The Power of a Personal Letter

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With Twitter, Facebook, and email always at our fingertips, personal letters are a rarity. Yet, we all love to receive them. Today, putting away my textbooks and teaching notes to begin my teaching sabbatical (to fully enjoy my daughter’s last year of high school), I was moved — again — by a handwritten note from one of my students: “Thank you for sharing your dreams and struggles. Knowing them makes you more approachable and helps me when I struggle because I know you really understand me.” 

Her note, like others I’ve received over the years, was inspired by a letter I wrote for my College Composition students and share with them the first week of the semester:  

Dear Writing Students,

I was only six years old, living in my native Mexico City, when I became a teacher. I remember coming home from school to line up my stuffed animals and my younger sister in neat rows, so I could teach them everything I learned as a first grader. At the beginning of the next school year, when it was time for my sister to go to school, the pricipal informed my bewildered parents that she needed to be promoted to second grade, for she could read, write, add, and subtract as well as her older sister. Teaching has been my passion ever since.  

Teaching English Composition is very close to my heart because it was in an English Composition classroom that I found my voice. There I wrote my first essay, “Never Let Your Husband Teach You How to Drive,” which began as a journal entry cataloging my memory of a frustrating experience: learning how to drive under my husband’s tutelage. As I discovered that I could articulate my ideas through writing, I became more and more interested in the revision process. The first draft I turned in to my professor was draft number six for me.

It was in the third week of class that I learned about hard work and revision when I discovered that E. B. White had revised six times a one-paragraph comment he wrote for The New Yorker after the July 20, 1969, moon-walk by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. –  If E. B. White revised anything six times, I had to do at least the same. The most important lesson I learned in the process was that compelling writing rarely springs off a pen like water from a well —  I learned that producing compelling writing is a process, a journey, and a discovery.  

Amazingly, one of my greatest discoveries as a college freshman was that writing is hard. “Writing is hard” were the first words I heard from my teacher, the only words I concretely remember from him, and the only words that have given me and continue to give me comfort when I face, yet again, a white page staring back at me. They comfort me because they remind me that I am not incompetent, that the same horrifying page has stared back at E. B White, and that, eventually, after all the hard work, my writing will be clear, at the very least — but potentially compelling.

Writing is hard. A universal promise — three simple words – was the greatest gift from a writing teacher to a potential writer; accepting them (being willing to take that yoke) has made me an effective writer. This is a reminder I want to pass on to you, my students.  

As your writing teacher, I also want to demystify writing for you. And to do so, I’m willing to be transparent…

I will continue to share my writing with you, and you will know that I still struggle with the same obstacles you encounter: what do I write about? How do I organize my thoughts? How do I make sure my audience understands my meaning? Does this comma really go here (although I know the comma rules). Am I missing one? How do I punctuate this elaborate sentence? Should I play it safe and go with a simple sentence instead?

Of course, you will discover, sooner or later, that even as an English teacher, I occasionally still battle with some language issues, such as the use of prepositions (in some cases) — which means I, too, need an editor. You will also realize, if you haven’t already, that when I teach I don’t always sound brilliant, that sometimes I still say “bold” when I mean “bald” or “chick” when I mean “cheek.”

But most importantly, I want you to be encouraged, knowing that if someone who didn’t begin learning English until the age of 16 can learn how to write effectively, you most certainly can. My hope is that when our class is over, you will walk away with something of greater value than a grade. My prayer is that you will discover your writing voice and the power it has to impact this world – and that you will want to use it to that end.

Sharing this letter with my students has become a tradition that began the first year I taught this class as a graduate teaching assistant. Every year I teach, I spend considerable time reinventing my teaching by incorporating fresh and thought-provoking readings, writing exercises, teaching strategies, and technology tools that can help me remain relevant and capture the attention of today’s students.  Surprisingly, this letter continues to be an effective staple for the class — it is, for the most part, the one lesson students remember after sixteen weeks.

Over the years, I’ve used personal letters to express love, show appreciation, deliver apologies, begin confrontations, restore friendships, and offer hope…  Personal letters may never be publishable or profitable (financially speaking), but they can be powerful.  As the old proverb says, “The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.”  Indeed, Apostle Paul, the most prolific and influential Christian letter writer in history, would agree.

How about you? Has a personal note or letter touched your life? Is there a letter waiting to be written… by you?  Share your thoughts with us.