Business English Part 77

Gentlemen:

At your earliest convenience please s.h.i.+p me the following via the Northern Express Co. from St. Paul:

6 doz. A 68 a.s.sorted sizes Men's Black Caps @ 1.50 9.00 5 doz. D 71 Men's Cotton Handkerchiefs @ .60 3.00 5 doz. X 30 Men's Linen Handkerchiefs @ 2.00 10.00 ------ $22.00

Enclosed find a draft on New York for twenty-two dollars.

Yours truly, S. D. Jensen

Write the letters outlined below:

1. Order fifty copies of the Business Arithmetic that you are using. How shall you pay for them?

2. Clip from a newspaper an advertis.e.m.e.nt of groceries. Imagine that you are a housekeeper, and spend ten dollars to the best advantage, ordering several articles.

3. Bring in an advertis.e.m.e.nt of household necessities--linens, tinware, etc. Spend five dollars, buying several articles.

4. Bring in an advertis.e.m.e.nt of furniture. Write a letter ordering enough to furnish a parlor or a dining room. Have the amount charged to your account.

5. A magazine offers one of several books as a premium with a year's subscription. Answer the advertis.e.m.e.nt.

=Exercise 220--The Tone of the Letter=

Undue familiarity or an evidence of loss of temper will at once frustrate the object of a letter. A dignified letter never shows either.

Just what const.i.tutes a dignified letter is hard to define but fairly easy to feel. This much is certain: it must be simple in structure, direct in its wording, and so sincere in feeling that no one will doubt its truth. Any extravagance of language, therefore, has no place in a dignified letter.

Study the following to see whether they show dignity:

1

Tuesday, 5 P.M.

Miss Sarah Howard, Denver, Colorado.

Dear Madam:

I have a great piece of CONFIDENTIAL news for you.

Take advantage of the remarkable offer our company is making to you, and it will mean thousands of DOLLARS in your pocket. Understand that this offer is not open to every one. You have been especially selected. You are the only one in your town who will hear of this remarkable offer.

2

Elsworth, Brown & Co., 120 Jefferson Ave., Detroit, Mich.

Gentlemen:

What is the matter with our last order? Have you people gone out of business, or are you asleep? If we don't get that order by the third, you'll never hear from us again.

3

A letter to Mrs. Bixby, written Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam:

I have been shown in the file of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Ma.s.sachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.

But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may a.s.suage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln

=Exercise 221=

In writing the following letters, be definite and courteous:

1. You have advertised your eight-room, furnace-heated house for sale for $3,500. A letter of inquiry desires particulars. Answer it.

2. You live on a side street, which for the last week has not been lighted. Write to the editor of the paper, or to a town official, whichever you think would remedy the matter. Be courteous. A letter to an editor is begun: To the Editor of ----.

3. The cars on which you ride every day are very dirty. Write to the mayor. He is addressed: Hon. ----.

4. You wish to have a telephone installed. Make application.

5. Two weeks ago you wrote (4). Still you have no telephone. Write again, stating the substance of (4) and asking the reason for the delay.

6. Write the telephone company's reply. Be very courteous. What good reason could you give for the delay?

7. You understand that your Congressman has the privilege of recommending a young man for the entrance examinations of your state university. Write to him, asking that he recommend you. Remember that he is a stranger to you. What should you tell him?

=Exercise 222.--Mistaken Ideas in Letter Writing=

It is too bad that, to a number of people, the term _business letter_ conveys the idea of a colorless, stilted composition full of trite and almost meaningless business formulas. No one reads such a letter unless he has to, and surely that is not the kind one should practice writing.

Below are given a few of the expressions that should be avoided.

I. Sometimes a writer tries to impress a reader with the volume of business he is doing by showing haste in his correspondence; as, in

1. Omitting the subject; as,

_Wrong_: In reply to your question will say ---- _Right_: In reply to your question I will say ----

2. Omitting articles and prepositions; as,

_Wrong_: Direct package care Western Canning Co.

_Right_: Direct the package in care of the Western Canning Co.