Cover letters for potential jobs or letters of complaint are typically written in block format. [2] X Research source
Use the same formatting throughout the rest of your letter. For example, if you skipped 1 line between the address and the date, skip 1 line between the date and the recipient’s information. Consistent formatting will make your letter look neat and organized. If you’re using a professional letterhead that includes the sender’s address in the header, your date will be written first in your letter.
If both you and your recipient of the letter are in the U. S. , Belize, or Micronesia, write your date in month-date-year format. For instance, if your letter were dated 02/23/2019, you would write the date as “February 23, 2019. “[4] X Research source In much of the rest of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, or most of Central America, the preferred format is date-month-year, which looks like “23 February, 2019. " If both you and the recipient live somewhere where this format is used, opt for this style. [5] X Research source If you live where one format is used and the recipient lives somewhere that the other format is preferred, you can choose which one you’d rather use. You can also sidestep the issue by using a year-month-date format, or “2019 February 23,” if you’d like.
Semi-formal letters are often used to write to professional people you know well, like a former boss or coworker. [7] X Research source
If you’re typing your semi-formal letter, an existing template in a word processing program can help you format your letter. If you’re including the recipient’s address, or inside address, as you would in a professional semi-formal letter, it goes 2 lines below the date. If you’re omitting that, the next line will be the salutation, including the recipient’s courtesy title.
If you’d like, you may opt to write the date as “2019 January 31. “[10] X Research source
After the date, skip 1-2 lines, then write your salutation.
There are a few ways to write the date numerically. You can separate the numbers with hyphens(-), slashes(/) or periods(. ). For example, “January 31, 2019” might be written in the US format as “01-31-2019,” “01/31/2019,” or “01. 31. 2019. “[14] X Research source You can also shorten numbers in an informal letter. “January 31, 2019” might be written as “1/31/19,” eliminating the zero and part of the year.
