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BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE
AND PROCEDURE

FOR STUDENTS IN COMMERCIAL AND
GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS



By
ALBERT G. BELDlNG, B.S.

Acting Director of Commercial Subjects in High Schools, New

York City; Member of New Jersey Bar; Author of "Commercial

Correspondence," "Accounts and Accounting Practice"




NEW YORK

THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY
1922




COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY

All Rights Reserved



PREFACE

The object of this book is to teach modern business letter
writing in a modern way. A good letter is not a trick. It is
a form of expression that can be mastered by anyone who
attacks it from the right point of view and gives it the study
and care it deserves.

There are certain fundamental rules the outcome of
experience with certain recurring problems that regulate
the external form of a business letter. This book attempts
to present these clearly, systematically, vividly, completely.
And in working through the first six chapters, in which
stress is laid upon the proper use of all the mechanical parts
of a letter : the proper use of the typewriter, spacing, balance
in a word, the appearance of the page the student will
find that he has constantly laid before him not only ex-
amples of failure in business letters due to negligence in
these details, but examples of achievement, too the thing
to attain as well as the thing to avoid.

In this way the student will be steadily learning more
than one thing at a time. While studying the framework
of business forms he will be absorbing, from the text and the
exercises, a knowledge of correct business usage and correct
business terms; while learning to eliminate from his work
some of the pitfalls that beset the path of beginners he will
also be making the positive gain of acquiring an increasing
insight into business procedure. By studying these earlier
chapters, which pass methodically from the simpler to the
more difficult from letters of introduction to letters of

iii

497144



iv PREFACE

application the student should learn how to write a busi-
ness letter correctly.

Although business letters are a form of speech and obey
the laws of speech, for the purposes of business the subjects
of spelling, grammar, and the use of words can well be
simplified and studied with respect to a single aim. Busi-
ness has a language and a vocabulary of its own, the objects
of which are brevity and precision. There is a marked
difference between the attitude of the business man towards
English and the attitude of the journalist or the professional
literary man. Heretofore in books on commercial English,
too much space, involving necessarily an excessive amount
of the student's time, has been given to the discussion of
style from a literary point of view. Such books are not
suited to the use of the prospective business man, and from
them to judge by many business letters the business
man has not succeeded in learning what he should have
learned.

This book includes nothing that does not bear directly
upon the subject of business letters. For this reason the
treatment of the use of words, spelling, grammar, capitaliza-
tion, punctuation, and abbreviations, has been made as
concrete as possible. The errors dealt with in the eight
chapters given to these subjects are the common errors that
abound in business letters, and in the examples given, cor-
rect and incorrect, as well as in the exercises, the very vari-
ous material used has been drawn from live commercial
sources exclusively.

It is hoped, however, that the concentration on the useful
and the concrete, which is the aim of this book, will help the
student to improve definitely the quality of his business
English. For, although business English should not be con-



PREFACE v

fused with literary English, it is still English and should,
within its limits, be definite and pure. The student who hag
chosen a commercial career cannot know too well the kind
of English he is going to have to use every day of his business
life. Without an ever-improving knowledge of language,
the only vehicle of expression in commercial relations, no
progress in the art of business letter writing is possible.

A business letter must be more than externally and gram-
matically correct. It must, in its way, be an evidence of
active intelligence and education. It must show the right
spirit; it must attack its subject with real conviction and
grip the reader. This modern point of view is all-important.
The keen visualization of the exact needs of every case, the
closer study of the psychology of the reader, the more clear-
cut, more telling, more immediately appealing presentation
of facts and figures these are the striking qualities that
make the good up-to-date letter so great an advance on its
predecessors. It is upon these qualities that, first and last,
constant stress has been laid in these pages.

At the same time care has been taken to point out that
certain developments in recent business letter writing are
too flashily self-conscious and rhetorical, in a word, too in-
sincere, to deceive the public long or to deserve attention
from the serious student. They are the eccentricities of the
moment, in doubtful taste and of no permanent value. No
time, therefore, has been wasted in teaching the student
mere tricks of writing which will be out of date before he
can learn them. Such instruction should be incompatible
with the purpose of these chapters, which is to give the
student an attitude towards business so solid and sincere
that it will find naturally its own concise and forcible ex-
pression in the letters that he writes.



vi PREFACE

To enable the student to grasp progressively this right
attitude towards commercial correspondence, he is con-
ducted, in the later chapters of the book, through the work
of an office, until he has learned how to make out orders for
goods, how to handle remittances and enclosures, duns, sales
letters, form and process letters, and how to discharge the
other duties that may, at one time or another, be his, in-
cluding riling, telephoning, and telegraphing. The keynote
of the whole discussion of office procedure is sincerity,
thoroughness, loyalty.

