Sign and date a letter or CV

A letter you write: one date, at the top

The date on a letter records when it was written, and it belongs near the top of the page, above the recipient's address in most layouts. Purdue's Online Writing Lab, describing American business letters, has the month written out in full, and says that a letter written over several days takes the date it was finished. For readers in the UK, Ireland or Australia, day, month as a word, then year, as in 28 September 2026, is the natural form, and nobody anywhere can misread it.

Your signature goes between the closing and your typed name; Purdue suggests leaving four lines for it on a printed letter. On a PDF, place the signature image in that gap and size it so it doesn't run into either line. There's no need to date the signature as well. The date at the top already covers the whole letter.

A letter someone asks you to sign and date

Offer letters, consent letters and acknowledgements often end with a request such as “please sign and date a copy and return it”. Here the date belongs to you, not to the letter: beside your signature, put the day you sign. The date at the top stays as printed, even when it's a week earlier.

If there's a printed block like “Signed ______ Date ______”, fill in exactly that. If there's only a blank space, sign, print your name underneath and put the date below your name. Keep a copy of what you send back; with a PDF, that's simply the signed file.

Does a CV need a signature at all?

Usually only when someone asks for one. Two settings ask regularly. In German-speaking countries the tradition is to end a Lebenslauf with a place, a date and a signature. Germany's Federal Employment Agency says signing isn't strictly necessary but can be an advantage, since it shows the CV is a current version and the details are correct. Its sample CV ends with the town and date, suggests scanning your signature for online applications and using the same date as on your cover letter.

Clinical research is the other. The US FDA says its regulations don't require investigators' CVs to be signed and dated, because the investigator's dated signature on Form FDA 1572 already vouches for the CV. Some sponsors and research institutions still ask for signed and dated CVs under their own rules. One university's regulatory office, for instance, wants the top page signed and dated by hand, not typed, and treats a CV as current for two years from that date. Whatever the requester specifies, follow it exactly.

Signing and dating a CV, step by step

Unless the request says otherwise, sign and date the end of the last page. The German layout is a single line with your town and the date, such as “Cologne, 28 September 2026”, with the signature directly beneath it. Some templates first add a short statement, for example “I confirm that the information above is accurate”, which is what the signature then stands behind.

Use the date on which you actually sign, and sign again whenever you update the CV. An old date on a revised CV defeats the purpose of dating it. If the instructions say hand-signed, manually signed or wet ink, print the page and sign with a pen; an image of your signature won't satisfy that wording.

Cover letters and emails

A cover letter sent as a PDF attachment can carry your signature image between the closing and your typed name, just like a posted letter. In the body of an email, your typed name is enough and nobody expects a date beside it; the email carries its own sending date. When a cover letter and a CV go out together and both are dated, make sure the dates agree.

Sources

• Purdue OWL: Basic business letters (date line, signature space)
• Bundesagentur für Arbeit: Den perfekten Lebenslauf erstellen (signature)
• Bundesagentur für Arbeit: Sample CV with notes (place, date, scanned signature)
• FDA: Frequently Asked Questions, Statement of Investigator (Form FDA 1572), Q24
• University of Cincinnati IM Regulatory newsletter: research CV rules