How To Address a Letter

When you read a letter, the very first thing you see is the heading. Despite the fact that the header is pretty standard it still says a lot about the person who wrote it. In this tutorial I will give you some easy steps to follow.

Steps to follow:

  1. When writing a letter, you want your address and the heading to duplicate the content of the letter. If you are handwriting the letter then you also need to have the address handwritten. This goes for typed letters too, if they are typed then the address needs to be typed.

  2. You want to use the same form as the receiver uses. Here is an example, if the person uses the name Andrew B. Johnson II in his correspondence then you should also address his name the same in your letter.

  3. Unless you have preprinted stationary that you are using, then in the top right corner you would put your return address.

  4. You need to have the date in your letter and if the letter is informal then you can simply put “Tuesday” below your return address. If it is a more formally important letter, then you need to be sure to use the complete date.

  5. Once you are done with the address and date you will jump down two lines to write your greeting in which you will use the appropriate name in accordance to the circumstances of your letter and the relationship. For example, “Dear Andy,” “Dear Andrew,” “Dear Mr. Johnson,” or maybe a different name.

  6. Select a greeting that fits the occasion. If it is a formal letter you may want to begin with “Dear,” and if you are looking for more affection then in that case you would use something along the lines of “Dearest”.

  7. Be sure to use a comma or a colon behind the name. If it is a formal letter then you want to use a colon.

  8. Now if you are writing a letter and you are not sure of the name of the recipient then you may want to use “To whom it may concern.”

  9. Last but not least, when handwriting a letter, legibility is of the utmost importance.

Not really complicated just a certain type of etiquette when writing letters. I hope this helped.