neither too stiff nor too familiar. In order to get just the right tone you should write as naturally as you can. It is a good plan, therefore, to sit down and think over what you would say to your friend were that friend present. Try to imagine that your friend is actually present in the room with you, and that you are saying to him the things you know would most interest him. Jot down the thoughts that come to you in this mental chat, arrange them in an orderly way by putting together the things that are near in thought, decide what things you shall say in one paragraph and what in another, and then write out your letter as rapidly as you can, trying to make the black marks before you glow with your thought and personality much as your face would glow with your thoughts and feelings were you actually talking with the person you are now writing to. If you really cannot do this, you can with a little practice, at least avoid the two extremes suggested above, that is, do not be too stiff or too familiar. If you are in the habit of calling your friend "Bob," if you have played with him, and fought with him, do not address him in your letter as "Dear Sir." On the other hand, remember that when you have talked with him you have sometimes had to explain things that you have said, things that you did not say clearly enough for "Bob" to understand, that sometimes you have had to take back things that angered "Bob," or modify some statement before he would believe it. Remember as you write that you cannot be present, when "Bob" reads your letter, to take back or modify anything you write, but that, when it is once written, it is written once for all, and "Bob" can read it as many times as he likes. When he meets you again there may be trouble. You know "Bob" well enough for that. There is nothing in those black marks you make in your letters that will explain what you write, as your voice, manner, and expression will explain what you say. Therefore, moderate your emotions when you write, and do not write at all when your emotions are too excited to be moderated. Now is the time to remember the "Don'ts" of letter-writing.1 Write about anything you and your friend are interested in, and a little, but not too much, about yourself. A bit of news that you know your friend will like to hear, the best things about your every-day life, and the most worthy of what you think and feel, these and other things that your friend will be really interested in are the proper subjects to write about. Exercise 63 1. Your friend and classmate, Walter Vincent, has recently moved to Portland, Maine. Write him what has happened in town and at school since he left. 2. Your friend, Cecil Van Dyke, writes you from Omaha, Neb., that he will visit you at Christmas. Outline your plans for entertaining him. 3. This coming summer you are to go on a camping trip into the wilds of Canada. Your friend, Jeffrey Bowen, who lives at St. Paul, Minn., is to accompany you. Write him regarding outfit, etc. 4. Write Gilbert Thomas, who lives at Denver, Colo., an account of the Hallowe'en Party you attended recently. You may remember that the party was given by Olive Thornton, your mutual friend. 5. Write a note to your uncle, thanking him for the book he recently sent you. 6. Write one of your friends an informal invitation to luncheon on Tuesday next, at one o'clock. Submit your invitation to the class for criticism. 1 See Section 58. 7. You have just returned from visiting your cousin at New Orleans. Write him an account of your trip home. 8. Your sister has been away from home for a week. Write her an account of the family doings during her absence. 9. Your friend, Pauline Richards, lives at Kansas City, Mo. Write her, inviting her to spend the Christmas holidays with you. Give her all needed information about trains, transfers, etc. 10. Write a letter to your brother from some place you have recently visited. 11. Imagine that you live in Honolulu. Write to your brother, and describe as well as you can the people, the climate, the products, etc., of Hawaii. 12. One of your classmates has been ill and absent from school for several weeks. Write about the work of the class since he (or she) left. Add some interesting school happening. 13. Write a letter in which you describe an imaginary visit to the South in winter. 14. Write a letter in which you give an account of a picnic, a football game, or a boating excursion. 15. Write a letter in which you give an account of a Saturday ramble. 16. Write the following letters: (1) A letter giving your opinion of a novel you have recently read; (2) A letter telling how you spent your last summer vacation; (3) A letter telling how you expect to spend your next summer vacation; (4) A letter stating your aim in life; (5) A letter in which you state your college plans- if you have any; (6) A letter giving your opinion of the profession or business you expect to enter when you have ended your school days; (7) A letter narrating an adventure; (8) A letter telling about an accident; (9) A letter describing some interesting city or country custom. 17. Now that you have finished your practice work in the writing of friendly letters, write a real letter to some friend of yours, and send it through the mails. Make use, in this letter, of what you have learned about the writing of friendly letters. You are not expected to submit this letter to any criticism but your own. SECTION 58 Some Don'ts Don't put secrets into letters; they have a way of getting out when you least want them to. Don't use I-now-take-my-pen-in-hand phrases; if you have nothing to write, don't write it. Don't fail to answer promptly every letter you receive which merits an answer; promptness will help you to keep both friends and business. Don't send off a letter with a mistake in it, whether it be of spelling, of punctuation, of fact, of etiquette, or— of cleanliness and neatness; rewrite a letter until it is as nearly perfect as you can make it. Don't use colored inks and papers even though Fashion tells you to; pure white linen paper, unruled, and black ink are in best taste for polite letter-writing. Don't cross-line and postscript your letters (this for girls); cross-lining is in bad taste, and postscripts should be used only when they can be used with discretion and art. Don't let the "blue devils" get into your letters; other people have "blue devils" of their own — enough and to spare. Don't write in the heat of passion; wait until the intensity of your excitement, whatever it may be, subsides. Don't forget that a written word can never be recalled. If you are in doubt as to whether you should write some particular thing, or as to whether you should write at all, don't write until you sleep over your doubts. Daw NOTE. Before you take leave of the subject of letter-writing, you should give at least a passing glance to the importance of letters to literature. The form of the letter has been used for essays (e.g. Hamerton's The Intellectual Life), novels (e.g. Aldrich's Marjorie a short story), histories (e.g. Russell's History of Modern Europe), and, in truth, nearly every kind of discourse. Even the dull subject of English Grammar has been made interesting by being put into letters to a fourteen-year-old boy (Cobbett's English Grammar). But it is by those collections of real letters which great men and great women have left us that you would probably be most entertained. These collections it would be well for you to make the acquaintance of, if, indeed, you have not already done so. From them you can learn how even the commonplaces of every-day existence may be made to glow with the personality of a great writer. The best letters you will find to be those which were never intended to be more than mere friendly letters, but which, because of their fine thought and finer feeling, rise to the rank of literature. Consult such collections of letters as Scoones's Four Centuries of English Letters and Knight's Half-hours with the Best Letter-Writers, and read, for every variety of style, the letters of Steele, Lord Chesterfield, Cowper, Gray, Lamb, Thackeray, Madame de Sévigné, Goethe, Franklin, Irving, Carlyle, Emerson, Lowell, Stevenson, etc. Also, look into almost any recent biography to see how much of a man's life can be told by the letters he has written. |