ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at prescription and practice in letter-writing, a variety of graphic language that is rich in convention, and where rules have been adapted for a wide audience; professional and lay people and for a range of contexts, business and social. There are many reasons why people may turn to rule books for guidance on letter-writing: concern with 'doing the right thing' when writing in an unfamiliar social context or as part of a wider programme of learning a particular style of handwriting. One of the biggest influences on the visual organisation of correspondence was undoubtedly the technology used to produce it. The prescriptions for the visual attributes of letter-writing in letter-writing, handwriting and typing manuals, are discussed in relation to particular social and technical parameters. This is followed by two case studies that present a methodology for describing aspects of the practice of letter-writing, followed by a discussion of the conventions people actually use when writing letters.
