Project Builder 1A-Handwritten Letters

There are so many kinds of genres that we use in our daily life. For example, commenting on Facebook, writing a caption on Instagram with hashtags, writing reviews on Amazon products, and texting a friend are considered as own genre. But genre that I am mostly familiar with is writing a love letter to loved ones. I personally prefer writing handwritten letters to show how much I care about them. When I write letters, I include some conventions to successfully convey the message. According to Laura Bolin Carroll, writer of Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis, we need to look at the context in which it takes place. It means that we need to know why we are writing and what reaction we are trying to bring out from the reader. After determining the context and location, we can start with our conventions.

First convention that love letters include is starting the letter with special endearment. It lets the reader know how special they are to the writer. Then another convention can be continuing the letter with how we are doing and why we are writing this letter. This convention serves the purpose of letting the recipient to know that we are writing a letter because we love and care about them. And since it is a love letter, including our genuine feelings and deep thoughts about our loved ones can be one of the many conventions. Additionally, sharing deep thoughts and feelings that we never got a chance to say in person can serve purpose of touching one’s heart. Also, sharing funny incidents that writer and recipient both share can make the letter both touching and humorous. Proper grammar is very important because it shows that the writer is not just word vomiting on a paper. It shows that writer actually took their time off to write a good, proper, and romantic letter to them. Last but not least convention that love letter can have is the length. The length of love letter may show what kind of relationship they are in. A short, humorous, and flirty letters can mean that their relationship is on honeymoon stage whereas long and detailed letter may show established relationship. We consider these conventions because the main purpose is to make our loved ones smile while reading. We also want them to know how much we care and love them.
              Handwritten letters can have bunch of styles and tones because every little detail counts too. Whether the writer wrote love letter on a regular piece of paper or a scratch paper, plain white paper or pink paper with cute drawings; these all matter because it can carry the message that writer is trying to tell. Reader might not get the same feeling as the writer was trying to give because the letter was on a scratch paper. However, short and humorous letter on a pink cute paper might give romantic feelings to the reader. Those little details contribute to styles of writing but there are text tones that play big role in writing a love letter too. There is variety of text tones that we can choose to write with. But generally, love letters are in gentle, sincere, and subtle tones. Tones depend on word choices; choosing the right word moves the reader. Writing a love letter with negative words can convey negative feelings to the reader. For example, using the word “not,” “different,” or “need” can make the letter seem negative. Although when writer uses words with positive meanings like, “love,” “great,” “good,” and “pretty,” love letter becomes more lovely and positive. Knowing these conventions and rhetoric features, we all can major in writing love letters and win loved one’s heart!