THE LETTER
=45. Various Kinds of Letters.=--You have seen that the diary or
journal is the most informal and simple form of written expression,
since it is intended, as a rule, for the writer only. The letter is
less personal than the diary, because it is addressed to one other
person; but it is more personal than general writing (description,
stories, etc.), which is addressed to a number of persons, most of
whom the writer does not know. Letters differ widely according to
their purposes, but the merit of any sort of a letter may be judged
by putting yourself in the place of the person receiving it, and
trying to feel whether you would be satisfied by it.
Letters may be classified as follows according to their purposes:--
1. To bridge over, as far as possible, a separation between
people who know each other well, and to take the place of a
conversation between them. _Friendly letters._
2. To arrange matters of social intercourse in the most correct
and pleasing manner, to extend and accept or refuse invitations,
etc. _Social letters._
3. To give information or ask questions as clearly as possible.
_Business letters._
4. To give information or ask questions as briefly as is
consistent with perfect clearness. _Telegrams._
5. To take the place of going about and telling many people the
same thing. _Notices._
6. To present a request for a favor in the most persuasive
manner. _Petitions._
=46. Friendly Letters.=--There are five main parts to every letter:
(1) the heading; (2) the salutation; (3) the body, or what is
written; (4) the complimentary ending; (5) the conclusion. In a
friendly letter the heading, which consists of the post-office
address of the writer and the date of writing, is sometimes omitted,
although it is always best to write the date, even in letters of the
greatest intimacy. Some of the usual salutations in letters to near
friends or relatives are: My dear Mother, Dear Father, Dear Mary,
My dear Mrs. Smith, My dear Aunt Martha. According to the degree
of intimacy the usual complimentary endings are: Sincerely yours,
Very sincerely yours, Cordially yours, Heartily yours, Yours ever,
Affectionately yours, Yours lovingly, Your loving daughter, Your
affectionate son, etc. In letters to members of the family or close
friends the first name only is sometimes signed.
The following are good typical forms for friendly letters:--
(1)
DORSET, N.H.,
May 10, 1906.
MY DEAR GILBERT,--
-----------------------------
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------------------
Faithfully yours,
JAMES MEYER.
(2)
BUTTE, April 16, Thursday.
DEAR MOTHER,--
--------------------------
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---------------------------
Your affectionate son,
HENRY.
The ideal in friendly letters is to write to your correspondent
what you would say to him if you could see him, and to answer the
questions he would put to you. If you are away on a visit, for
instance, the questions he would probably ask are, "What sort of a
place is it where you are? Are you having a good time? What are you
doing to amuse yourself?" Try to think what sort of a letter you
would like to have him write if he were away, and write accordingly.
Although you wish to write naturally and almost as though you were
talking, it is best to make out a list of the really important
things you wish to say, or you will find that you have come to the
end of your letter without stating some vital facts you wished your
friend to know. It has been said that a friendly letter should be
like a conversation, but you must remember that it is a conversation
limited in time. If you were about to see your friend for only a
half hour, it would be well to think of a few main facts you wished
to tell him, or questions you wish him to answer, and bear them
in mind; otherwise your time might come to an end before you had
said the important things. Even for the most informal letter it is
always best to make an outline, although it may be a very brief one.
Suppose you wish to describe the way in which you spent Christmas
away from home. Probably nothing very unusual happened, and you may
think an outline unnecessary; but you will find, even in relating
the facts of one day, that if you do not have some plan and keep in
your mind the main events in their proper order, you will be likely
to write a confused and incomplete account of what you did. Some
such outline as the following is needed:--
INTRODUCTION. The place where I was,--city, country, or village;
the weather; general conditions. (This information can be given
as briefly as you please, in a paragraph, but it is essential to
understanding what you say about Christmas Day itself.)
MAIN BODY OF THE LETTER. _Morning._ Why we hung up our
stockings, and how we received our presents. _Dinner._ How we
helped prepare it, and any special features of it. _Afternoon._
Coasting. _Evening._ Charades, and the one we thought
particularly good.
ENDING. Inquiries about your friend's Christmas, friendly
greetings, and the close.
