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 ...

"What is healing, but a shift in perspective?” — Mark Doty, Heaven’s Coast Transactional writing — or letter writing — gets you beyond what you thought you could not get over. With all the other ways ...

The art of letter writing is not dead. Rachel Syme, a New Yorker staff writer, learned that during the early days of the pandemic. Longing for human connection, she asked her followers on social media ...

A few years ago, I wrote “A Letter to College Students (From All Profs)” in which I provided advice to students about how to ask for letters of recommendation. Interestingly, just as students do not ...

I was interested in the Dec. 16 Sun Spots about Christmas cards, letters, and pen pals. Not too long ago, I exchanged Christmas cards with 450 friends and family members. We have lost many of them and ...

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 ...

Last week we dropped my two sons off at their first overnight camp. They are 9 and 11. They will spend almost a month there, and we will be here, at home, feeling weird about things. Since the only ...

For centuries, biographers have been able to rely on a priceless resource when it comes to 18th, 19th and 20th century figures: their subjects’ epistolary correspondence. But things will be different ...