This should be copied carefully from the previous correspondence if available and should be the same as the address to be used on the envelope. Avoid using abbreviations for road or town names, although it is acceptable to use the standard county abbreviations. After the name of the person and/or company receiving the letter, the recommended order and style of addresses in the UK is as follows:
1. Name of house or building. Avoid using just a house name if possible, and do not use inverted commas round house names.
2. The house or building number (and a flat, chamber or office number if appropriate) and the name of street, road, avenue, etc. No comma is needed after the number.
3. The village name, or a district of a town if there are several streets of the same name in a town.
4. The postal town (officially called the post town). This is the town where letters are sorted for local delivery. The Post Town name should be given in capital letters.
5. The county – unless the town is a major city or shares the name with the county (for example: Gloucestershire should not follow Gloucester).
6. The postcode. This consists of two blocks of letters and numbers, the first block indicating a major area of the postal town, the second identifying the address down to a group of 15 or so houses, or even in some cases an individual firm’s offices. There should be no punctuation in postcodes.
7. If international, the country name, in English.
Each of these parts of an address is normally given an individual line and they should be given in the order listed above. However, inside the letter the district and town names, or town and county names may share a line (separated by a comma or extra space), or, more commonly, the postal town and postcode, or county and postcode, share a line (separated by between two and six spaces).
In foreign addresses both the postal town and the county/state are usually capitalised, and zip or postal codes should always, of course, be included.
Industrial House
34-41 Craig Road
Bolton
BL4 stf
uk
In other European countries, the number of the building may be placed after the name of the street. It is also common to substitute the name of the country with an initial before the district code number. These two examples are from Italy and Germany respectively.
Facoltà di Medicina
Via Gentile 182
1-70100 Bari
Lehrschule für Bodenkunde
Amalienstrasse
D-8oooo München 40
It is simplest to follow the above order and style, though variations are possible: for example the name of the county, e.g. Lancashire, may, if known, be included on the line below the name of the town or city; the postcode may be written on a separate line; the name of the town, as well as the country, may be in capital letters.
ATTENTION LINE / ‘FOR THE ATTENTION OF’ LINE
This line, which is traditionally placed between the recipient’s address and the opening greeting, is used when only the name of a department or organisation has previously been given for the recipient. The usual wording is ‘For the attention of Mrs J King’ (underlined with no full stop) and an attention line should be used as an alternative to, not as well as, a recipient’s name or job title. The ‘attention’ line can also be placed immediately before the recipient’s department or organisation and in the fully blocked style is often typed in capital letters and not underlined.
SALUTATION / OPENING GREETING
The form of salutation used should be related to the way the recipient’s name has been given in the address.
Dear Sir opens a letter written to a man whose name you do not know.
Dear Sirs is used to address a company. (In American English a letter to a company usually opens with Gentlemen.)
Dear Madam is used to address a woman, whether single or married, whose name you do not know.
Dear Sir or Madam (or Dear Sir/Madam) is used to address a person when you do not know their name or sex. Notice that Ms Kaasen in the letter above uses this form, i.e. she does not assume that the sales manager of Compuvision Ltd is a man.
When you know the name of the person you are writing to, but do not know them well, the salutation takes the form of Dear followed by a courtesy title and the person’s surname. Initials or first names are not used with courtesy titles, e.g. Dear Mr Smith, not Dear Mr J. Smith or Dear Mr John Smith. Business associates who you know well can be addressed using just their first name, e.g. Dear John.
A comma after the salutation is optional, i.e Dear Mr Smith, or Dear Mr Smith. (In American English a colon is usually used after the salutation, e.g. Dear Mr Smith:, Gentlemen:).