Talk:Letter (message)

"A letter is also a character of the alphabet. "
"A letter is also a character of the alphabet. " -- we need more than this. Character just sends the reader right back here! -- Tarquin

Dissambiguation page?
Dissambiguation page?

IMHO this should really be a dissambiguation page. It would also help people to fix interwiki links. --Romanm 12:14, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Wouldn't a basic/formal letter layout be a really usefull addition to this article? --62.251.90.73 13:37, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Here's another advantage for you: I'm currently receiving college spam at an unbelievable rate. Or, rather, my trash is. Things that are handwritten get read ;)

Dates
"Formal: 29/08/2005 Informal: 29 August 2005"  Hmm...  rather the reerse I would have thought. Rich Farmbrough 09:26, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Sign Off
"junk mail : Yours Sincerely / Hope to see you in our store soon" Is that supposed to be a joke? --81.156.208.11 23:12, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

X-s and O-s
Hi everyone, I have a question: What do small "X"-es mean at the end of a letter? (Exactly 7 of them). And what do small circles mean? (6 of them). They are at the end of a personal kind of letter. Thanks in advance.

Perlimpín 81.182.167.206 11:59, 21 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Hugs and kisses, not in that order. b0at 12:01, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Sign-offs and Proper Letter Writing Format
The sign-offs given are kind of stupid. "From" and "Love," the two most common sign-offs, never show up. I think that a proper letter writing format guide should be added as well. Awesome possum.

The guide for British letters is not correct. Almost all British letters put the date over on the right hand side of the paper.

The closing of the letter is not entirely correct either.

"Yours faithfully" is the correct closing if the letter has started "Dear Sir" or "Dear Madam".

"Yours sincerely" is the formal closing if the letter has opened with the person's name.

"Best wishes" is very informal, although seems common in email.

12.5.50.115 23:49, 15 October 2006 (UTC)Nicholas


 * "Always yours" is rarely used and is in relation to the receiver who means a lot to the writer as important friend, love-interest or precious person.

"Yours truly," American English
I'm surprised at the ommission of this form of validation. I prefer it to Sincerely, "to tell you the truth" (as if at other time I'm lying). The letter suggests that at other times on is insincere. Yours truly, I am Ludvikus 14:05, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

First sentence
"A letter is a written message from one person to another." Cannot a letter be a message between two groups of people or from one person to many people? ryguillian 17:00, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

611 E.Franklin Street Richmond Virginia 23219

EUROPA TOURS 74/1 Newbern Avenue Medford Massachusetts 02155

09 April 2007

Dear Sir or Madam

Famous letter writers
i came here thinking i might find some information about famous letter-writers like cicero. i could add it myself but i dont really know how to.Cleobolus (talk) 08:31, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Some discussion of letters at Cicero, and you might want to take a look at Category:Latin letter writers. Best, CliffC (talk) 14:17, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Letter Message
A letter message is an electronic circuit that spells out a personal message, one letter at a time. It has a single alpha-numeric display that flashes single characters sequentially in order to communicate a given message. The message repeats over and over again as long as a 9 volt power source is applied (Typically a 9 volt battery).

The purpose of a letter message is to relay a personal message to a recipient. Greeting cards have been used for this purpose for years.

A letter message is a hard-wired circuit, not something that can be changed by hitting "delete", and re-editing. The sole purpose of the device is to display a special message to a recipient, generally for special occasions.

This information was obtained from the following source link. http://www.webstarts.com/fairsales

--Evansstev (talk) 09:13, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Opening
The opening section does not make sense to me at all.

The second sentence says communication has changed since the 19th century, but it's not clear what the 19th century has to do with letter writing. The third sentence talks about historical letter writing, which seems to mean before the 19th century (particularly given the fourth paragraph). The fourth sentence says that posted letters have become less important: Does that mean that earlier letters were always sent by post (even in historical times)?

Then, there is a discussion about telegraphs, saying that letters were transmitted by telegraph and then sent by mail. But isn't that a telegraph, not a letter? Similarly, there is a discussion on letters sent by fax. It seems like this paragraph is about the transmission of writing, not about letters or messages.

The last paragraph of the opening talks about letters in ancient cultures, but it doesn't seem clear how this should all be tied together.

I think a new approach is needed here, one that clearly defines what is being talked about. Wakablogger2 (talk) 02:21, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Study of Letter Writing
The point of this section is not clear to me. It says:

"Due to the timelessness and universality of letter writing there is a wealth of letters and instructional materials (for example, manuals, as in the medieval ars dictaminis) on letter writing throughout history. The study of letter writing usually involves both the study of rhetoric and grammar."

Letter writing is not timeless: It was invented in the last few millennia and becomes difficult or impossible to understand when the writing medium decays or the language disappears. Neither is letter writing universal as many cultures/languages today are without writing.

Also, it's not clear what "wealth of letters" is relevant to. Does it mean "wealth of letters...on letter writing"?

The heading seems to mean that this section will be about learning how to write letters in a way that serves the writers' purposes well, but that issue is not addressed. Wakablogger2 (talk) 02:27, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Ethnocentricity (Cultural variation in literacy practices)
This article presents letter-writing and -reading as a universal and homogeneous practice, which is an inadequate representation, as the body of ethnographic studies on writing and reading, as well as the history of communications technology will attest.

The article would benefit greatly from incorporating different historically- and culturally-situated examples of letter-writing and letter-reading. It should discuss (or at least link to other articles discussing) letter-writing technologies such as pens, pencils, quills, brushes, ink, typewriters & computers, paper, papyrus, dried leaves, hides, envelopes, seals (made of wax and otherwise), writing systems, specialized letter-writing registers of language, and different understandings of formatting conventions.

Ottocommapaul (talk) 20:41, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Edit
Maybe not hand written but also typed and stuff like that. I like stressing the unimail hand written message on standard note paper. I love the fact that it starts out this way. But somehow I get lost as it goes into form further in the paragraph. What happens if anything like pens or pencils are brought up. Do you know what I mean? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.235.154.42 (talk) 11:44, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Solicitation letter (funds or support) vs Sales letter
There is currently no page for letters that solicit donations or political support (despite those being a very significant portion of the total postal flow at different times of year). The structure of a solicitation letter (donations, political support, etc.) seems to be essentially the same as Sales letter with only minor differences. Any opinion/guidance on just adding a subsection to Sales letter or creating a new page? How would editors like to handle the wikilink in Letter (message)? Zatsugaku (talk) 15:00, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

History addition
I added some more history to this page because I thought what I researched was really interesting and will add to the interest the reader will have while visiting this page.