Letter writing is an important skill that everyone ought to have because we all have to write letters sometimes either handwritten or printed. You'll write job applications, invitation letters, letters of complaints, appreciation, and so on. It would be very intentional and wise for you to learn how to write a letter now and encourage children to take letter writing seriously because it is taught as a basic skill in all schools. It would improve their knowledge and communication about letter writing and help them to improve on gaining in on how fast the world is evolving. It is a great thing that letter writing has been introduced to the school curriculum and it would help the younger ones learn better and faster. This is also a great innovation to build up intelligence on the part of the kids.
In this article, letter writing will be overly addressed and types of letter writing with tips to help you write better would be given.
What is Letter Writing?
Letter writing is a form of writing that involves communication using written or printed messages. You can write letters to friends, families, colleagues at work, businesses, companies, industries, organizations, etc. Letter writing is simple and has rules that must be obeyed for effective letter writing. The rules would be addressed by listing the 3 main types of letter writing.
There are main features that every letter must have and they are;
The Address
Every letter must have an address and depend on the type of letter, the address may be more than one. Addresses are important while writing a letter to know where the letter would go to.
The Heading
The heading can be placed either right or left but you must write in the conventional way which is mostly on the right if it's one address that should be used. The heading also carries the date that the letter was written for proper documentation.
The Salutation
This is an important part of a letter and salutations are written as "Dear…" The salutation is written on the left side of the page directly under the heading.
The Body of the Letter
This is the main point of the letter and it contains the message the letter is trying to pass across and dependent on what type of letter it would be, the body of a letter varies from each other but it must be well organized into paragraphs with simplified and non-complex sentences to pass across the information. It should also be well punctuated and written well to avoid miscommunication with the completeness of the information.
The Subscription or Complimentary Close
The subscription of any letter is according to the type of the letter and should be written on the left-hand side of the body. It must start with a capital letter and end with a comma after. The words that the subscription would carry is depending on who the letter is being addressed to.
A signature would be necessarily included in the subscription depending on the type of letter it is.
TYPES OF LETTER WRITING
Formal Letter Writing
Formal letters are letters that are written for official or business purposes. They include letters to organizations businesses, companies and industries. A formal letter would have;
• Two addresses (First, of the writer and Second, of the receiver)
• Date and a title that explains what the letter is about e.g Letter of application, Letter of complaint, etc.
• Salutation as Dear Sir or Dear Madam.
• The body of the letter is to be very official and straight to the point.
• Subscription as "Yours faithfully," and with the signature of the writer on the side of the page earlier mentioned.
Informal Letter Writing
An informal letter is the opposite of a formal letter mostly written to friends, families, and people that we have personal relationships with. An informal letter should include;
• One address (The writer's address only)
• Date
• Salutation as "Dear (The person's name)" e.g Dear Kelechi, Dear Dad, Dear Ruth etc.
Note that the salutation could never be written as "Dear Friend"
• The body of the letter can be very playful and unofficial because you're writing to someone you know and have a relationship with.
• Subscription as "Yours sincerely," and you don't need a signature for this letter.
Semi-Formal Letter Writing
These are letters written to people that you know but you're not close with and you regard them as official personalities. For example; your school principal or your church pastor etc. A semi-formal letter would have the following features;
• Address (Address of the writer alone)
• Date
• The salutation should be written as "Dear Miss" because it's still for official purposes.
• The body of the letter should be in between being formal and informal because you know them.
• Subscription should be written as "Yours sincerely," and a signature should be added as a form of official use.
Tips to ensure a well-written Letter;
• If the letter is handwritten ensure that the handwriting is legible and easy to read.
• Make sure that your addresses are correct, well written, and spaced, if not you might end up not getting a reply to your letter.
• Outline the body of the letter in a separate paper to help you remember all that you want to say and to write it progressively.
• Ensure that you remember the style you're using to write the letter as it would be bad if you're using an informal speech style and tone in a formal letter.
• Write your letter in well-executed paragraphs and sentences and use paragraphs connectors when necessary. It makes your letter easier for the reader.
Now that you know the basic things about letter writing, ensure that in your next letter you adopt all that has been listed here to ensure that you write a good letter that gets a reply. Be sure to know what type of letter you're writing first before you start to write so there would be no confusion about the rules that you should follow to write a good letter.
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