HE LETTER

163. THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LETTER. In friendly letters much
latitude is allowed in the body of the letter, but business letters
should be brief and to the point. No letter, however, should be
lacking in the courteous forms or in completeness.

164. FORM OF BODY. The body of the letter usually begins on the
line below the salutation and is indented the same distance from
the margin as any other paragraph would be indented. See model
letters under Sec.174.

In commercial letters paragraph divisions are made more frequently
than in other composition. Each separate point should be made the
subject of a separate paragraph.

165. FAULTS IN BODY OF THE LETTER. In letters that are intended to
be complete and formal, avoid the omission of articles, pronouns,
and prepositions. Avoid also expressions that are grammatically
incomplete. Only in extremely familiar and hasty letters should
the "telegraph style" be adopted.

Bad: Received yours of the 10th. Have had no chance to look up man.
Will do so soon.

Good: I have received your letter of the tenth. I have had no chance
as yet to look up the man, but I will do so soon.

Bad: Address c/o John Smith, Mgr. Penna. Tele.

Good: Address in care of John Smith, Manager of the Pennsylvania
Telegraph.

Bad: In reply will say ...

Good: In reply I wish to say ...

Bad: Yours of the 10th at hand.

Good: Your letter of the 10th is at hand.

Bad: Your favor received ...

Good: We have received your letter ...

Bad: Enclose P. O. money order for $2.

Good: We enclose post office money order for two dollars, ($2).

Bad: We have read your plan. Same is satisfactory.

Good: We have read your plan, and it is satisfactory.

Avoid the use of abbreviations in the letter.

It is well to avoid the too frequent use of the pronoun _I_ in
the letter, though care must be taken not to carry this caution
to extremes. _I_, however, should not be omitted when necessary
to the completeness of the sentence. Do not try to avoid its use
by omitting it from the sentence, but by substituting a different
form of sentence.

There is no objection to beginning a letter with _I_.

Punctuate the letter just as carefully as any other composition.

Excepting in letters of a formal nature, there is no objection
to the use of colloquial expressions such as _can't, don't,_ etc.

Unless you have some clear reason to the contrary, avoid the use
of expressions that have been used so