How to Address a Letter: 9 Tips You Should Know

You don’t do this often.

Let’s face it. Putting the date at the top and your signature at the bottom isn’t your jam when it’s time to address a letter. Nor is folding pages into crisp thirds to fit inside an envelope. Formal letters just aren’t your specialty.

 

As far as new jobs go, the good news is that learning how to address a letter is a lot easier than learning to tie a respectable half-Windsor or mastering the mysterious art of polite breakroom chitchat.

Let’s start with a rundown of how to properly address your fancy letter in a way that says “Hey, I do this all the time.”

1Start by putting your contact information at the top.

This longstanding rule makes sense: you want the person you’re addressing to readily know who you are, where you’re coming from, and how they can respond to you.

That last bit is especially vital to check because you don’t want to sabotage any possibility of hearing back from someone you took the time to write. The world is full of woeful young job-seekers who realized only too late that there was a typo in the contact information they pasted in while dispatching a wave of applications.

2Next, put the date.

This one’s easy to get right, and embarrassing (or hilarious) to get wrong. What year is it? How long was I asleep?

3After that, put the recipient’s address.

Think of this as one of the rare occasions where you’re essentially telling a near stranger “I know where you are” and it’s seen as a courtesy. Cherish that.

If you’re writing to a company where you already know someone, this part is a layup—just ask them for the details. Otherwise, this step merits a quick search online.

4Next comes the salutation. “Dear” is a fine stock option.

There are a lot of possibilities once you’re ready to say hello: Greetings, Salutations, and trusty old Dear all spring to mind.

You might feel tempted to try to stand out by choosing an exotic option, but it’s risky. You may not want to gamble on a stranger appreciating a Howdy, let alone such a . . . distinct choice as Hail. (Feel free to ignore that last bit if the person you’re writing is truly dedicated to their role at a renaissance festival.)

Often, your best bet is the straightforward route: Dear is widely used for a reason, after all.

And don’t overthink whether it’s awkward to address someone you’ve never met this way. People who aren’t “dear” to each other per se sling the word around all the time in correspondence, even in the midst of tense legal posturing between a presidential campaign and a topflight newspaper. In such fraught circumstances, the word Dear isn’t the part that people are stressing over.

5Know who you’re contacting.

Sometimes this is easy. Again, if you already know someone on the inside of a company where you’re sending a cover letter, for instance, they should be able to help you nail down the specifics fairly painlessly. Otherwise…

6Not to belabor this, but that last item might warrant a little research.

Depending on the relative opacity of the organization you’re writing to, precisely whom you should address may not be obvious. For instance, if you’re a writer applying to even a mid-size publication, you’ll quickly discover the place is crawling with editors—but which one is supposed to read your letter?

One solution is to just find an all-purpose phone number to dial and ask who the appropriate department head is. Another approach is to poke around on LinkedIn and suss out the correct person that way. Whatever you do, avoid punting with a lazy “Dear Sir or Madam.”

7Mister, Miss, Doctor, Senator, None of the Above

The most common approach here is simple: an old-timey Mr. or Ms.

In addressing a woman you don’t know, Ms. is usually safer than Mrs. It assumes less, and can seem more professional by refraining from drawing the recipient’s marital status into the matter.

It’s worth noting when it comes to honorifics there are differing schools of thought; you might prefer the gender-neutral route, simply putting the subject’s full name.

Also, be on the watch for cases like doctors and PhD holders: many will tell you they worked hard for their credentials and appreciate being recognized as Dr.

You want to make a good impression, after all.

8Put a colon or a comma.

This one’s up to you. While the comma at the end of your salutation does the job just fine, some argue the colon appears more sophisticated.

9If you’re sharing this letter online, consider saving it as a PDF.

It’s hardly a problem if you plan to print your letter out on a sheet of paper, but in 2017, many formal letters end up as files whirling through the ether from one computer to the next, and when they arrive on an alien screen with wonky settings, their formatting is tragically wrecked.

Further, imagine someone printing your letter, wrecked formatting and all, en route to a meeting to discuss it with colleagues. The mortification.

One way to preserve your letter’s tidy address in transit is to save your file as a PDF, so your work arrives legibly intact.

With your letter clearly addressed, you’re well on your way to corresponding like an old-school professional. Grammarly has lots of other tips on how bring your fancy letter in for a landing, too.

Present Continuous

The present continuous verb tense indicates that an action or condition is happening now, frequently, and may continue into the future.

The Present Continuous Formula: to be [am, is, are] + verb [present participle]

Aunt Christine is warming up the car while Scott looks for his new leather coat. They are eating at Scott’s favorite restaurant today, Polly’s Pancake Diner.

