Letter Salutations
Gary Ansok
suggestions on how to open a letter to someone whose gender you
don't know? I became curious while sending out resumes and finding
many ads said to respond to "J. Smith" or suchlike. What should
the salutation be like for this? I usually used "Dear Mr. Smith"
but felt really strange. Actually most of these people turned out to
be women but I decided that 1) the masculine supposedly doubles as
the unspecified and 2) a woman was less likely to be offended by
Mr. than a man by Ms. (Not impossible, but less likely). Which
do you folks prefer:
Dear Mr. Smith:
Dear Ms. Smith:
Dear Mr./Ms. Smith:
Dear J. Smith:
Dear Smith:
Dear Sir:
Dear Madam:
Dear Sir or Madam:
Gary Ansok
I am proud to be a man
human
huperson
huperchild
earthling!
KW Heuer
>As long as we're talking about non-sexist language, are there any
>suggestions on how to open a letter to someone whose gender you
[ condensed into an egrep expression for brevity. --kwh ]
>Dear (((Mr\.|Ms\.|Mr\./Ms\.|J\.) )? Smith|Sir|Madam|Sir or Madam):
I usually use "J. Smith" or "Sir/Madam". I predict that in the relatively
near future, the title "Sir" will be considered neuter, like "Master". (A
previous posting noted that "Mistress of Arts" is a forgotten degree.)
Or possibly, following the contraction of "Miss/Mrs." into "Ms.", there will
a contraction of "Mr./Ms." into "M." or something. ("M." is a bad choice
because it looks like an initial, and conflicts with the French title;
"Comrade" is a nice neutral word but will never be accepted in the USA.)
Jody Patilla
> suggestions on how to open a letter to someone whose gender you
> don't know? I became curious while sending out resumes and finding
> Dear Mr. Smith:
> Dear Ms. Smith:
etc.....
After working in an office where everyone from the director down
to the lowliest clerk (me) was female and getting all our mail addressed
to "Dear Sir" (pretty damned irritating after awhile) I have taken to
addressing all my correspondence of this nature to "Dear Gentlefolk".
(and what is this nonsense about women being less offended about being
called "Mr." than men about being called "Ms." ? Now that *is* a ridiculously
sexist attitude !)
--
jcpatilla
..{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!aplcen!osiris!jcp
"Makes your bread dance and your cakes sing doo-dah !"
wom...@ccvaxa.uucp
I've always like opening letters with
Gentle Being,
Can't remember where I first saw it. No one has ever complained to me that
they didn't like it.
"When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all."
Roger Zelazny, *Doorways in the Sand*
Wombat
ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat
Barbara Petersen
In article <7...@osiris.UUCP>, j...@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) writes:
> After working in an office where everyone from the director down
> to the lowliest clerk (me) was female and getting all our mail addressed
> to "Dear Sir" (pretty damned irritating after awhile) I have taken to
> addressing all my correspondence of this nature to "Dear Gentlefolk".
In a similar vein, I often use "Gentlepersons".
--
|
Barbara Petersen | "Oh, I dunno....
{amdahl, qantel, dual}!proper!barb | ....call it a hunch."
|
John Purbrick
> > suggestions on how to open a letter to someone whose gender you
> > don't know? I became curious while sending out resumes and finding
>
> > Dear Mr. Smith:
> > Dear Ms. Smith:
[Open the letter by putting your finger under the flap and tearing across....]
How about "To whom it may concern"? But that implies that you don't know a
last name. Same goes for the form favored in Britain: "Dear Sir or Madam,"
("will you read my book, it took me years to write, etc")
If you have a context that you know them in, you could use that. The
organization that I go canoeing with often addresses its members as
"Dear Paddlers". Thus "Dear Applicant", "Dear Students", etc???
Best stick with "Dear Mr/Ms Smith". If you want to shock them, say
"Dear Ms/Mr Smith" instead.
John Quarterman
I suppose the former is mostly appropriate when you
actually know most of the people you're addressing.
--
John Quarterman, UUCP: {gatech,harvard,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo}!ut-sally!im4u!jsq
ARPA Internet and CSNET: j...@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU, j...@sally.UTEXAS.EDU
Matthew P. Wiener
So my salutations are of the form:
Dear International Business Machines, Incorporated:
Dear University of California, Berkeley campus:
etc.
Except sometimes I'm not very happy with them:
Dear Company:
Dear Bank:
etc.
That'll show them.
ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
Tom Long
Tom Long
Jeanette Haritan
>I usually use "J. Smith" or "Sir/Madam". I predict that in the relatively
>near future, the title "Sir" will be considered neuter, like "Master". (A
>previous posting noted that "Mistress of Arts" is a forgotten degree.)
>
>Or possibly, following the contraction of "Miss/Mrs." into "Ms.", there will
>a contraction of "Mr./Ms." into "M." or something. ("M." is a bad choice
>because it looks like an initial, and conflicts with the French title;
>"Comrade" is a nice neutral word but will never be accepted in the USA.)
I believe the above choices are the only proper ways. What is inappropriate
(as a *self-proclaimed* expert 8*} ) is "Dear Gentlemen". I'M NOT A
GENTLEMAN...geeze! Also inappropriate is "To Whom it May Concern".
Another good choice is "Hey You" 8*} .
--
**** ****
****** ******
* * *
* * *
* *
* jeannette *
* *
* *
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*** ***
*****
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*
Jeanette Haritan
>
>In article <7...@osiris.UUCP>, j...@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) writes:
>> After working in an office where everyone from the director down
>> to the lowliest clerk (me) was female and getting all our mail addressed
>> to "Dear Sir" (pretty damned irritating after awhile) I have taken to
>> addressing all my correspondence of this nature to "Dear Gentlefolk".
>
>In a similar vein, I often use "Gentlepersons".
>
previous boss had written "Dear Sir". Instead, I typed "Dear
Gentleperson", whereupon my boss scratched the salutation and re-wrote
"Dear Gentlemen". Because he signed my paychecks I carried the battle no
further, however, from that point on, he left the salutation line blank,
allowing me to do as I pleased (softie that he was 8*} ).
Ken Arnold%CGL
>Two I've seen used a lot are "Folks" and "Greetings".
>I suppose the former is mostly appropriate when you
>actually know most of the people you're addressing.
I suspect that there are a reasonably large number of people who would
not appreciate getting letters that start off:
Greetings;
Might even give them a heart attack. At least during the Vietnam era,
letters from the draft board telling you you'd been chosen used this
salutation. Even *thinking* about it gives me the shivers.
Ken Arnold
pur...@muddcs.uucp
directed at unknown parties. This is a problem I have often
faced. My solution is one that I regard as simple and, well,
ELEGANT: if I don't know who/what I am writing to, I simply
don't use any salutation at all! It seems to me that this is
unlikely to offend, whereas some of the "alternative" salutations
that have been offered here DO offend some people--myself included.
Note that very few contributions to the net (or to e-mail in general)
begin with salutations...
--
Bill Purves (714) 621-8021
Depts. of Biology and Computer Science {cepu,ihnp4,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!purves
Harvey Mudd College pur...@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
Claremont, CA 91711
"Those Who Are Ignorant of Biology Are Destined to Repeat It"