Lesson video

Hello there, Mr. Barnsley here.

Fantastic to see you today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

In today's lesson, we are gonna be thinking about letter writing.

Some may argue it is a dying mode of communication, but still important that we know how to use letters, because they are still used in society today, maybe less than they were in the past.

So I'm really excited for us to learn about why people write letters, think about both the formal and informal use of them, but also share with you the correct form in writing letters.

All right, I think it's time for us to get started.

Let's go.

Okay, let's look at the outcome of today's lesson then.

By the end of the lesson, you're gonna be able to explain why people might use letter writing, why they might choose to write a letter.

And you're also gonna make sure you understand how we structure a letter.

So here are some of the keywords that we'll be using in today's lesson to keep an eye out for.

A recipient is someone who receives something.

A salutation is a greeting in words or actions or the words used at the beginning of a letter or a speech.

A sign off is how we conclude a letter, a broadcast or any other message.

If something is formal, it is done in accordance with convention or etiquette, It's suitable for something official, whereas if something is informal, it is having a more relaxed or friendly or unofficial style, manner or nature.

All right, keep an eye out for these words.

We will talk about them more when we see them in today's lesson.

So in today's lesson, we're really conceptualising understanding of what letter writing is all about and making sure we understand the letter form.

So we're gonna start by thinking about letter writing in general and then we will zoom in to the specific form of a letter.

So let's start by conceptualising letter writing.

So a letter is a written, typed or printed communication and it's sent in an envelope by post.

Now, letters have played a really crucial role in human history.

The first ever letter was thought to have been sent by the Persian Queen Atossa in around 500 BC.

Now, letters were used for many reasons to convey information, to share news or just as greetings as a way of staying in contact.

But they've also been seen over history as a mean of self-expression, to exchange ideas or written performance.

Now, in modern society, we don't see as many letters as we once did, but they can still be used for both formal and informal purposes.

So I want you to pause for a moment now and if you've got a partner, you can work with them, otherwise you can think through this independently.

What formal and informal reasons to write a letter can you think of? Okay, so let's start by thinking of the formal reasons.

Why might someone want to choose to put their thoughts, their ideas down on paper, put it in an envelope and send it to someone? What formal reasons might you use? And then on the flip side, what about informal reasons? All right, over to you for this one to have a think, have a discuss with a partner or by yourself.

Pause the video, have a think, come up with some ideas and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Let's have a think first about formal ideas.

I know this is quite a tricky task, because we find in society people don't write letters as much as they once did.

So well done if you managed to get some ideas here.

I heard people talking about covering letters for a job.

So quite often jobs will ask for a cover letter.

Now, a lot of jobs will ask you to send this online now, but some jobs may still request this to be sent by post.

A resignation letter.

So if you are leaving a job, you will have to write a resignation letter.

And again, these still, you might do this more as a formal piece of a written letter.

A letter of complaint, I heard some of you saying.

Some of you talked about requesting change in policy to your MP.

So if you're writing someone very formal, you might choose to write that letter.

But also, it might be to responding to customer feedback.

If you were working in a job and someone had sent a letter to you, it would be expected that you would send a letter back to them.

I wonder what you said about informal letter writing.

Well, it might be a thank you letter.

So maybe after a significant birthday or a wedding and people have been very generous in giving you gifts, you might have written a letter.

You might write a love letter.

Okay, if there's someone that you have a very close relationship, you may wish to write a letter to them.

You might choose to write a letter to reconnect with someone that maybe you haven't seen for a while and you've got a lot of things to say.

So you want to take this mode where you can write a lot down.

And finally, something that's really nice is you might write a letter to your future or past self.

Something really, you know, a really nice way of reflecting on the things that have happened or you want to happen in your life.

So here are just some of the reasons why people might choose to write a letter.

You can see them on screen.

Of course, you might have had some other ideas as well and that's perfectly fine.

So I want you to consider the following formal and informal scenarios.

That you're replying for a job, you're writing a thank you letter or if you want to make a complaint.

Why don't you have a think about why you might choose to use a letter in those scenarios? Why might they be the most appropriate way to communicate in these scenarios? Of course, they're not gonna be the only way you could choose to communicate, but why might you choose to in these scenarios and why might they be the most appropriate? All right, pause the video.

