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

you at any time or to answer any further inquiries.

Yours very truly,

Pine Grove Lodge.

If you should receive an inquiry for advice, opinion, or information, which you do not care, for some reason, to give, you should at least reply stating that you cannot comply with the request, in as courteous a manner as possible.

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CHAPTER VIII THE USE OF FORM PARAGRAPHS

A considerable part of the day's run of correspondence in a business office has to do with not more than half-a-dozen subjects. Quotations will be asked for. Tenders will be made. Complaints will be made and received. Adjustments of various kinds will be done, and so on, through a list that varies with the particular business of the office. It is advisable to keep the tone of correspondence on a fairly uniform level. Therefore if each letter has to be individually dictated, only a man mentally equipped to write letters can do the dictating. The time of such a man is expensive and often might better be devoted to other matters. Hence the invention of what is known as a form paragraph, which is a standardized paragraph that can be used with slight variations as a section of a great many letters.

The result is that most routine mail does not have to be dictated. A letter is merely read, the essential facts dictated or noted on the letter itself, and certain symbols added which tell the stenographer the form paragraphs that are to be used. The letter is then almost mechanically produced. Some companies have gone so extensively into the writing of form paragraphs that they have sections covering practically every subject that can arise. This possibly carrying the idea too far. Convenience may become inconvenience, and there is of course always the danger of getting in a slightly unsuitable paragraph which will reveal to the reader that the letter has not been personally dictated. However, a certain number of form paragraphs considerably reduces the cost of letter writing and also conduces to the raising of the standards, for the mere reading of well-phrased form letters will often induce in an otherwise poor correspondent a certain regard for clear expression.

The proper form paragraphs that any concern may profitably use are a matter of specific investigation. The way to get at the list of useful forms is to take all of the letters received and all of the letters written during, say, one or two months and then classify them. A number of letters will have to do with purely individual cases. These letters should be discarded. They are letters which would have to be personally dictated in any event and there is no use wasting time composing forms for them. The remaining letters will fall into divisions, and through these divisions it will become apparent what points in the correspondence arise so frequently and in so nearly the same form as to be capable of being expressed in form paragraphs.

There will probably be a number of subjects which can be covered fully by two or three form letters, but a nicer adjustment will usually be had by thinking of form paragraphs rather than of form letters, for skillfully drawn and skillfully used form paragraphs will so closely simulate the personal letter as to leave no doubt in the mind of the reader that considerable trouble has been taken to put the matter before him courteously and exactly.

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CHAPTER IX CHILDREN'S LETTERS

Children's letters may be written on ordinary stationery, but it adds a good deal of interest to their letter writing if they may use some of the several pretty, special styles to be had at any good stationer's.

The following examples of children's letters include:

Letter of invitation from a child to a child.

Letter of invitation from a parent to a child.

Letter from a parent to a parent inviting a child.

Letter of thanks to an aunt for a gift.

Letter to a sick playmate.

Letter to a teacher.

Letter to a grandmother on her birthday.

Invitation to a birthday party

April 14, 1921.

Dear Frank:

I am going to have a birthday party next Friday afternoon, from three-thirty until six o'clock. I hope you will come and help us to have a good time.

Sincerely yours,

Harriet Evans.

500 Park Avenue

Accepting

439 Manhattan Avenue,

April 16, 1921.

Dear Harriet:

It is so kind of you to ask me to your birthday party next Friday afternoon. I shall be very glad to come.

Sincerely yours,

Frank Dawson.

Regretting

439 Manhattan Avenue,

April 16, 1921.

Dear Harriet:

I am very sorry that I cannot go to your birthday party on next Friday. My mother is taking me to visit my cousin, so I shall be away.

Thank you for asking me. I hope you will all have a great deal of fun.

Sincerely yours,

Frank Dawson.

Invitation from a parent to a child

Dear Ethel:

The twins are going to have a little party on Friday afternoon and they would like you to come. Can you come at three-thirty?

Tell your mother we will arrange that you get home at six.

Cordially yours,

Katherine G. Evans.

From a parent to another parent

Dear Mrs. Heywood:

Dorothy will have a birthday on Tuesday, the thirteenth of June. We are planning, if the weather is fine, to have a lawn party. Otherwise we shall have it in the house. She hopes that you will let Madeline come and I am sure they will all have a good time.

If you send Madeline at four I will see that she returns home at six.

Cordially yours,

Bernice Lawson Grant.

To a friend

Bellville,

Lancaster County, Pa.,

June 14, 1922.

Dear Bob:

Will you visit us on the farm during your summer vacation? Father has bought me a boat and we can go fishing and swimming. Mabel has a pony and I know she will let us ride him.

Please let me know if you may come and if you may stay two weeks.

Sincerely yours,

Roger Palmer.

Thanks for a gift:

159 West Tenth Street.

December 12, 1921.

Dear Aunt Louise:

You were wonderful to think of sending me those fine skates for my birthday. They are just the kind I wanted and I wish to thank you. I shall take good care of them.

Your affectionate nephew,

John Orr.

To a sick playmate

46 Elmwood Avenue,

June 16, 1922.

Dear Dorothy:

I am so sorry you are ill, but your mother says you are getting better. If you like, I shall let you have my book with the poem called "The Land of Counterpane." It is about a sick little boy who is playing with his toy soldiers and people and villages. In the picture they seem to be making him forget he is sick.

All the boys and girls hope you will soon be out to play again.

Sincerely yours,

Betty Foster.

To a teacher

500 Park Avenue,

New York, N. Y.,

February 8, 1920.

Dear Miss Sewell:

I want to thank you for your kindness in helping me with my studies, especially arithmetic. Without your help I should not have been able to pass my examinations.

Mother asks that you will come some day next week to take tea with us.

Sincerely yours,

Susan Evans.

To a grandparent

Dear Grandmother:

I wish you a very happy birthday and I hope you will like the present I sent you. Mother helped me to make it.

I send you my best love.

Your loving grandchild,

Evelyn.

Here is a charming letter[17] that Helen Keller when she was ten years of age wrote to John Greenleaf Whittier on the occasion of his birthday:

South Boston, Dec. 17, 1890.

Dear Kind Poet,

This is your birthday; that was the first thought which came into my mind when I awoke this morning; and it made me glad to think I could write you a letter and tell you how much your little friends love their sweet poet and his birthday. This evening they are going to entertain their friends with readings from your poems and music. I hope the swift winged messengers of love will be here to carry some of the sweet melody to you, in your little study by the Merrimac. At first I was very sorry when I found that the sun had hidden his shining face behind dull clouds, but afterwards I thought why he did it, and then I was happy. The sun knows that you like to see the world covered with beautiful white snow and so he kept back all his brightness, and let the little crystals form in the sky. When they are ready, they will softly fall and tenderly cover every object. Then the sun will appear in all his radiance and fill the world with light. If I were with you to-day I would give you eighty-three kisses, one for each year you have lived. Eighty-three years seems very long to me. Does it seem long to you? I wonder how many years there will be in eternity. I am afraid I cannot think about so much time. I received the letter which you wrote to me last summer, and I thank you for it. I am staying in Boston now at the Institution for the Blind, but I have not commenced my studies yet, because my dearest friend, Mr. Anagnos, wants me to rest and play a great deal.

Teacher is well and sends her kind remembrance to you. The happy Christmas time is almost here! I can hardly wait for the fun to begin! I hope your Christmas Day will be a very happy one and that the New Year will be full of brightness and joy for you and every one.

From your little friend

Helen A. Keller.