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I think that most people will answer the question in the title with 'yes', and, until recently, I was one of them. However, my wife, who is not a native English speaker, does not do this; and, when I was about to correct her, it occurred to me that in fact her approach is the more logical. After all, if it were all on one line, I would write "Dear recipient, this is a letter to you." and not "Dear recipient, This is a letter to you."; and I am unconvinced that the interpolation of a line break after the comma should change anything.

There being no governing body for English, inevitably the natural way to answer is "that's the way it's usually done, and logic can go hang", so let me ask a more precise version of this question: does any standard reference book require, forbid, or otherwise discuss this practice? I went Googling, but without luck.

LSpice
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    I don't know but there is a similar convention in writing poetry. Lines start with a capital regardless of the prior punctuation. e.g. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174790 – chasly - supports Monica Oct 14 '15 at 22:53
  • @chaslyfromUK, that's a good point! If I were to argue my position against it, I would point out that, in poetry, the form is part of the message (in the sense that the same words differently formatted could be a different poem); whereas, in the setting of a letter, it is not (in the sense that the same words differently formatted would, presumably, be the same letter—just harder (or perhaps easier!) to read). – LSpice Oct 14 '15 at 22:56
  • I have no idea what you just said ;-) – chasly - supports Monica Oct 14 '15 at 22:58
  • @chaslyfromUK, briefly, that "the medium is the message" is almost certainly relevant in poetry, and probably not relevant in a letter. – LSpice Oct 14 '15 at 23:00
  • Actually, on a second reading I did get what you said. I'm not sure it's a valid distinction though. The form of a letter is surely an important part of its message. Just seeing it set out on the page says, "This is a letter!" We wouldn't mistake it for anything else. – chasly - supports Monica Oct 14 '15 at 23:06
  • @chaslyfromUK, I agree to the extent that you've said it, for letters or just about any creative works; but I do think that the line breaks in poetry have semantic content (in the sense that moving them can change the meaning), whereas the one after the salutation of a letter has only syntactic content (in the sense that (re)moving it just makes it badly formatted, rather than changing what it means). – LSpice Oct 14 '15 at 23:52
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    Sorry, I don't have a standard reference, but I do have another point of view on it that might help. While I can't say I recall seeing what you describe in print, I have seen a similar practice at the closing of an old fashioned latter, along the lines of: "Yours truly, / and remaining your humble servant, / X". Here it is clearly a continuation of the sentence as in poetry. At the salutation, however, you have a possibly different structure. "Dear Sir" is not really taken as a true vocative, but rather a stand-alone formula. Hence the colon frequently used "Dear X:". – Albatrosspro Oct 14 '15 at 23:57
  • @Albatrosspro, that is an interesting perspective, though I'm not sure that I buy that the idiomatic character of the formula exempts it from the usual grammatical rules. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:02
  • Well, in English, grammar isn't capitalization anyway as it is in German. So it will come down to convention one way or another. I don't think it's stooping too low for an answer to say that it looks better, if that's indeed the reason. – Albatrosspro Oct 15 '15 at 00:07
  • @chaslyfromUK what about e.e.cummings? Or doesn't he count as a poet? – michael_timofeev Oct 15 '15 at 00:09
  • Isn't 'a standard reference book' going to need defining? Who decides what is and what isn't? And if you find a book that everyone agrees is 'a standard reference book' addressing this topic, doesn't this mean that it will advocate the 'standard way people punctuate'? I've still got a basic grammar (grading into a style guide) which requires the capitalisation after the comma. But I don't even accept CGEL on at least one topic. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 15 '15 at 00:27
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    @EdwinAshworth, yes, it is deliberately vague, but I'm not picky. If someone says "Strunk & White says this", then that is an answer, even though there are problems with Strunk & White; or even if someone says "here's a Safire column where he says this", then that is an answer, too. If someone says "my grade-school teacher told me this", then that is not an answer to the question that I asked. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:39
  • You're looking for proof in the same way that proof works in mathematics, and language doesn't work that way, especially with conventions or limitations to the language's logic capabilities. Why does German capitalize nouns in sentences? Where's the logic in that? – michael_timofeev Oct 15 '15 at 00:40
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    @michael_timofeev, you really seem to be reading more into this question than is there. I did not mention, and do not ask for, proof. (I mentioned logic, but explicitly said that I realise that language is not always logical. I do hope for consistency, but recognise that that, too, is often missing.) I am asking exactly and only for a reference, preferably in a book that would be widely regarded as authoritative. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:50
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    @michael_timofeev I think Lil' Spice (sorry, that's how your name looks to me) is just curious about whether this topic has been discussed in a formal setting. It's just a point of interest. Nothing at all wrong with that. – Albatrosspro Oct 15 '15 at 07:02
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    Letter Writing Guide, Reading Rockets, and the Centre for Academic Success (which capitalises a phrase!) all use/require the capitalise-the-first-word-after-the-salutation convention. (Intervening punctuation is variously a comma, a colon, or zero.) These sources would seem less questionable than Strunk and White. But this question is really about style preference rather than inherent acceptability, and I'm now voting to close. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 15 '15 at 10:56

