Letters to the editor

1. Letters to the Editor
International English
Pp 37

2. Content
•Important reminders
•Writing an Essay Pp39
•Writing a letter to the editor
•Activity – Spread of English

3. Important reminders

4. Spellcheck
What it can do, and what it can’t
•First a word of warning. Take a look at this sentence.
Eye no its knot write
•If you read it aloud, it sounds all right: "I know it's
not right".
•As you can see though, every single word is wrongly
spelt, and the sentence makes no sense whatsoever
when you read it on paper (or on your computer
screen). However, since the incorrect spellings also
happen to be correct English words, it slipped
through the spellcheck without comment.

5. Similarly, the spellcheck accepted this sentence
without batting an eyelid.
I cage on a farm
•This is supposed to say "eg bur på ein gard“
•The writer obviously thought he could find the
present tense of "å bu", and instead found the
thing we put wild animals in.
•Sometimes the first suggestion is correct,
sometimes it ain't (sorry "isn't"!).

6. Word order is also very important
•What is the difference
between these three?
2.LARGE SCALE FISHING
3.A LARGE FISHING SCALE
4.A LARGE FISH SCALE

7. Letters to the Editor
•All newspapers, both paper versions and
Internet newspapers, have a page where
letters from readers are published.
•If there is something in the news that you
want to respond to, you can write a letter to a
newspaper and have your opinion published.
•Such a letter is called a "letter to the editor"
(leserinnlegg/lesarinnlegg), and there are
certain rules you have to follow.

8. Tips for writing letters

9. How to organise letters
•Address
•Place your address at the top left hand side of
the page). Note that your name does not need
to be included since it will be both printed and
signed at the end of the letter:

10. Abbreviations
•Below your own address you write the name
and address of the recipient:
•Note that in the UK and USA the street
number is placed before the street name.
•These abbreviations may be used: St. (street),
Rd. (road), Ave. (avenue), Blvd. (boulevard),
Sq. (square).

11. Date
•When you write the date, you can use the ISO
standard (yyyy-mm-dd), or write the month
with letters:
•10 November 2006; or 2006-11-10.
•Notice that although most Europeans would
read 10/11 as being 10 November, Americans
read it as 11 October.

12. How to start the letter
•Remember to always start off a letter with a
salutation (greeting). The most common greeting is
"Dear":
•Formal letters to institutions or people who you don't know
the name of:
–Dear Sirs (to a company or organization)
–Dear Sir (to an unnamed, male person)
–Dear Madam (to an unnamed, female person)
–Dear Sir or Madam (if you're not sure if the one you're addressing is a woman
or a man)
–Dear Editor; Personnel Manager; Managing Director; etc
•Letters that start off in this matter always end with: Yours
sincerely in British English

13. Normal business letters where
you know the recipient's name:
•Dear Mr Smith (Male. In British English we
don't use a stop after Mr)
•Dear Ms Smith (Female, now almost
recognized as a standard greeting)
•Dear Mrs Smith (Female who is married and
prefers this form of address)
•These letters always end with: Yours sincerely

14. Informal letters
•Dear John
•Dear Colleagues
•Dear friends
•These letters can end with: Yours sincerely, Regards, Kind
regards, Best regards ,Warm regards, Best wishes, Love
(depending on how well you know the person you are
addressing). Never end a letter that started with "Dear Sirs"
with "Love"!!
•Finally: Remember never to use exclamation marks (!!) or
abbreviated forms (I'm, didn't, couldn't, etc) in business
letters.

15. Tips for writing a
Letter to the Editor…

16. Tips for writing letters
•Provide your full name, e-mail address and phone
number at the top of the letter. Editors need to
confirm your identity.
•Support your arguments with facts and figures.
•Refer to the article that you’re writing about.
•Stick to the point.
•Divide your text into two to three paragraphs.
•Employ a style which includes appropriate humor
and irony.
•No personal attacks.

17. Layout and example
Class isn’t inevitable
I have always enjoyed Gary
Younge’s articles, both for their
content and style and his article
10th December was no
exception until I came upon his
statement that “by eliminating
the notion that education is a
public good, you eradicate the
primary means by which the
working class can better
themselves”.
hile at first sight, the possibility
f students from such a background
o improve their lot by becoming
iddle- or even upper-class would
ppear to be a very good thing
n itself, the whole idea seems
o suggest /…/
ll I can say is /…/
John Salter
t Etienne du Rouvray, France

18. KISS-RULE
•In all your formal correspondence, the KISS-
rule is relevant: KISS means Keep It Short and
Simple. Never use two sentences when one
will do. Many newspapers state that a letter
to the editor should not exceed 200 words.

20. Activity The Spread of English
Pp 37 - 38
Q2 Read the excerpt from BBC News’ article
”Chirac upset by English address” from Friday,
24th March 2006 on page 38 in Global Paths
or here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4840160.stm
Activity:
After you have read this excerpt from the
article on BBC news’ website, write a Letter to
the Editor where you express your thoughts
about the issues raised in the excerpt.
Video of the incident:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4840000/newsid_4843700/4843768.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm&news=1&bbcws=1