{"id":1816,"date":"2017-09-19T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/?page_id=1816"},"modified":"2021-04-18T14:23:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T18:23:30","slug":"salutations-names-titles-closings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/notes\/salutations-names-titles-closings\/","title":{"rendered":"Correspondence Conventions <div style=\"font-size:75%; color: #9E9E9E; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height:1.7em;\">Salutations, Names, Titles, Closings, &#038; Signature Blocks<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"page-toc\">\n<div class=\"page-toc-title\">Contents &amp; Navigation<\/div>\n<div class=\"item\"><a href=\"#salutations\">salutations<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"item\"><a href=\"#names-titles\">names &amp; titles<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"item\"><a href=\"#gender\">gender<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"item\"><a href=\"#closings\">closings<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"item\"><a href=\"#signature-block\">signature block<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"item3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/notes\/online\/correspondence-table-of-contents\/\">all correspondence \u3009<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 285px;\">\n<div style=\"display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0 5em;\"><span id=\"salutations\" class=\"anchor\"> <\/span><span class=\"arrowtop\" style=\"font-size: 150%; opacity: 0;\"><a href=\"#top\">\u2305<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"margin-top: 50px;\">Salutations<\/h3>\n<div class=\"nbox\" style=\"background-color: #e0f7fa;\">While letters and most emails require a salutation, memos do not. In fact, using a salutation in a memo is against genre conventions (i.e., it breaks the rules). <strong>NEVER include a salutation in a memo.<\/strong><\/div>\n<ul class=\"exspace\">\n<li>In situations where you do not know the reader well and situations where the writer-reader relationship is highly formal, the standard salutation is &#8220;Dear,&#8221; followed by a title (Mr. Ms. Dr. Professor, Dean, Rabbi, Senator, etc.), and the person&#8217;s last name (followed by a comma or colon).<\/li>\n<li>In situations where the writer-reader relationship is established and informal, salutations can include &#8220;Hi,&#8221; or &#8220;Hello&#8221; followed by the persons first name. In some cases, the salutation is simply the reader&#8217;s first name (followed by a comma or colon).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0 3em;\"><span id=\"names-titles\" class=\"anchor\"> <\/span><span class=\"arrowtop\" style=\"font-size: 150%; opacity: 0.5;\"><a href=\"#top\">\u2305<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Names\/Titles<\/h3>\n<div class=\"nbox\" style=\"background-color: #ede7f6;\">Letters should include a salutation and name. In some cases (where there some established writer-reader relationship or context), emails do not require a salutation, but they should at least include a name. Memos do not use salutations, but do require an individual&#8217;s and\/or group&#8217;s name in the &#8220;To:&#8221; field of the memo heading.<\/div>\n<ul class=\"exspace\" style=\"margin-bottom: 5px;\">\n<li>If you don&#8217;t know the reader well or if the writer-reader relationship is formal, use a title and a last name (Dear Ms. Browne, Dear Dr. Kinneavy).<\/li>\n<li>If you know the reader well and the writer-reader relationship is informal, you may use the reader&#8217;s first name (Dear James).<\/li>\n<li>If your reader has a professional, academic, or religious title, use the appropriate title\/honorific followed by their last name (Dear President Obama, Dear Dr. Edwards, Dear Professor Crowley, Dear Reverend Tompkins)<\/li>\n<li>Unless you are absolutely certain that a woman prefers &#8220;Miss&#8221; or &#8220;Mrs.&#8221;, use the title &#8220;Ms&#8221; or the reader&#8217;s full name (Dear Susan Jarratt).<\/li>\n<li>If you don&#8217;t know a person&#8217;s gender, use their full name or first initial and last name instead of a title (Dear Lee Jacobs, Dear D. Bartholomae).<\/li>\n<li>If you don&#8217;t know a person&#8217;s name or gender, if possible, use the their job title or role (Dear Recruiter, Dear Claims Adjustor).<\/li>\n<li>If you are writing to a company rather than a specific individual, use the company name (Dear Pet Smart, Dear E.J.&#8217;s Garden Pros).<\/li>\n<li>When writing to a group, use an appropriate plural noun (Students, Employees, Customers). When appropriate, use a more direct, descriptive, or friendly plural noun (Hello 3213 Pro Writers, Dear FAU Employees, Dear Initech Team)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid &#8220;To Whom it May Concern&#8221;<\/strong>\u2014instead, choose the most appropriate &#8220;title&#8221; from the list of bullet points above. (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.netmanners.com\/253\/to-whom-it-may-concern\/\">&#8220;Avoid &#8216;To Whom it May Concern'&#8221;<\/a> from <em>Netmanners<\/em>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businesswritingblog.com\/business_writing\/2006\/01\/greetings_and_s.html\">&#8220;Salutations in Letters and Email&#8221;<\/a> from the <em>Business Writing Blog<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"textnote\">For more on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/English_honorifics\">English Honorifics<\/a>, see the entry at <em>Wikipedia<\/em>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0 3em;\"><span id=\"gender\" class=\"anchor\"> <\/span><span class=\"arrowtop\" style=\"font-size: 150%; opacity: 0.5;\"><a href=\"#top\">\u2305<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Gender Trouble<sup>[3]<\/sup> (&amp; Title Trouble): Problems and Solutions<\/h3>\n<div class=\"nbox\" style=\"background-color: #e8f5e9; margin-top:0;\">In 2015, the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2015\/jan\/29\/cuny-seeking-gender-inclusive-environment-tells-st\/\">told faculty and staff to discontinue the use of gender-based courtesy titles such as \u201cMr., Mrs. or Ms.