Writing Letters to Friends or Family

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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Think about the last time you received a letter from someone.

• How did it feel?

It seems, more and more, that the mailbox is usually full of junk mail.

• When something shows up with your name on the envelope, isn't it an exciting surprise?

Giving someone else that small joy is easy. All it takes is a little time, an envelope, and the stamp cost (and there are many cool stamps to pick from)!

Informal or casual letters have fewer formatting guidelines than formal or business letters. (To learn about formal letters, check out our lesson under Additional Resources in the right-hand sidebar.)

Formatting means the way things are laid out or organized on the page. These are the guidelines for informal letters.

• Typically, you put a date on letters.
• Greet the person to whom you are writing.
• Include a closing and signature at the end.

Take a look at this example of a casual letter.

Notice where the date, greeting, and closing are in this letter. This is where you place those things in a letter.

You may have noticed that this example includes the common greeting "Dear," and closing "Your friend," which are common opening and closing phrases in casual letters. But there are many ways to greet and close in an informal letter.

• How many can you think of?

Now, look at the way the greeting and closing are formatted in the example letter above.

Note that the greeting is "Dear (Name)," with a comma. Then, you begin a new paragraph to start your letter. The closing is on a separate line with a comma, and the signature goes on the line below the closing.

• Feeling ready to write a letter to someone?

Continue on to Got It? to get started!