A letter written on the above outline follows:--
NEWTONVILLE, WIS.
January 2, 1906.
MY DEAR HARRY,--
I promised you before the holidays began that I would let you
know how I had spent my Christmas, but the last day of the
vacation has come and I have not written you a line. The
truth is that I have been having such a good time every minute
that I have not realized how fast the week has been going. You
remember my big cousin who goes to the State University, don't
you? He came to visit our school once, last winter. His father,
my uncle, invited our family to come out here and have a real
"country Christmas" on his farm, and here we have been since the
day after school closed. He lives in a fine, large farmhouse,
with room enough in it for his big family and ours, too. We are
three miles from town, but there are plenty of horses to drive,
and the air is so bracing and the weather so clear and cold that
we don't mind the walk. Besides that, there are such a lot of us
that nobody ever has to go alone. I never knew what fun it is to
be in a big family. There is always somebody ready for a tramp
whenever you want to go out, and in the evenings it is like
being at a party all the time.
On Christmas eve we hung up our stockings, even the grown-ups.
That was for the little children, who still think there is a
Santa Claus. There was hardly room enough along the mantelpiece
for them all, and the next morning, when they were all full and
knobby, they actually overlapped. Christmas morning we were all
up ever so early. Before it was really light, my big cousin
was around knocking at the doors, calling us to breakfast and
shouting, "Merry Christmas!" We scrambled into our clothes and
raced downstairs to breakfast, and then to the stockings. We
pretended we thought Santa Claus had just that minute gone, and
you ought to have seen the little girls look up the chimney
after him.
By the time everybody had looked at all his own presents and the
things other people had, it was time to begin thinking about
dinner. We helped get it. I shouldn't be surprised if we were
more in the way than a help, but it was lots of fun. The girls
worked around in the kitchen and helped set the table, and we
boys decorated the rooms with greens and turned the ice-cream
crank. There were eighteen of us at table, and you couldn't hear
yourself think for the talking and laughing. The last thing we
did was to pass around a big sheet of paper, and everybody wrote
his name on it and anything else he wanted to say. We are going
to try, all of us, to get together that way every Christmas,
and make such a list each time for a remembrance. My big cousin
wrote, "United we cook, united we eat, united we die!" I said it
was the best Christmas I had ever had.
We had eaten so much that after dinner we just sat around and
talked for a while, and then a crowd of boys went out to coast
and try our new sleds. There is a fine hill right near the
house, and the snow was exactly right. You can coast as much
as ten city blocks without slowing up at all, and then you run
along on a level for four or five more.
In the evening some of the neighbors came in and we played
charades. I never knew you could have so much fun at that. We
thought of a number of good words, but our side had the best,
"Russian." We played the first syllable like a football "rush,"
and that was exciting. My cousin is on the university team, and
he told us just what to do to have it like real football. We
acted the last syllable as "shun," and none of us would look at
one of the girls,--"shunned" her, you know. For the whole word
we put on all the furs we could find, and paraded around with
banners, and pretended to throw bombs. The other side couldn't
guess for a long time what we were acting.
We were pretty tired when we went to bed, but I thought again it
was about the nicest Christmas I had ever known.
I hope you had a good time, too, and I wish you would write me
about it. It must have been very different from mine, since
you were in the city. Did you get the new skates you wanted? My
father gave me a pair. I hope I shall hear soon from you that
your Christmas was as great a success as mine.
Sincerely yours,
GEORGE ALLEN.
=Exercise 78.=--Make a similar outline and write a letter on any
one of the following topics:--
(1) Your Christmas holidays in the city. (2) A trip in a boat.
(3) The use of a new camera. (4) The beginning of a new study
in school. (5) The beginning of new lessons out of school. (6)
The last game of baseball, basket-ball, etc., you have seen. (7)
A railway journey. (8) Your friend is away on a visit. Write
him all that has gone on in the neighborhood and school since
he left. (9) Your parents are away. Write them the news of your
home. (10) You have found a certain book interesting. Write
your friend about it and recommend it to him. (11) Describe an
interesting address or play you have heard. (12) An accident
which you saw or one in which you were. (13) An expedition in
the woods. (14) An entertainment you have recently seen or one
which you helped to give. (15) A new pet. (16) A carpenter shop
you have arranged for yourself in an unused room. (17) A picnic.
