Punctuation question

[Gene Kim-Eng]

When I was in school back in the stone age (1950's),
all business correspondence was considered "formal,"
and personal correspondence could be either, depending
on the circumstances.  

For example, writing to one of  your father's college 
classmates to request  or express thanks for a letter 
of reference to the college in support of your 
application would be personal, not business, but 
even if your dad addressed the person in question
as "Willy, you bastard" on a daily basis and you had
been calling him "Uncle Billy" since you were four,
he still got the "Dear Mr. Jones:" treatment when 
you wrote to him in this situation.  

Nowadays, of course, the average college applicant 
has probably been calling Dad's buddy Willy the 
Bastard (or worse) since childhood, and will be 
making the arrangements for that letter of reference 
via cellphone text message.

Gene Kim-Eng



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lauren" <lauren at writeco.net>
> Dear Mr. Kim-Eng:
> 
> Would you say that your view of colon use suggests that whether to use a
> comma or colon depends on the tone the correspondence is intended to convey?
> 
> Sincerely,
> Lauren