Have a think about this one, again, a challenging one here, 'cause we know that we might not write that many letters in this day and age.

So let's really think about why someone might choose to write a letter in these scenarios.

If you've got a partner, you can share some ideas, go through this with them and if you're working by yourself, that's absolutely fine.

You can just take a moment to reflect on this question independently.

All right, pause the video and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

Some really great discussion going on there.

I heard some of you saying about the personal touch, like it shows you're really invested, whether it's a job or you really want to show how personally grateful you are when you're saying thank you.

But also, you know, if this is your organisation, you want to show, look, I understand your complaint and I really care and I want to make things better, because I heard lots of you talking about the effort that goes into writing a letter.

It shows that you've taken the time to consider the person that you are sending the letter to and you've really thought about the communication that you want to put in place.

So a letter, whilst less common in this day and age, can still be really powerful mode of communication, 'cause it shows a personal touch and care and effort.

Well done if you said something similar.

All right, let's pause for a moment and check to see how we're getting on then, shall we? True or false, the only reason to write a letter is for a formal purpose, such as a job application or to make a complaint.

Is that true or false, what do you think? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you've got an answer.

Well done if you said false.

But why is that false? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you've got some ideas.

You might have said something like yes, formal letters are appropriate in many scenarios, however, informal letters can still have purpose, writing a thank you note to using them as a form of self-expression.

So yes, we might think of letters being more formal in most cases, but informal letters definitely still have a place in society.

Okay, over to our first task in today's lesson.

So according to research by Pen Heaven, they are a retailer who sells pens, stationary.

They said 64% of people would never choose to write a handwritten letter.

64% of people would say, "No, I don't think I'm gonna write a handwritten letter." However, on the flip side, 69% of people said receiving something handwritten through the post would mean much more to them than a text or a message on social media.

I want you to discuss the following questions.

Why do you think the majority of people don't write letters by hand? But why do you think handwritten letters still might mean more to people? Why don't you pause the video and have a think about these questions? If you've got a partner, if you can work in pairs and share those ideas together, but if you're working by yourself, you can just take a moment of self-reflection or you may even choose to write a few ideas down.

All right, let's look at those two questions.

Why do you think the majority of people don't write letters by hand? But why do the majority of people actually think these are more meaningful and would like to receive them? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you are ready to move on.

Okay, welcome back.

Great job there, great reflective thinking about the importance of letters even though we know they're not sent as frequently as they once were.

Sophia, one of our Oak pupils gave this a go.

I wonder if you can compare your responses to hers.

So why do you think the majority of people don't write letters by hand? Well, Sophia said, "I think maybe handwriting in general is becoming less and less used and this is because of the advances in technology and social media.

It's also arguably a little bit more inconvenient to have to post a letter.

It's really easy to write something in an email or in social media or on a text and press send and know that that message is gonna be received instantly, whereas taking the time to write a letter and leave the house and buy an envelope and buy a stamp and research where your nearest post office or your nearest postbox is and then have to wait for that response, it's less convenient." I think that's fair to say.

Why do we think handwritten letters might still mean so much more to people? Well Sophia said, "I think writing something by hand shows that someone's taken time and care over the letter.

It also gives someone something really tangible to keep and they can return to look at it whenever they want.

It can feel almost really quite precious to people in a way that social media messages and text messages are so transactional and you know, whilst they're still saved and we can always go and look back at them, you know we have so many of these, often to find that message that meant so much to us, we have to scroll back and back and back and back." Okay, why don't we now take a moment before we move on to reflect on our thoughts on letter writing.

When was the last time you wrote a handwritten letter and why did you do it? If you've not written a handwritten letter in a while or maybe ever, why have you chosen not to? And how do you think you'd feel about receiving a handwritten letter over that of a social media message or a text message? All right, pause the video for a moment and take a moment of reflection before we move on to the next part of today's lesson.

Over to you.

Okay, we've taken some time to think about letter writing and why it happens and why people might choose to write letters even though we know this is a mode of communication that is being used less and less in modern times.

Now, I want us to make sure we understand how to craft a letter, the form of a letter.

So there is a standard way to structure a formal letter and this is what that letter form looks like.

