STUDYING A BUSINESS LETTER

321

VIII. FORMAL NOTES OF ACCEPTANCE AND REGRET

1. Write a note accepting one of the invitations given above.

2. Write a note declining one of the invitations given above.

IX. STUDYING A BUSINESS LETTER

One morning Mr. Dane, the principal of the Washington School at Norton, New Jersey, received the following letter:

Franklin School, Adams, N. J.

June 5, 1924

Mr. F. W. Dane

Principal of Washington School

Norton, N. J.

My dear Mr. Dane:

The pupils of the Franklin School are arranging a series of games and athletic contests for the coming year. The boys would like to meet the teams from other schools in baseball, football, and ice hockey. The girls are especially interested in basketball and field hockey. Several boys and a few girls play tennis.

Will you please ask a girl and a boy in your school to write to me, telling me what teams, if any, have already been formed? If you have no regular teams, I should like to know in what sports or games the girls and boys

are most interested, and whether they would consider forming themselves into an athletic association and playing against the girls or boys of the Franklin School. Very truly yours,

John Rand

Principal of Franklin School

The letters that you have had to study before this were friendly letters or social letters. The above letter is a business letter. Mr. Rand wants some information. He writes direct to the one who can give him this information. He wastes no words, but states clearly just what he

wants.

The heading, like the heading of friendly letters, gives the place in full and the date:

Franklin School, Adams, N. J.

June 5, 1924

The introduction differs from the introduction of the friendly letter. It contains the name of the person to whom the letter is written, his title, his address, and the salutation :

STUDYING A BUSINESS LETTER

323

When the gentleman addressed is not personally known to the writer, the salutation is usually "Dear Sir:" or "My dear Sir:" Did Mr. Rand know Mr. Dane?

What marks of punctuation are used in the introduction? Where? The mark (:) after "My dear Mr. Dane" is called a colon, and is generally used in business letters.

Note how this letter ends.

Suppose you were the boy or girl selected to answer Mr. Rand's letter, your heading should give

The name of your school, City, State

Date

The introduction to your letter should give

Name of person

His title

Address

Salutation:

You should tell Mr. Rand that Mr. Dane has asked you to write to him regarding the sports and games in which the boys (or girls) of your school are interested. Tell him if there are any regular teams, and, if so, for what games. If there are no teams, tell him the favorite games and sports and whether you would like to form

an athletic association and play the boys (or girls) of the Franklin School.

Close your letter with "Yours truly," or "Very truly yours," or "Yours respectfully," and sign your name.

X. WRITING BUSINESS LETTERS

1. After reading Mr. Rand's letter through carefully (p. 321), write the answer that a boy or girl in the Washington School might have written.

Copy the form of the heading, introduction, and ending in Mr. Rand's letter. In your letter waste no words, but tell Mr. Rand just exactly what he wants to know.

2. Write a letter to Mr. Thomas Marsh, principal of the Grant School, Byfield, N. J., asking the boys or girls in his school to join a game league.

XI. CHAPTER TEST

1. Write an informal invitation to a friend to attend your birthday party.

2. Write a formal invitation to the President of the Board of Education to attend a school play. 3. Mr. George Cooper, a teacher who lives at 44 North Main St., Warren, Iowa, wants to know what games the boys and girls in your school play.

Write a letter to Mr. Cooper, giving him the information that he asks.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

FROM

EXPLANATIONS AND REASONS; WRITING DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS; LETTERS; NEWSPAPER STORIES; DEBATES

Note to the teacher: Many indispensable suggestions will be found in the Manual, Chapter Twenty-two.

I. STUDYING AN EXPLANATION

Tit-tat-toe

Tit-tat-toe is an Indian game, and is played with grains of Indian corn. A piece of board is grooved with a jack-knife in the manner shown in the diagram.

One player has three red or yellow grains of corn, and the other an equal number of white ones. The player who won the last game has the "go"; that is, he first puts down a grain of corn at

1

2

8

3

any place where the lines intersect, but usually in the middle, as that is the best point. Then the other player puts down one, and so on until all are down. After this, the players move alternately along any of the lines, in any direction, to the next intersection,