If you already strongly prefer one medium over the other, you might need to pay extra attention to the one that you don’t have much experience using. If you think e-mail is always preferable, you’ll want to take care to work on your handwriting. You’ll probably even want to write out a full draft, proofread it, and then rewrite it carefully until you can avoid problems with grammar or spelling and with complete, full sentences.

Use whatever strategies you think might be successful; the questions and the readings that follow will help you develop some possible ways to convince your reader to step, with at least one foot, into unfamiliar territory. You’ll need to work with two PACT tables to support the two separate texts.

As you work with each PACT table, you’ll want to spend time making connections to and developing the Purpose section: You know what the purpose is, but what things about your audience (people who prefer letters or people who prefer e-mail) can you draw on or work with to write a successful letter?

Think about the type of language that will work best for each text. You know that both Grandpa Dan and Grandma Rose pay attention to detail. The texts you get from both of them are friendly and informal but don’t contain spelling errors and are written in what you might call “informal, US, business English,” roughly the equivalent of “casual Fridays” in the workplace: khaki pants and polo shirts, not board shorts and tank tops. In other words, a style somewhat like you’re reading in this textbook.