So we start with putting the sender's address, our address in the top right-hand corner.

This means if the person who we've sent this letter to, the recipient, the person who's received our letter, wants to write back to us, they've got an address that they can send their letter to.

We also write the date.

Often, we know that letters, you know, it is not immediate.

We don't just send a letter and immediately the recipient receives them, so it's really useful to have that date of when the letter was sent so you can see kinda how long, if you take some time and you think about it and you read this letter and you really enjoy it, that date is there as also as a reminder to say, oh, they're really gonna be wanting a response from me soon.

We also need to include the recipient's address, the person that we are sending this to, because if we don't send the address, how will anyone know where to send it to? And then we start with a salutation.

This is the greeting, this is how we open and this is how we address the letter to somebody.

We then have the main body of the letter and then we finish with a sign off.

Okay, let's check that you have understood then the form of a letter.

Which of these diagrams do you think most accurately reflects the layout of a formal letter? Look at these very carefully.

Pause the video, take a moment to decide and press play when you are done.

Well done if you said B.

I'm sure you ruled out C pretty quickly.

This might look more like a newspaper article for example.

Between A and B though, I can see this could've been quite tricky.

So it's always important to remember we start with our address in the top right-hand corner.

That's how we formally lay out a letter.

Okay, so we've said that every formal letter should begin with a salutation.

So most formal letters will begin with dear before the name of the person that you're writing to.

Now, you might use their first name and their surname or their title and their surname.

So Olive Smith or Mrs. Smith, either of which would work.

However, if you don't know their name, you should use dear sir or madam.

Okay, so if you don't know the name of the person that you're writing to, maybe you're writing to the owner of a shop because you want to make a formal complaint, but you don't know who this shop is owned by.

You don't know if that person is a man or a woman.

You can say, "Dear Sir or Madam." And the salutation must always be followed by a comma.

Let's have a think then.

Why do you think it's important to use the correct salutation? Why is it important that we're using the correct salutation do you think? Pause the video, if you've got a partner, have a quick think with them and then press play when you've got some ideas.

All right, welcome back.

I wonder if you said something similar to this.

Actually, it's really important in setting the tone of the letter and it shows respect for the recipient.

Okay, it shows, you know, if you've thought carefully about do you know this person well enough to use their first name or are you gonna use their title or if I don't know them at all, I'm not gonna assume, I'm not just gonna write dear sir, 'cause that assumes that the person who owns the shop must be a man.

Okay, so it shows respect for the recipient, whoever it is and however well we know them.

Really well done if you said something similar to that.

All right, let's check our understanding then on salutations.

Which of the following statements are true? A, even if you know the recipient's name, you should always use dear sir or madam, B, you should always use a comma after the salutation, C, if you know the recipient's name, you should always use their title and surname, D, if you know the recipient's name, you might use their first name or title and their surname.

All right, pause the video, have a think and press play when you think you know which the answer or answers are correct.

Welcome back, well done if you said B and D.

So yes, we should always use a comma after the salutation.

Now, how we address the recipient is all dependent on our knowledge and understanding and closeness to them.

So we don't need to use dear sir and madam if we know their name, we shouldn't use dear sir or madam if we use their name, it's not personal enough.

If we know that we are writing to someone called Mrs. Smith, why would we write dear sir, we know they are a woman, we don't need to use dear sir and madam.

However, choosing whether to use their title or not is all dependent on your relationship with them and the level of formality that you want this letter to have.

Okay, so you don't have to use their title and surname if you know their name, but you might still choose to, because you might think that's the right level of formality for this method of communication.

All right, next we need to think about the main body of your formal letter and this should immediately signal the purpose of your letter, okay? You want to open your letter very clearly very early on by signalling the purpose of your letter.

You want to make sure you're using paragraphing, okay? Making sure each new point has a separate paragraph and you want to keep the focus on your purpose throughout.

Why do you think then it is important that you divide your letter into paragraphs? All right, pause the video, with partners or by yourself, just think through these questions and then press play when you are ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I heard lots of you saying paragraphing is so important for organisation and coherence to make your writer really clear and it's really helpful to the recipient to help them understand your purpose.

