Official letters

Addresses

1. 
   Your address. This should go in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Under your address, write the date. In the United States, use the Month Day, Year format (March 15, 2018). In Europe and elsewhere, it’s fine to order the date with the day first (15 March 2018).
   
2. 
   R ecipient’s address. The second part of a heading for an official letter is the name and address of the person you’re writing to. While you don’t include your name above your address, here, you should write out your recipient’s full name (including title), the name of the organization (company, college, publication, or similar), and then the address.
   

Salutation

A salutation is the greeting you use in your letter, whether formal or informal, and the most common one continues to be “Dear” plus the name or title of the person you’re writing to.
Salutation Examples

• 
  Dear Firstname Lastname. If you’re not sure of the person’s gender, omit the title and use his or her complete name (e.g., Dear Pat Smiley).
  
• 
  Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. Lastname. If you know the social or professional title (e.g., Dr. or Professor), use it with the person’s last name. Use Ms. in preference to Mrs. unless you’re certain your recipient prefers Mrs. It’s best to avoid using Miss, which can be considered condescending.
  
• 
  Dear Sir or Madam. This is the perfect salutation when you don’t know your recipient’s name.
  

Body

Keep the body of an official letter as brief as possible.