CHAPTER IV INTEREST From the point of view of ourselves, sincerity is the chief quality of our composition; from the point of view of the subject, definiteness is probably the chief quality; from the point of view of the hearer or reader, interest is probably most important. To be sure, sincerity itself is necessary to interest, yet sincerity alone will not give it. Two other qualities helpful to interest have already been considered — good form and definiteness; but these are not enough. In this chapter some other ways of being interesting are to be studied. You should write every theme with some possible reader clearly before your mind, and a good many suggestions you should put into practice with the distinct purpose of securing and holding that reader's interest, of making your thought clear to him, and of producing the desired effect in his mind. A. LETTERS Of all written words, those in letters seem most directly addressed to a reader. Nowadays there is scarcely a person who does not at some time write a letter or wish to write one; yet it is said that the art of letter-writing is dead. This is certainly too strong a statement, but it points out an undoubted fact that what all are doing somehow, few are doing well. I. FRIENDLY LETTERS In business letters one tries to be as brief and concise as possible; his aim is merely to have himself understood. In social letters, on the other hand, one wishes not only to make himself understood, but also to make the reader feel as though there had been a personal talk between two friends. One friend will write to another news in which they are both interested, will write it in such a way as to show his feeling about it, his opinion concerning it all. Remember that he must be definite, especially in details, point of view, and words. EXERCISE 69 - Written A LETTER TO A FRIEND Your best friend at school has been away for three weeks on a visit. Write and tell him what is going on at school. Try to imagine what he would like to know. Write pretty much as you would talk. EXERCISE 70- Written A LETTER FOR POINT OF VIEW Write to an uncle or to your grandfather or to some grown person who has visited in your home and tell what is going on at school. Write what would interest the person to whom you address the letter; your relations toward him definitely determine your point of view. A social letter is, in a way, like a talk with a friend. But in conversation one has to speak quickly, often without sufficient thought; in letter-writing, on the contrary, one has time to plan what he wishes to say and to choose just the right words to express his meaning. So in this respect a social letter is like one's most carefully chosen conversation. Here is a task, then, for a writer: to send his greeting, his best self through a letter, to be jolly, thoughtful, sympathetic, as the case may require, and yet to write nothing that he will afterward be ashamed of or regret having written. SELECTING AND ARRANGING MATERIAL FOR A LETTER If one of your fellow pupils is ill or has moved away or is off on a visit, choose him to write to. Jot down all the things that he would like to hear about. After making this list, imagine yourself in his place and choose only those items that would interest you most. Try to arrange these so that you can pass naturally from one to the next. In class compare your notes and select the best ones. EXERCISE 72 - Written PUTTING PERSONALITY INTO A LETTER Write the letter planned in Exercise 71. Write it with so much of yourself in the expression that your friend without looking at the signature can guess who the writer is. a. General rules of form. All that is said in Chapter II about paper and pen and ink is even more important here than there. It is possible that a merchant may understand and correctly fill an order if it be written in pencil on the cheapest of paper. It is possible, too, that friendship may endure, even though one correspondent or both may neglect social decencies in writing. But courtesies and conventions. are as exacting in letter-writing as in any other phase of social life. Let your stationery be good, usually plain white, of medium weight, and unruled. Use black ink. Beware what is unusual in any way. Paper for social letters is always folded, the page measuring, in one common form, about 5 inches by 7; in another, about 5 by 8. Considerable freedom is permitted in the order in which the pages are written; but by far the most people use, and all should use, the natural order, beginning with the fold to the left and filling the four pages in succession from top to bottom. b. Parts of a friendly letter. The requirements of form are not so strict in friendly correspondence as in business letters. The formal parts, which are explained on pages 30-33, may be changed in many ways, but only for good reasons. In ordinary cases the heading should be of the same form as in business letters; but when written to a person to whom the facts are perfectly well known (to a sister who is away at school, for instance) the heading is occasionally changed so that fun or sentiment may creep in. One might write, for example, Home Sweet Home, Saturday, being the fourth day since you left us. But the ordinary heading is always correct and in good taste. The address, unless one is writing the social letter to a stranger, is omitted. If used, it is ordinarily placed at the end of the letter, below the signature, beginning at the lefthand margin. For an illustration see the end of the first letter on page 96. The salutation may be merely formal, but it also affords an opportunity for endlessly varied expression of personal feeling, whether of sincere affection or of sentimental gush. It is well to be at least as reserved in the salutation as in speech. My dear Mr. Coffman and its slightly more intimate form Dear Mr. Coffman are always in good taste. From these forms the salutation may be more and more. cordial as far as warranted by genuine sentiment. Beyond this there comes at once a feeling of insincerity. It is sincerity," wrote James Runciman, "that attracts, and it is only by sincerity that any letter-writer can please other human creatures." ९९ The tone of the whole letter, a kind of point of view, may be set in the salutation, — a key struck, as it were, with which all that follows must be in harmony. The salutation in a letter written to one's chum would certainly be different from that in a letter to one's grandfather. Almost any expression of self is permissible here, but note that it is not good form to write Friend John. Write My dear Friend or, much better still, Dear John. Every word in the salutation except the first and the last is begun with a small letter; as, My very precious Mother. The salutation is usually followed by a comma, sometimes by a comma and dash, a colon, or a colon and dash. Occasionally, in very informal letters, the salutation is made a part of the body of the letter; as, Deland, Florida, Only yesterday, my dear Jim, I was wishing that you were here, so that we might talk over our plans for next summer. And the salutation on page 91 is so evidently a matter of form, the real salutation being incorporated in the first line of the body of the letter, that it might be omitted not only without loss but with a real gain in sincerity. |