If you know the name of the person you’re writing to, you should put it here. In a formal letter you should usually refer to someone as Mr, Ms or Mrs and avoid using first names. If you don’t know the person’s name, you would usually refer to them as Sir or Madam. When writing to the press, it is traditional always to use the salutation Dear Sir.
Subject heading
Some letters contain a subject heading – a line of text after the
salutation to introduce the theme or subject of the letter. This can be
written in bold letters, IN FULL CAPITALS, or With Initial Capital Letters.
Bold letters are the most common.
The body of your letter
Arrange your letter into short, easy-to-read paragraphs. The first of
these is the introductory paragraph, in which you introduce yourself and/or
explain why you are writing. The rest makes up the body of your letter.
A closing greeting
Letters usually end Yours sincerely (when
you know the name of the recipient) or Yours faithfully
when you address the letter to Dear Sir or Madam. Note that Yours
has a capital and sincerely and faithfully
don’t.
