Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

with a year's subscription. Answer the advertisement. =Exercise 220--The Tone of the Letter= Undue familiarity or an evidence of loss of temper will at once frustrate the object of a letter. A dignified letter never shows either. Just what constitutes a dignified letter is hard to define but fairly easy to feel. This much is certain: it must be simple in structure, direct in its wording, and so sincere in feeling that no one will doubt its truth. Any extravagance of language, therefore, has no place in a dignified letter. Study the following to see whether they show dignity: 1 Tuesday, 5 P.M. Miss Sarah Howard, Denver, Colorado. Dear Madam: I have a great piece of CONFIDENTIAL news for you. Take advantage of the remarkable offer our company is making to you, and it will mean thousands of DOLLARS in your pocket. Understand that this offer is not open to every one. You have been especially selected. You are the only one in your town who will hear of this remarkable offer. 2 Elsworth, Brown & Co., 120 Jefferson Ave., Detroit, Mich. Gentlemen: What is the matter with our last order? Have you people gone out of business, or are you asleep? If we don't get that order by the third, you'll never hear from us again. 3 A letter to Mrs. Bixby, written Nov. 21, 1864. Dear Madam: I have been shown in the file of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln =Exercise 221= In writing the following letters, be definite and courteous: