The methods of writing dates are different. There is a tendency to decrease the amount of punctuation in correspondence, so that it has become usual to write the date as 24 April 2005.
Also in the address, salutation and complimentary close, commas are frequently omitted.
For computer use the International Standards Organization (ISO) recommended writing the date in all-numeric form, with the year first, followed by the month and the date as 2005-04-24 or 20050424. But nowadays the date is very often written in the opposite order as 24.04.2005 or 24.02.05. In writing dates there is some difference between the British style and American style.
| British style | American style |
| 12th November, 200_ 12 November 200_ 12 Nov. 200_ | November 12, 200_ |
Beginning and ending of a fax message.
Every fax message needs a salutation (e.g. Dear Sirs) and a complimentary close (e.g. Yours faithfully).
Here there is also some difference between the two styles. In American style a colon follows the salutation.