letter writing; some of these have been touched on in other
chapters.

Never use ruled paper for any correspondence.

Never use tinted paper for business letters.

Do not have date lines on printed letterheads. This of course
has to do with business stationery.

Do not use simplified spelling, if for no other reason than that
it detracts from the reader's absorption of the contents of the
letter itself.

"Enthuse" is not a word--do not use it.

Avoid blots, fingermarks, and erasures.

Do not use two one-cent stamps in place of a two-cent stamp.
Somehow one-cent stamps are not dignified.

Never use "Dear Friend," "Friend Jack," "My dear Friend," or
"Friend Bliss" as a form of salutation. In the case of a
business letter where a salutation for both sexes may be
necessary, use "Gentlemen."

Never cross the writing in a letter with more writing.

Never use "oblige" in the place of the complimentary close.

Do not double titles, as "Mr. John Walker, Esq." Write either
"Mr. John Walker" or "John Walker, Esq."

A woman should never sign herself "Mrs." or "Miss" to a social
letter. In business letters (See Chapter 3) it may be necessary
to prefix "Mrs." or "Miss" in parentheses to show how an answer
should be addressed to her.

Never omit "Yours" in the complimentary close. Always write
"Yours sincerely," "Yours truly," or whatever it may be. Never
write a letter in the heat of anger. Sleep on it if you do and
the next morning will not see you so anxious to send it.

In some business offices it has become the custom to have typed
at the bottom of a letter, or sometimes even rubber-stamped,
such expressions as:

Dictated but not read.

Dictated by but signed in the absence of ----.

Dictated by Mr. Jones, but, as Mr. Jones was called away, signed
by Miss Walker.

While these may be the circumstances under which the letter
was written and may be necessary for the identification of the
letter, they are no less discourtesies to the reader. And it
cannot improve the situation to call them to the reader's
attention.

In the matter of abbreviations of titles and the like a safe
rule is "When in doubt do not abbreviate."

Sentences like "Dictated by Mr. Henry Pearson to Miss Oliver"
are in bad form, not to speak of their being bad business