5 Answers5

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From Great Grammar Practice Grade 2 copyright 2015 Scholastic Teachables. Here it is demonstrated in one reference book. The exercise shows what letters need to be capitalized, including the first word of the first sentence after the greeting.

Great Grammar Practice Grade 2

Dear Uncle Alex,
Thank you for the book you sent for my birthday. I have wanted to read it for a long time. Now I can!
Your niece,
Sue

From Good English Form Book in Business Letter Writing, 1904 another source dictates (p. 17):

Begin every sentence, line of poetry, or formal quotation with a capital. NEVER USE A CAPITAL LETTER UNLESS YOU HAVE A REASON FOR IT.

Good English Form 16-17

The book is accessible for free at archive.org with ample exercises and examples. I am concerned that these two authorities might offer only for preference of style, but it is the same in regards to capitalization after a greeting in the body of a letter.

In a comment, EdwinAshworth mentioned these sources as well, which may prove more helpful, so I include:

Letter Writing Guide, Reading Rockets, and the Centre for Academic Success (which capitalises a phrase!) all use/require the capitalise-the-first-word-after-the-salutation convention.

livresque
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  • I am sorry not to have acknowledged this earlier; somehow I didn't see the notification. I'd tend to say that a grade-school guide and an internet guide aren't quite what I think of as authoritative references (though what is, for English?), but the "Good English Form Book" comes closer. It seems, however, that the Good English Form Book does not, or at least not explicitly, suggest capitalising the first word following the salutation of a letter. (It is not "[the beginning of] a sentence, a line of poetry, or a formal quotation.") Do you agree, or am I missing something? – LSpice Dec 17 '20 at 23:23
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    The book is an interesting read. Every letter of correspondence in it begins with a capital letter after a salutation, though maybe there's a better page to include in my answer that is more explicit. – livresque Dec 20 '20 at 03:20
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Dear Recipient is a salutation, it is not part of the following text. Thus, it is set off above the content of the letter and followed by a comma in less formal communication.

In business formatting, the salutation (e.g., Dear Sir) is followed by a colon.

