You'd think writing a business letter would be pretty much the same globally. Au contraire!



The differences between UK and US are quite significant.

Initially the UK and US are divided with the return address: in the UK it goes on the right, whereas in the US it can either go on the left or the right.

The recipient's address is left-aligned in both countries (phew, we agree on something!)

Date swiftly follows; the UK date would read: 25th December 2009 on the right or left of the page, and the US: December 25, 2009 always...

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English Pro Blog Language, writing and editing

  Every day we write to a broad audience and while it's fine in a fictional piece of work to be gender-specific, in our business communications we often have to be more general. And, using the combination "him/her" is cumbersome.

It is so important these days to remain gender neutral, especially when compiling manuals, office policies and procedures, and employee handbooks. Using 'sexist language' can be a costly mistake - even resulting in missing out on a job a sexist tem is spotted in a resume/CV.

Traditionally we've used third-person masculine pronouns (he, him, his, himself). Many 'jobs for the boys' had the suffix '-man' (fireman, chairman, foreman), while women were indicated by...

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English Pro Blog Language, writing and editing