An effective letter must be clearly organized and carefully thought out. The following tips should make your task easier.

Address

Put your address at the top on the right. Put the smallest item first: house number, then street, then town. Post code and telephone number come last. Dont put your name with the address. Put the date directly under the address. In formal letters and business letters, put the name and address of the person you are writing to on the left side of the page, starting on the same level as the date or slightly below.

Salutation

Begin the letter on the left. In informal letters, it is common to address people by their first names: (e.g. Dear Alice). In more formal letters, titles and surnames can be used to address people: (e.g. Dear Ms Sullivan). Use Dear Sir(s), Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Madam when writing to someone whose name you dont know. Do not use a title like Mr together with a first name.

The body of the letter

After Dear X, put a comma or nothing at all. In American English, a comma is preferred in personal letters, and a colon in business letters. Leave an empty line after Dear X and start again on the left, or start again on the next line, a few spaces from the left.

The subscription or leave-taking

Letters which begin Dear Sir or Dear Madam usually finish Yours faithfully. Formal letters which begin with the persons name (e.g. Dear Susan Fernandez) usually finish Yours sincerely. Informal letters may finish, for example, Yours, See you, or Love. In formal letters, many people put a closing formula before Yours , especially when writing to people they know: Common expressions are With best wishes and With kind regards. In American usage, Yours faithfully is not used. Common endings are Sincerely, Sincerely yours or Yours truly followed by a comma.

Signature

Sign with your first name (informal) or full name (formal). Dont write any title (Mr/Ms/Dr/etc).

In informal letters, afterthoughts that are added after the signature are usually introduced by P S.

Letters to strangers often begin with an explanation of the reason for writing.

Address the envelope

When you address the envelope, follow the style you used in the letter. Here are a few more guidelines:

On the envelope, put the first name before the surname. People usually write a title (Mr, Mrs etc) before the name. You can write the first name in full (Mrs Susan Fernandez) or you can write one or more initials (Mrs S Fernandez). Commas are sometimes used at the ends of lines in addresses; full stops may be used at the ends of addresses. If you typed the letter, type the address on the envelope. The style should match. If you wrote the letter by hand, write the envelope by hand. Be sure your writing is legible:

Center the recipient's name and address in the lower middle quadrant. Don't use Mr, Mrs, or Ms when you write your own name on the return address. Use only standard abbreviations for streets, states, and countries. To insure speedy delivery or return, include the zip code in both the recipient's address and your return address.

The author is the editor of http://www.perfectyourenglish.com Visit her website for more articles on English writing.