The letter format, whether on paper or on computers, fosters student collaboration and a virtual community. Letters have real audiences, even when those audiences are fictional, as in epistolary novels and imaginative writing assignments. Most adult, non-traditional students (such as those at Tidewater Community College in Virginia) know that letters are a significant communication tool in which attention must be paid to voice and audience. When personal, letters are expressive and intimate; when public, they demand clarity and accuracy for transmitting and recording information. Recent discussions on electronic lists, including W-center, Megabyte University, and the Alliance for Computers in Writing, illustrate the increasing adoption of electronic mail as a tool for communication and collaboration among students. Students write to specific individuals or to designated groups; however, unlike paper letters, which are likely to be read by only the writer and recipient, everything on the computer is truly public and accessible to everyone else. Letter writing is also viable in the literature class where students can write to fictional characters, to authors, to individual classmates, and to the teacher. A number of specific writing assignments developed for composition and literature instruction demonstrate the viability of this form of writing. Even in classes other than English, such as technical or science classes, writing letters is an effective form of learning. (TB)