Business letter etiquette - using titles

[Anonymous]

I work in a position where we often draft formal correspondence for government permitting purposes. I'm GenX and was always taught that in business/formal letters, one should use a title for the addressee (e.g. in address block: Ms. Firstname Lastname), and in the salutation (Dear Ms. Lastname).

Lately I've seen people writing letters with Firstname Lastname (no title) in the address block and the salutation says "Dear Firstname Lastname." My understanding is that the writers or their company want to avoid gendered titles, but while I'm ok omitting "Ms." from the address block, it looks weird, rude, and impersonal to me to write "Dear Firstname Lastname." It seems like something AI would do, not a human.

I can understand avoiding gendered titles if the addressee's name isn't clearly identifiable as male or female, or you don't know whether they go by Ms. or Dr. Lastname, but in most of these situations, we correspond with these individuals regularly, have been dealing with them for a long time, and the person's gender is abundantly clear based on prior and recent interactions.

So which is correct: Dear Ms. Lastname, or Dear Firstname Lastname, or maybe Dear Firstname?

[Anonymous]

Never Dear Firstname for official government correspondence

[Anonymous]

Dear Mrs. Lastname is correct. Adding a first name suggests a form letter written by AI using a template.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear Mrs. Lastname is correct. Adding a first name suggests a form letter written by AI using a template.

OP here - thank you. That's my impression as well.

[Anonymous]

I’ll usually address them by first name, like this:

Susan,

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Xyz….


I was always told by my supervisors not to assume gender based on name. And that goes back 20 years, before having pronouns was a thing.

[Anonymous]

OP is correct. Don't address by first name unless you know the person well. If you don't know the gender, then you need to find out before you send the letter.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't over think it too much if it's government since the cheeto has lowered standards to sewer level. Maybe you should let AI loose on it to give everyone a nickname. Hey Lazy Susan, permit... DENIED.

[Anonymous]

What I was always taught” has to go out the window. You sound like an older person’s “back in my day”

I’d def drop the title. Don’t think of it addressing them. You’re personalizing it. It’s subtle but it’s 2 different things.

No one receiving this cares if AI wrote it. It probably should be. Because you the human have already spent too long thinking about it.

Either way it’s fine I have 2 first names - like Clark Kent. I get Dear Mr Kent or Dear Mr Clark all of the time. I’m not a “mr” but I don’t take it as them being being rude. Be cause if it’s typed it’s not really to me at all.

[Anonymous]

A lot of these positions receiving these letters are now held by millennials who are far less likely to want/need the formality. We tend to use first name unless there is a military title or a title like Dr.