Things We Learned About Letter Writing in School

How many of us had pen pals that we wrote to in school or at home? We would spend time in class writing letters and learning the right way to keep a conversation going through the mail – something kids these days don’t usually get a chance to learn.

4) Never Leave Out Thanks

If there was an event they hosted or if a pen pal had sent a funny clipping, we were taught to always say thank you and mention it in the letter. It was only polite after all!

3) Be Honest & Straight Forward

Beating around the bush or spreading rumors were two things that we were always told were bad manners in a letter (or in just regular face-to-face conversation). The expression of thoughts came out much more clearly with these goals in mind.

2) Be Brief

There are exceptions to this advice of course, such as correspondence with a loved one or close friend, where a longer letter would have been welcome. But, otherwise we were told to keep letters relatively brief as this prevented the reading from becoming a chore for the people you were writing to.

1) Think About What You Want to Say

Take time to make sure you’ve expressed the sentiments you intended to since there are no hugs or smiles or context to make a letter seem friendly if the words do not!