alexknibb
Silver
"I have never fallen in love. I've stepped in it a few times..."
Posts: 194
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Post by alexknibb on Jan 12, 2012 15:27:06 GMT
Dear Members Of Not-the-APS Message Board, Happy new year, everyone. I hope you all had a lovely festive season! A friend of mine sent a standard letter he'd written to be checked by our corporate style people recently. They returned it almost as was, but with two minor changes, namely the removal of commas after "Dear [name]," and "Yours sincerely,". Another site I found suggested that either with or without the comma would be suitable for a formal letter, as long as both followed the same style. For me, both look naked without the comma. Anyone have any views on this? Yours faithfully, Alex.
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 12, 2012 16:50:23 GMT
Dear Members Of Not-the-APS Message Board, Happy new year, everyone. I hope you all had a lovely festive season! A friend of mine sent a standard letter he'd written to be checked by our corporate style people recently. They returned it almost as was, but with two minor changes, namely the removal of commas after "Dear [name]," and "Yours sincerely,". Another site I found suggested that either with or without the comma would be suitable for a formal letter, as long as both followed the same style. For me, both look naked without the comma. Anyone have any views on this? Yours faithfully, Alex. I always use those commas. There's a natural pause after "Dear Fred" and "Yours sincerely/faithfully", and I consider it incorrect to omit them.
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Post by Tone on Jan 12, 2012 20:46:10 GMT
Hello, Alex. I agree: the commas should rightfully be there.
But the period after you final "Alex" should not be there!
And that else which annoys me is those who open by writing: Hello Fred,
Instead of the more correct: Hello, Fred.
Tone
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alexknibb
Silver
"I have never fallen in love. I've stepped in it a few times..."
Posts: 194
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Post by alexknibb on Jan 13, 2012 9:10:44 GMT
But the period after you final "Alex" should not be there! You know, I've always wondered about that. It's always looked wrong, but putting one in has always proved to be too strong an urge to resist!
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Post by Verbivore on Jan 13, 2012 12:15:12 GMT
[...] the period after you final "Alex" should not be there! [...] If it were just "(Yours) Sincerely, Jones" I agree, no period. But what if it were "I remain yours sincerely, Jones", which is a complete sentence.
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Post by Sue M-V on Jan 13, 2012 14:52:13 GMT
On this point I endorse every word of Tone's.
The general trend does seem, though, to be towards punctuation-free addresses, and perhaps by extension, commaless greetings.
I heard somewhere that according to handwriting analysts and such, putting a full stop after one's signature had a special significance, like drawing a line under it. I can't remember the details, but it was along the lines of: drawing a line or lines under one's name (the more elaborate, the greater the effect) suggested that one was suffering from some sort of inferiority complex. (It makes you wonder about Good Queen Bess, doesn't it?) Putting a full stop after it suggested something like an inability to pay attention to or consider others' opinions, ideas and so on, as if the writer thought "that's what I say, and we can stop there!"
I was told as a teenager never to put a full stop after my signature, or any kind of embellishment on or around it, but to leave it absolutely unadorned. As to the idea of its forming the end of a sentence and thus requiring a full stop, I don't regard such greetings as standard sentences since they rarely are grammatically, and they are split up over at least two lines and look generally odd anyway.
Probably someone else here knows considerably more than I do on the subject and can enlighten us.
Sue
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Post by Tone on Jan 13, 2012 21:23:34 GMT
>On this point I endorse every word of Tone's.<Thank you, kind lady. (How wise you are! ) Tone
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Post by jjg1 on Jan 14, 2012 10:48:36 GMT
>On this point I endorse every word of Tone's.<Thank you, kind lady. (How wise you are! ) Tone Should it be "... every word of Tone's" or "... every word of Tone"? The former doesn't look right, but I suppose it must be as it was Sue who wrote it. jjg1
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 14, 2012 11:09:58 GMT
>On this point I endorse every word of Tone's.<Thank you, kind lady. (How wise you are! ) Tone Should it be "... every word of Tone's" or "... every word of Tone"? The former doesn't look right, but I suppose it must be as it was Sue who wrote it. jjg1 Jjg1, Sue used the double possessive which, odd though it appears at first sight, can be useful. Consider the difference in meaning between: "It's a portrait of my mother"; "It's a portrait of my mother's".
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Post by Sue M-V on Jan 14, 2012 14:47:20 GMT
... or "every word of Hamlet" rather than "every word of Hamlet's". I didn't know there was a tome called Tone! Sue
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 14, 2012 16:05:06 GMT
... or "every word of Hamlet" rather than "every word of Hamlet's". I didn't know there was a tome called Tone! Sue "Tone Tome". It's a make of satellite navigator.
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Post by jjg1 on Jan 14, 2012 19:08:32 GMT
Thanks Twoddle, I now understand. jjg1
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Post by Tone on Jan 14, 2012 21:49:43 GMT
>I didn't know there was a tome called Tone!<
Well, someone might have, unknownst to me, writ a biography of me, but my autobiography has a different title.
Tone
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Post by Dave on Jan 14, 2012 21:49:47 GMT
I agree that the comma belongs after the Yours sincerely in the letter's closing.
As for the greeting, I'd use a colon for a business letter, but a comma for a friendly (not business) letter. I'd never write Hello as the greeting--it seems to be a verbal greeting only (telephone or in person)! However, I might use Hi in an instant (chat) message.
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Post by Twoddle on Jan 14, 2012 22:30:38 GMT
>I didn't know there was a tome called Tone!<Well, someone might have, unknownst to me, writ a biography of me, but my autobiography has a different title. Tone Two Tone?
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