Letter
Encyclopedia
Message
A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is a vessel which provides information. Yet, it can also be this information. Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the term may apply to both the information and its form...
from one party to another. The role of letters in communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
has changed significantly since the nineteenth century. Historically, letters (in paper form) were the only reliable means of communication between two persons in different locations.
As communication technology has diversified, posted letters have become less important as a routine form of communication; they however still remain but in a modified form. For example, the development of the telegraph shortened the time taken to send a letter by transferring the letter as an electrical signal (for example in Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
) between distant points. At the telegraph office closest to the destination of the letter, the signal was transferred back into a hardcopy format and sent as a normal mail to the person's home. This allowed the normal speed of communication to be drastically shortened for larger and larger distances. This required specialised technicians to encode and decode the letter. The facsimile (fax) machine took this one step further: an entire letter could be completely transferred electrically from the sender's house to the receiver's house by means of the telephone network as an image.
Today, the Internet is becoming (or has become) the predominant medium for sending letters. The term e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, meaning electronic mail, has entered into everyday speech. By analogy, the term letter is sometimes used for e-mail messages with a formal letter-like format. (And regular letters, since they take longer, are often called "snail-mail.")
Historically, letters exist from the time of ancient India
History of India
The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
, ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
and Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
, through Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and China, up to the present day. Letters make up several of the books of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. Archives of correspondence, whether for personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as primary source
Primary source
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....
s for historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
s.
The Study of Letter Writing
Due to the timelessness and universality of letter writing, there is a wealth of letters and instructional materials (for example, manuals, as in the medieval ars dictaminisArs dictaminis
The ars dictaminis was the medieval description of the art of prose composition, and more specifically of the writing of letters . It is closely linked to the ars dictandi, covering the composition of documents other than letters. The standing assumption was that these writings would be composed in...
) on letter writing throughout history. The study of letter writing usually involves both the study of rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
and grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
.
Advantages
- No special device needed - almost everybody has a residence or other place at which he or she can receive mail. A mailbox is all that the intended recipient needs - unlike e-mail or phone calls, where the intended recipient needs access to a computerComputerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
and an e-mail account or a telephoneTelephoneThe telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
respectively. - "Catch-all" advertising- unlike e-mails, where the recipient needs an individual e-mail address to receive messages, individuals are not necessarily chosen, by rather can widely cover many or all addresses in a given locality.
- Physical record - important messages that need to be retained (e.g. invoices; government notification such as tax or immigration) can be kept relatively easily and securely.
The letter-delivering process
Here is how a letter gets from the sender to the recipient:- Sender writes letter and places it in an envelopeEnvelopeAn envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card....
on which the recipient's address is written in the center front of the envelope. Sender ensures that the recipient's address includes the Zip or Postal (if applicable) code and often they include their return address on the envelope. - Sender buys a postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
and attaches it to the front of the envelopeEnvelopeAn envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card....
on the top right corner on the front of the envelope. - Sender puts the letter in a postbox and does nothing more.
- The national postal service for the sender's country (e.g., the Royal MailRoyal MailRoyal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
, UKUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
; US Postal Service, USUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; or Australia PostAustralia PostAustralia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
; or Canada PostCanada PostCanada Post Corporation, known more simply as Canada Post , is the Canadian crown corporation which functions as the country's primary postal operator...
in CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) empties the postbox and takes all the contents to the regional sorting office. - The sorting office then sorts each letter by address and postcode and delivers the letters belonging to a particular area to that area's post officePost officeA post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. Letters belonging to a different region are sent to that region's sorting office, to be sorted further. - The local post office dispatches the letters to their delivery personnel who deliver them to the appropriate addresses.
This whole process, depending on how far the sender is from the recipient, can take anywhere from a day to 3–4 weeks. International mail is sent via trains and plane
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
s to other countries.
