As in the type you send via snail mail? I also wonder if kids these days are taught how to write formal business letters, like putting both the sender and the receiver’s address at the top, plus proper spacing in between the date, the subject, and the greeting line. With email these days, I see more and more people signing off with “cheers” or “have a good day” rather than “sincerely” or “best regards”, which is (IMO) okay for colloquial emails, but not for actual business correspondence.
For my job, sometimes I have to mail things out. Mostly to people who request them, and for those requests, the way they format their addresses are irritatingly improper. On example being that if they live on a numbered street, they seem to think that there is something wrong with writing “123 3rd Ave” and insist on putting “123 - 3rd Ave”. If there was only some way to smack their heads into the idea that THE DASH IS NOT NEEDED!!!
Absolutely. When I was a young kid, my mother taught me how to write “Thank You” notes, and it followed that I’d learn to write the stylized forms of differently-directed letters.
After learning various languages, though, I can’t say that I could write a non-formulaic, but still acceptable, formal letter in some of the languages spoken on the Continent. I still use style guides (not just Gre’visse in French, which is kind of the big gun) to write letters in some of these languages.
I’m 43. I learned in school (grammar school? high school? I really can’t recall). I recall learning proper salutations, when and where to put the addresses name and address at the top of the letter, and a bunch of stuff like that, but I don’t actually remember *what *I learned any more.
We learnt how to write all sorts of letters at school: business, social, responses to formal invitations (i.e. written in the third person). We used to have to practise for homework.
An important part of my job is reading letters written by attorneys or insurance companies, and it always amuses me when they’re signed “yours truly”. My department is also in charge of making sure all of our paperwork is sent out with the addresses formatted correctly. It’s incredible how difficult this seems to be for some people. For instance, writing “MLK WY” instead of “Martin Luther King Jr Way”.
Just one “no” so far? I suppose this message boards skews a little older age-wise. I remember learning as young as grade 3. We had to write to pen pals from another school.
I guess my next question is for parents with kids in school… are they being taught how to write letters?
I was taught how to write simple letters in grade school, and not just in one grade, but in several. Same in middle school and high school. In high school, I was taught how to write business letters as well as personal letters, and how to address envelopes, how to staple papers together, and how to fold a standard sized sheet of paper to fit into a number 6 and a number 10 envelope. I was also taught how to make a carbon paper pack, though I haven’t used THAT skill in a while. I was taught how to correct mistakes on typewritten papers…again, haven’t used that skill in a while.
I don’t miss making carbon packs or trying to erase and retype mistakes. I <heart> wordprocessing and home printers, which gives me the power to easily edit my writing and make numerous copies of papers. The power, the POWER! Bwahahahaha!
Yes. Also, I teach English as a foreign language at the high school level, and all our English textbooks cover formal letter-writing, using a job application cover letter as an example.
I’m 38 and I learned how in typing class, and I seem to recall having had to do it in English class a time or two as well.
Nowadays if I have to write a formal letter, I usually look it up or ask my wife (a lawyer), who did that kind of thing on a daily basis while she was practicing.
Yes. We were taught in elementary, junior high, and high school. In elementary school, it was focused on getting familiar with the general letter writing format and writing skills. In junior high we had to write a formal letter to someone we admire and we had career days where we wrote formal business letters. High school was more lax. We went over the rules briefly and were expected to write letters soliciting information from colleges and businesses for certain projects. I’m 25.
I’m one of the two so far that answered no. The only time I can remember doing anything related to letters was in first or second grade, but those didn’t resemble business letters at all. I don’t remember ever dealing with the subject again. However, I’m pretty sure most 12th grade English classes did it, and that only the AP class didn’t.