The Art of the Personal Letter: A Guide to Connecting Through the Written Word

Although some of this book's technical advice may seem out of date, the advice for the content of your letters is timeless and encouraging. The most important message is that the letter you've been putting off will probably be fine, and you should just get going and write it.That said, the ebook edition has a concerning limitation. Many of the example letters are presented as images of handwritten documents, and these images are so low-resolution they can often not be deciphered.

Great book! Only "trouble" is I do not Write emails. Just regular letters, because I find it more personal and simply because I was corresponding since age 17(am 41 years old now). There are great advices in this book. Yes I do have special Parker pen for letters. The Author she written many books before and it's one more of her remarkable books. There are some great advices in the book like choosewriting format and proof reading a letter as well as analyzing the writer's artistic Choices or ingrained habits that accentuate who they are. I find it important to always refer's to the writer and than to me and try to ask why he/she like particular artist and just respond them, because far too many people Write almost entirely on themselves and only than remember you exist. Writing is an art, and Margaret's book is precious tool to learn from. It got honourable place in my book shelf. so here's a '5' stars!

I have been teaching creative writing for the last twenty years. Over the last three years I have worked with young girls at a small private middle school for refugee families from Africa. It's amazing how quickly they can pick up on e-mail and texting. My fear was that they would never know the joy of writing a note or a hand written letter. I am a watercolor artist and create notecards (backofthemoonnotecards.com) and I decided to run a workshop having the girls create their own notecards and learn how to write a note and address it.After having read Ms. Shepherd's book, I knew it would be the perfect instructional tool. She has been extremely supportive and I truly apprecicate her help and encouragement.The workshop begins in the beginning of March. I know it will be a great success because I have the perfect guide.Mary Mullett-Flynn

I really like how the book is laid out. It is very clear and concise and answered all of the questions and concepts I was puzzled about. It will live right by my writing desk.

An emphasis of the quality of a hand written letter and penmanship. If your tired of the digital, email age. This book is for you.

I write lots of letters and thought I was pretty good however. I learned a lot more about bringing more personality to my thoughts

Not a back book, but is not what I expected for myself. I would say it would be a very good book for beginners. Most of the advice I feel is kind of intuitive or obvious. At least for me. Still, there are a few things here and there that might be useful for those who are a bit more experience in the art of personal letter writing.

Margaret Shepherd's practical personal-touch advice in our overly tech-driven world.