Signatures and names

Letters for signature

Letters beginning ‘Dear Miss Moneypenny’, end ‘Yours sincerely,’ or ‘With kind regards,’.

Letters beginning ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, end ‘Yours faithfully,’ as do letters beginning ‘Dear Mr President’, ‘Dear Secretary-General’, ‘Dear Minister,’.

Letters to ambassadors begin ‘Your Excellency’, and end ‘Yours faithfully,’ or ‘Yours sincerely,’.

Informal openings, such as ‘Dear Vladimir,’ end ‘With kind regards,’ ‘Kind regards,’ or ‘Regards,’.

With dual signatures, the more important person signs on the left, and slightly above the other person.

Names

Abbreviated titles do not take a full stop when they end with the last letter of the fully spelt out word:

• Mr, Messrs, Mrs, Ms
• Dr

but:

• Prof.
• Dipl. Ing.

In running text, write the full name of a person the first time you mention him or her, without the abbreviated title: thus James Bond first, then Mr Bond (or simply 007).

Initials take a full stop, with one space between: Mr V. S. Hugo. This is no hard and fast rule in English but a style issue agreed for EU writing.