Letter

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For other uses, see Letter (disambiguation).

Template:Wiktionarypar A letter is a written message from one person to another. Letters are usually intended to be received by someone far away. Before widespread availability of typewriters and computers, letters were always written by hand. Nowadays, letters are only widely used by companies who send out letters to large numbers of people, who may not have access to the internet for e-mail. The term letter is sometimes used for e-mail messages with a formal letter-like format. Historically, letters exist from the time of ancient Egypt and Sumer, all the way through Rome and Greece and China. Letters make up several of the books of the Christian Bible.

1 Advantages
2 The letter-delivering process
3 Letter Layout
4 Types of letters
5 See also
6 External links

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Advantages

Letters are still used, particularly by companies and advertisers. This is because of three main advantages:

No special device needed - almost everybody has a home, which means they are easy to reach. A mailbox is all that the intended recipient needs - not like e-mail or phone calls where you need access to a computer and a telephone respectively.
"Catch-all" advertising- unlike e-mails, where the recipient needs an individual e-mail address to receive messages, addresses are not chosen (per se), and so with the help of postal services, delivering an advertisement to all homes in a particular area is not hard.
Physical record - an important advantage of letters is that important messages that need to be retained (eg receipts) can be kept.

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The letter-delivering process

Here is how a letter gets from the sender to the recipient:

Sender writes letter and buys a stamp, which he places on the front of the envelope.
Sender puts his letter in a mailbox and does nothing more.
The National Postal Service for the sender's country (e.g. the Royal Mail in the UK or the U.S. Postal Service in the U.S.) empties the mailbox and takes all the contents to the regional sorting office.
The sorting office then sort each letter by address and postcode, and deliver the letters belonging to a particular area to that area's post office. Letters belonging to a different region are sent to that region's sorting office, to be sorted further.
The local post office dispatches their letters to their delivery personnel who deliver them to the appropriate houses.

This whole process, depending on how for away the sender / recipient are, takes about 2-3 days. International mail is sent via trains and planes to other countries.

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Letter Layout

The following is the normal way to set out a letter: (Note: This is the style in the UK. The American letter format is different.)

Sender's address here

24 Lambert Street

Stoke-on-Trent

ST4 4WE

Recipient's name and address here

Mr. Jimmy Wales

25 Lambert Street

Stoke-on-Trent

ST4 4WE

Date here

Formal: 29/08/2005 Informal: 29 August 2005

Content here

Formal: Dear Sir, Informal: Dear Jimmy,

Content

Formal: Yours sincerely, Informal: Best wishes,

Sender's Name

Formal: Sender's Occupation and Enclosures Informal: Nothing (optional: PS / Post Script = Afterthought)

TIP: Can't have the two S together. Use: Sir/Faithfully Or: Name/Sincerely
A Web form to Letter (PDF) generator

The following is the modified block format for a business letter, common in the United States:

Sender's address here

24 Evergreen Terrace

Springfield, IL 12345

Date here

Formal: August 25, 2005 Informal: 8/25/05

Recipient's name and address here

Mr. John Brown

25 First Street

Anytown, VA 10005

Content here

Formal: Dear Sir, Informal: Dear Jimmy,

Content

Closing Here

Formal: Sincerely, Informal: Best Wishes,

Signature here

Typed full name here

The sender's address and closing generally begin about one-half to two-thirds of the way across the page. The full block format is similar. In this format, however, all sections begin at the left margin. Also, paragraphs are not indented at all, rather beginning at the left margin along with all other lines. A single blank line is used to distinguish paragraphs.

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Types of letters

Letter Name	Typical Sign-off
business letter	Yours sincerely
chain letter	Best wishes
epistle	Anything
junk mail	Yours sincerely / Hope to see you in our store soon
Letter of Credence	Yours sincerely
letter of credit	Yours sincerely
letter of introduction	Nice meeting you / Hope to hear from you soon.
letter of safe passage or Carte blanche	Again, Wishing you a safe passage
love letter	Missing you every second / Other such love comment
personal letter	Best wishes / Cheers
open letter	Anything
poison pen letter	Anything but the writer's real name
letters patent	Anything
letter of marque	Anything