THE USE OF FORM PARAGRAPHS
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 made. Complaints will be made and
received. Adjustments of various kinds will be done, and so on, through
a list that varies with the particular business of the office. It is
advisable to keep the tone of correspondence on a fairly uniform level.
Therefore if each letter has to be individually dictated, only a man
mentally equipped to write letters can do the dictating. The time of
such a man is expensive and often might better be devoted to other
matters. Hence the invention of what is known as a form paragraph, which
is a standardized paragraph that can be used with slight variations as a
section of a great many letters.
The result is that most routine mail does not have to be dictated. A
letter is merely read, the essential facts dictated or noted on the
letter itself, and certain symbols added which tell the stenographer the
form paragraphs that are to be used. The letter is then almost
mechanically produced. Some companies have gone so extensively into the
writing of form paragraphs that they have sections covering practically
every subject that can arise. This possibly carrying the idea too far.
Convenience may become inconvenience, and there is of course always the
danger of getting in a slightly unsuitable paragraph which will reveal
to the reader that the letter has not been personally dictated. However,
a certain number of form paragraphs considerably reduces the cost of
letter writing and also conduces to the raising of the standards, for
the mere reading of well-phrased form letters will often induce in an
otherwise poor correspondent a certain regard for clear expression.
The proper form paragraphs that any concern may profitably use are a
matter of specific investigation. The way to get at the list of useful
forms is to take all of the letters received and all of the letters
written during, say, one or two months and then classify them. A number
of letters will have to do with purely individual cases. These letters
should be discarded. They are letters which would have to be personally
dictated in any event and there is no use wasting time composing forms
for them. The remaining letters will fall into divisions, and through
these divisions it will become apparent what points in the
correspondence arise so frequently and in so nearly the same form as to
be capable of being expressed in form paragraphs.
There will probably be a number of subjects which can be covered fully
by two or three form letters, but a nicer adjustment will usually be
had by thinking of form paragraphs rather than of form letters, for
skillfully drawn and skillfully used form paragraphs will so closely
simulate the personal letter as to leave no doubt in the mind of the
reader that considerable trouble has been taken to put the matter before
him courteously and exactly.