Part 46 (1/2)

163 THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LETTER In friendly letters much latitude is allowed in the body of the letter, but business letters should be brief and to the point No letter, however, should be lacking in the courteous forms or in completeness

164 FORM OF BODY The body of the letter usually begins on the line below the salutation and is indented the saraph would be indented See raph divisions are made more frequently than in other composition Each separate point should be raph

165 FAULTS IN BODY OF THE LETTER In letters that are intended to be complete and formal, avoid the omission of articles, pronouns, and prepositions Avoid also expressions that are grammatically incomplete Only in extreraph style” be adopted

Bad: Received yours of the 10th Have had no chance to look up man

Will do so soon

Good: I have received your letter of the tenth I have had no chance as yet to look up the man, but I will do so soon

Bad: Address c/o John Sr Penna Tele

Good: Address in care of John Sraph

Bad: In reply will say

Good: In reply I wish to say

Bad: Yours of the 10th at hand

Good: Your letter of the 10th is at hand

Bad: Your favor received

Good: We have received your letter

Bad: Enclose P O money order for 2

Good: We enclose post office money order for two dollars, (2)

Bad: We have read your plan Same is satisfactory

Good: We have read your plan, and it is satisfactory

Avoid the use of abbreviations in the letter

It is well to avoid the too frequent use of the pronoun _I_ in the letter, though care must be taken not to carry this caution to extremes _I_, however, should not be omitted when necessary to the completeness of the sentence Do not try to avoid its use by o a different for a letter with _I_

Punctuate the letter just as carefully as any other co in letters of a formal nature, there is no objection to the use of colloquial expressions such as _can't, don't,_ etc

Unless you have some clear reason to the contrary, avoid the use of expressions that have been used so less Such expressions as the following ones are not wrong, but are often used when they are both inappropriate and unnecessary