Katherine
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    I am explicitly asking not for your personal description of norms or conventions (I am aware that most people do this), but rather for a reference to a standard work. – LSpice Oct 14 '15 at 22:54
  • There are rules/conventions for proper formatting in any Secretary's Handbook, which has been the guiding light for this is how it is done. Good letter writing involves several parts: Date, Address, Salutation, Body Text, Closing, Signature Block, Enclosure, Copies furnished, preparer's initials. An informal letter still follows the rules set forth in business practice, although one may exclude some of the business parts. In either case, the Body text begins with a capital letter. – Katherine Oct 14 '15 at 23:28
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    I have found, or believe that I easily could find, documentation, online or in a standard reference, for most of the parts of a letter that you mention, but could not find by Googling any reference to the necessity of capitalising the first letter of the body text. What I'm looking for is a specific standard reference that says this. (I can't even find a web page that says it, although I'm sure that they're out there.) – LSpice Oct 14 '15 at 23:50
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    Well, there has surely been some bending over time. "Dear X" obviously started as a standard vocative followed by the content of the communication, just as plainly as if one had said it aloud: "Dear John, how nice to see you again!" If this was ever standard, my bet is that it was only common in handwritten letters and not printed, or -- and maybe this will edge us closer to an answer -- when the salutation and body of the letter all started on one line. The line break, in printed matter, may set the convention. – Albatrosspro Oct 15 '15 at 00:04
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    Although I can't give you an exact reference online to quote, I can tell you that there are a plethora of handbooks with this information.You may have to go to a library or bookstore to check these references. A thought that came to me though is that every "part" of the business letter begins with a capital letter. Since the body is set off, it should follow the capitalization rule for the other parts.With regard to the Salutation, perhaps the capitalized first letter in the body has to do with the fact that it follows a colon in business conventions, and is a holdover into informal format. – Katherine Oct 15 '15 at 00:06
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    Oh, if you just want to find a modern reference telling you to capitalize the beginning of the body, I'm sure it's found in grade school textbooks. In fact I think I remember it from then. The historical angle may take more time. I would try to find an online source but I'm out the door now. – Albatrosspro Oct 15 '15 at 00:12
  • @LSpice I agree with Katherine's non referenced answer. Have you gone to the library or bookstore to find your answer, or is it you just want us to do that for you? What happens once you find it in a book? – michael_timofeev Oct 15 '15 at 00:32
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    @michael_timofeev, I do not want anyone to do anything; I was just asking a question, to which someone might know and be willing to share the answer. I just pulled down five books that I had to hand (CMOS, Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford's Questions of English, Fowler's Modern English Usage, and Patridge's Usage and Abusage), and didn't find it in any of them, probably because I don't know where to look. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:46
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    It is not that I disagree with Katherine's answer, only that it is not the answer to my question. I am not asking what people do, only whether there is a reference work that requires me to do it. Once I find it in a book, I reluctantly concede the point to the person with whom I am arguing this. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:47
  • @Katherine, would you start a phrase following a colon in ordinary text with a capital letter (such as "I'm going to buy the following fruits: Apples, grapes, and oranges")? I wouldn't, but I may be out of line with convention on this. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:48
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    @LSpice ok. I apologize for my comment. I notice you post in the mathematics education department. For many things in language it's not possible to ask the kind of questions that one does in math, or even get satisfying answers and proofs. So, even if you find a book, there exists another with contradictory information. There are rules but some people don't abide by them. In math it doesn't t work that way. There is no style guide for the Pythagorean theorem, or how to calculate a derivative. – michael_timofeev Oct 15 '15 at 00:53
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    @LSpice your question to Katherine about colons is good. I have wondered this and have found different sources with different rules. Sucks for me because I'm an English teacher. – michael_timofeev Oct 15 '15 at 00:54
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – LSpice Oct 15 '15 at 00:56
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    @LSpice Good point. Capitalization for lists applies to proper nouns. However, the first letter of a complete sentence is capitalized when it follows a colon, even in lists of several, which would appear numbered or after bullets. Also, if the colon precedes a quote, the first letter is capitalized. But then again, in modern Style, such as APA, they even throw these rules out at times. In terms of the colon after the salutation, perhaps we could consider the Body text a quote of what is being said to the Dear Recipient. – Katherine Oct 15 '15 at 01:13
  • @Katherine isn't what usually follows the salutation a complete sentence, and sentences should start with a capital letter? Just thinking out loud. – michael_timofeev Oct 15 '15 at 02:07
  • The reasoning is sadly not rigorous. All sentence-initial pragmatic markers are set off from the following matrix sentence, often by a comma, sometimes by heavier-duty punctuation: << Fortunately, he had recovered completely by the following week. / First, let me introduce the team. / On the contrary, we will fight all the harder. / John, we're coming over to Seattle next month. / John – have you seen the kettle? >> But the next word never begins with a capital letter (except, optionally, in some cases following a colon). – Edwin Ashworth Oct 15 '15 at 11:10
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I was taught this in engish class, " Dear Sally, How are you? " This is correct to me.

Edie Booth
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    Thank you. As I mentioned (see https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/280100/should-one-capitalise-the-first-word-in-the-body-of-a-letter/491886#comment620952_280103 and "does any standard reference book require, forbid, or otherwise discuss this practice" in the text of the question), I am interested in the pseudo-authoritative position of a standard reference book, not in individuals' preferences, habits, or experiences. – LSpice Mar 29 '19 at 20:34
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I remember having been taught (in my English class in school in Wales) that as there was a comma after the persons name, the the first letter of the first line of the first paragraph was not capitalised as it came after a comma.

Matthew Tinker
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    Hi, welcome to EL&U. Your answer does not address the issue that the OP is looking for a reference or specific citation with this research. Please do take a [tour] of the site, and stick around. – livresque Nov 24 '20 at 01:59
  • @livresque is absolutely right that I'm looking for a reference. Nonetheless, based on the answers, obviously something about this question invites answers based on personal experience. Thank you for sharing yours. – LSpice Nov 24 '20 at 02:23
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I learned in all of my editing classes and The Chicago Manual of Style that the word following a salutation is NOT capitalized. I no longer have my manual, unfortunately, and can't find the rule in the online manual. Also, many people above are putting commas outside of quotes; they go inside quotes, as do periods. Semicolons and colons go outside of quotes.

Debbie Risberg
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  • If you were able to give a pointer to a physical or online version, then that would definitely answer my question. The placement of punctuation relative to quotation marks is not part of my question, so it doesn't matter that I disagree with the style you mention. – LSpice May 28 '20 at 22:23