Also do what they do basically.

If you had an e-mail from a professor you don't know and are sending an e-mail to another professor you don't know, you should get a good idea of how official it needs to sound from the former e-mail.

I'm sorry, if you ever write "dear sirs" to me, I will immediately think you are a meninist wearing a fedora.

I am trying, and failing, to find a single time where it would be appropriate to start a letter "dear sirs".

"What's the difference between writing "yours sincerely" and "yours faithfully" at the bottom of a letter?"

"Yours faithfully" sounds very intimate. I would not use that unless your business letters were also going to a lover.

Some guys can only get a job by dropping to their knees...hence, "...faithfully..."

If you're trying to eat cheap, skip the meat and make a vegetarian meal.

-trust me

I used something similar to "Dear sirs" in Dutch when writing to a pair of teachers whom I needed approval from, they tend to like the way I do things so I figured they'd like that as well. It was just something that I needed to check by them, already knowing I'd get approval.

@ "What's the difference between writing "yours sincerely" and "yours faithfully" at the bottom of a letter?"

I'm amazed that no-one has offered the correct answer to this. Here it is:

Whether you use "sincerely" or "faithfully" depends on how you addressed the recipient at the start of the letter.

- If you used the recipient's name at the start of the letter, the standard ending is "sincerely".

- If you did not use (or did not know) the recipient's name, then use "faithfully".

So a letter that opens "Dear Mr. Steephie" would end "Yours sincerely".
A letter that opens "Dear Sir or Madam" would end "Yours faithfully".

Dear Sirs, "Yours faithfully" and "Yours sincerely" both sound weird to this Californian. I'd recommend using the stock formula options "Sincerely" or "Cordially." And yeah, "Dear Sirs" cuts out half of the population, so it's inaccurate at the very least and offensive in the worst case. Why not just "Dear _________"?

If you know you're talking to men, "Dear Sirs" isn't inaccurate at all.

Cordially? How awfully foreign.

In the UK anything other than sincerely or faithfully at the bottom of a letter sounds odd. Strangely, with emails, regards or kind regards seems to dominate

Just wanted to say I always use regards, occasionally kind regards.
Seems less pretentious to me.

Dear sirs,

Steephie is a weird mofo.

Faithfully,
Steve Perry and the band otherwise known as Journey

@Jamie: I took pretty much that same class in 9th grade in the States. How to write a check, balance a checkbook, do a budget, read the stock quotes (we did investment games too), all those things. The fact that I heard this from someone besides my parents made this seem more "real-world" and important.

Back in olden times, there weren't classes for mundane things like writing checks, etc. And in the upper grades if you were college prep, nada. My father strongly urged me to take typing in high school and I did. I was the only boy in a class full of girls presumably training to become secretaries. I still appreciate being able to touch type. I figured checks out on my own. As for business letters I may have looked at a book. If I didn't have a name, I always started business letters with "Gentleperson." That may have seemed a bit odd in the late '60s, but I thought "Sir or Madam" odder still.

Everything you want to learn is on the internet (at least for now) and you can find it using a search engine (at least for now). If you don't know something, start learning it.

Here's a good place to start on learning practical wisdom:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/

The website will help you with the way to think. The forums there can be mined for a bunch of advice, and people to help, with practical skills.

Also, if you're really philosophical, read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

It serves as a great bridge from the academic mindset to the practical, physical, tinkering mindset. (It's really neither about Zen nor motorcycle maintenance, but the pursuit of quality.)

I absolutely agree with you about Zen..., though everyone takes different things from it. For me, it was patience in dealing with physical things. Invaluable to me as I am, when I don't watch it, capable of using force instead of thought!

Oh damn, missed a comma!

Yeah, Chumbles. That kind of patience in a physical skill (like tying a shoe or staying cool in an argument) is something that is crucial to learning the "useful things" complained about in this post. If school were handed the job of teaching many of these things, the students would be apathetic to message, and just for ways to pass the (ideally multiple choice) test, rather than pursue quality results.

I think in a way Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance explains part of the reason why academic institutions are like this, going back to the time of Plato and Aristotle.

Just a freaking great book.