Key words: Verb, present participle, tense, dynamic verbs, stative verbs

The present continuous (present progressive) tense is a way to convey any action or condition that is happening right now, frequently, and may be ongoing. It adds energy and action to writing, and its effect helps readers understand when the action is happening. Imagine Aunt Christine has surprised her nephew Scott for his birthday and is going to take him out to his favorite restaurant, Polly’s Pancake Diner. If I wanted to tell the story after it happened, I’d use the past tense:

They waited at the red light, and Scott worried they might miss their reservation. (Past tense)

But what I really want to convey is how the event unfolded, showing the action as it is happening:

They are sitting at Scott’s favorite booth, the one with the sparkling red plastic seats.(For how long? We don’t know, but we do know they are sitting there now.)

The waiter is standing behind the counter right now with a notepad in his hand and pencil behind his ear. (Will he ever make it over to the booth? Probably, but not now.)

“Are you waiting to open your presents after you eat your pancakes?” said Aunt Christine, taking a sip from her root beer. (Here the present continuous is being used in question form.)

From this narrative point of view, the action is immediate and continuous; there’s momentum. Sometimes writers use this tense to add suspense or humor in fictional pieces. What kind of pancakes will Scott and his aunt order? The suspense is killing me!

The Present Continuous Formula

To form the present continuous, follow this formula:

To Be [Am, Is, Are] + Verb [Present Participle]

When to Use the Present Continuous Tense

Use the present continuous tense with the appropriate “to be” verb and a dynamic verb. A dynamic verb shows action and/or process. For example,

Scott’s little sister is arriving at the diner two hours late because her roller-derby team, Chicks Ahoy, won the national championships early today. As she is walking into Polly’s Pancake Diner, she is yelling goodbye to her friends outside, and Scott hopes she doesn’t cause a scene since she is always embarrassing him in public.

When Not to Use the Present Continuous Tense

Do not use the present continuous tense with stative verbs. Stative verbs show a state of being that does not show qualities of change. These verbs can stay in the simple present. For example,

Aunt Christine is preferring the maple walnut pancakes over the banana peanut butter ones that Scott loves.

Aunt Christine prefers the maple walnut pancakes over the banana peanut butter ones that Scott loves.

Here, the stative verb to prefer shows opinion, and therefore should not be conjugated into the present continuous. Stative verb categories include emotion (to love), possession (to belong), and thoughts (to recognize), and none of these should use the present continuous form.

The Exception to the Rule

Some verbs can be both dynamic and stative! Think about the verbs to be and to think. In its dynamic form, the verb to be can show action:

Sarah, Scott’s little sister, is being bold by ordering the jalapeno-chipotle pancakes.

But in its stative form, the verb to be is awkward if conjugated in the present continuous.

Sarah is being a tall teenager, who loves her food spicy and her sports dangerous.

Sarah is a tall teenageer, who loves her food spicy and her sports dangerous.

Here are some more examples:

The waiter thinks Scott should save room for pumpkin pie. (Stative and in the simple present)

The waiter is thinking about getting a new job that requires less human interaction, like a veterinarian. (Dynamic and in the present continuous)

Idiomatic Expressions and Style

English can be confusing; what is grammatically correct isn’t always what you might hear in music, in advertisements, or during regular conversations. The present continuous is often used incorrectly. Consider the the popular slogan for McDonald’s: “I’m Lovin’ It.” This is a grammatically incorrect sentence because to love is a stative verb, so why would McDonald’s use it in their advertisements?

This marks the difference between grammar and style. Using the present continuous as a means to exaggerate is a stylistic trend, and as such, it would not be surprising to hear this conversation:

Scott, glazed with a chocolate mustache, looks over to his aunt and says, “I’m lovin’ me some of these chocolate peanut butter banana pancakes!” “I’m hearing what you’re saying!” she replies, sprinkling powdered sugar atop the stacks on her plate.

Here Scott and his Aunt display their excitement in a silly way, emphasizing their feelings. On the other hand, you would never hear a native speaker say these sentences:

Scott is loving his Aunt Christine, a self-proclaimed pancake connoisseur. (People would simply say “Scott loves his Aunt Christine . . .”)

Sarah is hearing the music from their table-top juke box and resists the urge to dance on the table. (Sarah hears the music. . .)

The Final Say

If you are teaching English or learning it, I’d recommend simply sticking to grammatically correct constructions and leaving the idiomatic expressions to the creators of advertisements and song lyrics. In formal writing, the experts recommend that when you can use fewer words to express a thought, you should, so use the present continuous sparingly—short and sweet can’t be beat!