United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia
The following is a common way to set out a letter:| Sender's address here |
| 24 Lambert Street |
| Stoke-on-Trent |
| ST4 4WE |
| Date here |
| Formal: Informal: |
| Recipient's name and address here |
| Mr Boris Johnson |
| 25 Lambkin Street |
| Stoke-on-Trent |
| ST3 9WR |
| Main body |
| Formal: Dear Sir or Madam, Acquaintance: Dear Mr Johnson, Informal: Dear Boris Salutation (greeting) A salutation is a greeting used in a letter or other written communication, such as an email. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in a letter is Dear followed by the recipient's given name or title... , |
| Content |
| Formal: Yours faithfully, Acquaintance: Yours sincerely, Informal: Best wishes Valediction A valediction , or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message, or the act of saying parting words- whether brief, or extensive.For the greetings counterpart to valediction, see salutation.Alternatively,... , |
| Sender's Name |
| Formal: Sender's Occupation and Enclosures Informal: Nothing (optional: P.S. Postscript A postscript, abbreviated P.S., is writing added after the main body of a letter . The term comes from the Latin post scriptum, an expression meaning "written after" .A postscript may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added, often hastily and... / Post Scriptum = Afterthought) |
United States
The following is the modified block format for a business letter, common in the United States:,
Your Address
Date
Mrs. Jane Doe
25 First Street
Anytown, VA 10005
Dear Ms. Doe:
This is an example of a modified block letter. The difference between it
and a full block letter style is that the date begins at the center point
of the page; therefore, if a letter has a 6 inch line of type, the date
begins approximately over 3 inches from the left margin.
The closing block also begins half-way across the page. The complimentary
close and the keyed signature (first and last name of the writer) begin at
the same point as the date - approximately 3 inches from the left margin.
Sincerely,
John Smith
Sales Representative
jtp (the typist's initials appear at the left margin)
Thank you letter
A thank you letter or letter of thanks is a letter that is used when one party wishes to express appreciation to another party. There are two main types of thank you letters: business thank you letters and personal thank you letters.Business
There are numerous situations in day-to-day business that can warrant a thank you letter. Some typical situations include: appreciation for special consideration extended by another organization, thanking a speaker for a presentation at a board meeting, customer appreciation letters thanking customers for their patronage, thanks to employees for exceptional service or performance, thanks to an individual or organization for a customer referral, appreciation to volunteer service workers for their personal contributions to a public service campaign, etc.Personal
As with business situations, there are many instances in day-to-day life that can warrant a formal thank you letter. Examples of typical personal thank you letter situations include: a follow-up thanks after a job interview or offer, thanks to a company or institution in appreciation for exceptional customer service received, letter to friends and/or neighbors for their support during a difficult period, letters for wedding gifts, thanks to a service club or agency for support given to family members, social occasion thank you letters for a wide variety of social situations, etc.Format
A thank you letter should be written as a standard business letterBusiness letter
A commercial business letter is a letter written in formal language, usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties. The overall style of letter will depend on the...
or personal letter
Personal letter
A personal letter is a type of letter which provides communication between a small number of people, usually two. There are many types of personal letters and they are written for a wide variety of reasons:...
, and should not normally exceed one page. Personal thank you letters can be hand-written in cases in which the addressee is a friend, acquaintance or relative.
Thank you letters are also sometimes referred to as letters of gratitude. These types of thank you letters are usually written as formal business letters.
See also
- AddressAddress (geography)An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
- Carbon copyCarbon copyCarbon copying, abbreviated cc or c.c., is the technique of using carbon paper to produce one or more copies simultaneously during the creation of paper documents...
- Compliments slipCompliments slipA compliments slip is a slip of paper that contains the same name and address information that would be on a letterhead of formal letter stationery, the pre-printed salutation "with compliments" or "with our/my compliments", and space afterwards for a short handwritten message to be added...
- EnvelopeEnvelopeAn envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card....
- Historical documents
- Letter boxLetter boxA letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot, or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business...
- MailMailMail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
- ManuscriptManuscriptA manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
- Pen palPen palPen pals are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail.-Purposes:A penpal relationship is often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about other countries and life-styles, and to make friendships...
- Pony ExpressPony ExpressThe Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...
- Post officePost officeA post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
- Postage stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
- PostmasterPostmasterA postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
- Postmaster General (disambiguation)
- Private Express StatutesPrivate Express StatutesThe Private Express Statutes are a group of United States federal civil and criminal laws placing various restrictions on the carriage and delivery of letters by all organizations other than the United States Postal Service.-History:...
