How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters), Mary Owens Crowther [book series to read txt] 📗

letter, with the salutation and the complimentary close. Headings and signatures have been omitted.

Dear Sir:

A statement is enclosed of your account, which is now past due. A remittance will be appreciated.

Yours truly,

Dear Madam:

We desire to call your attention again to your past-due account for the month of January for $90.52, a statement of which was mailed to you several weeks ago. We shall appreciate receiving your check in payment of this account by return mail.

Very truly yours,

Gentlemen:

Two weeks ago we mailed you a statement of account due at that time, and as we have heard nothing from you we thought it possible that our letter may have miscarried. We are sending you a duplicate of the former statement, which we hope may reach you safely and have your attention.

Very truly yours,

To follow the preceding letter

Gentlemen:

We call your attention to the enclosed statement of account which is now past due. We have sent you two statements previous to this, to which you seem to have given no attention.

It may be possible that you have overlooked the matter, but we hope this will be a sufficient reminder and that you will oblige us with a remittance without further delay.

Very truly yours,

Dear Sir:

We are enclosing a statement of your account and we request as a special favor that you send us a remittance previous to the 28th of this month if possible. The amount is small, but not the less important. We have unusually heavy obligations maturing on the first of next month and you will understand that for the proper conduct of business the flow of credit should not be dammed up.

In looking over your account for the last few months, it occurs to us that we are not getting a great deal of your business. If this is due to any failure or negligence on our part, perhaps you will undertake to show us where we are lacking because we surely want all of your business that we can get.

Very truly yours,

Follow-up letters

Dear Sir:

We wrote you on 18th February and enclosed a statement of your account. We hoped at the time that you would send us a check by return mail. If our account does not agree with your books, kindly let us know at once so that we may promptly adjust the differences.

We hope that you can accommodate us as requested in our previous letter and that we will hear from you by the 10th of March. We again assure you that a remittance at this particular time will be greatly appreciated.

Also please remember that we want your orders, too. Prices on copper wire are likely to make a sharp advance within a few days.

Very truly yours,

January 19, 1921.

Dear Sir:

We are enclosing a statement showing the condition of your account at this writing, and we must ask you to be kind enough to do your utmost to forward us your check by return mail.

Our fiscal year closes January 31st and it is naturally our pride and endeavor to have as many accounts closed and in good standing as is possible for the coming year, and this can materialize only with your kind coöperation.

Very truly yours,

Letters of Application

Application for position as stenographer

648 West 168th Street,

New York, N. Y.,

April 4, 1922.

Mr. B. C. Kellerman,

1139 Broad Street,

New York, N. Y.

Dear Sir:

This may interest you:

I can take dictation at an average rate of 100 words a minute and I can read my notes. They are always accurate. If you will try me, you will find you do not have to repeat any dictation. I never misspell words.

I am nineteen, a high school graduate, quick and accurate at figures. I have a good position now, uptown, but I should prefer to be with some large corporation downtown. I am interested in a position with room at the top.

I am willing to work for $18 a week until I have demonstrated my ability and then I know you will think me worth more.

A letter or a telephone message will bring me in any morning you say to take your morning's dictation, write your letters, and leave the verdict to you.

Will you let me try?

Very truly yours,

Edith Hoyt.

Telephone Riverside 8100

Application for position as secretary

149 East 56th Street,

Chicago, Ill.,

December 1, 1923.

Mr. Ralph Hodge,

Boone & Co.,

2000 So. Michigan Ave.,

Chicago, Ill.

Dear Sir:

This is in answer to your advertisement for a secretary. I have had the experience and training which would, I think enable me satisfactorily to fill such a position. I recognize, of course, that whatever my experience and training have been they would be worse than useless unless they could be modified to suit your exact requirements. (Here set out the experience.)

The lowest salary I have ever received was twelve dollars a week, when I began work. The highest salary I have received was thirty dollars a week, but I think that it would be better to leave the salary matter open until it might be discovered whether I am worth anything or nothing.

Very truly yours,

(Miss) Mary Rogers.

Answer to an advertisement from an applicant who has had no experience

245 East 83rd Street,

Chicago, Ill.

Mr. Ralph Hodge,

Boone & Co.,

2000 So. Michigan Ave.,

Chicago, Ill.

