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To whom it may concern:

To whom it may concern:

To whom it may concern:

(OP)
As a follow-up to the Androgenous First Names thread, without intending to hijack that thread, I am curious what others think about the phrase,

To whom it may concern:

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: To whom it may concern:

"To whom it may concern" for me means: I wrote something but I have no idea who might be interested. I avoid that opening like the plague.
"To the user of this product"
"To the..." whatever, it's just laziness if you have no idea whom you're writing to. Make it a little more specific and the reader will notice you respect him/her.

RE: To whom it may concern:

I would reply to this thread, but I don't think it concerns me....

RE: To whom it may concern:

When I read a covering letter with that as the opening line I have to fight the urge to throw it away. To me it implies "I have written a single cover letter and have xeroxed it 100 times", which defeats the purpose of a cover letter in the first place.

RE: To whom it may concern:

I hate the phrase, but sometimes it is necessary.

I just had to write a recommendation letter for a student for graduate school.  The letter goes to a "clearing house" for the letters, and the written instructions didn't identify any potential recipients.

The alternatives to "To whom it may concern" don't seem that much better.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Dear reviewer,

etc.

Regards,

Cory

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: To whom it may concern:

The same is true of faceless software support desks:

Dear supporters,

Dear support team,

Hello,

RE: To whom it may concern:

I think this one, clunky though it may sound, has a legitimate place.

It carries flavours of:

"Although I wrote this notice, I did so in the expectation that somebody else would decide who would be invited to read it.  I stand by what I wrote, regardless of who the reader turns out to be".

This makes it very useful for testimonials or letters of indemnity, but I would be wary of using it in any more general sense.

A.

RE: To whom it may concern:

How 'bout:

1) Dear (Admissions Officer or Hiring Manager or whatever will be appropriate)?

2) Dear Sir/Madam

3) Greetings

4) To All Interested Parties

I also dislike "To Whom it May Concern." I generally opt for number 2 above if I absolutely cannot find a name or specific title.

--------------------
Bring back the HP-15
www.hp15c.org
--------------------

RE: To whom it may concern:

As zeusfaber says, it has a legitimate place. If I do not know who will read a specific, important letter such as a testimonial on behalf of someone, I always use Whom. When writing a letter to a particular faceless department it is Dear Manager. Wherever possible I first try to obtain the person's name. I point blank will not write dear Sir/Madam because nowadays that may not be accurate. Trying to cover all the bases as I have seen some pc government departments do with Dear Sir/Madam/Mr/Ms/Miss, is imo stupid. To me it infers: "I don't know who you are but I'm OK with this because I know you will fall into one of the listed salutations".

RE: To whom it may concern:

rnd2: How might Sir/Madam be inaccurate? I guess that could be in the case of folks with 3 sex chromasomes but I think that even they generally adopt one gender or the other.

For me, I'm comfortable presuming that the recipient is either male or female and therefore use the polite form of address for each.

--------------------
Bring back the HP-15
www.hp15c.org
--------------------

RE: To whom it may concern:


Adding insult to injury: I once saw an internal circular with the acronym TWIMC.

RE: To whom it may concern:

For me its a perception that Madam is a married woman whereas Miss is a woman never married. I'll let you work out the status variations just within that gender

RE: To whom it may concern:

Dear Human?
or
Dear Reader,
if you are treading this... you have nothing better to do (just like me).

"To whom it may concern,
I would like to introduce you to the advantages of mail merge when writing letters like this to thousands of people who could care less."


JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: To whom it may concern:

I've not been of the belief that "madam" implies marriage. The first definition listed at m-w.com is

"mA-'däm, -'dam/ : LADY -- used without a name as a form of respectful or polite address to a woman...Madam President"

--------------------
Bring back the HP-15
www.hp15c.org
--------------------

RE: To whom it may concern:

Origin: See Madame.

A gentlewoman; an appellation or courteous form of address given to a lady, especially an elderly or a married lady; much used in the address, at the beginning of a letter, to a woman. The corresponding word in addressing a man is Sir.

Source: Websters Dictionary

RE: To whom it may concern:

androgynous surely?

RE: To whom it may concern:

I have written at least one message/letter with the given subject heading 'To whom...'  Can't remember what it was about or they were about.  

RE: To whom it may concern:

"To Whom it May Concern" is the long established etiquette for addressing a correspondence to an unknown audience, not only because of being gender neutral, but also because it is applicable to any number of readers. Unfortunately this, like so many other terms previously used in polite intercourse, has been usurped and ruined by mass marketers and as jmw said, mail merge programs. Its advantages as a formal greeting have been tainted by overuse. I propose a new proper term that accomplishes both of the scenarios I descried above; gender and number neutrality. One that mass marketers will find distasteful enough to avoid (at least at first), but that we, the polite society who use it, will collectively agree is acceptable.

"Hey you,"

Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework  Read FAQ731-376

RE: To whom it may concern:

I believe it is generally regarded as being the most formal address, particularly for testimonials connected with work applications. I wouldn't use it in any other context.

Something like "hi there" just does not seem appropriate except perhaps for the most informal of e-mails.

Mr/Ms usually covers the gender problem.

Anything addressed to "the occupant" or "the homeowner" goes straight into the trash can at lightning speed.

RE: To whom it may concern:

Good day,

When I doubt I always start with 'Good day,'.

Cheers.

RE: To whom it may concern:

I think jraef has drawn attention to the respectful use of an elegant word or phrase compromised by a cheap mass marketing X#%@ard's banal over-use.  

RE: To whom it may concern:

jraef:

Unfortunately the mass marketers have already beat you to that.  I recently got an email with "Hey you!" as the greeting.  Either that, or it was my boss again, asking about my "working from home".

D

RE: To whom it may concern:

I think that email spammers have by now used every possible combination of words by now in their crass attempts to get my attention. Many of them have even resorted to random combinations that are non-sequitur to even each other, let alone a greeting. It's sickening really.

"Anything addressed to "the occupant" or "the homeowner" goes straight into the trash can at lightning speed."
My wife and I have agreed that I get all the "occupant" and "resident" mail, she gets all the "homeowner" mail. It just seems natural that way.

Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework  Read FAQ731-376

RE: To whom it may concern:

jraef --

The following two examples maybe typify greetings you have received:?

I nasa your disposition nightshirt

Why duoploy and asteroid franc

These were the subject lines on the two spam-mails that I received today.  If I don't receive at least two or three a day, I feel almost neglected.

RE: To whom it may concern:

Metman - you have to see the question within the question.

Why duoploy and asteroid franc?  Why indeed.  I neither duoploy nor asteroid any franc that I own when I can freezlok for pretty much the same cost.

RE: To whom it may concern:

lewtam - Thanks for the heads-up.  Maybe I should post the other one on T-shirt ideas.  Maybe it requires no explanation there.

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