Sending a letter

People used to send hand written letters to each other before the advent of email and other electronic communication.

You'll need:

• A postage stamp. These can be purchased at a Post Office and some ATMs.
  

• An envelope. Envelopes are pieces of paper folded and cut in a fashion such that another piece of paper can fit into them and not be exposed.
  

• A piece of paper and pen.

You'll want to stop and think about what it is you want to tell the person you're mailing. It's probably a good idea to sketch up an outline, maybe a couple bullet points, on a separate piece of scratch paper.

Dive right in! Start writing your letter on the piece of paper using your pen. You'll want to take your time as you write otherwise your letter won't be legible. If your handwriting is particularly horrible then writing larger will help a lot. You may also want to use a dictionary to look up the spellings of words.

As your letter won't arrive for some time you'll want to put the date in the upper right hand corner of the first page. The introduction of your letter should be a commanding proposition asserting who it is you're talking to. This depends a lot on who you're writing to:

• "To whom it may concern," — for when you don't know who to address. Using the group's name might be better, e.g. "Apple Computer,"
  

• "Dearest name here" — generic, friend and informal
  

• "Dearest name here" — generic, comfortable friend
  

• ..others?

You'll want to end your letter with one of:

Sincerely,
your name here

for friends

or

All the Best, or simply "Best,"
your name here

generic, popular outside of the United States

..others?

Put the paper you wrote on in the envelop and seal the envelope. Modern envelopes have an adhesive surface on the back that you can lick to engage — simply lick the surface and close the envelope. Otherwise you'll want to use some tape to close your envelope.

On the side of the envelope that's flat and blank you'll want to address your letter. You'll need the address of the person or thing you're writing to: put the address in the center of the front of the envelope and write the name of the organization/person above the address.

In the top left corner you want to write your return address — write your name, then on the next line your address.

In the upper right corner you'll want to place the postage stamp.

Take your stamped, sealed envelope to either a post office or drop it in a box designated for mailing purposes. Most all homes in the United States have mail boxes. Dropping a letter off in one of these boxes means it will likely get mailed in the next day or so.

After a day (or sometimes less), a post office person will have come by and picked up your letter. It's now off to be processed and transported.

Now..wait for your response! It will take days, and sometimes weeks, to get to its destination.

Sending letters internationally is the same as sending them within your country, due to a number of very old treaties.

See Post Secret for some modern pseudo-letter art/expression.

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