(18) A new society which has been started in your school. (19)
You have your parents' permission to undertake a walking trip
or bicycling tour of several days through the country. Write to
a friend, stating your plans and asking him to join you. (20) A
similar letter proposing a week's camping-out in the woods.
_Note._--A longer list of subjects for friendly letters is
not given because almost any of the subjects for other forms
of composition can be treated in a letter. Moreover, it is
highly desirable that pupils should write letters to real
people,--relatives, friends, or pupils in other schools with
whom an exchange has been arranged. A real correspondence, where
the pupil feels he is attempting to interest and please an
actual person, arouses much more spirit than purely imaginary
letters.
=47. Letters of Social Intercourse.=--In form, letters of social
intercourse stand between the purely friendly letter and the
business letter. The address of the writer and the date of the
letter often stand at the foot of the letter, beginning opposite the
signature in the more informal notes, as in the following form:--
MY DEAR MRS. BLACKMAR,--
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-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------
Very sincerely yours,
MARY HOLDEN.
22 HIGH STREET, COLUMBUS, O.
April 12, 1906.
In the most formal letter of social intercourse, the address of the
writer and the date stand at the beginning, and the complete name
and address of the person addressed stand at the foot, thus:--
428 BOLTON PLACE, PITTSBURGH, PA.,
September 26, 1906.
MY DEAR SIR,--
-----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Very sincerely yours,
RICHARD WHITE.
MR. ELBERT PETERS,
ROSS CENTER, N.Y.
Sometimes, instead of writing =_Mr._= before a name, =_Esq._= is
written after it, but the two are never used at the same time.
In style, the letter of social intercourse should be as graceful as
it is possible to make it, although it should always be simple and
not too long. Many invitations and answers to them have a form fixed
by tradition (see _Formal Invitations_, § 48), but the informal
social letter is almost entirely a matter of taste. There are,
however, a few courteous phrases which are so much used as to be
almost fixed forms. Such are: "I hope that we may have the pleasure
of your company," "I hope that you can be with us," "I regret
most sincerely that it is impossible for me to accept your kind
invitation," "I shall be very happy to be with you," "It is with
great pleasure that I accept your kind invitation," "I regret that a
previous engagement prevents me from accepting your invitation," etc.
The following is a typical informal invitation:--
MY DEAR MRS. WILSON,--
My mother wishes me to write you that we are planning to take
a drive to Chester on next Tuesday, and should be very glad to
have you with us. We are to leave at nine o'clock, so that we
may be at the Chester Hotel in time for dinner.
I hope that is not too early an hour for you, and that we may
have the pleasure of your company on that day.
Very sincerely yours,
MARGARET HUNT.
HILLTOP LODGE, WIS.,
January 14, 1906.
=Exercise 79.=--The following letters should be written on note
paper or on paper ruled to that size:--
1. Write an acceptance to the above invitation.
2. Write a note to a friend of your mother's, saying that your
mother is slightly indisposed and cannot keep an engagement.
Write a suitable answer.
3. Write a note to a friend of your father's, asking him in your
father's name to join a fishing party; a whist club; a hunting
expedition; to be one of a theater party.
4. Write a note to a friend, boy or girl, asking him or her
to go to the theater with you, to come and spend the day with
you, to come to a party you are giving, to attend some athletic
contest with you, to go for a day's tramp with a party of
friends, to play at a concert, to take part in a debate or
entertainment, to lend you a book, to give you the address of a
friend, to join with you in forming a club among your friends.
5. Write a note to a friend, thanking him for having helped you
in an entertainment, for having lent you a book, for having done
a service to a friend, for any favor shown you.
6. Write a note to your teacher, explaining your absence from
school, asking her to send word to you about the lessons done in
your absence; asking her to excuse you early from school, giving
some specific reason; asking her for the date of the first day
of school following a vacation; asking if you may be a few days
late in returning to school; asking her to be present at a
meeting of one of your societies; inviting her to your house for
dinner.
