Looking at letters

What can letters tell us?By reading between the lines of letters we can learn a lot about the social, historical, political and cultural contexts in which the letter was written.The writers of letters also give away information about their own attitudes and values through the way that they write. 4 questions to ask when first reading a letter: Who has written this letter?Who was the intended recipient of this letter?When was this letter written?Why was this letter written?These 4 basic questions will help you to start to uncover the deeper meanings within letters.Now click on the 'Unlocking a Letter' quiz opposite to complete 5 activities which use the 4 questions to unlock the deeper meanings in Frank Kelly's letter.

Exploring the language of letters Once we have unlocked some of the hidden meanings in a letter by asking the 4 basic questions above, we need to look, in detail at the language used in the letter to develop our interpretations of these hidden meanings in more detail.Again, a series of 4 questions can help us to do this:What is the general tone of the letter?What does the language suggest about he attitudes and values of the writer?What does the language suggest about the relationship between writer and recipient?Is the language used what we would expect from a letter written at this time and between these people?Now click on the 'Exploring Language' quiz opposite to complete a series of tasks using these question to explore language used in letters in more detail.