Friendly Letter is a type of letter written to people who are very familiar to us such as our parents, relatives, friends, peers or anyone with whom you have a relationship. It is not a condition that the recipient has to be your friend; it can be anyone with whom you are friendly. That person can be anyone whom you know well enough to correspond. Friendly letters come under Informal Writing because there are no hard and fast rules for writing them. There is ‘Nothing Official’ about them. And you don’t actually need a solid reason to write a letter to a friend. You can write just to say ‘Hello’, ‘Gossip’ or ‘Share some memories. Most of the times a friendly letter is written to express best wishes, congratulations, apologies etc. It is a mean to communicate and remain in touch with each other. For some people it is socializing agent where you can confess, share a secret or misconduct, get views about certain topics, continue a chain letter and anything that pleases you. Informal letters are private or personal letters.
How to write a friendly letter.
1. Writers Address
This should be written at the top right-hand corner of your page like this:
K.P Basic School,
P.O. Box, 23,
Prampram-Accra.
26th November,2021.
2. Salutation
Informal letters neither have the receiver’s address nor a title. ‘The correct way of greeting is ‘Dear + First name “as in: Dear Sarah, Dear Ben, Dear Father, Dear Mother, or you can include ‘My’
NOTE that the ‘d’ must be capital. When ‘My’ is included, the ‘d’ becomes small letter. Note that the “M” of ‘Mother’ is capital because it stands for the name of the writer’s mother. It is used as a proper noun. My dear Mother, Dear Uncle David, Dear Sister Sarah,
In writing to your friends, you start with ‘Dear’ followed by his name or nick-name as in:
My dear Snapchat,
3. Introduction
It is best to start with acknowledging the receipt of a letter written to you by the person. You may also start by asking after the persons health or any other way you like. One good thing about the informal letter is that you are allowed to write any way you like. In a letter to your brother, you may write:
My dear Joseph,
Thank you for the letter which I got a week ago. That letter made me very happy. This shows that you love me.
4.Body of the letter.
You will score a high mark if you do exactly what the question says you should do. If it says you should tell your friend hoe you are coping with your new school, you should go ahead and do so.
5. Subscription
Informal letters close with ‘your sincerely’. However, few other forms are accepted such as: ‘Yours affectionately’, ‘Your loving daughter’, ‘With love from’; etc. These are usually written at the bottom right hand of the page. No signature is required. Write your first name and put a full stop like this:
Yours sincerely,
Sarah.
