What Is the End of a Letter Called?

The end of a letter is called the complimentary close. This part of the letter is composed of a short statement such as “Yours sincerely,” and is followed by the signature of the writer.

A letter is composed of several parts including the heading, date, greeting, subject line, the body of the letter and the close of the letter. The heading of the letter should include the return address of the sender placed in the center or top left corner. It should also include the name of the sender. The date should never be abbreviated and should always be written to include the year of the date. The greeting of a letter can be different depending on the type of letter it is. It may be personally addressed to someone or it may be addressed to someone in general. An example would be “Dear Joe,” or “To whom it may concern.” The subject line is generally only included in business letters and lets the receiver know the purpose of the letter. It is a short summary of what is included. The body of the letter should be composed using proper paragraph structure and sentence structure. It should be an organized thought process. The close of the letter lets the reader know that there is no other information that needs to be passed at that time.