Bloody Well Write

Art imitates life. Or is it the other way around? Or maybe both, depending on the day? Today’s entry developed directly from one of my work experiences yesterday.

A few of us went to the main post office here in town to learn a bit about mailpiece design. (Yes, the one-word mailpiece is, according to the post office, a legitimate term, and since I’m discussing postal issues, I’m deferring to its spelling preference.) We even scored a tour. The bummer was that we were there during off-peak hours, so all the belts were stationary, no whistles were toot-tooting and no one was shouting orders to and fro. In fact, there were very few folks around. But there were some chicks (dyed bright green and orange, no less) in cartons, chirping their little lungs out, waiting to be shipped out in time for Easter.

But I digress.

We learned about acceptable sizes for letters and postcards — including the “official” tapping-an-envelope-through-a-slot-to-see-if-its-size-is-legit method — and whether or not we should design an envelope out of metallic paper (not recommended); but what really caught my attention was the shtick about addressing a letter or parcel, particularly the punctuation (or lack thereof) within an address.

USPS-approved address format

The United States Postal Service® (USPS) prefers no punctuation in an address. There are always exceptions to rules, and its listed exception is that it is OK with the hyphen in the ZIP+4 Code (64110-7346). It’s unofficially OK with apostrophes in, for example, a city’s name (Lee’s Summit) or other such necessary punctuation (Stratford-upon-Avon). But commas and periods are unnecessary and clunk up the system. That means no periods in PO Box, no periods with N or S Broadway and no comma between the city and state. That’s right: It’s Lawrence KS and New York City NY.

You might have noticed in the above example that the USPS really, really likes uppercase letters. Now, there are those of us who think that a lot of uppercase letters makes it look like the author has some serious anger-management issues that need to be addressed. But try to think like a postal machine — the monstrosity that sucks in your little hand-written letter with fancy calligraphy, tries to interpret your fancy curly-cue p’s and twice-crossed t’s and then spits it into the correct bin that sends said letter to exactly where you want it to go. That’s a lot of work for that hunk of metal to accomplish, all for the cost of your 42¢ stamp. (Is it still 42¢?)

The point is, if you absolutely need your letter/note/package to get to its destination, try to write legibly. That fancy USPS machine is somehow able to read handwriting as easily as the printed word, but it would appreciate your effort at making its job easier. You don’t have to write in all caps unless you want to, but at least make sure that the address is easy to read. And if you can stomach the style, choose sans serif over serif fonts.

The machine reads the address from the bottom up. And frankly, what I got from the information segment of our field trip was that the mail gets delivered based on the last two lines; everything above that is fluff. Make sure that the very last line has the correct city, state and ZIP code (with +4 Code if you have it, but no worries if you don’t). And make sure that the second-to-last line (that’s penultimate to you word nerds) has the correct address.

If you have a P.O. Box and a physical address, use only one — and, again, please remember to lose the periods in the P.O. If you feel as though you absolutely must put both addresses on the letter or package, then place the one you really want the package to go to on the line directly above the city, state and ZIP information, because that’s the line the machine will read.

One last thing to keep in mind is placement of the address. The USPS machine reads a certain area of each letter, post card, flat or package. For example, if you have a letter, don’t let your writing slip into the furthest-right ½ inch or below the bottom 5/8 inch of the envelope; the machine’s reader will not pick any information up in those areas and your thank-you note will not get to Aunt Gurtie in time to make her an auntie proud of her young relative’s manners.

For more details, straight from the USPS, check this site out.

Happy trails!

SAK

Postal addresses: They help the mail get to us faster, in a more orderly manner. They make life for the conscientious mailer something nearing hell when they’ve gone missing. And they are the final touch on holiday cards and love letters (do folks still send love letters via snail mail or just text syllable-missing conglomerations on their iPhones?) before the stamp gets crammed in the corner. They seem vital to getting your correspondence where you want it to go. So what are those last five digits at the end of an address, anyway?

The Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service (USPS). In the early ’80s, four more digits were supposed to be tacked on the end of the ZIP code, determining a more specific location, but those little buggers didn’t become mandatory. Today, postal technology scans the address and determines — with Big-Brother-like precision — the destination’s exact location, so the extra four digits are more of a nicety than anything pressing.

ZIP codes are determined according to geographic location. Each digit represents a location:
• First — a certain group of U.S. states (e.g., my work ZIP code starts with 6, so the post office knows that I’m either in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri or Illinois)
• Second and third — a region in that group (could be a large city)
• Fourth and fifth — a group of delivery addresses within the region

U.S. ZIP code zones

The East Coast has the lowest numbers (e.g., Maine, New Jersey and Puerto Rico have ZIP codes that start with 0). The ZIP codes “grow” across the country: Florida’s ZIP code starts with 3, South Dakota’s with 5, New Mexico’s with 8 and Hawaii’s with 9 (Mahalo nui loa).

Lots of interesting info, huh? Well, here’s the real reason I decided to broach this subject: I see “Zip” everywhere. Folks, it’s ZIP. It’s an acronym, so all three letters need to be uppercase letters. No exceptions when you’re referring to the postal code system — zip, zero, zilch.

One last thing, concerning formatting: Please allow only one space before the ZIP code (e.g., Lawrence, KS 66044). Two spaces is, frankly, a weird typing habit and a waste of space. Waste not, want not, right? Right.

Newman would be so proud.

Happy trails!

SAK