Text types: Texts for fun & leisure

Letters

Email

We cannot talk about letters without mentioning email. Letters are gradually being replaced by email messages, (both personal and business related) and the nature of the new medium is such that formatting conventions have become less important. Because email is so much faster than ordinary post, or 'snail-mail', people expect a reply to their message almost immediately. One way in which we can write more quickly and efficiently in email is with abbreviations. Here is a sample:

Even when writing email in a hurry, it is still important to be careful with spelling and grammar, otherwise the reader has to work twice as hard to understand the message. So encourage your students to write carefully and proofread when sending email messages. 

Since the opening up of the Internet to the general public in the 1990s new modes of communicating with people have emerged. In addition to email, we can also exchange messages in 'real time' using software called ICQ (a mnemonic for 'I seek you'). Communicating through ICQ is rather different from sending e-mails or writing letters because of the real time nature of the interaction. If you are interested in exploring ICQ for your own interest see:

http://www.icq.com/company/about.html

One special convention which is associated with email and ICQ is the use of 'emoticons' or 'smileys' as they are sometimes called: