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Letters are handwritten or printed on paper for many purposes and audiences:

• they can be informal, eg to a friend or family member - to keep in touch or say thank you
• they can be formal, such as a letter of complaint or a letter from the bank explaining the features of your bank account
• they are structured to show that the text is directed at someone, using a salutation ‘Dear NAME…’ and an appropriate ending ‘Yours sincerely…’

Open letters

• An ‘open letter’ is a letter which is either addressed to the public or to a specific person, (like a politician), but is published in a public forum such as a popular newspaper with a big audience. An open letter is often used to protest about something.

Example

Schools might send letters home when teachers want to praise their students in a more formal way. This is a letter written by the Head of Geography to a student’s parents.

19 July 2016

Dear Mr and Mrs Smith

Jonathan Smith – Form 10ABC

I am always pleased to hear about students who are committed to the study of Geography. Miss Jones has brought Jonathan to my attention for the effort he has shown over the course of this term.

Geography is a challenging subject, which requires students to work hard to increase their knowledge and be able to apply new skills.

I would like to congratulate Jonathan for the level of attainment he has achieved due to the level of application he has shown. I hope that he will continue to make good progress in Geography as a result.

Yours sincerely

Mr L Mountain

Head of Geography

Analysis

This letter:

• Has a conventional salutation to create a polite register.
• Opens with a topic sentence so that the purpose of the letter is clear.
• Uses a tone that is formal, eg “brought to my attention” – this shows respect to the student’s achievements.
• Includes words used in schools, eg "attainment", "progress", "subject" and "term" as the intended audience will be familiar with these specialist terms.
• Uses adjectives to highlight the student’s success, eg “challenging” and “hard” implies a lot of effort.
• Closes with the conventional sign off “Yours sincerely” to show that the message is genuine and important to the sender. This maintains the formal tone.