7. Write a note to the principal of your school, asking him
to be present at an entertainment given by your grade, at a
spelling match, at a debate, or any special event in your class
room; asking him to excuse you from drawing, on account of weak
eyes, or from any other study, giving reasons; asking him to
give you a letter of introduction to the principal of the new
school to which you are about to go; asking him to be a judge in
some contest in your class room; thanking him for having acted
as judge.
=48. Formal Invitations.=--These are written and answered according
to certain fixed forms and in the third person.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Miller request the pleasure of Mr. Albert
Knight's company at dinner on Wednesday evening, the tenth of
March, at half past seven o'clock.
221 West Long Street,
Friday morning.
Mr. Albert Knight accepts with pleasure Mr. and Mrs. Miller's
kind invitation to dinner on Wednesday evening at half past
seven o'clock.
44 Park Place,
Saturday morning.
Mrs. William Morris
Miss Morris
At Home
On Wednesday, March tenth,
from four until six o'clock.
23 Grant Avenue.
Extremely formal invitations, especially to public and semi-public
functions, are often impersonal in form, as in the following:--
The Annual Concert
of the
Elementary Schools of St. Joseph, Michigan,
will be held in the
Assembly Room of the High School,
Tuesday evening, May twentieth,
at eight o'clock.
You are cordially invited to be present.
The President and Members of the School Board request the honor
of your company at the formal dedication of the New High School,
on Wednesday, November third, at half past three o'clock.
=Exercise 80.=--I. Study these forms and copy them accurately
on note paper. Write a formal invitation from Captain and Mrs.
Arthur Elliott to Mrs. Alice Johnson for dinner; from Mrs. Henry
White to Mr. and Miss Kellogg for an evening at home. Write
acceptance and regret for each.
II. 1. Prepare a card for a semi-public reception given by your
school, by your church, by a club or society.
2. Prepare a card for a school concert, exhibition of school
work, exhibition of work in Physical Culture; for a play given
by the school Dramatic Society; for a May Festival given by
the Eighth Grade; for the laying of a corner stone of a new
schoolhouse, of a church, of a public building of any kind.
=49. Telegrams.=--In a telegram clearness is the first quality to
be sought. Because of the cost of sending, the telegram is usually
limited to ten words, excluding the address and signature, and this
brevity renders it difficult to state all that you wish clearly, and
makes it an exercise in ingenuity to condense the information you
wish to give without making it hard to understand.
For instance, you wish your brother, who is visiting in another
town, to meet you at a certain train on Monday and spend the day
hunting with you, if the weather is good. You would word your
telegram in some such way as this:--
September 9, 1906.
MR. PETER WHITING,
DANFIELD, MD.
Meet me eight thirty, ready for hunting, if weather favorable.
JOHN WHITING.
Although you have used incomplete sentences, you have said enough so
that your brother will understand what you mean.
=Exercise 81.=--Condense as much as possible and write as
telegrams, thinking before you write what are the essential
parts of the message, and leaving out all else:--
1. Mother has gone to spend the day with Aunt Mary, and wishes
you to call there for her in the evening and bring her home.
2. Before you come home, be sure to call on the lady who is to
be teacher of the seventh grade here next year. She lives on
Horning Street.
3. We are all to be away from home on a picnic the day you speak
of coming to see us. We should like to have you join us.
4. There is to be a very interesting entertainment here the day
I was to go home. May I stay over another day to see it?
5. The river is too swollen for the canoe trip we planned for
Saturday. Bring your tools along when you come, and we will try
to make a raft.
6. Henry has just passed his examinations for Dartmouth College.
He will stop in Farmington to see you, on his way home, Tuesday.
7. Can your basket-ball team put off the match we were to play
on Monday until Wednesday? The field we hoped to have is engaged
for Monday.
8. Will your debating society be willing to meet ours, on the
27th of this month, in our class room?
9. We have just heard of the burning of your schoolhouse and
wish to extend our sympathy. Will you telegraph us if there is
anything we can do to help you?
10. The hour of the train on which we were to leave has been
changed, and we shall not reach home until six o'clock.
11. On unpacking my trunk I cannot find my volume of Tennyson's
poems. Did you put it in the trunk or was it left behind?
