What happended to: The art of ‘writing a letter’
Are we losing the art of writing a letter to someone?
I know we email, twitter, and update our status today to communicate with friends and loved ones. We talk, text and send pictures that help us communicate. But about a good old fashion letter?
Why am I — ms. geek the social media/microblogger herself — is even bringing this to light? Well, my nephew who’s in bootcamp can only receive letters. So I ask my son to make sure he writes to him and I realize our kids may learn how to write letters in school, but they really don’t put that into practice.
Remember the days of ‘writing notes’ to your friends and passing them in school, or shoving a note into someone’s locker? LOL. You’re much younger than I am if you’re rolling your eyes! If not, you understand exactly what I’m saying and hear me loud and clear.
So…. for those of us who need a little reminder here’s a little cheat sheet on how you can write a personal letter/note to someone:
1. Start with “Dear John,” or “Hello Susan”
2. Body: Don’t forget to indent 5 spaces and you can usually start with “How are you?”, then mention how you doing what your doing lately. Other topics of discussion can include:
- what you’ve done this week (big test or project at work you’re working on?)
- how you are feeling about the recipient of the letter
- updates on your family members
- funny story about the dog
- the fact that you went on vacation
- anything else of interest
3. Closing: include your closing (i.e. Love, Peace, Sincerely) and your signature. (A letter with a signature is extremely rude)
It doesn’t need to be a book, or some heart wrenching story. Just write and share your life, feelings and wishes towards the another person. Especially if they are in the military where they don’t have other forms of communications.
My nephew is working hard, tired and I’m sure missing his loved ones. Do you have someone that can use a little love via a letter?
If you really need help in setting this up I found this cute little site that helps you set up a letter in proper format: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/
Have other suggestions or comments? Post them here!
I believe that the schools feel that with Word & Wordperfect and all of the tools with templates that are available to us via computers that they don’t need to continue to teach them those writing skills. Another thing that they don’t teach in school anymore is cursive writing. According to both of my daughters, the teachers don’t have time to teach that. They are more focused on the main subjects.