What is a letter?
A long and superbly scripted message that we regularly send to our buddies is known as a letter. A letter is likewise a prolonged and expert message that we send to our work-associated human beings and our colleagues or each person that we do now not know thoroughly. It's far no secret now that letter has two kinds. Formal letters and casual letters.
replacing letters is a form of very primary and unique communication that allows us to recognise and underneath and absolutely hold close to the understanding this is being departed via that piece of paper. Now while writing a letter we need to maintain several matters in mind, including who we are addressing the letter to, what we are attempting to say and the way can we want to seem to the man or woman analyzing the letter. It is believed that letter writing is no huge deal, however, while it, in the end, involves writing a letter we realize just how hard and smooth an undertaking can be. No longer anybody has in them to jot down letters and not everyone who writes them can be precise at what they write. As our mothers would, we also can blame it on the new technology. It gives us lesser opportunities to read and write.
Maximum people might locate it tough to even fill in one hundred phrases in a letter being addressed to our circle of relatives. That is due to the fact we do not recognize a way to write a letter. After all, none of us has had that practice within the beyond.
History of Letters
How did people begin letter writing? Easy, with the development of words. It was cave paintings at first, then it came to little symbols, and then it was properly emerging as a language. In a way, we can say that the cave paintings done by the early men are also letters as they communicate a story that they left behind. The cave paintings and the carvings on the walls and the symbols with which they communicated are all simple yet complex forms of letters. Though they did not have a proper format, their sole purpose was to send a message to someone else. The cave paintings often told stories and the symbols often cautioned or gave directions to the early men. And then finally with the invention of writing materials such as leaves and ink and dried parchment papers, people began developing symbols of their own language, thus giving rise to characters and letters that are now well defined among the people. And with the finalization of the characters, people began communicating through letters at a longer distance.
The first letter ever recorded in history is the one sent by the Persian Queen Atossa somewhere around 500 BC. Not just Persians but the Indians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Chinese, and Sumerians also have a recorded history of letter writing. But it should also be noted that letters were not only a form of keeping in touch with our loved ones but it was also a form of enhancing our own knowledge of the language.
In ancient India, we learn about how the kings used to communicate with the other kings. A scroll was sent with their representatives and the message was delivered in such a manner. Even in the kingdom, the common folks used to communicate with their kings and queens through letters as the rulers cannot make time for everyone at the same time.
And eventually, all of the letters were divided into two categories depending upon whom the letter was addressed.
Formal Letters
A letter addressed to someone for official work is known as a formal letter. It is a letter written with professionalism and with precision, trying to make a good impression upon someone who would appreciate your work. A formal letter is basically you trying to flaunt your knowledge on a certain topic or on the English literature by using flowery words. It is just to create a good and a just impression upon the one who would read the letter. Especially if you are requesting a leave. Now, we do need some flattering when we want things to go our way. A formal letter is addressed to someone from our workplace, school, colleagues, or a person with whom we are not quite familiar. It should be as professional as one can be whole talking to someone with a higher rank than ours in the workplace or in the school. We all have written letters to our teachers requesting leave. That is an example of a formal letter.
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Your Address.
The date. (3 May, 2022)
Address of the receiver.
The subject.
Salutation, The body of the letter.
The final paragraph or the conclusion of the letter. Thanking you, Yours sincerely, Your name (signature). |
This is the appropriate and modern format for writing a formal letter which should be at least a few hundred words and very clear in the writing that the message should reach the reader immediately. This can create a supreme image of yours in front of your employer or your teachers. It is the art of writing a letter in such a way that everyone is mesmerized by your writing and appreciates you for the formality yet the precision of it all.
Informal Letters
A letter addressed to our family or friends or someone we know come under the category of informal letters. It should be comparatively less flashy and must require the understanding of the writer and the reader. There are not many ground rules for an informal letter, however, like any other written thing, it should be noted that a letter must be written with an open and clear mind so the idea that the author is trying to convey is conveyed with ease and without offending anyone. The sole purpose of writing an informal letter is to keep in touch with our loved ones through a deeper form. Of course, we do talk to them all the time over the phone but we all can agree that letters are just different and somehow more cherished. We all love handwritten letters because it just shows how our loved ones took out time from their busy day and wrote something for us. It is just that thought that makes a letter special and dear to us. Also, the fact that a letter can be stored with us for the rest of our lives and we can read it over and over again, but on the other hand a message would require us to be scrolling for minutes or our system could have deleted the message on its own. There is no guarantee there.
