## WRITING A PERSONAL LETTER 

## Using open punctuation 

Open punctuation is usually used now for letters. This means that, apart from the main body of the letter, punctuation is kept to a minimum. There are no commas after lines of the address and no full stops after abbreviations. Your address should be placed at the top right-hand corner of the page. Each line of the address should be aligned. Don’t slope them. The date is set underneath it with a line space above it. Use only the figure of the date: 

24 May 200X 

not 

24th May 200X 

Leave a line under the date and on the left-hand side of the page against an imaginary margin start your letter: 

Dear Mary 

There is no need for a comma after ‘Mary’. If the letter is handwritten, indent your paragraphs starting with the first one under ‘Dear Mary’ which is not indented. 

Your ending is up to you. The semi-formal ending is ‘Yours sincerely’ which is usually centred underneath the completed letter. You can also use ‘With kind regards’, ‘With best wishes’ or even ‘With love’. Sign your name directly under- neath the ending. See Figure 15 for an example of a handwritten personal letter. 