If you are guiding them step-by-step through your argument or whatever it is that you've chosen to include in your letter, it's really helpful for guiding us through whatever that purpose of your letter is.

Okay and the letter must finish then with a formal and specific sign off.

So you end with yours sincerely if you have used someone's name in the salutation.

So if you've said, "Dear Olive Smith," or "Dear Mrs. Smith," if you know their name, you've used their name, you should say yours sincerely.

However you don't know their name and you've said, "Dear sir or madam," then you want to end with yours faithfully, okay, yours faithfully.

And then you're gonna follow the sign off with a comma and then your name.

Okay, one last question for us here then.

Why do you think using the correct sign off is important? Pause the video, have a think with your partner or by yourself and press play when you've got some ideas.

Really well done if you said that the sign off is your last impression.

Okay, it's the final impression in your letter, so we want to make sure we get it right, because getting it right, it shows that level of respect and shows that you've taken that level of care when formulating your letter.

Okay then, why do you think it's important we adhere to the form when we're writing a formal letter? Why do you think it's so important that we adhere to the form? Pause the video, have a think with your partner or by yourself and press play when you've got some ideas.

Really well done, I heard some great ideas there.

I heard people talking about it shows care, it shows attention to detail, some of you talking about showing your level of professionalism, I thought that was great and others saying it really indicates your purpose.

Great job there, well done.

All right, true or false? You should always use yours faithfully as the sign off to a letter.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you think you've got the answer.

Well done if you said false, but why? Pause the video, have a think.

Why is that statement false? Press play when you've got an idea.

You might have said that you only use yours faithfully if you used dear sir or madam as your salutation and yours sincerely though, we use that if we know the person's name and we've used the person's name as part of the salutation.

Well done if you remembered that.

All right then, we are onto our final task of today's lesson and you are gonna imagine that you are resigning from your job in a local shop.

So you've had a fantastic job.

Maybe it's been a weekend job and you've been working in a local shop, but now you've decided, I want to concentrate on my studies so I'm going to resign.

You're gonna write a brief, a short formal letter of resignation, but I want you to make sure you are using the formal letter form.

So this is the information you need about the recipient.

You're writing to Mrs. Olive Smith.

This is her address, 17 March Crescent in Bath, BA2 4DN.

And main body of it only requires two to three sentences.

There's not lots of information we need in here.

You are resigning from your job, because you want to focus on your studies, but it's really important that you say you've enjoyed your time at the shop and you feel it's prepared you, set you up well for any future employment that you might have.

All right, before we start, I'm gonna quickly remind you of the structure of the letter.

Here it is on the screen.

You may wish to have this in front of you as you create the letter.

If you want to look back at some of that information, you can just rewind the video as you are writing.

All right, over to you now.

Pause the video, give this a go and press play when you think you're done.

Fantastic work there.

It was great to see you being so careful with your letter writing, making sure you got the form right, a real reflection of the importance of letter writing, because it shows care and attention.

All right, on the screen then you can see some steps that we are going to undertake so we can take a moment of reflection before we finish today's lesson.

I want you to read back through your formal letter and you are gonna self-assess your work using the following questions.

Did you write the sender's address in the top right-hand corner along with the date? Did you write the recipient's address on the left-hand side? Did you use the salutation, dear Mrs. Olive Smith or dear Mrs. Smith? Did you use the sign off yours sincerely and did you use commas after the salutation and sign off? Remember, make sure you edit your formal letter if necessary.

All right, pause the video, take a moment of reflection and press play when you are done.

Right, that's it.

Really well done today.

It's been so lovely to learn all about letter writing alongside you all today.

On the screen, you can see a summary of everything that we have covered.

Let's quickly go through this together so you can feel really confident before you move on to your next lesson.

We've learned that we might use formal letters for professional matters relating to employment or complaints.

We've also learned that we might informal letters for emotional matters, such as thank you notes.

We might also use letters because it shows a personal touch and a certain level of care and attention.

We know that formal letters have a very specific form and a formal letter should include the sender's address, the date, the recipient's address, a salutation and a sign off.

Okay, fantastic work today.

I hope you've enjoyed the lesson as much as I have.

I hope to see you in one of our lessons again soon.

Have a great day and see you all in the future.

Bye-bye.