Overall, writing in Spanish isn't very different. You can use the same formats you've always relied on when composing poems, short stories, essays, and other forms of writing. None of these forms are very rigid in their structure and there aren't really any conventions you need to be aware of.

The one exception to this rule is letter-writing. Learning how to compose formal and informal letters will come in handy if you'd like to have a Spanish-speaking pen-pal, if you're planning to study or work abroad, or if your business has international branches and you need to communicate with them for professional reasons.

Formal Letters

Begin your letter by writing the place (where you are) and date in the top right hand corner. You can use the following format:

Nueva York, 2 de enero de 2005

Buenos Aires, 20 de marzo de 2006

Springfield, Ohio, 15 de septiembre de 2007

Next, include the “dear -” line. If you know whom you're writing to, you can simply use Señor (or Señora/Señores/Señoras); another option is to add estimado (esteemed):

Estimado Señor

Estimada Señora

Estimados Señores

Estimadas Señoras

If the addressee is unknown, you can write A quien corresponda (to whom it may concern). The biggest difference here is that there's no punctuation (comma or colon) at the end of this line.

Insert an extra space and continue with the body of the letter. There are no rules here. Write down what needs to be communicated and don't forget to be polite and use the usted/ustedes form of address.

To close the letter, choose any of the following formal closings:

Atentamente	Sincerely
Atentos saludos de	Sincere greetings from
Un cordial saludo	A cordial greeting

Again, there's no punctuation following the closing. Simply sign your name underneath. If you need to add a post scriptum (P.S.) line, it should be labeled P.D. (post data).