Find out all you need to know about personal letters. Our writing guidelines and samples will help you craft quality personal letters.

Personal letters are letters or informally written messages sent from one person to another to address informal matters. Usually, these letters concern personal thoughts, feelings, or experiences and are meant for a specific person. No rules govern what you are supposed to talk about or not in a personal letter. However, you should think about what the recipient might want to read. There are many occasions you may consider writing a personal letter. For instance, when you have something special you want to share with your friends, when you want to apologize to another person, or when congratulating people on a job well done, to mention a few.

Conventions in personal letters are less crucial than in formal letters. Regardless, you need to consider your familiarity and relationship with the person to whom you are writing and adjust your level of formality accordingly. Personal letters have five main parts: - the header, greeting, body, closing, and signature. The letters should be easy to read and understand. They are usually casual, and the tone is conversational with reasonably good mechanics. Personal letters are either typed or handwritten and use indented paragraphs.