Language in Use 255-256

We normally consider letters merely from the point of view of the way they are written and laid out. This unit considers what we might call the social function of letters and the degree to which we cannot maintain the fabric of family, community or society without making use of them. The aim of the unit is to get a class to look at what we Jump together under the general heading of 'letters', and explore the different functions they perform.

[1] Ask the class to make a list of all the letters that they think the members of their family might write in the course of a year. Get them to divide their lists into public and personal. Circulate the results and through discussion build tip on the board a picture of the possible range and variety of letters likely to occur in the immediate environment of the class. Consider such points as
(a) whether or not the class regard any letters as obligatory, like writing to relatives about major family events such as     births or deaths
(b) what other kinds of personal letters are written
(c) what sort of public letters are required
(d) what letters the class think might be written in other families.

[2] In this session, the focus should be upon the role taken up by the writer and what this can reveal about the pattern of both public and private relationships. Ask the class to take up the lists they made in session [I] and give a label to the role that they think the writer was taking up when he wrote. These would include taxpayer, benefits claimant, friend, elderly relative, traffic offender, son or daughter, job applicant, bewildered citizen (faced with incomprehensible official document), and so on. Again, circulate the lists and through discussion, build up on the board a picture of the range and variety of role relationships which members of an ordinary family can find themselves entering into as correspondents. Divide the class into pairs and ask each pair to choose one of these role relationships, with one member of the pair initiating the correspondence and the other replying. Each member of each pair should write at least two letters.

[3] In this session, the focus should be upon the kind of messages that pass in these different correspondences. Ask the pairs to read out their letters, so that a good range, from most personal to most public, is heard. Then consider how the topics have differed, what degree of relationship has been shown by the texts, how this is related to the relative positions in family, community and society of the two parties to the correspondence, and whether the way of writing chosen is really suited to the nature of the message. For this session, the class need to have a collection of letters of all kinds written for publication. This should include examples from women's magazines, including 'Personal Columns', as well as from newspapers and journals.

The aim of the session is to consider what social functions are being served by these letters. The class should divide into groups, each one taking a random selection of letters and deciding for each on
(a) the roles of sender and receiver
(b) the sender's attitude to the reader: what sort of reaction would lie hope for?
(c) the topic, and the way it is treated
(d) the degree of formality chosen and its appropriateness to its context.

Decisions about these points should be attached to each letter and then the selections should be exchanged between groups. The subsequent class discussion should focus upon the possibilities and limits of this kind of correspondence and consider how necessary a feature it is of our kind of society.