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.

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 - important messages that need to be retained (e.g. receipts) can be kept more easily and securely.

The letter-delivering process

---

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

1. Sender writes letter and buys a stamp, which they place on the front of the envelope.
2. Sender puts their letter in a mailbox and does nothing more.
3. 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 postbox and takes all the contents to the regional sorting office.
4. 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.
5. The local post office dispatches their letters to their delivery personnel (postman/woman) who deliver them to the appropriate houses.

This whole process, depending on how far the sender is from the recipient, can take anywhere from 2-3 days to 3-4 weeks. International mail is sent via trains and planes to other countries.

Letter layout

---

United Kingdom

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

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

Main body

Formal: Dear Sir, Acquaintance: Dear Mr. Wales, Informal: Dear Jimmy,

Content

Formal: Yours faithfully, Acquaintance: Yours sincerely, Informal: Best wishes,

Sender's Name

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

United States

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 Doe

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.

See also

---

• Address
• Envelope
• Historical Documents
• Transwiki:Letter writing
• Letterbox
• Mail
• Manuscript
• salutation
• Penpal

• Postmaster
• Postmaster General
• Post office
• Postage stamp
• Private Express Statutes
• Secrecy of letters
• Snail mail
• Stationery
• Typography
• Universal Postal Union

Types of letters

• Business letter
• Chain letter
• Epistle
• Junk Mail
• Letter of credence
• Letter of credit

• Love letter
• Open letter
• Poison pen letter
• Letters patent
• Letter of marque
• Letter of inquiry

External links

---

• Web form to Letter (PDF) generator
• University of Wisconsin Writing Center Guide
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab

Letters | Paper products | Postal system

Lletra | Brev | Brief | Carta | brief | 手紙 | Brev | خەتكۈش | Carta | 书信 | 信