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IWW Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: It's In The Mail

These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop(http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).

Prepared by: Alice Folkart
Posted on: Sun, November 17, 2013
Reposted on: Sun, April 12, 2015
Reposted on: Sun, November 8, 2020
Reposted on: Sun, May 23, 2021

____________

In 400 words or less, have a character write a letter to someone. The
letter might be sent by e-mail.

Write just one side of the correspondence unless you would like to
construct two sides of a story through a series of brief notes, or memos.
The letter can show us the end or the start of something, convey good or
bad news, a plea, a complaint, gratitude or even praise.

____________

Perhaps a woman has decided to leave her husband and leaves him a letter.
Is she kind or vindictive, angry or sad? Maybe an office manager has
decided to fire a clerk and leaves a letter on her desk. Why doesn’t he
want to hand it to her personally?

We could perhaps see someone declaring undying love and proposing marriage.
Or maybe it’s a message informing the recipient about a legal matter—a
house being repossessed, custody being granted, taxes owed, or a winning
Lottery ticket or a personal triumph.

Who is writing the message – what does their writing style tell us about
that person? A child’s letter to Santa would certainly be different from a
form letter from the IRS. An angry letter to the editor of a newspaper
would be poles apart from a grandma’s letter to the Senior Citizen’s
Committee.

____________

In your critique of this exercise, consider what the style and language of
the letter tells the reader about the person who writes the message and the
person who receives it. Try to imagine yourself receiving such a message.
What would your reaction be?


Web site created by Rhéal Nadeau and the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.