The Writer's Desk Book / Being a Reference Volume upon Questions of Punctuation, Capitalization, Spelling, Division of Words, Indention, Spacing, Italics, Abbreviations, Accents, Numerals, Faulty Diction, Letter Writing, Postal Regulations, Etc.

by William Dana Orcutt

THE HEADING

I. Business. — 1. The stationery of a business house invariably contains in its printed heading the name of the house and the location of the business, with a space for filling in the date. The ar­range­ment, therefore, is arbitrarily and usually correctly fixed. The name of the city or town, with street address, if required, comes first, occupying one or two lines, followed by the date, always at the right, either in the same line or in a line by itself: e.g.,

BOSTON, 12 March, 1912

or

189 State St., Boston

12 March, 1912

2. If there is no punctuation at the ends of the printed lines, there should be no point used after the date.

3. The number of the day should not be followed by st, nd, rd, d, or th: e.g., 12 March, not 12th March.

II. Informal. — 1. There is considerable latitude in the heading in informal or friendly letters. The address of the writer may be placed at the beginning or the end of the letter, or omitted altogether if well-known to the addressee.

2. The date may be at the beginning or the end, but should never be omitted.