Expert: Tony Colasurdo - 5/28/2004

Question
My husband and I disagree about proper spacing of a formal written letter, and I cannot find proof to convince him.  He wrote a letter which was very brief, only a couple of short paragraphs, and he followed instructions which said to leave a specific number of lines between the letterhead, the date, inside address and salutation.  Because his letter was so brief, the entire letter was in the top third of the page (8.5 X 11)  I told him he should space down so that the body of the letter was just barely above the mid-point of the paper, leaving near equal space above and below.  He refused, saying it "looked dumb" to leave all that space between letterhead and the message.  I say it looks dumber to have so much blank paper in the bottom two thirds...  Can you help me find some authoritative source to prove my side of the argument, or am I just a dinosaur in this computer age?  I'm relying on my high-school secretarial classes of 40-some years ago and admit things could have changed... but my sense of aesthetics and my eyes tell me I'm correct.  HELLLLP!  Please?  THANK YOU!

Answer
Connie:
I agree with you wholeheartedly that you have to use your sense of aesthtics to determine how a brief letter should be positioned on the page. In a text  I often use with my students, Write for College, the format guidelines say:

Center the letter vertically (top to bottom) on the page, leaving margins of 1 to 1.5 inches.

Another text makes no reference to it at all

Tony