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Sender's Address in a Cover Letter

Date in a Cover Letter

British English

Write: 30 October 2003

Position: on the right, one line below the sender's address (in letters with a ready-printed sender's address, the date can also be put in the top left corner)

Example with address on the right:

Example with address in the letterhead:

American English

Write: October 30, 2003

Position: top left corner (sometimes centred) or left-justified one line below the letterhead

Example with address on the left:

Remarks on the Date

In British English the day is usually put before the month. If you wish, you can add the ending of the ordinal number. The preposition of before the month is usually dropped. You can put a comma before the year, but this is not common anymore in British English. It is common, however, if the date is part of a sentence: The conference takes place 10-12 December, 2003.(i)

Example: 5(th) (of) October(,) 2004

In American English the month is usually put before the day. If you wish, you can put the definite article before the day. It is common to write a comma before the year.

Example: October (the) 5(th), 2004

You can also write the date by using numbers only. The most common forms are:

Example: 5/10/04 or 5-10-04

Note, however, that 5/10/04 usually means 5 October 2004 in British English and May 10, 2004 in American English. To avoid any possibility of confusion, you should spell out the month or use the abbreviation.