Manual of Commercial Correspondence [antikvár]

PREFACE Within recent years there has been a tendency to deviate from the old stereotyped form of commercial correspondence. It must not be supposed that the old style is dead. Its passing would be a loss to the business community, for it had the advantages of the necessary formaUty and a certain facihty for saving time. Modem business men, however, are demanding more and more of their correspondence. Their letters are to have a stronger constructive function; the old commercial forms, weak in their sameness, will not suffice; new wine demands new bottles. Often, however, the older forms still prove their v^orth. We are not all builders of business in a big way. Innumerable minor matters must be settled by correspondence, and such matters do not call for treatment in the grand manner; shooting butterflies with rifles is absurd and a waste of good material. On the whole, it would be best if we regarded the routine letter as analogous to the ready-made garment. Such a garment will fit the stock figure; it will do for ordinary wear; and it is the only thing possible for the man in a hurry. The routme letter will cover the ordinary transaction; it will suffice where literary merit would not be appreciated; and it does save time. But where the circumstances demand it— and it is surprising how often they do—let us scrap the old forms and compose letters exactly suited to our particular needs. Let us write in a simple literary style, dignified without being pompous, remembering that a business letter deserves as much attention as a prose masterpiece. Many of the extant textbooks on the subject are excellent, but they seem to suffer from the defect of leaving the student to work out for himself from the models given a set of principles for the construction of all such letters. In this work these principles are enunciated where necessary—not with the intention of spoon-feeding the student, but of relieving