How Letters Establish a Permanent Record

This article is in reponse to the question about letters providing a permanent record.

Hi Sidraamin!

Thanks a million for your intriguing questions. It is a marvelous thing to know that people from Pakistan are finding my website, and apparently, benefiting from it. I am glad that I am helping people from all over the world. It is certainly a great privilege.

Now let me tackle your two questions.

Your first question was:

 “Explain how a letter establishes a permanent record?”

Your question in itself brings out a very important detail, namely that a letter establishes a permanent record of a transaction or event.

This is certainly the advantage of letter writing to other means of correspondence. They provide a hard copy record that can be conveniently filed away and referred to whenever it calls for it. One of the advantages of letter writing that I list on my letter writing page is:

So the permanentness of the record is the fact that it is in hard copy, that is, printed or written on paper.

Hard copy has an authority about it that soft copy can never have. In other words, when something is not written or printed on paper it is not that real, or at least to the average individual.

Of course, we are now living in a cyber world, where hard copy letters are diminishing, with more and more people favouring emails and text messages. But the truth is that, it is often difficult to keep records of such emails and text messages. True you can store them in electronic form on your computer or other storage devices, but they appear to be more permanent and convenient if they are printed out and filed away.

In the business world, a letter, along with several other documents, is proof of a transaction, or validates such a transaction. And even for you, you still have to provide an application letter or other documents of certification when seeking for a job or anything else along those lines. Since those documents are on paper, they are accepted as true, and they can be conveniently stored away for future use or reference. Yes, they provide a permanent record in that sense.

In fact, the definition of hard copy is material printed out on paper, providing a more permanent record.

Correspondence also provides records about people’s lives, views and other details crucial to compiling accurate historical records. In the normal conversations that people have in letters, a lot of details come to light about the culture and way of life of people at the time. They also provide useful information to historians about important dates in history, giving a basis for establishing such dates.

An example is that of the date that historians say ancient Babylon was destroyed, 587 B.C.E. Such a date is arrived at by looking at the chronicles kept by people like Ptolemy, and confirmed by the business correspondence that has been unearthed from such a time.

So as you can see, letters are not only important to the people directly involved in such correspondence, but they also keep a record that future generations can find useful.

Now, coming to your second question:

“How could cultural bias differ from racial or ethnic bias?”

I smiled when I saw this question, and in my mind, I was thinking: ‘What, in the very least does this have to do with writing?’

But since you asked it, and I promised to answer your question, let me do it, though I am wondering what prompted you to ask this question. It would be nice if you fill me in.

Culture, according to the Encarta dictionary, refers to the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behaviour of a particular nation or people.

Therefore, cultural bias refers to the unfair relegation of a group of people based on their practices and held values, and not necessarily on who they are. In fact, cultural bias is the same as ethnic bias, considering that an ethnic group is a group of people that share a culture.

On the other hand, racial bias refers to the relegation of a particular type of people based on their race. One may not have any issues with their culture or way or life. He may just hate them for who they are, and not necessarily what they do.

Let me give an example.

Some one may be African, and he finds himself living in a community of white people. Even if he actually fits in, and behaves like they do, some of them may actually have a problem with the fact that they have a black person living among them. This is an example of racial bias.

Now imagine that the African does not fit in and continues with his way of life. If he is hated for not fitting in, then this would be cultural or ethnic bias.

So basically, the plain difference between the two is that one is hatred for what the person does and believes in, whereas the other is simply hatred for who the person is.

I certainly hope that I have answered your question, Sidraamin.

I cannot wait to hear from you.

Cheers!

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