How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) Part 51

The personally dictated letter has these costs:

(1) The postage.

(2) The stationery.

(3) The dictator's time--both in dictating and signing.

(4) The stenographer's time.

(5) The direct overhead expense, which includes the s.p.a.ce occupied, the supervision, the executive overhead, and like items.

The troublesome items here are numbers three and five. If the dictator is a correspondent then the calculation of how much it costs him to dictate a letter is his salary plus the overhead on the s.p.a.ce that he occupies, divided by the number of letters that he writes in an average month. It takes him longer to write a long than a short letter, but routine letters will average fairly over a period of a month. But an executive who writes only letters that cannot be written by correspondents or lower salaried men commonly does so many other things in the course of a day that although his average time of dictation per letter may be ascertained and a cost gotten at, the figure will not be a true cost, for the dictation of an important letter comes only after a consideration of the subject matter which commonly takes much longer than the actual dictation. And then, again, the higher executive is usually an erratic letter writer--he may take two minutes or twenty minutes over an ordinary ten-line letter. Some men read their letters very carefully after transcription. The cost of this must also be reckoned in.

The cost of any letter is therefore a matter of the particular office.

It will vary from six or seven cents for a letter made up of form paragraphs to three or four dollars for a letter written by a high-salaried president of a large corporation. A fair average cost for a personally dictated letter written on good paper is computed by one of the leading paper manufacturers, after a considerable survey to be:

Postage .0200 Printing letterheads and envelopes .0062 Stenographic wages (50 letters per day, $20.00 per week) .0727 Office overhead .0727 Paper and envelopes .0054 ------ $.1770

The above does not include the expense of dictation.

It will pay any man who writes a considerable number of letters to discover what his costs are--and then make his letters so effective that there will be fewer of them.

CHAPTER XIII

STATIONERY, CRESTS AND MONOGRAMS

SOCIAL CORRESPONDENCE

For all social correspondence use plain sheets of paper, without lines, of white or cream, or perhaps light gray or a very dull blue. But white or cream is the safest. Select a good quality. Either a smooth vellum finish or a rough linen finish is correct. For long letters there is the large sheet, about five by six and one half inches, or it may be even larger. There is a somewhat smaller size, about four and one half by five and one half or six inches for formal notes, and a still smaller size for a few words of congratulation or condolence. The social note must be arranged so as to be contained on the first page only.

A man should not, for his social correspondence, use office or hotel stationery. His social stationery should be of a large size.

Envelopes may be either square or oblong.

In the matter of perfumed stationery, if perfume is used at all, it must be very delicate. Strong perfumes or perfumes of a p.r.o.nounced type have a distinctly unpleasant effect on many people. It is better form to use none.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Specimens of addressed social stationery]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Specimens of addressed social stationery. (The first specimen is business stationery in social form)]

An inviolable rule is to use black ink.

The most approved forms of letter and notepaper (although the use of addressed paper is not at all obligatory and it is perfectly proper to use plain paper) have the address stamped in Roman or Gothic lettering at the top of the sheet in the centre or at the right-hand side about three quarters of an inch from the top. The color used may be black, white, dark blue, dark green, silver, or gold. Country houses, where there are frequent visitors, have adopted the custom of placing the address at the upper right and the telephone, railroad station, and post office at the left. The address may also appear on the reverse flap of the envelope.

Crests and monograms are not used when the address is engraved at the top of a letter sheet. Obviously the crowding of address and crest or monogram would not be conducive to good appearance in the letter.

A monogram, originally a cipher consisting of a single letter, is a design of two or more letters intertwined. It is defined as a character of several letters in one, or made to appear as one. The letters may be all the letters of a name, or the initial letters of the Christian and surnames.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The monograms in the best taste are the small round ones, but many pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong shape]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Specimens of crested letter and notepaper]

Many of the early Greek and Roman coins bear the monograms of rulers or of the town in which they were struck. The Middle Ages saw the invention of all sorts of ciphers or monograms, artistic, commercial, and ecclesiastical. Every great personage had his monogram. The merchants used them, the "merchant's mark" being the merchant's initials mingled with a private device and almost invariably a cross, as a protection against disaster or to distinguish their wares from those of Mohammedan eastern traders. Early printers used monograms, and they serve to identify early printed books.

