Letter
A letter is a written message from
one party to another containing information. Letters promote the preservation
of communication between both parties; they may bring friends or relatives
closer together, enrich professional relationships and provide a means of
self-expression. Letters contribute to the protection and conservation of
literacy. Letters have been sent
since antiquity and
are mentioned in the Iliad. Works by
both Herodotus and Thucydides also
mention letters .
History
Of writing LetterHistorically, letters have existed
from the time of ancient India, ancient Egypt and Sumer, through Rome, Greece and China, up to the present day. During the
seventeenth and eighteenth century, letters were used to self-educate. Letters
were a way to practice critical reading, self-expressive writing, polemical
writing and also exchange ideas with like-minded others. For some people,
letters were seen as a written performance. For others, it was not only seen as
a performance but also as a way of communication and a method of gaining
feedback. Letters make up several of the books of the Bible. Archives of correspondence, whether for
personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as primary
sources for historians.
At certain times, the writing of letters has risen to be an art form and a genre of literature,
for instance in Byzantine epistolography.In the ancient world letters were
written on a various different materials, including metal, lead, wax-coated
wooden tablets, pottery fragments, animal skin, and papyrus. From Ovid, we learn that Acontius used an apple for his letter to Cydippe.As communication technology has diversified, posted letters have
become less important as a routine form of communication. For example, the
development of the telegraph drastically shortened the time taken
to send a communication, by sending it between distant points as an electrical
signal. At the telegraph office closest to the destination, the signal was
converted back into writing on paper and delivered to the recipient. The next
step was the telex which avoided the need for local
delivery. Then followed the fax (facsimile) machine: a letter could be
transferred electrically from the sender to the receiver through the telephone
network as an image. Today, the internet,
by means of email, plays a large part
in written communications; however, these email communications are not
generally referred to as letters but rather as e-mail (or email) messages,
messages or simply emails or e-mails, with only the term "letter"
generally being reserved for communications on paper.
Adventages Of Letters
Despite email, letters are still
popular, particularly in business and for official communications. Letters have
the following advantages over email:
·
No
special device is needed to receive a letter, just a postal address, and the
letter can be read immediately on receipt.
·
An
advertising mailing can reach every address in a particular area.
·
A
letter provides immediate, and in principle permanent, physical record of
communication, without the need for printing. Letters, especially those with a
signature and/or on an organization's own notepaper, are more difficult to
falsify than is an email and thus provide much better evidence of the contents
of the communication.
·
A
letter in the sender's own handwriting is more personal than an email.
·
If
required, small physical objects can be enclosed in the envelope with the
letter.
·
Letters
are unable to transmit malware or other harmful files that can be transmitted by
email.
·
Letter
writing leads to the mastery of the technique of good writing.
·
Letter
writing can provide an extension of the face-to-face therapeutic encounter.
The Letter Delivery
Process
Here is how a letter gets from the
sender to the recipient:
1. Sender writes letter and places it
in an envelope on
which the recipient's address is written in the centre front of the envelope.
Sender ensures that the recipient's address includes the Zip or Postal Code (if
applicable) and often includes his/her return address on the envelope.
2. Sender buys a postage stamp and
attaches it to the front of the envelope on
the top right corner on the front of the envelope. (For large amount mailings,
postage stamps are not used: a franking
machine or other methods are used to pay for postage.
3. Sender puts the letter in a postbox.
4. The national postal service of the
sender's country (e.g. Royal Mail, UK; US Postal
Service, US; Australia
Post in Australia; or Canada Post in Canada)
empties the postbox and takes all the contents to the regional sorting office.
5. The sorting office then sorts each
letter by address and postcode and delivers the letters destined for a
particular area to that area's post office.
Letters addressed to a different region are sent to that region's sorting
office, to be sorted further.
6. The local post office dispatches the
letters to their delivery personnel who deliver them to the appropriate
addresses.
This whole process, depending on how
far the sender is from the recipient, can take anywhere from a day to 3–4
weeks. International mail is sent via trains and airplanes to
other countries.
However, in 2008, Janet Barrett from
the UK, received a RSVP to a party invitation addressed to 'Percy Bateman',
from 'Buffy', originally posted on 29 November 1919. It had taken 89 years to
be delivered by the Royal Mail.
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