Closing a Letter

Last week we did a post on April being national letter writing month and I thought today we could give some attention to the closing of notes.  Have you ever wondered why you close a note with Sincerely?  Or how to close a note to someone you don’t know very well?  Here are some tips on closures:

-The preferred ending to a formal note is Sincerely, Sincerely Yours, Very Sincerely or Very Sincerely Yours
-In friendly notes, the most frequently used closings are Affectionately, Cordially, Fondly, and Love.
-Gratefully is only to be used when you’ve received a benefit from the person you are writing to.
-As Always and As Ever are great solutions when writing to someone who you don’t know well or someone you haven’t seen in a long time
-Hastily Yours or Yours in Haste are not good closings as it indicates to the person you are writing that you wrote without much thought or time for them.
-Faithfully Yours or Faithfully aren’t used often and are only appropriate in very formal social correspondence. For instance when writing to a member of the clergy or government.

What is your signature closing??