<\/a> in order to promote gender-inclusivity and strengthen compliance with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/overview-title-ix-education-amendments-1972-20-usc-1681-et-seq\">Title IX<\/a> (federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity).<\/div>\n<p>Men are &#8220;Mr.&#8221; whether they are single, partnered, or married; whether they are young or old; and whether they identify themselves by marital status or not. They are always &#8220;Mr.&#8221; &#8212; their title, status, and &#8220;value&#8221; never changes, regardless of age, marital status, or visibility of either factor.<\/p>\n<p>Women are often addressed as &#8220;Miss&#8221; if they are young and\/or unmarried, &#8220;Mrs.&#8221; if they are married and\/or beyond their twenties, or &#8220;Ms.&#8221; if their age and\/or marital status is unclear or unknown. A woman&#8217;s title, status, and &#8220;value&#8221; changes depending on her age, her marital status, and the conspicuousness of one or both factors. (Note from the Professor: I think this sucks.)<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, trans* people and those who identify as genderqueer or gender fluid don&#8217;t necessarily, wholly, or consistently identify as one gender binary or the other. Beyond that, none of us can ever be sure how any one particular person might identify based on their name alone.<\/p>\n<p>For all of those reasons and more, we need an alternative to Ms. Miss, and Mr. &#8220;Mx.&#8221; is one such alternative that&#8217;s already gaining popularity in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>On May 25, 2015, Stan Carey discussed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.macmillandictionaryblog.com\/mx-a-new-gender-neutral-title\">&#8220;\u2018Mx\u2019 \u2013 A New Gender-Neutral Title&#8221;<\/a> on the <em>Macmillan Dictionary Blog<\/em>. Of Mr., Mrs., and Miss, Carey says &#8220;this array of options is still inadequate, because not everyone falls neatly into the binary model of gender. In official contexts we tend to categorise people as male\/female, married\/unmarried, ignoring the often more complex realities of identity. And just as Ms enables women not to indicate their marital status, an emerging title allows people not to indicate their gender: Mx.&#8221; Carey says &#8220;Mx has several other meanings,&#8221; because &#8220;[t]he x can work as a kind of wild card, as it does in many other contexts.&#8221; Additionally, Carey thinks Mx. &#8220;feels both modern and timeless. If it seems strange at first, it shouldn\u2019t take long to get used to. Like Ms before it, Mx may well become an everyday part of English and a significant player in collective efforts to reduce the normative bias implicit in language.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Very recently (not even one month ago) on August 27, 2015, the Oxford University Press <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.oxforddictionaries.com\/press-releases\/oxforddictionaries-com-quarterly-update-new-words-added-today-include-hangry-grexit-and-wine-oclock\/\">announced the addition of the honorific &#8220;Mx.&#8221;<\/a> as part of it&#8217;s latest quarterly update to Oxford Dictionaries. In it, &#8220;Mx.&#8221; is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxforddictionaries.com\/us\/definition\/american_english\/mx?q=Mx#Mx\">defined<\/a> as &#8220;a title used before a person\u2019s surname or full name by those who wish to avoid specifying their gender or by those who prefer not to identify themselves as male or female.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0;\">Over the past few years, Mx. has been gaining popularity in the UK, where <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mx_%28title%29\">it&#8217;s been adopted<\/a> alongside gender-based titles by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Royal Mail, the National Health service, as well as many major banks, universities, and governance boards. In an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesundaytimes.co.uk\/sto\/news\/uk_news\/article1551885.ece\">interview with <em>The Sunday Times<\/em><\/a>, OED Assistant Editor Jonathan Dent describes the inclusion of Mx. as &#8220;an example of how the English language adapts to people&#8217;s needs, with people using language in ways that suit them rather than letting language dictate identity to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textnote\">[3] borrowed from the title of Judith Butler&#8217;s 1990 monograph, <em>Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity<\/em><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0 3em;\"><span id=\"closings\" class=\"anchor\"> <\/span><span class=\"arrowtop\" style=\"font-size: 150%; opacity: 0.5;\"><a href=\"#top\">\u2305<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Complimentary Closing<\/h3>\n<div class=\"nbox\" style=\"background-color: #e0f7fa;\">Letters require complimentary closings; memos do not (<strong>memos should never include complimentary closings<\/strong>). While short internal emails between those with established or familiar working relationships do not require complimentary closings, they are recommended to reinforce a cordial, collegial tone.