Common Construction in the Present Continuous Tense

 

Common Dynamic Verbs that USE the Present Continuous

Common Stative Verbs that DO NOT USE the Present Continuous

Looking to “Get Lucky” this Saint Patrick’s Day? These Idioms May Help

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day! Walk into any department or grocery store at this time of year, and you may find yourself surrounded by leprechaun hats, green shirts, rainbow banners, shamrock-shaped candy, and other Irish-themed paraphernalia. Embedded in these symbols of Irish tradition is the idea of luck (good, bad, and uncertain) and the language associated with luck.

With that, here are some luck-related idioms commonly used in the English language:

To hit the jackpot

• Meaning: to achieve sudden or sensational success.
• Example: The hungry wolf thought he had hit the jackpot when he discovered a herd of sleeping sheep.

Goldmine

• Meaning: a source of something desirable (e.g., wealth, information).
• Example: Facebook and Twitter provide a goldmine of personal status updates.

Silver lining

• Meaning: a consoling aspect of a difficult situation.
• Example: The silver lining to losing my phone is that I no longer have to answer when my boss calls.

Saving grace

• Meaning: a redeeming feature that compensates for other negative qualities.
• Example: Senior discounts are the saving grace of old age.

To luck out

• Meaning: to be fortunate.
• Example: I lucked out in my art history class by having a photographic memory and consistent study habits. 

To thank one’s lucky stars

• Meaning: to feel grateful for avoiding a bad situation.
• Example: I thank my lucky stars that I bought an umbrella right before the thunderstorm.

To look a gift horse in the mouth

• Meaning: to be ungrateful for a favor.
• Example: When I complained about the size of my weekly allowance, my dad told me that I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

To count your chickens before they hatch

• Meaning: to rely on a desirable result before it happens.
• Example: You may have a large salary soon, but don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

Knock on wood

• Meaning: a phrase that expresses the hope that (1) something desirable will happen or continue to happen, or (2) something undesirable will not happen.
• Examples:

(1)  I have done well on my math tests this year. Knock on wood!

(2)  Nobody in my family has had the flu this year. Knock on wood!

Fat chance

• Meaning: little or no possibility of success.
• Example: John hates exercise—a fat chance he has of winning the swim competition!

That ship has sailed

• Meaning: the opportunity has passed.
• Example: I wanted to be a famous child actor, but when I turned thirty and had not starred in any movies, I realized that that ship had sailed.

Rough patch

• Meaning: a difficult situation or period.
• Example: Jim is going through a rough patch right now because he lost his job and his girlfriend dumped him.

Is It Favorite or Favourite?

It is sometimes said that the United States and the United Kingdom are two countries separated by a common language. Despite the fact that English is the most widely used language in both countries, a distinction is often made between the English used in the United States—American English—and the English used in the United Kingdom—British English. The differences between the two varieties of English are usually subtle, but they exist nonetheless, particularly around spelling.

Favorite and favourite are both correct spellings, depending on whether you use American or British spelling standards. Favorite is preferred in American English, while favourite is preferred in British English. Sometimes, favorite or favourite can be used and the correct form depends on which style guide you follow.

Learn more details about these spelling differences below.

The Correct Way to Spell Favorite

The answer to that question might depend on where you are. If you’re in the United States, you would hear that “favorite” is the correct spelling. If you were pretty much anywhere else in the world where English is spoken, you would hear that “favourite” is the spelling you should use. “Favourite” and “favorite” mean the same thing, are pronounced the same way (FAY-vuh-rit or FAY-vrit), and are both correct spellings.

Definition of Favorite

“Favorite” (or “favourite,” if that’s the spelling you favour) is a word that can be used both as a noun and as an adjective.

When used as a noun, “favorite” can have two meanings. When we like someone or something more than other people or things, we can use the word favorite to let the world know:

I had many toys when I was a child, but the fire truck was my favorite.

Favorite is also a word that pops up frequently in relation to competitions. We call the person most likely to win the competition “the favorite”

Although he’d entered the tournament as the favorite, he still had a couple of tough matches in front of him.

We mentioned that favorite can also be used as an adjective. When we use it like that, favorite has only one meaning—“most liked” or “preferred”:

Blue is Peter’s favorite color. He likes red, too, but not as much as blue.

The Origins of the Two Spellings of Favorite

“Favorite” and “favourite” share a common backstory with other words in the English language. The word “color,” for example, is spelled with an “-or” ending in American English, while in British English it’s spelled “colour.” There are plenty of other examples: “flavor” and “flavour,” “honor” and “honour,” “rumor” and “rumour.” The list could go on and on.

For a long time, there was no consensus on how words ending with -or or -our should be spelled in Britain. We know that Samuel Johnson, the famous British lexicographer, had a strong preference for the -our versions of words, as is evident from his 1755 dictionary. On the other side of the pond, an equally famous American lexicographer, Noah Webster, wanted to make the English language used in America truly American. So, his 1828 dictionary recommended the -or spellings of the disputed words. To this day, Webster gets a lot of credit for influencing the way Americans write English.

