Writing Hand-Written Letter: A Handwritten Letter

The innate behavior of communication is unique when referring to human beings. According to Robert M. Krauss, “A species ' survival depends critically upon its ability to communicate effectively, and the quality of its social life is determined in large measure by how and what it can communicate,” (Krauss, 2002). The variability and flexibility of language and its medium dictate how the message’s subliminal meaning and quality will be received. Language allows human communication to be transcribed onto many diverse platforms. Krauss stated, “All communication systems, regardless of how simple or complicated they may be, operate on the same principle: Signals transmit messages from a source to a destination,” (Krauss, 2002). It is society, however,

The letter that I hand wrote for this assignment was to my grandma. It included a “thank you” for her donation to my sorority’s philanthropic event, explanation of how much money we raised at the philanthropy show, who won Big Man On Campus, questions of how she is, and a statement of how much I missed and loved her. While writing the letter, I felt very “old-fashioned”. In today’s society, not many people take the time to sit down and write a handwritten letter with pen and paper. Handwritten letters resonate a sense of compassion and are very sentimental in nature. The letter, itself, is not what is important; it is the writer and effort behind it

The medium on which this conversation occurs carries different societal weights. Handwritten letters and private messages both are text-based mediums, but carry a different reaction based on the society that it is communicated in. Fulk explains this concept: “symbolic features need not be fixed attributes of a medium. The symbolic meanings may well arise, be sustained, and evolve through on-going processes of joint sensemaking within social systems,” (Fulk, 1993, p 922). Today, humanity has veered away from personalized communication and has taken advantage of technology’s ability of efficiency. Krauss asserts, “It is through the versatility of language that communication is possible within the constraints of society,” (Krauss, 2002, p 11). Whatever the medium, communication is essential to survival will always be dictated by society through the structure of language and