Dear Sir:

This is in answer to your advertisement for a secretary, in which you ask that the experience of the applicant be set forth. I have had no experience whatsoever as a secretary. Therefore, although I might have a great deal to learn, I should have nothing to unlearn.

I understand what is expected of a secretary, and I hope that I have at least the initial qualifications. I have had a fair education, having graduated from Central High School and the Crawford Business Academy, and I have done a great deal of reading. I am told that I can write a good letter. I know that I can take any kind of dictation and that I can transcribe it accurately, and I have no difficulty in writing letters from skeleton suggestions.

Your advertisement does not give the particular sort of business that you are engaged in, but in the course of my reading I have gathered a working knowledge of economics, finance, business practice, and geography, some of which might be useful. I am writing this letter in spite of the fact that you specified that experience was necessary, because one of my friends, who is secretary to a very well-known corporation president, told me that she began in her present place quite without experience and found herself helped rather than handicapped by the lack of it.

I am twenty-two years old and I can give you any personal or social references that you might care for. I have no ideas whatsoever on salary. In fact, it would be premature even to think of anything of the kind. What I am most anxious about is to have a talk with you.

Very truly yours,

(Miss) Margaret Booth.

Applications for position as sales manager

1249 Huntington Ave.,

Boston, Mass.

Mr. Henry Jessup,

White Manufacturing Co.,

89 Milk Street,

Columbus, O.

Dear Sir:

Mr. A. C. Brown of the Bronson Company tells me you are in immediate need of a sales manager for the Western Illinois territory.

Western Illinois offers a promising opportunity for the sale of farm implements and devices. During my experience with the Johnson & Jones Company, I got to know the people of this section very well, and I know how to approach them. The farmers are well-to-do and ready for improvements that will better their homes, lands, and stock. There could not be a better place to start.

As Mr. Brown will tell you, I have been with the Bronson Company for five years. I started as clerk in the credit office, gradually working out into the field—first as investigator, then salesman, and for the last two years as sales manager of the Western Virginia territory. The returns from this field have increased 100 per cent. since I began. With the hearty coöperation of the men on the road, I have built up a system about which I should like to tell you. It would work out splendidly selling Defiance Harrows in Western Illinois.

My home is in Joliet and I want to make my headquarters there. I have no other reason for quitting the Bronson Company, who are very fair as far as salary and advancement are considered.

My telephone number is Cherry 100. A wire or letter will bring me to Columbus to talk with you.

Very truly yours,

Gerald Barbour.

70 Blain Ave.,

Boston, Mass.,

May 4, 1921.

Mr. John Force,

6 Beacon Street,

Boston, Mass.

Dear Sir:

This letter may be of some concern to you. I am not a man out of a job, but have what most men would consider one that is first-class. But I want to change, and if you can give me a little of your time, I will tell you why and how that fact may interest you.

In a word, I have outgrown my present position. I want to get in touch with a business that is wide-awake and progressive; one that will permit me to work out, unhampered, my ideas on office organization and management—ideas that are well-founded, conservative, and efficient. My present position does not give play to initiative.

If you at this time happen to be looking for a man really to manage your office, audit accounts, or take charge of credits, my qualifications and business record will show you that I am able to act in any or all of these capacities.

I have written with confidence because I am sure of myself, and if I undertake to direct your work, you may be assured that it has a big chance of being successful.

If you so desire, I shall be glad to submit references in a personal interview.

Very truly yours,

Clive Drew.

Telephone Winthrop 559-w

Answers to letters of application

HARRISON NATIONAL BANK
TRENTON, N. J.

February 2, 1923.

Mr. James Russell,

63 State Street,

Trenton, N. J.

Dear Sir:

I wish to acknowledge your letter of application of December 8th. At present we have no vacancies of the type you desire. I am, however, placing your application on file.

Very truly yours,

Samuel Caldwell.

HARRISON NATIONAL BANK
TRENTON, N. J.

February 2, 1923.

Mr. James Russell,

63 State Street,

Trenton, N. J.

Dear Sir:

I wish to acknowledge your letter of application of December 8th. At present we have no vacancies of the type that you desire. However, I should be very glad to have a talk with you on December 12th at my office at four o'clock.

Very truly yours,

Samuel Caldwell.

Letters of Reference

Letter asking for reference

468 Walnut Street,

Philadelphia, Pa.,