SOME TYPICAL BUSINESS LETTERS 95. Business letters cover a great variety of subjects; one of the most common is the letter in which is given an order for goods, of which an example appears below: Door and Dockett 124-126 West Lake Street DEAR SIRS: Athens, Ohio The catalogue of your goods which you very kindly mailed me at my request has reached me, and I am I inclose a money order for $8.36, the amount of the purchase. Will you please send the goods by American Express? Yours very truly, JOHN D. ROQUE There are two things to be specially noted about this letter. The first is that the writer has not written his street and his number. Street and number are unnecessary when the town from which the letter is written is small, or when the writer and his place of residence or business are well known. The second is that the catalogue number, the name, and the price of each item of the purchase are given in column. Two more letters are given below-one a letter of inquiry and the other a reply. The Charles H. Haines Co. St. Joseph, Mich. DEAR SIRS: McHenry, Ill. From time to time I have seen your advertisements in the magazines, and I venture to inquire whether you make a small gasoline motor boat that will run in very shallow water. I do a great deal of hunting, and need a boat that can be used in a stream of varying depth, and even dragged over riffles and into swamps without danger of injuring the propeller. If you manufacture such a boat, kindly send me an illustrated catalogue with price list, and let me know whether or not you could fill an order as soon as received. Yours truly, GEORGE GAYLORD The thing that must be specially noted about this letter is that it is sent from the country. R.F.D. means Rural Free Delivery, and the 3 means that the writer of the letter lives in the Route 3 district for mail delivered from McHenry, Illinois. There is something requiring special attention in the reply. Business houses usually have what are called letter heads; that is, at the top of each sheet of their correspondence paper are printed their name, their business, and their address. It is therefore unnecessary to write the address in the heading of the letter according to the form already given; the date is sufficient. THE CHARLES H. HAINES COMPANY MANUFACTURERS OF GASOLINE MOTOR BOATS ST. JOSEPH, MICHIGAN Mr. George Gaylord McHenry, Ill. R.F.D. 3 DEAR SIR: March 15, 1914 In reply to your letter of March 13 we take pleasure in saying that we manufacture precisely the boat you are looking for. Our "Hidden Propeller Hunting Boat" has now been on the market for two years, and is rapidly gaining in popularity. For details concerning its construction we refer you to the illustrated catalogue and price list which we are mailing you to-day. As we are careful to keep a small number of boats on hand, we could in all probability fill your order on the day it is received. We trust that we shall have the pleasure of receiving your patronage. Yours very truly, THE CHARLES H. HAINES COMPANY WRITING BUSINESS LETTERS 96. A business letter, like a letter of friendship, should be written in a spirit of politeness. If you have a complaint to make, being courteous is to have the battle half won. A discourteous letter angers the recipient, and perhaps makes him want to displease you as much as you have displeased him. Some cautions as to form: a. Be sure to indent the second and third lines of the heading as they are indented in the heading of the example letters, unless you use the block style. b. Do the same in the case of the address, unless you use the block style. c. Be sure that the first line of the address, the salutation, and the body of the letter are in the same vertical line. d. The complimentary close should begin a little to the right of the middle of the page when the signature is short; otherwise it should be written as in the last example in section 95. The signature should be indented, unless you use the block style. e. Be sure to write the first line of the address a line lower than the last line of the heading. f. Leave a good margin, say an inch, on each side of the sheet. g. Write only on one side of the paper. Now let us suppose that you have sent a money order to a company in a distant city as the purchase price of a bicycle, and that when the bicycle comes you find that some part of it, perhaps a pedal, is missing. Write a letter to the company stating your case, giving all information you may think necessary, and asking that the missing part be sent without expense to you. At least one of the letters should be written on the blackboard and carefully criticized by the class. EXERCISE IN CRITICISM 97. Make a study of the letter in the following manner: a. Explain the punctuation in the heading, the address, and the complimentary close of the letter written on the blackboard. b. Do you find that the writer has written two or more sentences as if they were one? c. Do you find any of the mistakes in grammar and spelling already studied? If so, have the writer correct them. d. Has the writer succeeded in saying just enough and no more? THE ENVELOPE 98. Use an envelope if you have one; otherwise fold a piece of paper the right size and write the address on it after the following models: Castleman, Rhodes and Co. 123 Wabash Avenue Chicago Illinois |