In the OET Writing sub-test, your writing skills are assessed using a letter task. You are required to write a letter to another doctor, healthcare professional or family member.

One area which causes some candidates uncertainty is how they should end the letter.

How should I end my letter?

When writing your letter, it’s important to know how to end it appropriately. While there is a wider range of endings, such as Sincerely and Regards, which are more commonly accepted in the USA, the two most common formal endings practised in British English are:

• Yours sincerely
• Yours faithfully

When following this convention, 'Yours sincerely' is the most common option.  It is used to end a letter when you know the last name of the person you are writing to.

If we start the letter with ‘Dear Dr Menzes’ or ‘Dear Ms Brooks’, then we end the letter with ‘Yours sincerely’.

If you do not know the name of the person we are writing to but instead have their job title, then use ‘Yours faithfully’.

For example, if we start the letter ‘Dear Dentist’ or ‘Dear Nursing Manager’, then we end the letter with ‘Yours faithfully’.

Using the reader's job title is preferred for healthcare letters to the more generic Sir/Madam.

For more tips like these, check out our OET Preparation Blog! It's full of great articles that cover everything from how to break bad news to when to use a comma.