"Replying to your letter, would say," or "wish to say." Why not say it at once and abolish the wordiness?

"State" gives the unpleasant suggestion of a crossexamination. Use "say."

"And oblige" adds nothing to the letter. If the reader is not already influenced by its contents, “and oblige" will not induce him to be.

The telegraphic brevity caused by omitting pronouns and all words not necessary to the sense makes for discourtesy and brusqueness, as:

Answering yours of the 21st inst., order has been delayed, but will ship goods at once.

How much better to say:

We have your letter of 21st October concerning the delay in filling your order. We greatly regret the delay, but we can now ship the goods at once.

"Same" is not a pronoun. It is used as such in legal documents, but it is incorrect to employ it in business letters as other than an adjective. Use instead "they," "them," or "it.”

Incorrect:

We have received your order and same will be forwarded. Correct:

We have received your order and it will be forwarded.

"Kindly"—as in: "We kindly request that you will send your subscription." There is nothing kind in your request and if there were, you would not so allude to it. "Kindly" in this case belongs to 'send," as "We request that you will kindly send your subscription.”

The word "kind" to describe a business letteras "your kind favor"-is obviously misapplied. There is no element of "kindness" on either side of an ordinary business transaction.

The months are no longer alluded to as "inst.," "ult., or "prox." [abbreviations of the Latin "instant" (present), "ultimo" (past), and "proximo (next)] as "Yours of the 10th inst." Call the months by name, as "I have your letter of 10th May."

"Contents carefully noted" is superfluous and its impression on the reader is a blank.

"I enclose herewith." "Herewith" in this sense means in the envelope. This fact is already expressed in the word "enclose."

Avoid abbreviations of ordinary words in the body or the closing of a letter, as "Resp. Yrs." instead of "Respectfully yours."

The word "Company" should not be abbreviated unless the symbol "&" is used. But the safest plan in writing to a company is to write their name exactly as they write it themselves or as it appears on their letterheads.

Names of months and names of states may be abbreviated in the heading of the letter but not in

As to the use of the symbol "&" and the abbreviation of the word “company," the safest plan in writing to a company is to spell its name exactly as

it appears on its letterhead

the body. But it is better form not to do so. Names of states should never be abbreviated on the envelope. For instance, "California" and "Colorado," if written "Cal." and "Col.," may easily be mistaken for each other.

The participial closing of a letter, that is, ending a letter with a participial phrase, weakens the entire effect of the letter. This is particularly true of a business letter. Close with a clear-cut idea. The following endings will illustrate the ineffective participle:

Hoping to hear from you on this matter by return mail. Assuring you of our wish to be of service to you in the future. Thanking you for your order and hoping we shall be able to please you.

Trusting that you will start an investigation as soon as possible.

More effective endings would be:

Please send a remittance by return mail.

If we can be of use to you in the future, will you let us know? We thank you for your order and hope we shall fill it to your satisfaction.

Please investigate the delay at once.

The participial ending is merely a sort of habit. A letter used to be considered lacking in ease if it ended with an emphatic sentence or ended with something that had really to do with the subject of the letter.

It might be well in concluding a letter, as in a personal leavetaking, to "Stand not on the order of your going." Good-byes should be short.

CHAPTER V

PERSONAL LETTERS-SOCIAL AND

FRIENDLY

INVITATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

General Directions

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 carried through regardless of the means at hand for proper presentation. For instance, one often sees a wedding invitation in impeccable form but badly printed on cheap paper. It would be far better, if it is impossible to get good engraving or if first-class work proves to be too expensive, to buy good white notepaper and write the invitations. A typewriter is, of course, out of the question either for sending or answering any sort of social invitation. Probably some time in the future the typewriter will be used, but at present it is associated with business correspondence and is supposed to lack the implied leisure of hand writing.

The forms of many invitations, as I have said, are fairly fixed. But they are not hallowed. One may vary them within the limits of good taste, but on the