A famous monogram is the interlaced "H.D." of Henry II and Diane de Poitiers. It appeared lavishly upon every building which Henry II erected. It was also stamped on the bindings in the royal library, with the bow, the quiver, and the crescent of Diana.

Monograms and crests on stationery, after a period of disuse, seem to be coming into favor again. The monograms in the best taste are the small round ones, though very pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong shapes. They should not be elaborate, and no brilliant colors should be used. The stamping is best done in black, white, dark green, dark blue, gold, or silver. The crest or monogram may be placed in the centre of the sheet or on the left-hand side about three quarters of an inch from the top. The address may be in the centre or at the right-hand side. But, as noted above, to use both addressed and monogrammed or crested paper is not good taste. The best stationery seems to run simply to addressed paper.

Crests and monograms should not be used on the envelope. In the matter of crests and heraldic emblems on stationery and announcements, many families with authentic crests discontinued their use during the war in an effort to reduce everything to the last word in simplicity. However, there are many who still use them. The best engravers will not design crests for families without the right to use them. But the extreme in "crests" is the crest which does not mean family at all, but is a device supposed to give an idea of the art or taste of the individual. For example, a quill or a scroll may be the basis for such a "crest."

Really no good reason exists why, in default of a family with a crest, one should not decide to be a crest founder. The only point is that the crest should not pretend to be something it is not--a hereditary affair.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Specimens of monogrammed stationery]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Specimens of business letterheads]

On the use of crests in stationery one authority says:

As to the important question of crests and heraldic emblems in our present-day stationery, these are being widely used, but no crests are made to order where the family itself has none. Only such crests as definitely belong to the family are ever engraved on notepaper, cards, or any new style of place cards. Several stationers maintain special departments where crests are looked up and authenticated and such families as are found in Fairbairn's Crests, Burke's Peerage, Almanche de Gotha, the Armoire General, are utilized to help in the establishment of the armorial bearing of American families. Of course, the College of Heraldry is always available where the American family can trace its ancestors to Great Britain.

Many individuals use the coat-of-arms of their mothers, but according to heraldry they really have no right to do so. The woman to-day could use her father's and husband's crests together if the crests are properly in pale, that is, if a horizontal line be drawn to cut the s.h.i.+eld in two--the husband's on the left, the father's on the right. If the son wants to use the father's and mother's crest, this must be quartered to conform to rule, the arms of the father to be in the first and fourth quarter; that of the mother in the second and third quarter. The daughter is not supposed to use a coat-of-arms except in lozenge form.

The dinner card that reflects the most refined and modern type of usage is a card of visiting card size, with a coat-of-arms in gold and gilt border, on real parchment. These cards are hand-lettered and used as place cards for dinner parties.

The use of sealing wax is optional, though a good rule to follow is not to use it unless it is necessary. The wax may be any dark color on white, cream, or light gray paper. Black wax is used with mourning stationery. The best place to stamp a seal is the centre of the flap. It should not be done at all if it cannot be accomplished neatly. The crest or monogram should be quickly and firmly impressed into the hot wax.

In selecting stationery it is a good plan to adhere to a single style, provided of course that a good choice of paper and stamping has been made. The style will become as characteristic of you as your handwriting. Distinction can be had in quiet refinement of line and color.

The use of the typewriter for social correspondence has some authority--though most of us will want to keep to the old custom of pen and ink. In case this should be employed for some good reason, the letter must be placed in the centre of the page with all four margins left wide. Of course the signature to any typewritten letter must be in ink.

BUSINESS STATIONERY

For the usual type of business letter, a single large sheet of white paper, unruled, of the standard business size, 8-1/2 x 11 inches, is generally used. The standard envelopes are 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches and 10 x 4-1/2, the former requiring three folds of the letter (one across and two lengthwise) and the latter requiring two folds (across). The former size, 6-1/2 x 3-1/2, is much preferred. The latter is useful in the case of bulky enclosures.

Bond of a good quality is probably the best choice. Colored papers, while attracting attention in a pile of miscellaneous correspondence, are not in the best taste. Rather have the letter striking for its excellent typing and arrangement.

Department stores and firms that write a great many letters to women often employ a notepaper size sheet for these letters. On this much smaller sheet the elite type makes a better appearance with letters of this kind.