Conventions don’t have to make sense. The goal is to make the reader comfortable. We would still be using wax seals if that accomplished the goal. The important thing is to be able to fit in to the norm if you wish to. Knowing something like the above is useful. For those who don’t wish to fit in-great. Now they know what not to do. Everybody wins.
Just to muddy the waters a bit further, a habit I’ve adopted from my boss is ending letters with “Sincerely yours” (or whatever yours) instead of “Yours sincerely”… it just looks right-er.
I’ll also throw out the occasional “Very truly yours” for people I know well- clients we do a lot of work with, mostly.
N.B. If you want to be really ridiculously formal, you can end with “I am…” or “I remain…” (for someone you know) “…Sincerely yours”, or whatever.
I’m reminded of an episode of that classic British Comedy The Goodies, in which they started a Pirate Radio Station and then expanded into a Pirate Post Office.
The Pirate Post Office’s First Class Mail service involved one’s letter being delivered on a silver platter by a white-gloved footman in Regency dress (with wig and breeches), having been driven there in a Jaguar.
I’ve long been fond of “Gentlemen” or “Sirs” when addressing a letter to a group that is entirely (or nearly entirely) male (say, the management committee of the local RSL), but the problem is that I invariably end up hearing the letter in my head being read by Cartman in a Robert E. Lee outfit. :smack:
“Dear Sir/Madam” is still a safe default as a generic salutation, IMHO.
I’m not so sure about signing off with “I remain etc.”, though, as it sounds like something you’d imagine Blackadder writing with a quill on parchment. I’ve always used “Yours Faithfully”, “Yours Sincerely”, or “Kind Regards”, depending on context and who I’m writing to. YRMV, of course…
As a business owner, I’ve almost invariably found that when I get a letter with “Dear Company Name” in it, it goes straight into the circular file. This (usually) means that it was written with some kind of mail-merge program that did not have complete information. I’ve never had a real person (non bulk-mailer) write me a letter with “Dear Company Name”.
[Definitely need the white gloved footman for that, but I would prefer him in a simple black suit rather than the brocade coat and powdered wig. But that’s just me.]
On a more serious note, remember to use ‘Sentence case’, not ‘Title Case’ for the closing; that’s one of those things that the people who care do care about. Even ‘RSVP’, instead of “R.s.v.p.”, brings a shudder of revulsion.
[If you really want to be pretentious, use 'The favor of a response is requested." on invitations.]
For which, the first part? That’s also how I’ve been taught, and what I remember reading in the old-ish style guides sitting around the house during my youth. In other words, “Sincerely yours,” instead of “Sincerely Yours,” unless I’m misunderstanding what is meant by “sentence case.”
Trust me on this. Never 'Sincerely Yours, "; it’s "Sincerely yours, " (except I don’t think anyone does use 'Sincerely yours, ". Help me out,** NRATB**, isn’t “Sincerely yours” less formal? When does one use the less formal version of a formal closing?).
“RSVP”? A thousand times no. “R.s.v.p.”
Except, it is only used on invitations, and if you are inviting people to a nice party, they aren’t prone to quibble. However, if you are sending out invitation to a fancy (and expensive) fund-raiser, keep this in mind.
“The favor of …”: Advanced pretension. This implies, “I am so pretentious I can not only eschew the false pretension of using the abbreviation of a French phrase correctly, I will find an excuse to use a ridiculous word like ‘eschew’.”
Then we have the whole ‘to u or not u’ controversy. Favor or favour? Honor or honour?
I read the second sentence as being a special case of the first. I.e. you can’t use all cap abbreviations in business letter closings because sentence case must be used for all things. That made - and still makes - no sense to me.
If you were referring to two totally separate issues, then no problem.
Australia would appear to be different. Here, you should not use “To whom it may concern” except in one context: writing a reference for someone, because a reference is something not written to anyone in particular but to anyone to whom it may be shown.
Using “To whom it may concern” on any other letter just screams “I am a newbie to the ways of business” in an Australian context.
I use sentence case because that’s how I was taught to do it, and because… well, because it isn’t a title. I can’t provide a reference for that, though.
The R.s.v.p. thing I can’t help you with, because on the (extremely rare) occasions
when I need to put RSVP on something, I put the whole phrase on there, in italics: Repondez, s’il vous plait.
'Course, you could always avoid the problem entirely by putting “Regrets only”.
