Letter to the Editor

Letter to the editor

Letter to the editor is written piece of composition. It is a way of talking to a newspaper, magazine, or other regularly printed publication. Letter to the editors are generally found in the first section of the newspaper, or towards the beginning of a magazine, or in the editorial page. They can take a position for or against an issue, or simply inform or both. They can convince readers by using emotions or facts or emotion and facts combined. Letters to the editors are usually short and tight with important ideas or points.

It may be on different topics. It can have an endless variety of issues. In class 8 you may be asked to write a letter on the given topic in about 150 words. Similarly in classes 9 and 10, you may be asked to write a letter on the given topic in about 200 words and in classes 11 and 12, you are asked to write a letter in about 300 words. Therefore, the content of the letter varies from one level to another.

Parts of letter to the editor:

Generally, there are mainly eight parts in letter to the editor. They are:

1.     Sender's address

2.     Date below the address

3.     Receiving editor's address

4.     Subject of the letter

5.     Salutation (Dear sir)

6.     The Body,

a.      Introduce yourself and the purpose of writing the letter

b.     Details of the topic

c.      Concluding ideas or ending

7.     Complimentary closing

8.     Sender's name, Signature and designation

Sender's address

At the beginning you should write the address of the sender on the top corner of the right-hand side. In this section, you can include your email id and phone number also.

Date

Under it you have to write the date. For higher grades students, the address and the date may be given in the question.

Receiving Editors address

In this section you can begin like "To, The Editor (in Chief)." Then you can write the name of the newspaper and its address.

Subject of the letter

In this section, you can write the subject of the letter to the editor. You can easily get subject from the question. You can begin the subject like " About the problem of…………."

 

Salutation

After writing the address of the receiver's news desk, you have to write salutation like "Dear Sir/ Madam" or "Respected Sir/ Madam" etc.

Body

This is the main part of the letter. It may be written in three parts like opening, main message and closing. In the opening part, you can introduce yourself. You can also add the purpose of your writing. In the second part, you can write the details of the topic. It is the main body of the letter. There may be more paragraphs in this part. The paragraphs should be well connected. You can expand the body according to your level. Suppose you are the student of grade 8, you can write the body in about 100 words. If you are the student of grade 9 or 10 you can write the body in about 150 words and if you are the student of grade 11 or 12, you can expand the body in about 200 words containing some paragraphs. The paragraphs of the second part of the body depend on the words which the paragraphs contain. In the third part of the body, you can conclude or end the letter.

         

Complementary Closing:

In complimentary close you can write the words such as "Sincerely yours, Best Regards, Yours etc. which conventionally appear before the sender's signature or name at the end of a letter, email, or similar text. Also called a complimentary closing, close, valediction, or signoff.

Sender's name and signature

Generally, we write the name of the sender here. It is written under complementary closing. Then we write the signature. Under signature the designation of the sender is also written under it.

1. Write a letter in about 150 words, to the editor in chief of The Kathmandu Post about the problem on water supply in your local area.   

Khairahani-4, Chainpur,

Chitwan

4th July, 2021

To

The Editor in Chief

The Kathmandu Post

Kathmandu, Nepal

 

 Subject: About the problem of water supply in my local area.

 

Dear Sir,

       I am Dev Prasad Pandit, a local resident from Chainpur village of Khirahani Municipality. I shall feel highly obliged and favoured if the following lines are published in your esteemed daily newspaper under the column "Letter to the Editor". 

      The name of my village is Chainpur. It lies in the eastern part of Chitwan district. There are so many problems in my locality. One of them is the problem of water supply. In my area the water supply is not regular. It has been cut without any notice. This has caused a lot of inconvenience to the villagers. In the dry season, people need more water for drinking, bathing and even for sprinkling. But Many of the people have to go out without a bath daily. They cannot get water for washing their clothes. As a result of it, life has become miserable. People stand in queues waiting for water. For the people who go to the offices, it has become quite strenuous. There is no other source of getting water because even the hand pumps do not work properly.  

     I’d like to draw the attention of the concerned authority and the government to solve this problem. If immediate steps are not taken, it may result in many diseases and water famine. The authorities should take some steps for restoring the regular supply of water.

          Yours truly,

Dev Prasad Pandit