12. I have spilled ink on my best dress. May Aunt Jane buy a new
one for me to wear at my cousin's party?
13. We cannot find the key to the back door. If you took it with
you by mistake, please return it to father's business address.
14. Will the seventh grade of your school join ours in a
nature-study excursion to the river next Saturday?
15. Your mother is away from home on her birthday. Send her an
appropriate telegram of congratulation and greeting.
16. You are to pass through the town where a friend lives and
will have a half hour wait at the station. Telegraph him, asking
him to come there to see you.
=50. Business Letters.=--In a business letter the five main parts
are very full and complete. The heading contains, as in other
letters, the post office address of the writer and the date. Above
the salutation is written the full name and address of the person
to whom the letter is sent. There are slightly varied forms for the
salutation:--
Dear Sir; My dear Sir; Dear Sirs; Dear Madam; Dear Mesdames; Sir;
Gentlemen; Madam; Mesdames.
The complimentary ending is usually one of the following:--
Truly yours; Very truly yours; Faithfully yours; Respectfully yours.
Sometimes, in letters slightly more formal, these endings are
written thus:--
I am,
Very truly yours,
ANDREW D. JORDAN.
I remain,
Respectfully yours,
ANDREW D. JORDAN.
Under the signature of the writer is frequently put his title; and
if a clerk has written the signature, per followed by his initials
is placed below.
Very truly yours,
ANDREW D. JORDAN,
Secretary.
Truly yours,
MATTHEW BENNETT,
per D. C.
The following is a correct and usual form for a business letter:--
501 SOUTH LINCOLN STREET, CLEVELAND, O.
September 20, 1906.
MESSRS. CHARLES WRIGHT AND SONS,
42 HILTON STREET,
NORWOOD, PA.
DEAR SIRS,--
Please send me the latest catalogue of your goods, and state
whether you pay cost of transportation for large orders.
Very truly yours,
HENRY L. PERKINS.
=Exercise 82.=--Study the forms given above, and write the
beginning and end of each of the following letters:--
1. Mr. Henry Smith, 44 Bolton Place, Brooklyn, N.Y., writes on
November 10, 1906, to Messrs. John Murray Brothers, 32 Canal
Street, New York.
2. Miss Helen Reed, Principal of the Woodlawn School,
Saylesville, N.J., writes on October 10, 1906, to Mr. Percy
Painter, 607 West 14th Street, Trenton, N.J.
3. The Landsdowne Manufacturing Company, 241 Greenwich Place,
San Francisco, writes on May 7, 1906, to the San Francisco agent
of the Northern Pacific R. R., 22 Newton Street, San Francisco.
The writing of business letters should be taken up after the
exercise in writing telegrams, for brevity is almost as essential
in the one as in the other. There is, of course, no need to
write incomplete sentences as in the telegram, but the same
general process should be followed; that is, to see what are the
really important points you wish to state, to express these with
unmistakable clearness, and to say no more.
It is proper to add that a person of education and cultivation is
recognized at once as such by the letters he writes. Even in a
matter-of-fact letter, too, you may often reveal, without realizing
it, your courtesy and kindliness as well as your intelligence. We
constantly judge people by their letters.
_Note._--A good exercise is to have the pupils assume characters
in the business world and answer each other's letters. An
incomplete letter can often be detected thus, by being put to a
practical test.
Do not begin to write your letter until you have made a brief
outline of what you wish to say, in the order in which it should be
said. For instance, you wish to apply for the position of errand
boy. To write a complete letter, you need some such outline as the
following, even though it be only in your head and not written
down:--
Give the reason for applying for the position by stating how you
have heard of the need for errand boys (through advertisement,
personally, etc.); state your own qualifications for the work as
simply and plainly as possible, mentioning your age, education,
health, experience, recommendations, and any other facts that
may bear on your capacity to give satisfaction; and when you
have given these essential points, close your letter.
A letter written on such lines follows:--
55 HENLY STREET, BALTIMORE, MD.
January 17, 1906.
