CC on a Letter: Where It Goes and How to Write It

CC on a letter stands for carbon copy, and it is often read today as courtesy copy. It tells your reader who else is getting the same letter. Type it at the left margin below your signature block, on the line after your reference initials and any enclosure line: "cc:" followed by the person's full name, with a job title if it helps, one name per line. Everyone named there needs their own copy of the letter.

Sincerely,

{{signature}}

Dana Ortiz
Office Manager

DO/jm
Enclosure: Signed lease renewal
cc: Priya Shah, Property Manager

The rest of this guide covers the order of the lines under your signature, the accepted ways to write the notation, several names, bcc on paper, and how each copy actually reaches the person it names.

Where the cc line goes#

The cc line belongs to the small block of notations that sits under your signature. Canada's federal writing guide, Writing Tips Plus (opens in new tab), places the copy notation at the left margin, directly below the reference initials or the enclosure notation. If your letter has neither, it goes on the second line below the signature block. The US Department of the Interior's correspondence handbook (opens in new tab) uses the same order but leaves one blank line after the enclosure notation.

You will see a few sample letters online, such as the one on EnglishClub, that put cc above the enclosure line. Pick one order and use it on every letter that leaves your office; Writing Tips Plus uses the order above, and the Interior handbook also puts the cc line below the enclosure line.

If you are signing the letter for your boss, nothing changes here: the signature block and initials come first, and the cc line sits under them.

How to write it: cc, c or Copy to#

Writing Tips Plus accepts three forms of the notation: cc, c, and Copy to (Copies to for more than one person). A colon after it is optional. Its examples use lowercase "cc".

After the notation, give the person's full name. With a full name you don't need Mr. or Ms., but you can add a job title after a comma, which helps your main reader see why that person is in the loop. A department or a whole group can take the place of a name.

cc: Priya Shah, Property Manager
c: Priya Shah
Copy to Accounting Department

Whichever form you choose, keep it the same from letter to letter. A reader notices "CC:" on one page and "Copy to" on the next far more than they notice which one you picked.

How to cc more than one person#

Write the notation once, then stack the names so they line up under each other. Writing Tips Plus lists them in order of rank or in alphabetical order; MIT's Mayfield Handbook puts each copy recipient on its own line. In Word or Google Docs, a tab after "cc:" lines the names up neatly, which is what the Interior handbook tells its staff to do.

cc: Marcus Bell, Board Treasurer
    Priya Shah, Property Manager
    Tom Reyes, Outside Counsel

You can add a mailing address under a name when the copy goes outside your organization. Emily Post's business-letter advice calls addresses on the cc list optional, and the Interior handbook shows one stacked under the name.

Bcc on a paper letter#

A blind copy works on paper the same way it does in email: your main reader doesn't see it. The Interior handbook says the bcc line "does not appear on the original letter or cc:s, but is included on the official file copy and all other copies." It goes at the left margin, one blank line below the last cc name.

That means a bcc letter exists in two versions. The original and every cc copy stop at the cc line. The bcc person's copy and your file copy carry one more line:

Enclosure: Signed lease renewal
cc: Priya Shah, Property Manager

bcc: Tom Reyes, Outside Counsel

Save the two versions as two files before you print, so the wrong one never goes into the main envelope. The US National Archives' correspondence guide treats blind courtesy copies as file copies, along with the office's own record copy, so keep a bcc copy for your files. If you are writing for someone else, our note on who keeps the file copy covers where that copy lives.

Do the people you copy get the enclosures?#

Only if you send them. When a copy travels with its enclosures, the Interior handbook marks it under that person's name with (w/encl). Under that convention, a name without it means the copy went without the enclosures. Put the enclosure in each envelope marked that way, and leave it out of the others.

Mail a copy to every name on the cc line#

Every name on the cc line is a promise that the person gets the letter, so each one needs a copy of their own. The copy is the same letter: the inside address and greeting still name your main recipient, and only the envelope goes to the person you copied. Writing Tips Plus describes the copies as going to people "apart from the receiver specified in the inside address," so the inside address stays your main reader's, which is also the simpler habit.

One mix-up to avoid: an attention line on the envelope routes a single envelope to one person inside a company. A cc means a separate letter in a separate envelope.

If you print at your desk, each name is one more print, fold and stamp. Without a printer, upload the signed PDF and we mail each copy: add the letter to your Cart once per person, each with its own address, and pay for up to 10 together. If one copy carries a bcc line, that version is simply its own PDF. We add an address page in front that shows through the envelope window, so the copy's first page reads just like the original. At $2.05 for a one-page black-and-white letter, a letter with two names on its cc line is three letters: $6.15.

A long copy list, such as a whole committee, is one PDF going to many addresses. That is what Bulk Send is for, with up to 100 recipients per batch: one letter to a whole list.

Black-and-white letters print in grayscale, and our print partner adds a small code strip in the bottom-left margin of every page. Expect both on every copy.

Questions about cc on a letter#

What does cc mean at the bottom of a letter I received?#

It means the sender sent the same letter to the people named there. Nothing is asked of you; it simply tells you who else has read it, so you know who is already in the loop when you reply.

Is cc capitalized on a letter?#

You will see both "cc" and "CC". Writing Tips Plus uses lowercase "cc" in its examples. Choose one and use it on every letter.

Can I email the copy instead of mailing it?#

Yes. The cc line names who gets a copy; it doesn't say how the copy travels. If the person you copied works from email, a scan of the signed letter does the job. The cc field in your email program is a separate thing and doesn't replace the line on the letter.

Do the copies need their own signature?#

No. Sign the original once, then copy or scan the signed letter, so every copy shows the same signature. If you mail through Postmarkr, upload the signed PDF and each copy prints from it.