Note also that a personal greeting is preferred to an impersonal salutation. The best option is to inquire directly at the company for the name, title and designation of the required contact person. In case no contact person is mentioned, look for a suitable contact or HR manager-e.g. If you are applying in the US, however, a point follows the salutation and you write ‘Mr. In a UK application, there is no dot after the salutation and it just says ‘Mr XY’. The dot after ‘Mr’/‘Ms’ depends on the style of English being used. Note that an academic title also belongs in the formal salutation and must be provided in the greeting accordingly. Otherwise, stick with the formal ‘Ms(.)’. Use ‘Mrs(.)’ only if you know for a fact that the woman contact person is married. The salutation ‘Mr(.)’ is used for a man, while ‘Ms(.)’ is used for a woman. If you know the name of the contact person, his/her name and surname must be included in the greeting. The greeting depends on the information available. All the accessories of the company name and the designation of the contact person must be provided.
#Dear sir or madam vs to whom it may concern full
The recipient’s details must be stated in full, including the full name of the contact person. The address of the recipient follows next. To avoid such misunderstandings, it is recommended to combine numbers and words in your notation. In the British notation, this would be 5 October 2013, but in the US, it would represent. It is common nowadays to indicate the date using only numbers-e.g. You should insert a comma between day and year in the American notation, but the British version requires no comma.Īmerican and Canadian notations: Month/Day/Year (March 15, 2014)īritish notation: Day/Month/Year (15 March 2014) While the month is placed first and is followed by the date in the US version, the British notation gives the date first and the month afterwards. Many mistakes occur here as the British and American notations differ. If you have trouble adhering to the space limit, omit your name from the contact details section you will anyway be signing your name in the ending salutation.
Your contact details are placed at the top of the cover letter, on either the right or the left side.