While this book is intended primarily for students about
to take up a business career, the author believes that the
business man will find in it, and in a form easily accessible
for reference, a standard for dealing with the difficulties of
his daily correspondence which will serve as a helpful guide
in the conduct of his own affairs.

ALBERT G. BELDING.

New York City,
March 3, 1922.



CONTENTS



CHAPTER PAGE

I LETTERS AS TOOLS OF BUSINESS ...... 1

Business the Characteristic Activity of the Age
The Function of Letters in Business
Most Business Letters Badly Written
Cost of Badly Written Letters
Every Missent Letter Is a Dead Loss
Every Bad Letter Is a Potential Loss
Importance of Good Letters



II THE PARTS OF A LETTER

Communication and Record

Copies

Conventional Form in Letters

1. Heading

The Writer's Address

Abbreviations

The Date

Importance of the Date

Punctuation of the Heading

The Letterhead

2. The Introductory Address

Name and Title

Catholic Titles

Academic Titles

Military Titles

Addressee's Residence or Place of Business

Indentation

Block Form

Punctuation

3. Salutation

Conventional Forms
Punctuation of Salutation
Innovations



III THE PARTS OF A LETTER (Continued) .... 29

4. Body of the Letter Mechanical Arrangement
Paragraphing
Indentation
Identifying the Subject-Matter

vii



viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

For the Attention of a Particular Person
Noting Enclosures

5. Complimentary Close

6. Signature

How a Woman Should Sign
Postscripts
Specimen Letters

IV PAPER AND ENVELOPE 43

Paper and the Folding

The Kind and Size of Paper

Folding

The Envelope

Other Sizes of Paper

The Outside Address

Arrangement of Address

Abbreviations of Address Often Mistaken

The Writer's Address on Envelope

The StaniD

V LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION 54

Introductions

Obligations Incurred

How to Write a Letter of Introduction

Acknowledging an Introduction

VI LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION 58

Recommendations

Open Letters of Recommendation

Present Attitude Towards Open Letters of

Recommendation
Personal Letters of Recommendation

VII LETTERS OF APPLICATION 64

Applications

What to Avoid

What to Say

The Three Parts of a Letter of Application

The Length

Your Former Record

Where the Applicant Has Been Recommended

Other Important Features

The Employer's Point of View

Know Yourself

Specimen Letters



CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER PAGE

VIII THE COMPOSITION OF A LETTER 74

The Text of a Letter
Indispensable Qualities

1. Clarity

2. Conciseness
Exactness

3. Coherence

4. Courtesy

IX THE USE OF WORDS 84

Th Requisites of Good Writing

The Dictionary

On Using the Dictionary

Antonyms

Synonyms

Words Often Misused

General Cautions

X SPELLING 125

The Formation of Words

Prefixes

Suffixes

Pitfalls in Spelling

Compounds

Important Business Words

Homonyms

Division of Words into Syllables

XI GRAMMAR 149

The Value of Correct Grammar

Grammar and Idiom

Slang

The Noun Plurals

The Noun The Formation of the Possessive

The Pronoun The Antecedent and the Case of the

Personal Pronoun
The Pronoun Use of the Relative
The Pronoun Use and Misuse of "It"
The Pronoun Miscellaneous Cautions
The Adjective The Use of the Article
The Adjective Degrees of Comparison
The Verb Agreement of Subject and Verb in

Number
The Verb Adjectives and Adverbs After Linking

Verbs
The Verbs Errors in Tense






x CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

The Verb Use of the Subjunctive

The Verb Use of ''Shall" and "Will," of "Should"

and "Would"

The Verb Use of the Infinitive
The Verb Misuses of the Participle
The Verb Use of the Gerund
Miscellaneous Cautions

