Hello: I work for an online proofreading and editing service. Please see my profile for more info. I won't revise your whole essay here, but I will show you the changes I would make in your first two paragraphs (which I have combined into

. Hello lapislazuli, and welcome to English Forums. 1. Do I use a dot after Mr in the salutation?-- No dot is becoming the accepted form, but both are OK. 2. Do I use a comma or a colon or nothing at all after the salutation? -- Most use a colon

I won't do the whole letter, but I will do an edit of the first paragraph (including the salutation). Here's my edit. To The Selection Committee: I recently graduated from the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan with a ___degree in __ __. The

I'm sorry, but that was totally not what I was looking for... The reference to the used comma is the one that is BETWEEN Hello and Dolly: Hello, Dolly. As far as other punctuation, that is not my concern but thanks for the response anyway.

Hi Anon Now it seems as if everyone is writing: Hello Dolly or Hi John - with no comma. In modern English, the stress is on less punctuation. For example, it was formerly Mr. (in BrE), but nowadays, it is Mr (without period). However, in

I specifically remember learning this punctuation in grade school and high school: Hello, Dolly. (Hi, John.) I remember learning to put the comma after a casual opening, but if it was "Dear" or "To", etc., you would not put the comma there

Open punctuation has no punctuation after the salutation or complimentary closing, no commas in the addressee's address and no periods after abbreviations: The President of the United States Washington DC Dear Mr Bush Sincerely yours Closed

To me, the rules regarding punctuation around quotation marks are not always logical. To 'remember' them, I extracted the following from Webster's Third New International Dictionary : 13.1 Direct quotations: "When I am dead," said one of the