AAP-56 formatting military correspondence

What it is

AAP-56 is NATO's Allied Administrative Publication on military correspondence. It is a house-style guide for how a letter, memorandum or other item of military correspondence is laid out, addressed and closed, not a technical or quality requirement anyone outside NATO's own correspondence-writing chain implements. Any piece of correspondence divides into three parts - head, body and close - and the publication works through what each must show.

Who it actually directs

The document is written for "the originator of the correspondence" and "the office preparing the correspondence" - whichever NATO or national military staff element drafts, signs and issues the letter. That is an internal administrative audience, not a supplier, manufacturer or contractor: the word "supplier" never appears in the text, and no contract mechanism is defined anywhere in it. It binds through STANAG 2630: "The agreement of nations to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 2630." A nation ratifies the STANAG and then implements it through its own national and command instructions, not through a customer contract. The edition in front of you, Edition A, Version 1, was promulgated in March 2018 and "is effective upon receipt", with no earlier edition it supersedes.

Heading, body and close

A letterhead "must always include, subject to security considerations" the preparing office's name and address, a point of contact's name, rank, email and phone, a date written day-month-year, an identifying reference, a subject line and an addressee - the exact arrangement is optional as long as each item is "readily identifiable". In the body, paragraphs are numbered once there are two or more, sub-paragraphs run through a fixed sequence of letters, numbers and bracketed levels, and correspondence may be divided into lettered or numbered Parts or Sections while the paragraph numbering runs on unbroken. The close must always carry a signature block - a handwritten signature with the signer's name and rank - and, where the signatory is not the authority named in the heading, a line such as "for", "by delegation" or "by direction".

Page numbering, fonts and mechanics

A single-page letter, and the first page of a multi-page one, goes unnumbered; later pages carry Arabic numerals, with annex pages always numbered from "A - 1" and appendix pages numbered similarly. Arial or Times New Roman "are preferred but may be determined by command or national practice", at 10 to 12 point. Hyphens are used "sparingly" - an uneven right margin is preferred to a hyphenated word, and a word is never hyphenated at the end of a page - and margins follow national or command instructions, with AAP-32 named directly for both Letter and A4 layouts.

Supplementary documents, tables and references

Annexes "amplify or explain the parent document", lettered consecutively from A; appendices do the same for an annex, numbered from 1 within each. Enclosures are complete documents forwarded with the correspondence, and every supplementary document is listed and identified in the head or the close. Table rows carry a serial number and columns are lettered, so an amendment can point to a precise cell. A reference to another letter names its office of origin, identifying reference, subject and date; a document extract is identified "by the original chapter, article and paragraph numbers, as appropriate, but never by page numbers", which stay valid even where a translation or reprint changes the pagination.

Abbreviations and acronyms

These "are not normally used in military correspondence covered by this agreement if it is to be circulated between Allied Forces." Where one is used, the words are written in full on first appearance with the abbreviation or acronym following in parentheses; AAP-15, NATO's own glossary of abbreviations, governs which ones are already established. Common international abbreviations such as mm, ft and kg are not precluded.

How it is checked

Nobody assesses correspondence against AAP-56 through a certification, an audit or a contractual conformity scheme - the document names none. Security classification "must be affixed in accordance with the regulations of the office preparing the correspondence", and anything the publication does not cover is "optional for the originator of the correspondence". Correctness here is a matter of an originating office, and ultimately a command or nation, following its own instructions and this format - not a third party checking against it.

Standards it references

• AAP-32Background