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Your Address.
The date. (26 April, 2022)
Salutations (usually “Dear” is used), The body of the letter.
Complimentary closing, Your name. |
Difference Between "Yours sincerely" and "Yours faithfully" in Tabular Form
| Properties | Yours faithfully | Yours sincerely |
| Meaning | Faith means loyal, thus it means that the person is loyally devoted to the receiver. | Sincere means in a heartfelt manner or with pure genuineness, therefore sincerely means without any form of pretense. |
| Uses | Used in a formal letter. | Used in both a formal and an informal letter. |
| Receiver | Unknown. | Known and unknown both. |
| Common | Less common. | More common. |
| Formality | One of the most formal complimentary closing. | Not so formal. |
Difference Between "Yours sincerely" and "Yours faithfully" in Points
- As the term faith suggests, loyalty is used at the end of a letter when you specifically want to show your loyalty to the person to whom the letter is addressed. It is derived from the Latin word, ‘fides’ and the French word, ‘fied’, both of which mean faith. Other synonyms for faith are trust, belief, confidence, or hope. This is to be used in special cases when one is showcasing to their superiors to confide in them regarding the subject of the letter. It is to claim our faithfulness towards the person, say our boss, so he can entrust us with the job. Sincere on the other hand means something which comes from the bottom of the heart with pure and true intentions. It is derived from the Latin word, ‘sincerus’, which means clean or pure. Just as while writing a letter to someone when we want to express our true feelings, we close the letter with yours sincerely, to show how deeply we mean what we have written in the letter. Other words similar to sincere are heartfelt, genuine, truthful, and profound.
- Yours faithfully is to be used in a formal letter where you are trying to convey your loyalty to your boss or whoever is in charge. You are simply asking the reader to put their faith in you for the subject of the letter and even in general, this is to show the loyalty of a person towards the company they work for. It is important to note that yours faithfully is an extremely formal term and should be used in such cases. Especially when you are trying to prove to the boss of your company that you are a responsible employee or when you are trying to show to your teachers that you are a trusty student or when you are writing a letter to a corporate and you wish for them to realize that you are a respected citizen of the country who cares about the people and their welfare. Yours sincerely can be used for both formal and informal letters because it provides the right amount of formality and informality to the letters. It just greatly depends on the topic which you are writing about. If it is to send condolences to your boss because of his loss, yours sincerely is the best way to show how sorry you feel for them and their loss. If you want your friend to come to visit you during his/her winter breaks, you could use yours sincerely and showcase just how deeply you mean that you want them with you.
- Yours faithfully is used when the letter is addressed to someone who is almost unknown, or to someone who is less known. Like our employer, they are known to us on a professional level but on a personal level, no matter how many dinners you have had with their family, you still do not know them that well. Thus yours faithfully is used when you address it to someone of such dignity or someone completely unknown, such as a corporate worker. Yours sincerely is used wisely with both known and unknown entities. It is essential to write the complimentary closing in accordance with the letter. It should be noted that yours sincerely often represents the true and heartfelt felt feelings of an individual. Like when you are writing a letter to your aunt who fell sick, then the use of yours sincerely seems appropriate. Or when your school principal needs suggestions on the year’s sports event, yours sincerely comes into use because you want to show them that your suggestions are from the bottom of your heart and that you truly mean them.
- Yours faithfully is used less often due to the fact that it is quite formal and uptight. When using the phrase it is always a very formal statement that simply speaks of your loyalty to the person that it is addressed to. And imagine someone constantly reminding you of their loyalty, it puts us off. We begin feeling strange about that person. Thus yours faithfully is used less often. Whereas yours sincerely is used more often because of the fact that it shows your true feelings. If the conversation was face to face a person can easily make out that the other one is speaking genuinely. But in a letter, the same can be represented with the use of yours sincerely and it is never a bad idea to make people aware of your genuine feelings.
- Yours faithfully and yours sincerely have their own meanings and their own differences as we have discussed above. While writing a letter we have to be careful while using these little things that leave a great impact on the people because such things are what lead a person to their image in front of the people. Yours truthfully just simply shows that you truly are a loyal person to whom the letter is addressed and yours sincerely means that you genuinely and humbly meant all that you had written in the letter.
