Grammar in formal letters

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Anonymous

#313501 Wed, 10 Jan 07 04:24 PM

Hi everyone

I'm doing a cover letter for a resume, however I'm not sure about:

1. Whether to indent at the start of each paragraph

2. Whether to put a comma after 'Dear Sir/Madam' and 'Yours faithfully'

What is the formal way to do this?

Cheers

Anonymous

Yours faithfully, Grammar, Resume, Commas, Paragraphs, cover letter

Ant_222

#313512 Wed, 10 Jan 07 04:44 PM

Dear Sir/Madam,

1. No first line intents. But a 1-line intent after each paragraph. I mean, separate your paragraphs by one empty line and use left justification.

2. See above and below

Yourth faithfully,
Anton

P.S.: All that is just my guess.

Ant_222

Joined on Sun, May 21 2006

Podolsk, Russia

Contributing Member (1,547)

Grammar, Paragraphs

Cool Breeze

#313547 Wed, 10 Jan 07 05:41 PM

Hi Anon

You can by all means have a lot of intent in your letter but no indention is necessary these days. (Just referring to a previous reply.)
I have got(ten) the impression from my British friends' letters that commas are out of style in British English. (However, I don't know your nationality at all.)

In BE most up-to-date people don't use commas after Dear Sir and Yours faithfully. They don't even use commas in dates nowadays: January 10 2007. Americans are another breed. They want you to put a comma after Mr in Mr. Smith.

It's a free world (at least to an extent). Take your pick.

Cheers
CB

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,849)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Yours faithfully, Grammar, Dates, British English, Commas

Feebs11

#313607 Wed, 10 Jan 07 08:25 PM

When writing formally, a comma after the greeting and after the end salutation is required. Whether you indent paragraphs without a space between the paragraphs or don't indent the paragraphs but do insert a space between them is entirely up to you. Either is acceptable.

Feebs11

Joined on Thu, Nov 23 2006

Senior Member (4,919)

Grammar, Commas, Salutation, Paragraphs

Clive

#313647 Wed, 10 Jan 07 10:30 PM

Hi,

They want you to put a comma after Mr in Mr. Smith.

I think you meant to say 'a period' rather than 'a comma'.

Clive.

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (21,162)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Grammar, Commas

Cool Breeze

#313651 Wed, 10 Jan 07 10:46 PM

Clive wrote:
They want you to put a comma after Mr in Mr. Smith.

I think you meant to say 'a period' rather than 'a comma'.

Hi Clive

Yes, of course. Sorry about that. In BE they call it 'a full stop', I think.
Cheers
CB

Cool Breeze

Grammar, Commas

Anonymous

#313754 Thu, 11 Jan 07 04:09 AM

Thanks everyone.

I'm in Australia, and we tend to use British English more often than American. I'll leave the commas out

Anonymous

Grammar, British English, Commas

Grammar Geek

#313763 Thu, 11 Jan 07 04:33 AM

I'd just like to point out that this isn't grammar - this is "style." And different style guides will tell you different things.

American:

Colons after the salutation in a business letter, comma after the closing.
Do NOT indent the paragraphs in a business letter. Save that for letters between friends, thank you notes, etc.

Dear Mr. Smith:

Blah

Blah blah

Blah blah blah

Sincerely,