THE HANDOUT 2
A letter is defined as a written message addressed to a person or an organization, usually put in an envelope and sent by post.
Idiom: ‘to the letter’
– Lettering (n): the process of writing or drawing letters
– Mailbox (US) – Postbox (Brit)
Types of Letters
|The ‘thank you’ letter||Letters of Application|
|Exchanging news||Letters of Reference|
|Letters to Pen-Friends||Letters of Resignation|
|Emotional Letters||Letters of Complaint and Protesting|
|Letters of Sympathy||Letters to the Editor|
|Letters of Congratulations||Letters of Giving Information|
|Letters of Apology||Letters of Granting, Refusing|
|Asking for a favor||Letters of Extending Thanks|
|Letters of saying ‘no’||Letters of Goodwill and Condolence|
The division of the letters above is generally based on the content and the layout of each of them. Informal letters tend to be more personal and the language used is commonly used in the daily communication. Meanwhile, formal letters are more serious, the language used is under the conventional agreement of English written expressions.
- Exercises :
- You are studying in the department of English education in STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat, what did you expect to learn from this subject in developing your ability in English?
- What do you know about letters?
- When did you write letters for the first time? To whom did you send them? For what purpose?
- Please explain chronologically what did you do when you write a letter?
Please write a letter to one of your friends in the class. The content of your letter is up to you. After you give your letter to your friend, you should receive the reply immediately. The same thing goes to your friend. Your friend writes a letter to you, then, you reply your friend’s letter.
Collect the task in the third meeting.
Hornby, AS.Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford;Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 677.