How To Write a Friendly Letter
Jane Doe
555 Fern Street
Anywhere, Texas 77777
9/3/07
Dear John,
To write a friendly letter, you must first place your contact information at the top right of the page as shown. This is called the header. It can also be centered if you prefer. Then you place the date on the left of the page immediately followed by the greeting, as shown. The greeting should be friendly, such as the “Dear John” above. Be sure to place a comma after the greeting.
Then you are able to work on the body of your letter. You can skip lines between block paragraphs as this example shows or indent each new paragraph. Block spacing helps separate ideas, but indentions are traditional and maintain a better flow of writing.
Each paragraph of a friendly letter should have a separate point and be kept no longer than five sentences to ease reading. The exception to this rule is a very short letter. In that case, the entire letter might consist of a single paragraph.
A friendly letter usually starts with the same sort of greeting you would find in a phone or spoken conversation. For example, the body of a short friendly letter might look something like this:
“How are you? We’re doing well down here in Texas. The move was dramatic, but thankfully we all survived and so did our things. I was writing to see how things are up in New York. I hope the weather up there is cooler than it is down here. I hope all is well!”
A longer version of the same letter would use paragraphs and contain more information about the move and the weather. It might tell a more detailed story about the trip, especially the parts that made it dramatic. A friendly letter is written to keep in touch and to entertain. It should be kept light and amusing.
It is considered polite to ask about the recipient and share news that would interest them. If your grandmother has no idea what the internet is, a long letter detailing your new responsibilities coding PHP and Java will confuse her. Avoid topics that will drag down the letter or confuse and bore your recipient.
A friendly letter can be as long as you’d like and contain many stories, thoughts and descriptions. Be sure to break them apart into shorter paragraphs to make it easier to follow. Long paragraphs make it hard to keep your place reading. The longer a letter, the shorter the paragraphs should be.
Finally, when you have told everything you’d like in a letter, it is time to wrap it up. Most friendly letters tie thoughts together with a sentence such as, “I just wanted to let you know that we’re all doing well and miss you.” The letter is then finalized with a closing such as the one to follow.
Sincerely,
Jane
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Posted in Education, Literacy - Reading and Writing
