Contacting a employer by email

[homedeeth]

I've seen a job i'd like and i need to email their contact. She only gives her full name, not Mrs or Miss Whatever

How to start the email?

Dear? To?

[dotty.]

use her name, she probably does.

[Jan1957]

You don't generally start an email as you would a letter so I would just put For The Attention Of..and the name she has given..

[homedeeth]

but do i need to start Dear Domenica... or To Domenica...or just start with her name?

[mike11111]

Either Dear Mrs... or Dear Madam. Don't care how old-fashioned it sounds, that to me is the only polite way.

[Buenchico]

I've sent off plenty of job applications over the last few years. When the contact name was given as, for example, 'Jane Smith', I used to start my letters with 'Dear Ms Smith' (which was the form that used to be advised). However the current trend now seems to be to simply start with 'Dear Jane', so that's the format I've switched to.

Many people don't like to start an email with any formalities whatsoever (since the correct recipient should be the person reading it anyway) but I'm old fashioned enough to still like to do so. (Incidentally, that's why I nearly always 'sign' my posts, here on AB, with my name).

Chris

[dotty.]

It's not about being old fashioned either, it's about being accurate, if she had wanted to use a totle she would have added one, I do not use a title and when people try to add one to my name i explain that my name is my name and not to try to add anything,

[ChuckFickens]

Should your reply not have started "Dear Mr Deeth" then, Chris :)

Mark.

[sumo19]

Dear Jane Smith

[mike11111]

"Dear Jane Smith"

This is so WRONG! Either Dear Jane, Dear Miss Smith, Dear Mrs Smith or (through gritted teeth) Dear Ms Smith. "Dear" should always be followed either by a forename only or title + surname.

[sumo19]

First of all Mike,

You don't know if she is a 'Mrs' as you suggested earlier or Madam. You say that is the only polite way, but are you saying that titling, 'Dear Jane Smith,' is rude?

Dear Jane Smith is the formal way to do this. Jane may seem too informal, whilst you risk giving her the wrong title if you say Dear Mrs. Smith for example.

I have contacted people in this way many a time, and have never had any negative consequences. Employers also contact me in this way.

[homedeeth]

i've send off the email now and put Dear Ms Dunne

if i get no reply i can only imagine she is climbing the walls seething with anger that i called her Ms

[sumo19]

I highly doubt if it matters too much anyway

[dotty.]

crikey don't label her anything, she's use the name she did!

[mike11111]

I was born in an era which predates the ghastly "Ms", so I refuse to use it. If a lady does not wish to disclose her marital status I always play safe by using "Mrs", much as the French do by addressing any woman over a certain age as "Madame", rather than "Mademoiselle", irrespective of whether she is married or not.

[Eve]

I always prefer my forename (get a lot of applications and correspondence).

I'm definitely not a fan of Ms though that's just a personal thing. I'm definitely a Miss but would find that quite formal so would be happy with just my forename.

I find Mrs wierd as I'm not a Mrs. Had to get used to Mr a lot too with some people obviously thinking that as I'm a solicitor I must be male!

It is so much easier with men though to address as Mr! Doesn't seem as noticably formal to me either.

Strange thinking about it, I'd be more likely to address a woman by forename whereas for a man, moreso an older gentleman, I'd go for Mr.

[mike11111]

It used to be the custom, certainly when I first started work, that a lady writing a letter would sign off something like;
Yours faithfully, Jane Smith (Mrs), or;
Yours faithfully, Jane Smith (Miss).
This immediately resolved any doubt as to how to correctly address a reply.