XII CAPITALIZATION 178

Arbitrary Signs in Writing

Custom the Standard of Good Usage

Rules

Xfil PUNCTUATION 183

The Importance of Punctuation

The Comma

The Semicolon

The Period

The Colon

The Dash

Parentheses

The Apostrophe

Quotation Marks

Miscellaneous Directions



XIV NUMERALS AND ABBREVIATIONS ....... 198

The Use of Numerals
Abbreviations
Abbreviations to Avoid
Correct Abbreviations



XV PROOFREADING 207

Correcting Printed Material
How to Read Proof

XVI SOME ELEMENTS OF STYLE 212

The Laws of Good Writing

Unity

Repetition

Parallelism

Secondary or Modifying Words

Variety

Ellipsis

Redundance



CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER PAGE

XVII YOUR FIRST OFFICE JOB 226

The Office Force at Work

Sorting the Mail

Letters Ordering Goods

Letters Enclosing Remittance

Invoices

Letters of Complaint

Sales Letters and Serious Complaints

Various Systems of Handling Mail

Office Routine

XVIII ORDERING GOODS 238

Orders

How to Send an Order

Cautions to be Observed

How Orders Should Be Answered

XIX REMITTANCES AND ENCLOSURES 248

Making Payment by Mail

Currency and Stamps

Money-Orders

Personal Check

Voucher Checks

Certified Check

Collection Charges

Bank Drafts New York, Chicago, and St. Louis

Exchange
Bill of Exchange
Cashier's Check
Certificate of Deposit
Registered Mail
Content of Letter

XX LETTERS REQUESTING PAYMENT ...... 263

Collection Letters

Collection Procedure

Classes of Debtors

The Proper Attitude for the Collector

Convincing Reasons for Collection Letters

Various Methods of Appeal

Appealing to the Debtor's Honesty

The Intimate Tone

Retaining the Debtor's Patronage

Appealing to the Debtor's Pride

Arousing the Debtor's Fear

Persuasion vs. Force



xn



CONTENTS



CHAPTER



PAGE



The Law and Collections
Postal Regulations



XXI SALES LETTERS 277

Salesmanship in Sales Letters

Arousing Interest

Beginning with a Story

Lifeless Phrases

Goods Must Have Real Merit

Misrepresentation

Exaggeration vs. Simplicity

Truthfulness in Advertising

Making the Public Understand

Creating a Demand

Sincerity in Sales Letters

Winning the Conservative Buyer

The "Talking Point"

Avoiding Ideas with Disagreeable Associations

Insurance, Safety Devices, etc.

Testimonials

Winning Confidence Through Tests

Selling Campaigns

The Personal Sales Letter

Adjusting Claims

Customer Always Right

Need for Courtesy



XXII FORM LETTERS AND PROCESS LETTERS .... 302

Form Letters

Kinds of Form Letters

Remittance Form Letters

Routine Form Letters

The Process Letter

Disadvantages of the Process Letter

Ineffective Devices

"Filled-In" Sales Letter

Process Letter Without Introductory Address

XXIII HANDLING CORRESPONDENCE 318

The Morning's Mail
Outgoing Mail
Filing and Finding
Classification in Filing
Equipment
Vertical Files
The Name Index
The Subject Index



CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER PAGE

The Geographical Index
Numerical Filing
The Card Index
Uses of the Card Index
The Card Calendar
Follow-Up Indexes
Transfers

Combined Systems
Copies of Letters
"Out" Cards

XXIV THE TELEPHONE 338

Its History

The Telephone Directory

How to Use the Telephone

To Call the Operator

Taking a Message

Courtesy in the Use of the Telephone

Care of the Telephone

XXV TELEGRAMS, CABLEGRAMS, AND WIRELESS . . . 344

How to Write a Telegram
Cables and Wireless Messages
Abbreviations and Punctuation
Code Messages
Kinds cf Telegrams

