruiter: (You can say “company name recruiter”)
Greeting: Inappropriate Salutation
- Hello
- Hi
- Good Morning
- How are you
Closing Statement: Go with Formal letter
- Best
- Respectfully
- Respectfully yours
- Sincerely
- Sincerely yours
- Thanks
- Thank you for your recommendation (Use this when you are writing letter to thanks your boss or person who write reference letter for you)
- Warm regards
- With appreciation
- With gratitude
- With sincere thanks
- With sympathy
- Yours faithfully
- Yours sincerely
- Yours truly
Closing Statement: Don’t End Letter with These Words
- Good bye
- Cheers
- Love
- Take care
- See you
How to Start and Close Formal Letter: This formal letter covers many kind of formal letter such as- cover letters, letter of inquiry, and how to write a recommendation letter. If you don’t know person name you can start application by referring “Dear Sir / Madam“and close with “Yours faithfully”. But if you know person name that you writing then referring by his/her full name or last name for instance- Ms Green Smith/Mr Mathew Smith or Ms Smith/Mr Smith.
Starting letter
- Sender's Address: You include in this section your address or company address
- Date
- Designation of Receiver
- Receiver Address
- Salutation: Dear Sir / Madam or Ms Smith/Mr Smith
Subject: Write the purpose of application and keep it very short (up to 6-10 words)
Letter Body: Here write content of your application
Closing letter
- Yours faithfully/ Yours sincerely/Sincerely
- Name of the Sender
- Designation of the Sender
Closing Statement for Formal, Semi- Formal and Informal Letters
Formal letter
- If you don’t know the person then if letter you should use sincerely, regards, yours truly, and yours sincerely.
- If you have some knowledge of the person to whom you are writing then you should use best regards, warmly, yours respectfully, thanks and best.
- If you know very well know the person to whom you are writing then you should use warm regards, best wishes, with appreciation and with gratitude.
Semi- Formal
In semi-formal letter, since you well known this person you can use sincerely yours, yours faithfully, with sincere thanks, warm regards. Do not write any friendly words such as – cheers, Love, take care because you write letter to your colleague, boss or your teacher so keep in mind that there are not your friends.
Informal letter
Informal letter is writing to your friends, relative or family so you can use some informal closing such as best, cheers, faithfully, regards, respectfully, sincerely, love.
