Why Learning to Write Letters is Important

I have friends who love to receive letters. I am not sure if you buy into the love language thing, but that gesture surely is important to them. Thankfully, I love to write and express my feelings through writing, so it works perfectly. Learning to write letters is important still today and for many different reasons.

Writing Letters

Writing letters is my thing. I forget things I need to say; I can’t muster up the right words in person; I find it difficult to speak my feelings; I am not a talker. Talking on phones? Never! However, writing letters is something I can do.

Even when my husband and I have little spats, I’d rather write a letter to him afterward to let him know how I felt. This has turned out to be much better for our relationship, as it enables frustrations to die down and tempers to dissipate.

Reasons to Write a Letter

Some may say there is no need for people to learn to write letters anymore. The age of technology has made people feel as though writing letters should be obsolete. I am a writer. That makes me biased, but I still can say that I wholly disagree.

There are both social and professional reasons that letter writing is essential, even in today’s modern-day.

Professional Reasons Why Letter Writing is Important

The art of letter writing may have taken a backseat to technology, However, it hasn’t entirely gone away. Formal letters are still needed and still very much used.

Here are a few reasons why learning to write a letter is still needed today:

College, trade school, scholarship application letters

Your students may need to start thinking about writing these sooner than you think. Developing a well-written and detailed application letter may mean the difference between getting into a program or being looked over.

Employment letters

When applying for employment, writing letters is almost an expectation. Whether it be a cover letter, application letter, a thank you letter for an interview, a letter requesting a promotion, kids will soon learn that writing a letter may be needed at any time for work.

Business letters or letters to authorities

Nowadays, it is sometimes necessary to write letters to a congressman or higher authorities if kids want to see a change in their communities. Writing letters makes this possible and they have a right to do so.

Informational letters 

These types of letters inform offices or people of needed data like rules, regulations, events, invitations, or procedures. If your kids are in any kind of group or association, these are extremely handy.

Circular letters

Circular letters are used to inform a wide range of audiences information like a change of address, change in management personnel, resignation, or retirement. If your student goes to college and becomes a resident director or sorority leader in a dorm, they may need to distribute circulars for fellow dorm residents.

Although letter writing was considered absolutely essential in times of the past, today it remains important in our professional lives and our social lives just as well.

Social or Personal Reasons to Write Letters

One thing we can say about technology is that it has created, to a certain degree, a space between us and the outside world. Although physical distance has been the space between us in the past, technology can now be a shield we hide behind to keep people away at a safe distance. This isn’t healthy.

Here are some very important reasons why we should still write friendly letters no matter what:

Relationship building

Relationships in life are crucial. Whether we are loners or social butterflies, relationships matter. Sometimes keeping up relationships can be super hard in this busy, distracting world. Taking time out of your schedule to write someone a letter shows them you care and helps to maintain relationships in a world full of social media and busy lives.

Giving a part of you

Many times we can’t express ourselves the way we want to. We stumble on our words, and we look back only to find the perfect words – a little too late. Writing a letter allows you to pour your heart and feelings out for someone else to experience. Once your heart and soul is put to paper, the person you give it too gets peek inside who you are and what they mean to you.

Keeping in touch

This is a different type of keeping in touch than social media. In social media, you go back and forth in small snippets. Writing a letter takes thought; it takes your undivided attention. It is special and lets the receiver know they are special to you.

Kids tend to have friends that move far away. Writing letters is the perfect way kids can keep in contact. My daughter keeps in touch with her friend that lives in New Zealand through letter writing. We cheat a little, though. Her mom and I scan their letters and send them via Facebook messenger. It works.

Priceless keepsakes

Ever had someone write you a letter and wish you would have kept it? I had a precious friend named Cynthia. She passed away a few years back, and I miss her so much.

Her precious daughter (also my friend) gave me a Bible that belonged to Cynthia. In that Bible, she had a letter to herself about her Bible reading. I cherish that letter so much. I keep it in that Bible and read it often. It is like she left me a gift, a look into her relationship with Christ. It is priceless. That is what a letter from a loved one is, priceless.

Teaching Letter Writing

If you want to start teaching your kids letter writing at home, you can start with a letter template for kids. If they need help learning how to write a paragraph, you can print some free pdf pages or use graphic organizer templates. 

In Conclusion

Learning to write letters is an essential skill for us. Despite the ease of email and texting, writing letters is something more personal to those around us and more professional to those in our business or school life.

When we encourage our kids to write letters, we inevitably help them with their communication skills, handwriting, and social skills for years to come.

Let us all then leave behind letters of love and friendship, family and devotion, hope, and consolation, so that future generations will know what we valued and believed and achieved. – Marian Wright Edelman