COMMA CLUES #3: Greeting and Closing of Letter

Today's Comma Clues post was actually supposed to be up yesterday--in case you were writing a love letter in honor of Valentine's Day!! If you are still in the middle of penning a love note for that special someone, be sure to follow these two comma rules--with a freebie capitalization rule thrown in as a, well, Valentine's Day gift!

This information could be more valuable to you than you might think: I just read that a new survey shows that following "teeth," grammar is the next benchmark that would-be daters use in evaluating potential mates on dating sites. So study this thoroughly before you write that letter! Smile...

Comma Clues #3: A comma should follow the greeting (salutation) and closing of a letter.

Dear Ray Baby, 




All my love,


I have to leave you with a few tips:

1. This rule applies to the "friendly" letter--which I assume your love letter will be.

2. Never use a colon following a greeting in a friendly letter. The colon should only follow a greeting in a business letter.

3. Always capitalize all major words in a greeting of a letter. In this way, think of it as a title and capitalize accordingly. 

a. Dear Friend and Colleague (no cap for and)
b. Dear First True Love

4. Only capitalize the first word in the closing of a letter (except for proper nouns in it, of course).

a. Sincerely yours,
b. All my love,


So...go write that love letter with confidence. And be sure to flash those pearly whites when you actually meet!