Everything English

Greetings for Letters and Emails

When you begin a letter or an email, you usually start by greeting the person you are writing to; this is also known as a “salutation.” But when should you use an informal greeting and when should you use a formal greeting? When writing to friends, family members, or people you are acquainted with, you can use “Dear” and his/her first name, as in:

Dear Michael,

When it is a more formal letter, for example, one to a potential employer or someone you have not met before, you can say “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To Whom It May Concern” (if you do not know the exact name of the person who will be reading your letter). You can also just use the person’s name followed by a colon- for example,

Dr. Williams:

If you don’t know whether you should use formal or informal style, use the formal style (including titles, like Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc…). It is better to be too formal rather than too informal!

MLA stands for “Modern Language Association.” When your teacher asks you to write a paper using MLA format, it means that you have to follow certain rules established by this writing association. For the most part, you have to follow a certain format in order to ensure that your paper and citation styles are consistent all the way through. MLA format is used mostly by humanities and arts classes, like English, history, and other liberal arts. So if you have to write a paper for one of these classes, you will be asked to use MLA. If you don’t know how to use MLA, you can take a look at MLA’s own website, mla.org, or you can refer to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab- this website has examples of how to cite all different sources in MLA format. That way, you can see exactly how you should cite your source, whether it is a journal article, a book, a website, an interview, or even a movie!

So why do you have to include a bibliography or a works cited page in your paper? It’s mainly for the benefit of your reader (in many cases, your teacher). He or she wants to see what or who your sources are and where you got your information. If you don’t list other sources, you are saying that you made up every bit of information or any quotation you used in your paper. Which is not often true! All types of writers use bibliographies. If you pick up a professionally-written book, you’ll often find a list of works cited in the back of the book. Not only is the author being honest in telling readers what other sources he or she used, but it’s also helpful for readers if they want to continue learning about the topic. For example, if you are writing a paper on the French Revolution, and you find a really good book to use as a source, look at the bibliography and see what other books might be good to use. One good source can list other good sources, so you’ll know where to go next!