LETTER GUIDELINES AND SAMPLES

Transcription

1 LETTER GUIDELINES AND SAMPLES Remember as well to: Use a more formal tone in your letter (as was common in the mid 1800s) Include the 5 parts of a friendly letter: a. Heading (your address with the date immediately below it) b. Greeting (the Dear line) c. Body (contains the main information being discussed/shared; towards its end the writer usually begins to wrap things up ) d. Closing (usually just a word or two, is capitalized and followed by a comma, a common example is Sincerely, ) e. Signature (you sign it to show who it is coming from, is placed below the Closing) see sample below:

2 SAMPLE PERSONAL LETTER FORMAT: 101 Hodge Podge Lane State College, PA May 1, 1861 My Dearest Wife, [Body] Your eternally faithful husband, William Bixby

3 SAMPLE LETTER 313 Melrose Place Boston, Massachusetts December 1, 1836 Dearest Cousin Wilbur, I am truly sorry for my belated letter. My wife and children are doing fine, actually wonderful. How about your family? I hope all is well. My children are definitely growing up. Elizabeth is already engaged to a sophisticated, well educated and charming young man I am horrified that Jackson has won the election. I am dreadfully sorry if that offended you, but I believe that. Jackson will take the progressing country and turn it completely upside down. Jackson s system of spoils is a ridiculous one. Just because he is the president doesn t mean that he can throw out any federal worker who was working for the Whigs I am reading a book called The Dutchman s Fireside by Paulding. It is about Fondly, Your Cousin Edward Pickering

4 Enclosure Guidelines For Letter 1 (Round 1) Each student must enclose their own self created photograph or sketch of their imaginary persona in the first letter they write to their partner. How to do this: 1. Student created sketch: Only students who have a rather high artistic ability should do this. Sketches that are not artistically appealing or accurate will receive low scores. 2. Student created photograph: Students can use the materials given to them by their teacher in order to create their photograph. Mr. Miller and Mr. Beers will place a real photograph from the mid 1800s on their school websites so students can use a photo of their own head/face to replace the one that is present on the original. There are 2 basic ways to do this: a. Using a computer to place your head/face on the photograph (preferred method) copy the image into googleslides (or any suitable software on a computer at home), use your chromebook (or a digital camera at home) to take your own picture, crop out the original head/face on the photo and replace it with your own. NOTE: those students who are interested in using a different photographic source from the mid 1800s can visit the Library of Congress website at this link: (once there, type man or woman in the Search Bar to find a photo) and view other photos from this time period and choose a different man or woman as a source for their created photo. *Be sure to save your image as a JPEG, not a PDF.*

5 b. Print out the photo provided on Mr. Beers /Miller s websites. Take a picture of yourself in class and print out the image. Care needs to be taken to be sure the size and position of your head/face match the original photo. Neatly cut out the original head with photo; place the printout of your head/face in its place. You will need to use gluestick/tape this process will already not look as genuine as the digital method described above, so be very neat and careful. Though your teachers know it may be nearly impossible to make an absolutely perfect switch of your head/face for the original, students are expected to do their best to make the created image as realistic as possible. Created photos that show lack of neatness or effort will lose points. Students are encouraged to be creative and do a little extra to make the created photos look more authentic. For example, if you view any of the original photos on Library of Congress link above, you will see some of the women and men wearing bonnets and hats. If a student has or can find these (or other clothing) that matches the style of the time period, you are encouraged to wear these as it will help make the photo look more authentic. (See example below)

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