XXVI CONTRACTS BY MAIL, TELEGRAPH, AND TELEPHONE 351

What a Contract Is

How Contracts Are Made

Offer and Acceptance by Mail or Telegraph

The Statute of Frauds

Appendix A MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES 361

B REGENTS' EXAMINATION PAPERS 371



FORMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS



FIGURE PAGE

1. Correct Way to Fold and Enclose a Letter 44

2. Cashier's List of Remittances 232

3. Typical Order Blank 239

4. Personal Check 249

5. Voucher Check 250

6. Certified Check 251

7. Personal Check for New York Draft 253

8. New York Draft 254

9. Bill of Exchange 256

10. Cashier's Check 257

11. Certificate of Deposit 257

12. Individual Folder for Correspondence 322

13. Alphabetical File 323

14. Geographical File 326

15. File with Numerical Index 327

16. Cross-Reference Card 329

17. Card Index 330

18. Follow-Up File 332

19. "Out" Card.. 336



xiv



BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE
AND PROCEDURE



CHAPTER I
LETTERS AS TOOLS OF BUSINESS

Business the Characteristic Activity of the Age. Your
career you have chosen to make it commerce. You are
training yourself for the struggle. Your eyes are fixed on
success. Do you realize how fierce is the competition which
you are about to enter? Do you realize how largely the
outcome of your efforts to achieve your highest ambition
depends upon your power to write business letters?

Business is the characteristic activity of our age. In one
way or another it furnishes occupation and livelihood to
most of the inhabitants of every civilized country. It has
stimulated the immense development of science in modern
times and given men the incentive to conquer wild regions
and exploit hitherto untouched resources. It has covered
the sea with ships and the land with roads and railroads.
It has, by the telephone, telegraph, and wireless, brought
the people in London and the people in San Francisco nearer
the man in New York than his neighbor in Brooklyn was
fifty years ago.

The modern world lives for business, by business, in
business. Everyone sells someone something for something

1



2 BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE

else intensified exchange. What I have that I offer you in
trade for what you have to offer me. And in modern life, if
I am progressive and energetic, I do not wait for you to come
to me with an order in your hand. I seek you out on your
farm, or in your shop, or at your office, however small and
remote it may be. I go to you even though you live in
Mexico or China. I communicate with you. In other
words, I write business letters to you, and in return I receive
business letters from you.

The Function of Letters in Business. Letters are the
nervous system of the business world. They convey its
impulses and thoughts, and cause and record its actions.
They get men positions; they launch enterprises; they find
markets, interest investors, reach and bring in buyers.
They galvanize into life the vast machinery of commerce
and keep it going. Day after day they record its millions of
offers, agreements, terms, and contracts.

Letters are the mouthpiece of the business man. Into
them he pours his plans and projects, and from them other
business men draw the information that enables them to
act with certainty and address. Letters are the channels of
commercial co-operation. They cover space with a great
moving network and tie the four corners of the world to-
gether. Without the business letter the modern world
would be inconceivable.

Most Business Letters Badly Written. And yet the un-
limited possibilities of this instrument are very imperfectly
understood and very inadequately used by most business
men. How few of them write good letters, and of the
millions of letters that pass through the mails every day how



LETTERS AS TOOLS OF BUSINESS 3

rare are those which are free from faults in grammar, spell-
ing, use of words, punctuation, or paragraphing. How much
rarer still are those which are exact, complete, and coherent.
The greater part are makeshifts and do but a small part of
the work we should rightly expect of them, and even the
little they do, they do badly.

Cost of Badly Written Letters. Let us look for a
moment at the practical side. Not only are business letters
notable examples of poor English, but the ignorance, care-
lessness, and inattention to details of which many business
letter writers are guilty cause themselves and others delay,
inconvenience, and financial loss.

Every Missent Letter Is a Dead Loss. And the sum total
of this direct drain upon commerce is enormous. An aver-
age of more than 50,000 letters go to the Dead Letter Office
every business day of the year, and in one year the en-
closures in these letters amounted to $4, 184,839.68. But four
million dollars, much as it is, is a trifling sum compared with
the loss entailed in letters which fail of their purpose, which
either are not read by those for whom they were intended
or, if read, make no impression or a false impression.

Every Bad Letter Is a Potential Loss. The waste in time,
money, and energy, the obstruction such letters mean in
urgent affairs, even the expense to the taxpayer for the mere
post office operations of handling useless or misdirected
letters, can hardly be calculated.

Importance of Good Letters. No one can afford to write
poor letters not the richest company, not the poorest clerk
applying for a job. Nothing speaks for us, for whatever of
ability, character, and experience we may have, more de-



4 BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE

cisively than a well-worded letter, cleanly written and
correctly spaced.

Make it your concern to write good letters. There is no
surer path to success. Make it your concern now and all the
time. You have no more imperative duty. It will bring
business. It will enlarge business. It will keep business. It
will have a deciding effect on your business career.'



