The salutation for a business letter should always be formal, even if the business letter is to someone you know well. Examples:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Dear Mr. Shepard,
Dear Ms. Huang,
Dear Prof. Sampson,
Sales Manager,
To Whom It May Concern,
The close of a business letter should always be formal as well:
Sincerely,
Very Truly Yours,
Most Sincerely,
Yours Truly,
The salutation for a personal letter is determined by your relationship with the recipient of the letter and can be formal or very casual. Examples:
Hi Mom,
Dear Aunt Anna,
Hey Rollie,
Sweetie,
Dear Friends,
Fred and Ginger,
The close of a personal letter can also be formal or informal. You can close with words much like you would use if you were speaking to that person.
None, open punctuation means there is no punctuation after the salutation or the complimentary close.
Parts of a business letter:letterhead (or senders address for plain paper),date,inside address,reference line (if applicable)salutation,body,complimentary closesignaturename of sender printed or typedenclosures listed (if applicable)
Parts of a business letter:letterhead (or senders address for plain paper),date,inside address,reference line (if applicable)salutation,body,complimentary closesignaturename of sender printed or typedenclosures listed (if applicable)
Parts of a business letter:letterhead (or senders address for plain paper),date,inside address,reference line (if applicable)salutation,body,complimentary closesignaturename of sender printed or typedenclosures listed (if applicable)
Before the body
Parts of a business letter that are part of a personal letter:date,salutation,body,complimentary closesignature
salutation and complimentary close
None, open punctuation means there is no punctuation after the salutation or the complimentary close.
It is always proper to use a complimentary close in a business letter unless you are writing a simplified letter, in which case both the complimentary close and salutation (i.e. "Dear Mr. Jones") are omitted.
Parts of a business letter:letterhead (or senders address for plain paper),date,inside address,reference line (if applicable)salutation,body,complimentary closesignaturename of sender printed or typedenclosures listed (if applicable)
A salutation is an addressing to the person that the letter is addressed to and in a business letter you should always start with "Dear" and then add something like "Sir" or "Madam" immediately after it.
Parts of a business letter:letterhead (or senders address for plain paper),date,inside address,reference line (if applicable)salutation,body,complimentary closesignaturename of sender printed or typedenclosures listed (if applicable)copy (Cc)
Parts of a letter. Specifically, the salutation is the "Dear John," part, and the complimentary close is the "Very Sincerely Yours (well, you know what I mean), Your Ex-Girlfriend" part.
Return address, date, letter mailing address, and salutation.
Return address, date, letter mailing address, and salutation.
After the salutation of a business letter, the correct punctuation to use is a colon.
Dear Mr. President is a salutation of a business letter. The salutation goes at the beginning, thus that's how you got Dear.