How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) Part 24

Is the cellar dry?

Where is the laundry?

When can the house be ready for occupancy?

I should like to have the facts as soon as you can furnish them.

Very truly yours, George M. Hall.

_Inquiry concerning house for purchase_

345 Amsterdam Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., May 10, 1921.

Wheaton Manor Development Co., Dobbs Ferry, New York.

Gentlemen:

Will you let me know without delay, if possible, if you have any property in your immediate neighborhood fulfilling the following requirements:

House--Twelve rooms, four bathrooms, and sun porch. A modern house of stucco and half-timber construction preferred.

Ground--about five acres, part woodland, part cleared; lawn, vegetable, and flower garden.

Distance from railroad station--not more than fifteen minutes' ride.

I do not want to pay more than $25,000.

I shall be here until the twentieth of the month. After that a reply will reach me at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York.

Very truly yours, Jerome Hutchinson.

_Inquiry concerning a child at school_:

1842 Riverside Drive, New York, N. Y., February 10, 1922.

My dear Professor Ritchie,

My son John's report for the term just closed is far from satisfactory. While I do not expect perfection from him, I think--in fact, I know--he is capable of better work than is shown by his present rating.

I observe that he did not pa.s.s in mathematics, a subject in which he was always first in the elementary school. My first thought was that possibly he was not physically well, but his activity in athletics would seem to refute this. This leads me to another thought--perhaps he is giving too much time and interest to athletics. What is your opinion and what course would you recommend?

Would it be possible by coaching to have him make up the required averages?

As I am leaving New York in two weeks for an extended trip, I would like to take some steps toward improving his scholars.h.i.+p status. Will you let me hear from you as soon as possible?

Very truly yours, John Crandall.

_Letter ordering Easter gifts from a magazine shopping service_

Quogue, Long Island, March 27, 1922.

Standard Shopping Service, 100 West 38th Street, New York, N. Y.

Gentlemen:

I enclose my check for $25.00 for which please send by express the following articles to

Miss Dorothea Allen Sunrise Lodge Highland, Pa.

Two sterling silver candlesticks in Colonial pattern at $12.50 each, on Page 178, March issue.

Or if you cannot secure them, will you purchase as second choice

Two jars in Kashan ware, with blue as the predominating color?

Very truly yours, Laura Waite.

(Mrs. Herbert Waite)

CHAPTER VII

THE BUSINESS LETTER

A reporter was sent out on a big story--one of the biggest that had broken in many a day. He came back into the office about eight o'clock all afire with his story. He was going to make a reputation on the writing of it. He wanted to start off with a smas.h.i.+ng first paragraph--the kind of lead that could not help being read. He knew just what he was going to say; the first half-dozen lines fairly wrote themselves on the typewriter. Then he read them over. They did not seem quite so clever and compelling as he had thought. He pulled the sheet out and started another. By half-past ten he was in the midst of a sea of copy paper--but he had not yet attained a first paragraph.

The City Editor--one of the famous old _Sun_ school--grew anxious. The paper could not wait until inspiration had matured. He walked quietly over to the young man and touching him on the shoulder he said:

"Just one little word after another, son."

And that is a good thought to carry into the composition of a business or any other kind of letter. The letter is written to convey some sort of idea. It will not perfectly convey the idea. Words have their limitations. It will not invariably produce upon the reader the effect that the writer desires. You may have heard of "irresistible"

letters--sales letters that would sell electric fans to Esquimaux or ice skates to Hawaiians, collection letters that make the thickest skinned debtor remit by return mail, and other kinds of resultful, masterful letters that pierce to the very soul. There may be such letters. I doubt it. And certainly it is not worth while trying to concoct them. They are the outpourings of genius. The average letter writer, trying to be a genius, deludes only himself--he just becomes queer, he takes to unusual words, constructions, and arrangements. He puts style before thought--he thinks that the way he writes is more important than what he writes. The writer of the business letter does well to avoid "cleverness"--to avoid it as a frightful and devastating disease.

The purpose of a business letter is to convey a thought that will lead to some kind of action--immediately or remotely. Therefore there are only two rules of importance in the composition of the business letter.

The first is: Know what you want to say.

The second is: Say it.

And the saying is not a complicated affair--it is a matter of "one little word after another."

Business letters may be divided into two general cla.s.ses:

(1) Where it is a.s.sumed that the recipient will want to read the letter,