This year marks the English novelist's 250th birthday. Her hundreds of surviving letters—both real and fictional—offer ...

Here is a common scene: A supervisor agrees to write your letter of recommendation with one condition—you draft it. Shocker. We, too, were surprised the first time this happened to us. We assumed ...

For the past couple of years, Courtney Cochran hosted a Nashville-based meetup group called the Snail Mail Social Club. Before the pandemic, it involved people gathering, pen and paper in hand, to ...

Writing romantic love letters can feel like a prehistoric practice these days—where do you even get stamps? (Kidding. Kind of.) But for most of human history, if you wanted to express your feelings to ...

This article originally appear in October 1984 issue of Town & Country. I am not among those who believe that letter writing is dead. My idea of heaven, in fact, is having at least four letters to ...

Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” It’s a good reminder: It does take time to write a short, well-crafted letter. I know the challenge ...

This is part of Help! Wanted, a special series from Slate advice. In the advising biz, there are certain eternal dilemmas that bedevil letter writers and columnists alike. This week, we’re taking them ...

Good tidings to you! I write this letter today to tell you: personal writing is tough. Sure, elementary school might have taught us about structure and form — the textbooks say a well-composed letter ...

The cover letter is its own unique, dreaded genre of writing. In a few — often formulaic — paragraphs, job applicants must accomplish several things: prostrate themselves at the feet of hiring ...

Summer stretches before us, with all its potential for meeting research and writing goals. But if you’re going on the faculty-job market for the first time — as a recent Ph.D. or an advanced doctoral ...

One bright October day I dropped a letter in the mailbox. It was addressed simply to “Mary, volunteer at the Wild Gardens of Acadia.” The letter would travel from the Carolinas, where I live, all the ...

Concerned about a friend or a loved one who may be feeling the winter doldrums? Try writing them a gratitude letter. By Gina Hamadey If you are looking to make someone — even yourself — feel better ...