CHAPTER II
THE PARTS OF A LETTER

Communication and Record. A business letter should be
studied from two points of view : first, as a communication;
second, as a record of one or more incidents in a series of
business events. As a communication it should be an ade-
quate expression of the subject-matter with which it deals,
but the arrangement given this expression may vary almost
indefinitely within the limits set by custom and convention.
For example, a letter may be written on paper of any kind
or size and still serve its purpose as a means of conveying
to another person the thoughts, desires, or intentions of the
writer.

Copies. But a business letter is more than a communica-
tion: It is a part of a systematic history of a man's or a
firm's business affairs. To keep an exact copy of every
letter written is for that reason the manifest duty of a busi-
ness man. With the letter to which it is a reply such a copy
constitutes a record of at least one phase of a transaction.
Without it misinterpretations of subsequent letters are
constant, mistakes of a costly nature are possible, and, in
cases of dispute, the issue is clouded with uncertainty.
Copies are usually made with carbon paper on a typewriter.
They are also taken upon a letter press or by means of a
roller copier, when the writer wishes to have the copy in-
clude his signature. Copies should, of course, be filed in
some methodical order for reference. How this may be done

5



6 BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE

will be explained later, in the chapter on filing (Chapter
XXIII).

Conventional Form in Letters. Out of the circumstance
of its serving the double purpose of communication and
record, the modern business letter has slowly evolved, taking
finally a form that business men have found to be clear and
convenient because it reveals at a glance to the addressee
when he receives it, and to the sender when he signs it or
refers to it later, such indispensable facts as the place of
writing, the date, the addressee's name and address, and the
writer's signature. This form, moreover, is now so gen-
erally accepted and is so well adapted to the intricate
machinery of a modern office that no modification of it
should be lightly made.

A modern letter, looked at from this standpoint, is made
up of six parts :

1. The heading and its accessories, if any.

2. The introductory address and its accessories, if any.

3. The salutation.

4. The body of the letter and its accessories, if any.

5. The complimentary close.

6. The signature and its accessories, if any.

Let us consider each of these six indispensable mechanical
elements of a good business letter in the order in which they
occur, determining as we proceed the variations to which
each is subject and the errors commonly found in their form
and arrangement.

1. Heading. The place of writing (which is usually also
the writer's address) and the date are the first details that



THE PARTS OF A LETTER 7

are given in a business letter and occupy a position apart,
above and to the right. Never under any circumstances
should either be omitted.

The Writer's Address. Since the writer's address comes
first and tells the receiver where to send his reply, no detail
should be carelessly left unmentioned that will facilitate
delivery, although the form in which it is given will depend
upon the way letters are distributed in the place where the
writer resides.

If the writer lives in a city or large town, the street num-
ber, street, city or town, and state, must be set down to
insure prompt delivery of the reply. If he lives in a small
place, or in the country, his address should indicate the
post office, the county, and the state. If he lives in a foreign
country, the name of that country must be indicated.

The street number should be written in figures, and signs or
abbreviations, such as # or No., should not be placed before
it. No regularity exists in the practice of designating streets
that bear numbers. Such names may be written in figures
or spelled out in full; it is a matter of taste. But the in-
creasing number of letters that go astray or are delayed in
delivery emphasizes the fact that no pains or time should
be spared to make the writer's address plain to the addressee.

When the numbers that designate streets or avenues are
small it is, therefore, much wiser to write, for example,
"4 Fourth Avenue" than "4 4th Avenue," or "555 Fifth
Avenue" than "555 5th Avenue," or "1 Twelfth Street"
than "1 12th Street." On the other hand, "101 Two
Hundred and Eighty-first Street" is very awkward and
takes much longer to write than " 101 281st Street."

Many names of streets or avenues that are known by
numbers can quite properly be written in figures because the



8 BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE

word East, West, South, or North comes between the house
number and the number of the street or avenue, as "167
East 202nd Street." Even here it is in better taste to spell
out the names of streets and avenues when they are desig-
nated by a small number. "10 East Second Street" is
preferable to " 10 East 2d Street."

Abbreviations. Names of countries, cities, streets,
avenues, squares, and the like, should never be abbreviated.
It is better not to abbreviate the word street, avenue, square,
park, road, place, boulevard, or county. Write "San Fran-