How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) A Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence

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...

The format of an invitation is not so important as its taste. Some of the more formal sorts of invitations--as to weddings--have become rather fixed, and the set wordings are ca...

The mechanical construction of a letter, whether social, friendly, or business, falls into six or seven parts. This arrangement has become established by the best custom. The di...

Perhaps the most important thing to guard against in the writing of telegrams is a choice of words which, when run together, may be read two ways. As there should be no punctuat...

One does not have to be in business in order to write "business letters." A thousand personal affairs crop up which require letters of a commercial rather than a social nature....

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...

Never use "Dear Friend," "Friend Jack," "My dear Friend," or "Friend Bliss" as a form of salutation. In the case of a business letter where a salutation for both sexes may be ne...

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...

There are forty-eight states in this Union, and each of them has its own laws and courts. In addition we have the Federal Government with its own laws and courts. In one class o...

Discovering the exact cost of a letter is by no means an easy affair. However, approximate figures may always be had and they are extremely useful. The cost of writing an ordina...

It is not so long since most personal letters, after an extremely formal salutation, began "I take my pen in hand." We do not see that so much nowadays, but the spirit lingers....

No one can go far wrong in writing any sort of letter if first the trouble be taken to set out the exact object of the letter. A letter always has an object--otherwise why write...

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 mad...

In the case of widely known firms, or where the name of the firm itself indicates it, reference to the nature of the business is often omitted from letterheads 14

THE BUSINESS LETTER 135 SALES AND ANNOUNCEMENT LETTERS 146 KEEPING THE CUSTOMER 160 SELLING REAL ESTATE 163 BANK LETTERS 173 LETTERS OF ORDER AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT 182 LETTERS OF C...

THE PARTS OF A LETTER 1. THE HEADING 10 2. THE INSIDE ADDRESS 12 3. THE SALUTATION 16 4. THE BODY OF THE LETTER 22 5. THE COMPLIMENTARY CLOSE 26 6. THE SIGNATURE 29 7. THE SUPER...

PERSONAL LETTERS--SOCIAL AND FRIENDLY INVITATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 44 THE LETTER OF CONDOLENCE 91 LETTERS OF SYMPATHY IN CASE OF ILLNESS 95 LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION 101 LETT...