MESSRS. JOHN HAMPTON AND SONS,
225 FULTON ST., NEW YORK.
DEAR SIRS,--
I have heard through your agent here that you are looking for
boys as messengers and errand boys. My family is about to move
to New York and I wish to make application for one of those
positions with your firm.
I am fifteen years old, in good health, and have just graduated
from the public schools in this city. For the last three summers
I have acted as errand boy for the firm of Clancy Brothers here,
which work I am told by your agent is similar to what you wish.
I inclose letters of recommendation from the head of that firm
and from the principal of my school.
Hoping to hear from you favorably,
Very truly yours,
PETER MILLER.
=Exercise 83.=--I. Write the answer to the above.
II. Write, in the same manner, letter and answer, making a short
outline first in each case:--
1. A letter to a bicycle firm, asking to be given the agency for
your town or locality. State why you think their bicycles would
sell well, and what your qualifications for the position are.
2. Letter to a large grocery store, offering to sell them
homemade preserves, nuts, maple sugar, candy, popcorn-balls, or
anything you can make or gather in the country.
3. Letter to a florist, offering to supply him with autumn
leaves, ferns, country flowers of any kind, moss, birchbark, etc.
4. Letter to a country newspaper, offering to write a weekly
news letter.
5. Letter to a country church, offering to repeat for them an
entertainment which has been successful in your own church or
school
_Note._--Make the letters above complete in all details, as to
distance from the city or country, cost of transportation, etc.;
and in the answer give full terms and conditions.
6. Letter to a livery stable, asking their price for a sleigh
ride for a party of twelve.
7. Letter to the owner of an athletic field, asking his price
for the use of the field every Tuesday afternoon during April
and May.
8. Letter to a firm of dealers in athletic goods, asking for a
reduced rate for an outfit for basket-ball, baseball, etc., and
giving reasons why you think you should have a reduction.
9. To a piano manufacturer, asking lowest prices for a piano for
the school and easiest methods of payment, installments, etc.
Explain that the pupils are attempting to raise the money by
entertainments.
10. To a bank, inclosing check and asking them to deposit it to
your brother's credit, and to send acknowledgment to his address.
=Exercise 84.=--Write the following: 1. To a carpenter,
asking price of shelf for your class room. Give all necessary
information about length, width, etc.
2. To a dressmaker, asking price for making a dress. Give all
particulars.
3. To a department store, asking to open an account. Give
references.
4. To the Gas Company, saying that you are about to leave town
for a month and wish the gas turned off the house during that
time.
5. To a theater, asking what reduction will be made if a number
of pupils from your school buy tickets together.
6. To a railroad, asking what reduction in price will be made
for a school excursion.
7. To a grocer, milkman, butcher, making arrangements for daily
delivery of goods at your house.
8. To a caterer, asking prices for a large reception.
9. To the leader of a musical organization, asking his prices
for playing at a school entertainment.
10. To a person who is to speak at your school, stating exactly
what the occasion is, who will form his audience, how long he is
expected to speak, etc.
=51. Notices.=--In olden times, when any one wished to announce a
meeting or give some information of common interest, he hired the
town crier. This was a man who went about the town with a horn or
bell, attracting as many people as possible to him, and then crying
out in a loud voice the news he had to tell. The notice you put up
on the blackboard in your class room, the slip of paper you post
on the walls of your schoolhouse, to announce an entertainment,
an examination, or a meeting of one of your clubs, is the modern
town crier. The notices which you see in the newspapers, telling
people the time and date of a public meeting, or announcing church
services, also take the place of a town crier. There is this
difference. If the crier forgot to tell the people listening to him
any important detail of his news, they could at once call out and
ask him; but if a notice is incomplete, there is no way for the
people interested to get the information needed.
If you will study notices of various kinds, you will see that good
ones, that is, notices which are brief, clear, complete, and not
clumsy, are not common; and, when you try to write them, you will
probably find it more difficult than you thought to be a good town
crier.
A meeting for the purpose of forming a club for the study of
birds will be held on Thursday afternoon at half past three,
in the Seventh Grade room. Any pupils in grades higher than
the Fourth, who are interested in bird study, are eligible for
membership, and are cordially invited to attend the meeting.