<\/div>\n<p>Complimentary closings depend on the genre, level of formality, and relationship between writer and reader.<\/p>\n<p>Read <a class=\"hglt\" href=\"http:\/\/smallbusiness.chron.com\/proper-closings-business-letters-3069.htmlhttp:\/\/smallbusiness.chron.com\/proper-closings-business-letters-3069.html\">&#8220;Proper Closings for Business Letters,&#8221;<\/a> from <em>The Houston Chronicle<\/em> and <a class=\"hglt\" href=\"http:\/\/www.businesswritingblog.com\/business_writing\/2006\/01\/with_best_wishe.html\">&#8220;With Best Wishes,&#8221;<\/a> from Lynn Gaertner-Johnston&#8217;s <em>Business Writing<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Some examples of complimentary closes by level of formality:<\/p>\n<div class=\"larger\" style=\"padding-left: 20px;\">Very Formal<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Respectfully,<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Sincerely,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"larger\" style=\"padding-left: 20px;\">Somewhat Formal<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Regards,<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Kind regards,<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Best wishes,<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Cordially,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"larger\" style=\"padding-left: 20px;\">Informal\/Casually Friendly<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Yours,<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Best,<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px;\">Cheers,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0 3em;\"><span id=\"signature-block\" class=\"anchor\"> <\/span><span class=\"arrowtop\" style=\"font-size: 150%; opacity: 0.5;\"><a href=\"#top\">\u2305<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Signature Block<\/h3>\n<p>If you&#8217;re writing as a representative of\u2014or on behalf of\u2014a business, organization, club, or other group, you can (and probably should) include your role or title and the name of your organization on separate lines after your name.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 50%; text-align: center; border-bottom: none; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Roboto'; font-size: 140%; font-weight: 300;\">email signature block<\/span><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 50%; text-align: center; border-bottom: none; padding-left: 10px; padding-bottom: 0;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Roboto'; font-size: 140%; font-weight: 300;\">letter signature block<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 50%; border-bottom: none; padding-right: 10px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3779 size-full\" style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; border-radius: 7px; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #ccc;\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/signature-block-1b.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"695\" height=\"220\" \/><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 50%; border-bottom: none; padding-left: 10px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3778\" style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; border-radius: 7px; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #ccc;\" src=\"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/signature-block-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"695\" height=\"220\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3 style=\"margin-top:30px;\">Avoid Redundancy<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s almost always redundant to begin professional correspondence with &#8220;My name is&#8230;&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;m the [<span style=\"color:#858585;\">&hairsp;role\/title&hairsp;<\/span>] at [<span style=\"color:#858585;\">&hairsp;organization&hairsp;<\/span>]&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no need to introduce yourself\u2014your name, role, or organization at the beginning of your correspondence because that information (your name, role or title, and organization) should go in the signature block of letters and emails or in the heading of memos.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0 3em 800px;\"><span id=\"none\" class=\"anchor\"> <\/span><span class=\"arrowtop\" style=\"font-size: 150%; opacity: 0.5;\"><a href=\"#top\">\u2305<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contents &amp; Navigation salutations names &amp; titles gender closings signature block all correspondence \u3009 \u2305 Salutations While letters and most emails require a salutation, memos do not. In fact, using a salutation in a memo is against genre conventions (i.e., it breaks the rules). NEVER include a salutation in a memo. In situations where you <a href='https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/notes\/salutations-names-titles-closings\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":205,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"no-sidebars.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1816"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8774,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1816\/revisions\/8774"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techrhet.com\/3213\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}