How to Write Your First Letter to a Pen Pal

Series Summary

Good writing is an important skill that can be used in a variety of media. Whether it's writing a meeting agenda, a toast or a magazine article, the ability to effectively communicate to a large audience stems from knowledge and execution of proper writing techniques. With such knowledge comes an understanding of the distinct differences in writing styles between creative writing, journalism, technical writing and informal writing. In this free video series, improve general writing skills by covering some of the basics. Laura Turner is a published playwright. She discusses how to begin writing comedy, drama, plot lines and characters. Develop an interesting story and find out how to combat writer's block. Curious about developing dialogue? Turner gives explanations of how to teach writing dialogue to students. As an undergraduate professor, she demonstrates how to write course descriptions, syllabi and exams for students. Discover how to write stage directions for a play and get tips for creating lesson plans. With this free video series, improve writing skills today!

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner and today we're going to talk about how to write your first letter to a pen pal. Now a pen pal is obviously going to be somebody that you don't know in real life because you're going to have to be writing to them and they're probably going to be far, far away from you. So the first thing you need to include in your letter is your name and how old you are. Very simple things about yourself. Introduce yourself and say hi, my name is... and I am, you know, fourteen years old, or however old you are. Second, share information about yourself that you think is interesting. For example, I am the owner of the world's largest stamp collection, whatever you would like to say about yourself. And then also introduce all your interests that you have that are interesting. Things that you like to do in your spare time. See if you have anything in common with your pen pal by sharing details about yourself, with him or her. And thirdly, ask questions of your pen pal so that they can respond to you, and you can actually have a little bit of a dialogue with them. What do you like to do? You know have you ever gone snowboarding? Have you ever cooked a meal for your family? Things like this that you think you might have in common with them, and try to draw a conversation by asking questions. And finally keep it concise and sweet. Since it is your first letter to your pen pal you want to avoid getting into long, drawn out arguments about things, and especially even bringing up subjects that might be touchy, or things that would not work in a sort of casual conversation between, essentially strangers at this point. So try to keep yourself pared down and sort of make it an introductory letter, and see what comes from either side."