- SalutationSalutation (greeting)A salutation is a greeting used in a letter or other written communication, such as an email. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in a letter is Dear followed by the recipient's given name or title...
- Secrecy of letters
- Snail mailSnail mailSnail mail or smail is a dysphemistic retronym—named after the snail with its slow speed—used to refer to letters and missives carried by conventional postal delivery services. The phrase refers to the lag-time between dispatch of a letter and its receipt, versus the virtually instantaneous...
- StationeryStationeryStationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials: paper and office supplies, writing implements, greeting cards, glue, pencil case etc.-History of stationery:...
- TypographyTypographyTypography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
- Universal Postal UnionUniversal Postal UnionThe Universal Postal Union is an international organization that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration , the Postal Operations Council and the...
- ValedictionValedictionA valediction , or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message, or the act of saying parting words- whether brief, or extensive.For the greetings counterpart to valediction, see salutation.Alternatively,...
Types of letters
- Application letter
- Audio letterAudio letterAn audio letter is an audio recording sent by postal mail to a recipient. The practice was more common when charges for long-distance telephone services were higher and before the widespread use of the Internet....
- Begging letterBegging letterA begging letter is a letter to a rich person or organisation, usually written by a poor person, or a person claiming to be poor, begging for money or help....
- Business letterBusiness letterA commercial business letter is a letter written in formal language, usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties. The overall style of letter will depend on the...
- Cease and desist letterCease and desistA cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
- Chain letterChain letterA typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible...
- Cover letterCover letterA cover letter, covering letter, motivation letter, motivational letter or a letter of motivation is a letter of introduction attached to, or accompanying another document such as a résumé or curriculum vitae.- For employment :...
- Dear John letterDear John letterA "Dear John letter" is a letter written to a husband or boyfriend by his wife or girlfriend to inform him their relationship is over, usually because the author has found another lover. Dear John Letters are often written out of an inability or unwillingness to inform the person face to face...
- E-mail letter
- EpistleEpistleAn epistle is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians...
- Hate mailHate mailHate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...
- Introduction letterIntroduction letterAn introduction letter or letter of introduction is a letter that is used to introduce one party to a second party. There are three main types of introduction letters; business-to business, business-to-customer, and personal introduction letters....
- Letter of credenceLetter of CredenceA letter of credence is a formal letter usually sent by one head of state to another that formally grants diplomatic accreditation to a named individual to be their ambassador in the country of the head of state receiving the letter...
- Letter of creditLetter of creditA standard, commercial letter of credit is a document issued mostly by a financial institution, used primarily in trade finance, which usually provides an irrevocable payment undertaking....
- Letter of inquiry
- Letter of intentLetter of intentA letter of intent is a document outlining an agreement between two or more parties before the agreement is finalized. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement...
- Letter of marqueLetter of marqueIn the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...
- Letter of resignationLetter of resignationA letter of resignation is written to announce the author's intent to leave a position currently held, such as an office, employment or commission....
- Letters patentLetters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...
- Love letterLove letterA love letter is a romantic way to express feelings of love in written form. Delivered by hand, by mail or romantically left in a secret location, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation of feelings...
- National Letter of IntentNational Letter of IntentThe National Letter of Intent is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating NCAA colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manages the daily operations of the NLI program while the Collegiate Commissioners Association provides...
- Open letterOpen letterAn open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
- Poison pen letterPoison pen letterA poison pen letter is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously. Poison pen letters are usually composed and sent to upset the recipient...
- Query letterQuery letterA query letter is a formal letter sent to magazine editors, literary agents and sometimes publishing houses or companies. Writers write query letters to propose writing ideas....
- Recommendation letterRecommendation letterA letter of recommendation is a letter in which the writer assesses the qualities, characteristics, and capabilities of the person being recommended in terms of that individual’s ability to perform a particular task or function. Recommendation letters are almost always specifically requested to be...
- Reference letterReference letterA reference letter or letter of reference is a letter in which the writer makes a general assessment of the qualities, characteristics, and capabilities of a person, or confirms details about that individual’s situation or circumstances...
- Sales letterSales letterA sales letter is a piece of direct mail which is designed to persuade the reader to purchase a particular product or service in the absence of a salesman...