Education

5 Features Of An Informal Letter With Format

Letters written to a friend differ from those you write when seeking employment. The differences are in their features, format, and language you will use. And this is what makes an informal letter differs from a formal letter.

You must understand the differences before sitting down and penning down your mind. So, in this article, I have taken it upon myself to discuss all you need to know about an informal letter.

What is An Informal Letter?

This type of letter is written to acquaintances, friends, or family. Also, it can be said that in this letter, no formal language is used. It is written to send greetings, gist, an apology, congratulatory messages, showing how you feel, etc. This means nothing formal, and the language might not be professional.

Features of Informal Letter

There is no definite format for an informal letter, but there is a basic structure you need to follow when writing the letter. To write an informal letter, there are some features it must have.

Address: Your address is very important when writing so that your friend or family will know that the letter is actually from you. And also, to keep communication running, the address will help your friend to write back to you after receiving your letter. If the address is not included, you might not be able to get a reply; perhaps, you ask a question or make a request.

Kindly note that the date must come immediately below your personal address. It shows the date when you wrote the letter and not the date when you mailed it.

Salutations: Below the date, your opening sentence should start with a greeting. Make them informal because this is a person known to you. You might start by writing dear dad, mum, Mr. John, etc. If the person is your age mate, you can use the words dear Ade, Smith, Debby, etc.

Body of the letter: This comes after the salutation and must be an informal letter body. The first paragraph is where you will introduce yourself if the person is not known to you, and if the person is well known to you, do a brief introduction to your reason/s for writing.

The other paragraphs are where the main reason for the letter will come out. Here, you will expound your message in a way they will understand easily. Cover one point at a time while being careful with your tone. The tone you will use when sending a love letter will be quite different from when sending a letter of apology or congratulatory message. So, you must have in mind the person you are writing to and choose the right tone.

Concluding sentence: This is when you summarize your letter and bid them a warm goodbye.

Lastly, you append your signature after the concluding sentence with your full name. This helps confirm that the letter is indeed from you.

Read: Features of a formal letter

Format or Sample of an Informal Letter

This is a format or sample of a letter written to a close friend with the aim of sending greetings.

                                                                                                                 Olugbogi street,

                                                                                                                  Allen Avenue,

                                                                                                                   Lagos state.

                                                                                                                   14th November, 2022

Salutation: Dear John,

Body

Paragraph 1: How are you and your family? And I hope my letter finds you well.                          

Paragraph 2: The purpose of your letter

Paragraph 3: information about the matter

Paragraph 4: concluding paragraph. For example, please write back soon. I will be looking forward to hearing from you.

Much love,

Signature

Oluwole Peace Joy

Bolarinwa Olajire

A tutor with a demonstrated history of working in the education industry. Skilled in analytical skills. Strong education professional with a M. SC focused in condensed matter. You can follow me on Twitter by clicking on the icon below to ask questions.
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