Wednesday, September 21, 2011

"To Whom It May Concern"

This opening has seen its day. It concerns nobody and only shows that the writer is not familiar with current forms. It is functionally counter-productive and handicaps your purpose from the beginning.

Ideally, you do a little researching and find the name of the person you are addressing - if you have a name, use it. If a person's name is not an option, you can use the name of the department. In the case of writing letters of recommendations for scholarships, simply use Scholarship Selection Committee - follow it with a colon (:).

Please encourage the people who are writing a letter on your behalf to read the Guidelines for Writing a Letter of Recommendation. A poorly written letter or one that uses outdated forms does not have much credibility. In fact, it can work against you. You need wonderful letters which look and sound professional.

By the way, don't even think of using the above salutation when writing to a company. To quote recent research, it is "cringe-worthy".

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