{"id":2044,"date":"2014-01-16T14:33:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T14:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:41:00","slug":"scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters","title":{"rendered":"Scientific communication: Using &#8220;Dear Mr.&#8221; or &#8220;Dear Ms.&#8221; in letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">Being an academician involves a great deal of scientific communication, inlcuding writing cover letters or writing formal e-mails. In writing to academics and scientists, perhaps the solution is simple enough: use <em>Dear Dr Tanaka <\/em>or <em>Dr Smith <\/em>or whatever surname or family name your correspondent has\u2014if he or she has a doctorate degree, you have used the correct form of address; if not, the person is unlikely to mind.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">However, a common convention in addressing individuals when you do not know whether you are writing to a woman or a man is to use<em>\u00a0both<\/em>\u00a0the first name and the last name or the surname,<em>\u00a0without using a title<\/em>, as in <em>Dear Pat McNees <\/em>or <em>Hello Lesley Smith<\/em>. However, this form might not be acceptable with initials instead of the first name; <em>Dear A J Cronin<\/em>, for example, might sound odd.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">If you are writing to people when you do not even know their names, let alone their gender, it is acceptable to address the letter to a job title or designation, as in <em>Dear Manager <\/em>or <em>Dear Editor <\/em>or <em>Dear President <\/em>as the case may be, so long as you know the correct designation. Incidentally, it is customary in the US to end the salutation with a colon in formal correspondence (as in <em>Dear Dr Smith:<\/em>), whereas in the UK,\u00a0a comma is more common (as in Dear <em>Dr Smith,<\/em>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being an academician involves a great deal of scientific communication, inlcuding writing cover letters or writing formal e-mails. In writing to academics and scientists, perhaps the solution is simple enough: use Dear Dr Tanaka or Dr Smith or whatever surname or family name your correspondent has\u2014if he or she has a doctorate degree, you have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":45691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[267,212,501],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","tag-cover-letter","tag-language-tips","tag-non-native-english-authors"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scientific communication: Using &quot;Dear Mr.&quot; or &quot;Dear Ms.&quot; in letters | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scientific communication is a vital aspect of being an academician. 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This article will help you in accurately addressing the recipient of your e-mail.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-16T14:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-20T02:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/b06bbcd2-a8fd-458d-ab63-22ffebd11ced.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yateendra Joshi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yateendra Joshi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Yateendra Joshi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cddcdcb60c05f8fe00b1e54c1ebf7980\"},\"headline\":\"Scientific communication: Using &#8220;Dear Mr.&#8221; or &#8220;Dear Ms.&#8221; in letters\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-16T14:33:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-20T02:41:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters\"},\"wordCount\":242,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/b06bbcd2-a8fd-458d-ab63-22ffebd11ced.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"cover letter\",\"language tips\",\"non-native English authors\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Grammar &amp; Language\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters\",\"name\":\"Scientific communication: Using \\\"Dear Mr.\\\" or \\\"Dear Ms.\\\" in letters | Editage Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/scientific-communication-using-dear-mr-or-dear-ms-in-letters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/b06bbcd2-a8fd-458d-ab63-22ffebd11ced.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-16T14:33:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-20T02:41:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Scientific communication is a vital aspect of being an academician. 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