Order of inside addresses

UNIT 1

Structure and presentation

The letter shown on page 10 is from a private individual to a company in the UK. It shows some of the features of a simple business letter.

Sender's address

In correspondence that does not have a printed letterhead, the sender's address is written on the top right-hand side of the page.

In the UK, in contrast to the practice in some countries, it is not usual to write the sender's name before the sender's address.

Date

The date is written below the sender's address, sometimes separated from it by a space? Usually on the first or last line of the receiver’s address. In the case of correspondence with a printed letterhead, it is also usually written on the right-hand side of the page.

The month in the date should not be written in figures, as they can be confusing; for example, 11.1.08 means 11^th January 2008 in the UK but 1^st November 2008 in the USA. Nor should you abbreviate the month, e.g. Nov. for November, as it simply looks untidy. It takes a moment to write a date in full, but it can take a lot longer to find a misfiled letter which was put in the wrong file because the date was confusing.

Many firms leave out the abbreviation 'th' after the date, e.g. 24 October instead of 24^th October. Other firms transpose the date and the month, e.g. October 24 instead of 24 October. These are matters of preference, but whichever you choose you should be consistent throughout your correspondence.

the date should be written in arable figures with no abbreviations as “16 February, 2005”. Do not add “st”, “nd”, “rd”, “th” to the date or street address. In the body of a letter you may use this endings, as “on the 14^th of May”, or “on the fourteenth of May”, or “on the 14^th”

Inside (or receiver's) address

This is written below the sender's address and on the opposite side of the page.

1 Surname known

If you know the surname of the person you are writing to, you write this on the first line of the address, preceded by a courtesy title and either the person's initial(s) or his/her first given name, e.g. Mr J.E. Smith or Mr John Smith, not Mr Smith.

Courtesy titles used in addresses are as follows:

Mr (with or without a full stop; pronounced /'mıste /; the unabbreviated form mister should not be used) is the usual courtesy title for a man.

Mrs (with or without a full stop; pronounced /'mısız/; no unabbreviated form) is used for a married woman.

Miss (pronounced /mıs/; not an abbreviation) is used for an unmarried woman.

Ms (with or without a full stop; pronounced /mız/ or /məz/; no unabbreviated form) is used for both married and unmarried women. Many women now prefer to be addressed by this title, and it is a useful form of address when you are not sure whether the woman you are writing to is married or not.

Messrs (with or without a full stop; pronounced /'mesəz/; abbreviation for Messieurs, which is never used) is used occasionally for two or more men (Messrs P. Jones and B.L. Parker) but more commonly forms part of the name of a firm (Messrs Collier & Clerke & Co.).

Special titles, which should be included in addresses, are many. They include academic or medical titles: Doctor (Dr.), Professor (Prof.); military titles: Captain (Capt.), Major (Maj.), Colonel (Col.), General (Gen.); aristocratic title: Sir(which means that he is a Knight; not to be confused with the salutation Dear Sir and always followed by a given name – Sir John Brown, not Sir J. Brown or Sir Brown), Dame, Lord, Baroness, etc.

Esq (with or without full stop; abbreviation for Esquire and pronounced /es'kwaiə/) is seldom used now. If used, it can only be used instead of Mr and is placed after the name.

Don't use Esq and Mrat the same time:

Bruce Hill Esq, not Mr Bruce Hill Esq.

All these courtesy titles and special titles, except Esq, are also used in salutations.
STRUCTURE OF A BUSINESS LETTER (1)