CORRESPONDENCE A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE WRITING By FRANK M. ERSKINE THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY INDIANAPOLIS USA PREFACE The average teacher in the public school usually has no difficulty in finding a text-book suited to his needs; his difficulty is to decide which of several good books he can use to the best advantage. With the commercial teacher, however, and especially with the commercial teacher in the public school, this is not always the case. More and more the fact is being recognized that among the chief qualifications of the successful business man is the ability to use plain, clear-cut, but withal graceful and effective English. "Commercial English" is simply "Everyday English" coupled with the technic of the office, store or factory. The average text-book is weak on the subject of Correspondence, and the pupil is required to write letters about a great variety of matters which have no connection with each other, and which frequently concern things so far beyond the scope of his knowledge and experience that he can not comprehend the supposed situation. The result is that many times he makes no point in his letter, because he does not understand what he is writing about, uses a few worn-out phrases and makes several ludicrous errors. Ask the same pupil a few questions about some business or some line of work with which he is familiar and, omitting the "Dear Sir" and "Yours truly," he may give you, orally, a fairly good business letter. The plan in these lessons, which have stood the test of the classroom, is to take lines of business with which every pupil is more or less familiar at the beginning and present them in such a way that the pupil will have a knowledge of the facts which make each letter necessary. Thus the pupil is not forced to rely wholly upon his imagination when writing the letters. The successful correspondent is the one who can write forcefully and agreeably about plain facts-not about imaginary situa |