If a sufficient number appear before four o'clock, an expedition
to the Wright Woods will be made, under the leadership of the
teachers of the Seventh Grade.
In studying this notice you will see that a great deal is contained
in it. Place, date, hour, and purpose of the meeting are contained
in the first sentence. In the next is definitely stated the
condition for membership in the club, and in the last is placed an
inducement to make the meeting a large one.
Another example follows:--
A Christmas entertainment will be given by the pupils of the
Eighth Grade on Friday afternoon at three o'clock, in the
Seventh Grade room. A short play will be presented, and the Glee
Club of the school will sing twice. Admission, ten cents. It is
hoped that there will be a large number present, as the proceeds
go to the piano fund.
=Exercise 85.=--1. The Bird Club is formed, and you wish to
announce a field expedition, on a Saturday, when every one is
to bring his lunch. State place and time and date of meeting;
probable length of the expedition; cost, if any; special
equipment, such as rubbers; and what will be done in case of bad
weather.
2. Write a notice for a regular meeting of the Bird Club, giving
topic to be discussed.
3. You wish to announce a competition for a prize for the best
story about a bird, for the best drawing of a bird, for the
best plan of work for the club, for the best description of
one of its excursions. State conditions of contest, time when
contributions must be handed in, maximum and minimum length of
article or size of drawing, what the prize is, etc.
4. Similar notice for prize competition for best Christmas
story, Fourth of July article, Thanksgiving poem, etc.; for the
best amateur photograph of the school, for the best drawing.
5. Write notice for the formation of a Kodak Club; of a football
team; of a walking club; of a dramatic society; of a literary
society; of a glee club; of a general athletic association; of a
school library; of a chess club.
6. Write notices for a regular meeting of these societies.
In writing notices for an address or entertainment it is often
desirable to give a little space to a brief description or
characterization of the speaker, as in the following:--
Dr. William T. Harris, the former National Commissioner of
Education at Washington, will speak on Education and Philosophy
at the morning session on Tuesday, at half-past nine o'clock,
in the large Assembly Hall. Dr. Harris is one of the most
distinguished of living educators. A general discussion will
follow the address.
=Exercise 86.=--Write a notice for an address by the President
of the United States, by a senator, by one of the clergymen of
your town, by the superintendent of city schools, by the mayor
of your town, by any public person whom you would like to hear.
=Exercise 87.=--1. Write a notice of a spelling match between
two grades in your school, of an athletic contest of any kind,
of a concert, of a play, of a school expedition to visit an
historical monument, of the dates of a holiday, of a picnic,
of a celebration of Washington's birthday, of a debate, of a
celebration of Hallowe'en.
2. Write a notice stating that the skating is good on a pond
near the school; that the pond is declared unsafe; that pupils
are asked not to pass near a building that is being erected on
the same street as the school on account of danger from falling
timber; that pupils are requested to be very quiet in passing
a house where some one lies seriously ill; that the city or
village authorities have forbidden coasting down a certain
street; that baseball is allowed on certain days in the park;
that bonfires will be allowed in the streets in honor of some
celebration; that the pupils of your school are expected to take
part in the parade on Decoration Day, in any town celebration;
that song birds are not to be killed; that a bridge near the
school is unsafe; that all pupils must be vaccinated before a
certain date.
=52. Appeals.=--When brief, these are in the nature of notices;
when longer, they are like open letters. They aim to move people
to take action benefiting some good cause, and should be as brief
as is possible while giving a sufficiently full explanation of the
necessity for action. Always state plainly and definitely how the
action desired may be taken, to whom contributions may be sent,
etc. The following is an example of a brief appeal. Like any such
communication, it may be lengthened as much as is desirable, by
dwelling on the good that a library would do under the conditions
mentioned, by citing examples of successful school libraries
elsewhere, etc. Such expansion is only necessary when the people to
whom you make your appeal know little or nothing of the matter.
The public school which has just been completed near the iron
foundries has no library of its own and there is no public
library near it. Good reading matter is much needed there, and
the pupils of other public schools in the city are earnestly
requested to contribute books and magazines toward the formation
of a school library. Anything in the way of interesting reading
will be welcomed, in German as well as English, for there are a
great many Germans among the pupils. Old magazines and old books
will be of as much value in the beginning as new ones.
