Writing a Letter

This year, we have talked about three types of letters. We have reviewed the personal letter, the business letter and the imaginative letter.

A personal letter is simply a letter we write to a family member or friend to communicate with them. They usually include information such a updates (here's what's going on in your life), questions (wondering what's going on in their life), and a message (such as gratefulness for something they have done or to let them know that you miss them).

     Form: date, greeting or opening salutation (Dear ___,), body (information and messages divided into paragraphs), ending or closing salutation (Love, Sincerely, With friendship, Yours truly, etc), and then a signature.

A business letter is usually used to communicate information about a company or product. They are often in praise or in complaint of something. The information included might be the experience you have had with the company or product, the problem you may have encountered (or the positive effect of the experience), the reason this is important to you, and a request for action (what you would like them to do about it (usually when it is a complaint).

     Form: date, name and address of the company, opening salutation (Dear ___, or To whom it may concern - if you do not know the name of the person to whom you are writing), the body (divided into paragraphs based on information included - see paragraph above), closing salutation, space for signature, name typed beneath the space.

An imaginative letter is one that can be as far fetched as you would like. You can write to a person who has already passed away, to yourself in the past or the future, to an imaginary person (such as a character in a book or movie), to a famous person from history you would really like to have met, or to an animal or thing who normally does not read. It is very similar to a personal letter as they tend to be of a rather personal nature.

     Form: date, you can include a name and address of the imaginary person or place for fun but it is not necessary, opening salutation, body (divided into paragraphs), closing salutation, signature.