Formatting of Letters

sneaker_fish, Absolute dead-standard for a U.S. business letter would be single spaced, blank line between paragraphs, no indentation at the beginning of paragraphs (some use a very small, 1/4 inch one), blank line between the body of the letter and both the salutation and the "sincerely yours" (don't know the name of that) line. Also, in U.S. style, the salutation is always followed by a colon, rather than the comma used for personal letters.

One additional note: The ubiquitous "Times New Roman" font, the Microsoft (and many other) default, is a terrible font. It's too crowded, to little "white space" between lines and generally pretty ugly. Good professional writers never use it. I like Palatino Linotype and/or Arial. Both, easy-on-the-eyes, very readable and generally nicer than default "Times New Roman". I like the "Palatino Linotype" so well, I have changed my personal default to it wherever possible.

Web folks who publish eBooks prefer the Arial, it's the easiest to read on a monitor screen.

Thanks for that. I actually forgot about the comma or colon after the Dear X part as well (don't use it here - well some places do but it certainly isn't standard).

Am I right in thinking therefore that there should also be a comma after the Yours sincerely bit?

Like i said, normally i wouldn't change a letter too much depending on the audience as it can be difficult to guess what everyone expects but i thought i should at least change it slightly to be more 'recognisable'...if that makes sense.

But paper is not a monitor, and Arial is a sans-serif font. That's really not something you'd want to use for a business letter.

shilgia, That's why I use Palatino Linotype, it's (for me) just about as readable on the monitor as the Arial sans serif, and it's a LOT more readable than any other font I've tried for hard copy, and I read on-screen and print a LOT, since I'm both an editor and a publisher of books (wrote one too...once) and working with MSS is my business. The first thing I do when I receive a new MS from someone is convert it to Palatino Linotype. That just makes reading and editing SO much easier and more pleasant.

I can agree on that, mazgringo. Palatino is much better. (I like Garamond, but I'm told it's nonstandard, so not really suitable if you want to send it to someone else. I think it's quite similar to Palatino, though, if you correct for size differences.)

Sorry for that, OP. You didn't ask for any of this. To make up for it I looked at some example job-application cover letters I have here (for US usage): they use blank lines between subsequent paragraphs and indentation of all paragraphs, including the first.

"Arial is a sans-serif font. That's really not something you'd want to use for a business letter"

Shilgia - really?

The reason I ask is because in Australia, at any rate, Arial is an incredibly common font for business letters in Australia, perhaps even the most common font. Just now at work I have a desk littered with letters from law firms, investment banks, property valuers, hotel companies, etc, and most of them are in Arial. Would that strike, say, Americans as odd?
All of these letters relate to a client in the US, so I'm wondering if some of my American clients are amazed out our Australian predeliction for sans serif.

Well, I'm not American, so I'm not the right person to answer that question for the American business world. Maybe everyone uses it and I'm the only one here who doesn't like it.

For a very formal letter, I think it would strike me as odd, if I paid attention to it.
You see Arial a lot in fliers and advertisements and "Respond now and win a new car!" type 'business letters'.

SK42, I would say that the sans-serif fonts are seldom used for business letters in the U.S. It just doesn't appear as pleasant and formal as something like Palatino Linotype (or even Garamond, which I do occasionally use, since in the same "size" it's somewhat more compressed than Palatino Linotype. I once had to do an entire small - 100 pg. - book in Garamond because the size couldn't run over a certain number of pages.) Of course, I see a LOT of business letters in the U.S. written in the Microsoft New Times Roman default font, and it's not too bad, acceptable for hard copy, if you make it at least one size larger than the Pal. Lino. or Garamond.

The Arial is wonderfully easy-to-read on-screen, but in the smaller sizes used for business letters (10, 11, 12 pt.) is a difficult-to-read, almost ugly IMHO font. Its hard copy strength is in the larger sizes for promotional pieces and headlines, just as shilgia says. Times New Roman is a little bit easier to read than Arial in the smaller fonts. I often use Times New Roman for footnotes in a MS, especially if there is a space consideration. Times New Roman was originally invented for the newspaper to save newsprint, so it's almost the most condensed of all fonts.

shilgia, That indentation of paragraphs DID used to be the common standard for business letters. My mother who wrote professionally in the real estate business in the 1930s was one of the early believers in the non-indented paragraph. After all, both the blank line between paragraphs and indentation are both for the same thing: identification for the reader of the start of a new paragraph, therefore, one should use one or the other, but not both. Though indentation is no longer the norm, no one thinks much about it unless it's the 1/2 inch indentation (the Microsoft default tab settings are 1/2 inch) that is just ugly with the paragraphs already separated by a blank line.

Of course, as an editor and particularly as a publisher, HOW the printed word appears in hard copy is of paramount importance to me. I'm very aware of most of the differences. The professional typesetters have a wonderful choice of fonts. I read a book the other day that had an outstandingly lovely font (similar to Pal. Lino.) that was perhaps the most readable, lovely font I have ever seen. The next day, before I got a chance to note the name of the font, the book was put back on my bookstore shelves. It sold right away, and I've kicked myself since for not writing down the font name IMMEDIATELY!