Checks are used to pay bills or to buy goods or services. According to Wikipedia, a check is a "negotiable instrument instructing a financial institution to pay a specific amount of a specific currency from a specified demand account held in the maker/depositor's name with that institution."

Many people today prefer to pay their bills electronically through the Internet. However, there are still many people who prefer to use paper checks. Paper checks are not going to disappear soon so it is important that you know how to write a check.

1. Write your name on the top left hand side of the check. You can get this pre-printed on the checks you order from your bank.
2. Write the proper date in the space provided on the right hand side of the check.
3. Fill in the "pay to the order of" area with the name of the person or company to whom you are sending the check.
   
4. Fill in the dollar amount you wish to make the check out for in the box on the right side of the check (it usually has a $ sign at the beginning and contains a decimal point.) Make sure the numbers are close together and right up against the decimal point so they can't be manipulated.
5. Write out the dollar amount (ie. one hundred dollars) and write any cents in as a fraction of 100 (please see the above illustration.) Make sure you draw a line from where you stop writing to the cents area so that it can't be manipulated.
   
6. Fill in the memo field in the bottom left of the check with either an account number for the bill you are paying or information on what the check was for.
7. Sign your name in the provided field on the bottom right of the check. Make sure you use a similar signature to the one your bank has on record.

And there you have it, how to write a check. If you make a mistake on any of the fields in the check you can fix it, but initial it so that the bank knows you are aware that a change was made on the check.