tt

20:28 Oct 2, 2012 

Who is naming my name in vain? 8-)
In fact I agree with BdiL, it WAS quite common (and usually in the reference section) with capital+small initials. It is disappearing, but you still find it in firms using a secretarial pool.

18:40 Oct 2, 2012 

Ciao Phil and BdiL, I've translated and proofread many letters from Ticino (clinical trials correspondence) in the past few years, but have never come across initials after the date at the *beginning* of the letter ... initials at the end of the letter would have been obvious right away. Thank you both for your comments and help.

13:41 Oct 2, 2012 

I meant to add some pinch of salt. I did not question the fact that this were standard in many a country, nor philgoddard's (excellent) answer. My point was that it's not standard practice for typed (printed) texts in Italy. The standard "disco su ghiaccio" used in Ticino would make any Italian burst into laughter, where only hockey su ghiaccio is in use (100%). And I agree that there's no problem with letter case when the author is also the typist. But never mind...

13:23 Oct 2, 2012 

It's not just Ticino. As I mentioned, it's very common in many languages, including English - though the upper + lower case distinction is probably not so widespread now that many people type their own letters.

12:38 Oct 2, 2012 

Probably this is Ticino's standard practice. In Italy (and this started when typewriters were in common use) you would type at the bottom left hand, say Joseph Tein is the author (who dictates or handwrote or recorded the text) and Pompeo Lattanzi the typist, "JT/pl", meaning "what Joseph Tein dixit pompeo lattanzi fecit (scripsit)". Therefore the person responsible for the concepts has upper-case initials and the one "expleting the menial chores" has lower-case initials and shall be responsible for the layout and spelling. Ciao. Maurizio