This page may contain affiliate links. A small commission from qualifying purchases helps keep the guides on this site free — at no extra cost to you, ever.
A handwritten letter, arriving in the ordinary post between electricity bills and supermarket flyers, is one of the few things a modern person can still send that will genuinely surprise the recipient. The letter is a small ceremony — the choosing of paper, the taking of ten quiet minutes at a desk, the physical act of folding and sealing and addressing — and the sending of one is, for both sides, a small kind of gift. This is a guide to how a real letter is written: format, salutation, body, closing, envelope. Not the etiquette-book version; the working version.
When to Write a Letter
The occasions that still deserve a real letter are more numerous than we imagine. The obvious ones: condolence, congratulation on a birth or engagement or promotion, thanks for a serious gift or a weekend of hospitality, an acceptance or a decline of a formal invitation. The less obvious ones, and perhaps the more valuable: a letter to a parent, a letter to a friend one hasn’t seen in some time, a letter to a mentor, a letter to a person one wishes to know better. A letter says, in a way that no email or text can, you were worth this half hour of my life at a desk.
The Format of a Letter
A conventional personal letter has six parts, in this order, top to bottom on the page.
The sender’s address sits in the top right corner. Three or four lines: street, town, postcode or state and zip. Return address on an envelope alone is enough for business correspondence, but a personal letter that shows the sender’s address in the letter itself feels finished. Beneath it, one line’s space, then the date, written out in full: 14th October 2026, or October 14, 2026 — the two conventions are British and American respectively; either is correct provided you use the same throughout the letter.
The recipient’s address is optional for personal letters and standard for formal ones. It sits at the left margin, one line below the date, in the same format as the sender’s address.
The salutation sits at the left margin below the recipient’s address (or, if you have omitted the recipient’s address, below the date). Standard forms: Dear Anna, for someone known personally; Dear Mrs. Whitmore, for someone addressed by title and surname; Dear Sir or Dear Madam for a formal letter to an unknown recipient. The salutation is always followed by a comma in British style, a comma or colon in American style (colon for formal, comma for personal).
The body begins one line below the salutation, indented on the first line by convention. Paragraphs are separated either by an indent on the first line or by a single blank line between them — never both.
The closing — sometimes called the complimentary close — sits one or two lines below the last line of the body, aligned either flush left or, more traditionally, indented to the same column as the sender’s address. Standard closings: Yours sincerely, when the recipient has been addressed by name; Yours faithfully, when the letter began Dear Sir or Dear Madam; With love, or With warmest regards, or simply Yours, for personal correspondence. A comma follows.
The signature sits below the closing, handwritten in ink — always in ink, always by hand, even on a typed letter. Below the signature, the sender’s typed or printed name if the recipient may not recognise the handwriting.
The Envelope
The recipient’s name and address occupy the centre of the envelope, three to five lines depending on completeness. On a personal letter, the recipient’s title (Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., or a professional or honorific title) is used with the full name. The address is written line by line: street number and name, apartment or suite if any, town, region or state, postcode or zip. In the United Kingdom, the postcode goes on its own final line. In the United States, city, state, and zip go on a single line.
The sender’s address goes on the back flap, on the top-left corner of the front, or is embossed or engraved on the flap itself in the case of monogrammed stationery. A stamp — never a printed postage label if the letter is meant to feel personal — goes in the top-right corner. If the letter is sealed with wax (see the guide to wax seals), the wax is placed on the back flap over the point where the flap meets the envelope body.
The Salutation and Closing — A Small Grammar
The salutation and closing carry more meaning than the modern reader realises. Dear Anna is warm; Dearest Anna is intimate; My dear Anna is affectionate and slightly old-fashioned in a good way. Yours sincerely is neutral and correct; Yours ever is warmer and used with someone you write to often; With love and All my love are reserved for family and close friends. The old convention that a woman never used Yours sincerely to a man she had not met has quietly fallen away, but the general principle — that the closing should match the emotional register of the salutation — is still worth observing.
Ink, Pen, and Hand
A real letter is written in ink, not ballpoint, and never in pencil except in the most casual note. A medium-nib fountain pen with a good blue-black or dark ink (Waterman Serenity Blue, Pelikan 4001, or the classic Diamine Registrar’s ink for permanence) is the traditional instrument. A rollerball with proper ink is a fair substitute; a gel pen in blue or black is acceptable for informal correspondence. The handwriting need not be beautiful — legibility and evident effort are what matter. Slow down. The letter is not a race.
Folding and Enclosing
A standard letter sheet (A4 or 8.5 x 11 inches) folded to fit a matching envelope is folded twice: bring the bottom third up over the middle, then fold the top third down. The letter emerges from the envelope right-side up when unfolded. For a smaller correspondence card, no folding is required — the card sits flat inside the envelope, printed or written side facing away from the flap.
Questions from the Writing Desk
How do I begin a letter to someone I don’t know well?
For a first letter to someone you have not met, Dear Mr. Whitmore, or Dear Ms. Whitmore, — title and surname — is the safe and correct salutation. If the person holds a title (Dr., Professor, Reverend, Judge, and so on), use the title in place of Mr. or Ms. Once the recipient has replied and signed with a first name, you may move to a first-name salutation in future letters. If you truly do not know the recipient’s name at all, Dear Sir or Dear Madam remains standard, though many modern writers now prefer a genderless opening such as Dear Editor, or To Whom It May Concern,.
What is the correct way to address an envelope?
Recipient’s name (with title) on the first line, followed by the delivery address on subsequent lines. In the United States: street address, city and state abbreviation and zip code on a single line, country if international. In the United Kingdom: house number and street, town in capital letters, county (optional), postcode on its own final line, country if international. The sender’s address goes either on the back flap or in the top-left corner of the front. Handwritten addresses in ink feel considered; printed labels do not.
Do I need to include my address in the letter itself?
For a personal letter, no — the envelope carries the return address. For a formal letter, yes — the sender’s address in the top-right corner of the letter itself is standard and allows the recipient to reply directly from the letter without keeping the envelope.
How long should a letter be?
Long enough to say what needs saying and no longer. A one-page thank-you or condolence letter is complete; a three-page letter to an old friend catching up on months of news is complete. The wrong length is the length that pads to fill the page or the length that trails off because the writer has run out of things to say. Trust the natural end of the thought. A letter that says one thing sincerely is better than a letter that says four things vaguely.
Is it acceptable to type a personal letter?
For most personal correspondence, no — the handwriting is much of the point. For a long letter, or a letter of any real formality where legibility matters (a letter to a school, a letter of introduction, a letter to a lawyer), typing is entirely appropriate. In that case, the signature is still handwritten in ink, and the sender’s name typed beneath. A hybrid letter — typed body, handwritten postscript — is a very old convention and reads well.
Should a letter be sealed with wax?
Only when the occasion calls for it — a wedding invitation, a serious note of congratulation, a letter meant to feel ceremonial. Wax on a routine letter can read as affected. Wax on the right occasion reads as considered. See the Wax Seals guide for how it is properly done.
See also: Fine Stationery · Fountain Pens · Writing Desks.
Discovered in Serendipity Enchantments — a place where beauty, craft, and meaning come together.