Contributions may be left in the office of the principal of any
public school.
=Exercise 88.=--Write an appeal: (1) for old magazines to send
to hospitals; (2) for pictures for your class room or for those
of another school; (3) for books for your own library in your
grade room; (4) for money for the fresh-air fund; (5) for pupils
to join the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals;
(6) for volunteers to aid in a benefit entertainment of some
sort, drill, play, fair, etc.; (7) for old clothes and shoes for
the very poor of the city who are suffering from the cold; (8)
for examples of map making, penmanship, drawing, or some other
school work to send away as models to a new school; (9) for
pupils to hand in more material for the school paper.
=53. Petitions.=--A petition is a form of open letter, asking a
favor, and addressed by a number of people to an authority who
can grant the request. There is a form fixed by tradition for the
opening of a petition, but the content is varied according to the
conditions, and the wording of a petition needs the greatest care.
As in any literary exercise, the first thought should be of the
essential points you wish to cover, and a brief outline should be
made, comprising an exact statement of the concession you wish
granted and the best reasons you can give for the granting of it.
To the Mayor and Common Council of the city of Wakefield,
Indiana, we, the undersigned, members of the Eighth Grade of
Public School No. 12, respectfully petition that the west end
of Elliott Park, above the driveway, be set apart for a school
picnic on the afternoon of Tuesday, May the fourteenth, between
two and six o'clock.
There is no other place suitable for a picnic within walking
distance of the school and all the members of the Eighth
are not able to pay carfare. If our petition is granted, we
guarantee that no damage will be done to the trees or shrubs,
that the park will be vacated promptly at six o'clock, and left
in good condition.
=Exercise 89.=--1. Write a petition to the authorities of your
city or town, asking for permission to use a certain street for
coasting, for shinney, for baseball, etc.
2. Write a petition to the principal of your school, asking that
a new study may be introduced into the school curriculum; that
the weekly holiday be on another day; that school open later
and close later, or _vice versa_; that punishment by staying
after school be abolished; that the hours of schools be shorter
and more work be done at home; that school be closed an hour
earlier in order that the pupils may be present at a meeting or
celebration of some kind; that your grade be allowed to use the
assembly room for a debate; that you be permitted to flood a
part of the playground to make a skating pond; that one of your
studies be omitted from the course of study; that pupils be not
marked tardy until ten minutes after the opening of school.
=54. Advertisements.=--The advertisement is an outgrowth of the
notice, and in its simplest form is still a notice, as when the
expense of printing causes the advertisement to be as brief as
possible. It is then written on the same principle as the telegram,
that is, using the fewest words possible to express clearly a given
amount of information.
=Exercise 90.=--Write, after studying similar advertisements in
the newspapers, advertisements for help of all kinds,--janitor,
sewing girls, errand boys, maids, nurses, coachmen, farm hands,
apple-pickers, telephone girls, stenographers, etc. Also
advertisements for rented furnished rooms, for houses to rent,
etc., giving all essential details in as few words as possible.
The above are virtually notices without having the real
characteristic of the advertisement, which differs from the notice
in that it not only gives information but seeks to do this in so
attractive and pleasing a manner that people will be induced to buy
the wares offered.
=Exercise 91.=--As a class exercise, take any one of the
following topics, limit the number of words used to two or three
hundred, and see who can write the most practical and attractive
advertisement. Your aim is to state as forcibly as possible
all the favorable aspects of your topic, so that they will
appeal most surely to the people you wish to reach. Study the
advertisements you like best and see their method. Note that you
are attracted by those that seem honest and moderate, and that
you are repelled by extravagant overstatements.
1. Write an advertisement for an amusement park which has been
opened near your town.
2. For a country school for boys; for girls.
3. For a city school for boys; for girls.
4. For an excursion on a railroad or on a line of steamers.
5. For a summer resort in the North; for a winter resort in the
South.
6. For a sanatorium in your town; for a skating rink; for a new
hotel.
7. For an academy making a specialty of nature study; of modern
languages; of athletics.