Questions And Exercises: Chapter XXIV. The Business Letter In Detail. Part 4

§ 119. I. Consider the merits and demerits of the following form-letters, in the light of the section. Devote a contrast-paragraph to each.

(a)

Gentlemen:

Give us the space occupied by a table 4x14' and we will show you how to display in that space as much crockery as you can show on 15 such tables.

This will give you the 14 other tables to display goods too large to hang on our device.

Just write a line on the back of this telling us you want to be shown.

We will show you with no obligation on your part.

Yours very truly,

(b)

Dear Sir:

One of our illustrious citizens has given a new significance to the word. "Delighted."

Whatever your politics, you would be "delighted" with the results you would obtain from the use of--------in your classes. Why not try it and see?

Fill in the enclosed form, mail it to us and have the matter off your mind before you take your vacation. We will give you October dating on the introductory order and the books may be shipped to you at any time you direct

Very cordially yours,

(c)

Dear Sir:

Sign, stamp and mail the enclosed postal card.

Send no money; Take no risk!

One hundred and twelve of the master business men of America have written ten books for you - 2,193 pages - 1497 vital business secrets. In them they have told the best of all that they know about business methods - for good times and bad.

A booklet has been prepared, printed in clear, bold type and in two colors throughout, to describe, to explain, to picture these books - and to tell you, in plain, homely English just how YOU can use them to make more money - to secure a bigger business or salary in 1910.

Pages 2 and 9 tell how you can systematise and CONCENTRATE your business, stop its leaks, protect its credits, insure its collections, and cut down rvery item of unnecessary cost and expense. Pages 10 and is tell how you can increase your sales, enthuse your salesmen, and keep the orders coming in, no matter how indifferent the times.

And the last page tells how you can get a complete set - bound in half morocco, contents in color - for less than your daily smoke or shave, almost as little as your daily newspaper.

Will you read this book if we send it free? You incur no obligation - we ask not even an acknowledgment - nothing save the knowledge that you are a business man and want new ideas. Won't you sign and mail the postal sard NOW?

Yours very truly,

(d)

Dear Sir:

If you are not married, you will be some day. How do you suppose I found that out? Well, I'll tell you - I just guessed it!

You might just as well have something nice to fall back upon as not Anyhow, don't miss the point I want to make. Andrew Carnegie - that's the man that has "the baubees, ye ken" - says that more fortunes are accumulated from Real Estate than all other causes combined, and this from small savings. It is better than a Savings Bank.

Put in the foundation for a competence. Don't wait till next year, either. You can just as well'do it this week as any time. Yes, you can. I remember when I used to argue that way - that I couldn't afford it - but it was simply a case of lack of nerve. You think you haven't the nerve, but don't let that bluff you. You call the bluff. Many a man has got - and got honestly, too - good bunches of wealth, just on his nerve.

You have got to make a start somewhere and some time. The offer I am making you now is as good as any other, for a beginning. It is this: A 25x125 foot lot in........for $........ IF YOU SIGN THE CONTRACT BEFORE the......day of......next. After that date I can't let you have it for that

Further, you can pay in instalments. All you need pay now is...... down to bind the contract Now that's good enough for anybody. It's a snap. I'm telling you the plain truth. This is no fairy tale. That property will rise..% in value in...... months just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow morning.

Do you want to know why? Well, I can't tell in this short letter. But I will tell you privately if you ask me.

Address Yours truly,

(e)

Gentlemen:

"Neighbors should be neighborly"...... Not because of the sentiment, but because of the hard cold shekels in each other's pockets..........

I am a neighbor of yours - practically but a step from your office to mine ...and I am doing the letter work for most all of the Dearborn St. firms, not because of the sentiment as I said before but because I am doing finer work....

My new process outclasses all other letter duplicating work in Chicago... It's a fact...my letters cannot be told from the real typewritten variety...even the steno's are puzzled...

My work is slick, -high class and finished... It speaks for itself...this letter is a sample...

Not alone my handy location, but my better work and "just as reasonable prices", should land your work at my door...

Just say the word, by telephone, letter, postal or by boy, or send your job right over...I'll do your work so fine and give you such prompt delivery, that you'll say like hundreds of others, - "Bodkin for mine".

I'm waiting for your order right this minute...

Very truly yours.

B. Examine carefully the details of every letter in this chapter in the light of all preceding chapters. Write a theme with the title, Minor Errors in the Letters of Chapter Twenty-fonr.

§ 120. It seems best for various reasons to set no constructive exercises in collecting by mail or in answering complaints. Our closing task will be to fix in mind certain principles frequently laid down in this book. The following letters are from Mr. Chas. R. Wiers's excellent volume, "How to Write a Business Letter." They are all effective and should be studied for form and subject matter. But at the points indicated by italic or carets, there seem to be minor errors. Report such corrections as you would make. (The carets indicate either an omission or a fault in pointing.)