According to Simoni (2004), there are two standards for the query-letter genre in Folha de S. Paulo and O Globo Brazilian Journals, direct and indirect, as the answers are quoted or reported in the third movement: 'provide an answer.' Based on relevance theory, the 68 query-letters collected in Simoni's work were reanalyzed in this study, indicating that relevance relations allow us to refine this distinction and the definition of the genre itself. Therefore, query-letters are reader's letters, published in specific sections of a newspaper, containing a query or demand, whose answers or replicas of editorial staffs, specialists or involved entities are quoted or reported. Query-letters with direct answers are reader's letters, containing queries, whose answers of editorial staff or specialists are quoted; and query-letters with indirect answers are reader's letters, containing demands or consultations, whose satisfaction or responses of the involved entities are reported.