As the letters of Ovid and Cicero cited above show the letter is an inherently emotional mode of writing. Even in letters concerning mundane matters: the language [should low] along Like the clear water of a spring with a pleasant, gentle murmur, and ... not seem dead and sluggish Like fen water, devoid of all emotion' as Desiderius Erasmus explained in his treatise 'On the Art of Writing Letters' (De conscribendis epistolis, I522).' Both of these letters are written in emotion-rich language designed to lead the reader to imagine emotional turmoil, but there is a key difference between Cicero's letter to his friend Atticus and Dryden's translation of Canaces letter to her brother-lover Macareus composed by Ovid, One began its life as an actual missive, and the other is a representation of a letter crafted for a wider read

Langston Hughes's 'Letter' is a brief verse epistle, or letter poem, from Joe to his Mama which deploys the rhetoric and devices of letter-writing for emotional effect. Like a letter, it opens with a salutation: 'Dear Mama'; it closes with a subscription and signature: 'Your son baby/ Respectfully as ever, / Joe'; and the contents are positioned in between. The purpose is simple: Joe writes to send money to his mother. Five dollars is not much he admits, but it is what he can afford. He presents his gift as a representation of his affection; he relays his girlfriend's best wishes and her desire to meet his Mama; and he describes the weather. Hughes's poem exhibits the letter-writer's desire tinged with sadness to maintain the warmth of face-to-face familiarities in spite of distance.

From hate mail to suicide notes to begging letters, this book explores the relationship between letter writing and emotion through case studies from antiquity to the 21st century. It shows how the epistolary form has offered a wide range of ways to communicate private feelings, make public statements and offers a rich historical source to explore how people have performed emotions for a range of audiences.

Emotions and the Letter shows how this long-standing historical source can provide insights into a diversity of emotion traditions. Uses of the letter in different periods and its emotional potential reflect important interactions between individuals and society, private and public, aesthetics and authenticity. Applying approaches and methods from the history of emotions, literary studies and affect studies, this collection significantly advances our understanding of why letters remain a critical mode of communication and explores how to analyse letters for historical emotions research.

Stage theories of professional development suggest movement through different phases, from some sort of (potentially difficult) induction to more confident displays of professional expertise. Primarily using teacher development as an example, the role of reflective practice in career development is explored in this chapter, especially its role in encouraging progression from experience to expertise. Self-reflection is not guaranteed to lead to professional development; input from 'educators' (supervisors, mentors and other colleagues) is normally required. Some scaffolds that can be used by educators to guide analysis and reflection include Brookfield's lenses, Professional Standards, practical experiences, educational frameworks such as Bloom's Taxonomy and Multiple Intelligences, role reversal, and knowledge of how people learn. Ways to use these scaffolds are discussed.