Favorite vs. Favourite: Examples

The easiest way to notice the difference in spelling and its national character is by looking through different national publications or international editions of media outlets.

For the first time in four years, TJ’s did not earn the title of favorite supermarket in America, despite its cult following.”

The Huffington Post, US edition

To help kick off the delicious cake feast, top chefs and cooks have shared their favourite (and easy to make) recipes.

The Huffington Post, Australian edition

To celebrate HuffPost Canada’s fifth anniversary, we’ve compiled some of our favourite splashes.

The Huffington Post, Canadian edition

Current odds are making Russia’s superstar Sergey Lazarev the hot favourite, with the UK’s Joe and Jake coming in at a respectable seventh place in the bookies’ list of favourites.

The Huffington Post, UK edition

Proofreading Tips for a More Productive 2016

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re either a writer or a person who frequently comes into contact with the written word. You might be a journalist who writes articles, a blogger who writes blog posts, a student who writes term papers, or an activist who writes grant proposals. As long as your life includes at least an occasional putting of a pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, you know how important it is to proofread everything you write. You also probably know how tough it can be sometimes.

There’s a great article on Wired explaining why catching your own mistakes is such a challenging task. The fact that your brain is responsible for both the writing and the proofreading works against you, as does the tendency to simultaneously look for errors in spelling, grammar, and meaning. Still, people find ways to do it, and with a little help from only five tips, you will too.

1 Get All the Help You Can Every good word processor has an integrated spelling checker, and you shouldn’t be afraid to use it. Better yet, you can enlist the help of specialized proofreading software. You can’t rely on these tools completely because they might not have the proofreading capabilities of a human. But some tools get close. Ours does, and we’re not saying it because we want to sing our own praises. It’s just a statement of fact.

2 Go Into Proofreading Prepared When Roy Peter Clark suggests something, writers around the world take heed. When he says you should keep a list of the most common language errors you are prone to making, you should create it right away. The list might be helpful in the process of writing, but in the process of proofreading, it’s invaluable. It’s the kind of list that’s populated with “to” and “too,” “there,” “their,” and “they’re,” and similar errors.

Having a broader checklist of specific errors to look for in a text is also recommended. Parallelisms, split infinitives, grammar, and sentence structure issues should all be a part of a checklist you should go through every time you proofread. If you don’t want to develop one on your own, you can find great ones online.

3 Trick Your Brain We tend to be better at proofreading texts we are familiar with, as opposed to texts we see for the first time. However, the kind of familiarity you get when you read something once or twice before proofreading it and the kind of familiarity you get when you create your own text are not the same. The former is beneficial and the latter is not, so you need to trick your brain into the sweet spot of familiarity when you want to proofread your own work.

There are a couple of things you can do. First, put some temporal distance between the acts of writing and proofreading. Second, proofread a hard copy instead of a computer file, if you can. Either way, change the font, the size of the letters, even the number of columns in your text. Change the color of the letters. Whatever you need to do to make it look and feel different, do it.

4 Read Out Loud Reading out loud can actually increase the accuracy of your proofreading. Try reading the text in silence first, especially if you’re not reading your own work, and then reading it once more out loud.

5 Divide and Conquer You can’t take a text and proofread it in only one pass. Well, you can, but the results won’t be that good. You should do a few passes instead, each time concentrating on one specific thing. Here’s an example: First, make sure the editing process is completed and that there are no issues with clarity, style, or structure. It’s rarely a good idea to proofread and edit at the same time, as you’ll probably get a poorly edited, poorly proofread text in the end.

Start with reading the text, out loud, as mentioned in the previous tip. That will help you catch some errors, such as missing or double words. Get your list of common mistakes and check for them in the text. Follow that with a grammar check. If you followed tip number two, you probably have a list of things you need to check—things like grammar issues related to the use of verbs and pronouns, for example. So you check your text for those issues. While you’re at it, you can check sentence structures for errors. Next, move on to checking punctuation. You can highlight each punctuation mark in the text, look at it carefully, determine whether you need it or not, whether it’s placed correctly, and whether it should be replaced with another punctuation mark.

Finally, check the spelling. One of the best ways to do that is to read the text backward, word by word. That way, you will minimize the chances of your brain processing the whole sentence instead of a single word, so start with the very last word in the text, and move to the left and upward until you reach the first word. By the time you’ve done it, you’ll have an error-free text in front of you and the whole of 2016 to reap the benefits of knowing how to proofread efficiently and effectively. Have a good one!