Decidedly Faulty by J. M. A.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1867

Decidedly Faulty.

By J. M. A.

AFTER all that has been said on the subject of carelessness about writing letters of business to the Office, it is astonishing that we still have sent to us such letters as the following:—

“State Center, July 16, 1867.”

“BRO. ALDRICH: Inclosed I send two dollars, one for Thoughts on the Revelation, and the other for two 50ct packages of tracts.”

This letter hails from State Center, but what State Center we are not informed. As we find no Post Office by that name on our Directory, and as there is supposed to be a center to every State in the Union, we should hardly know where to direct the books, even if the letter were not faulty in other respects.

The next mistake worthy of note is the fact that the letter contained only $1.85, whereas the writer gave us to understand that $2.00 were enclosed,

Last of all, the letter did not contain the name of the writer.

Our correspondent will therefore excuse us for laying his letter aside till we are better informed.

But after all that may be said of the serious faults of this letter, I would commend it to all of our correspondents as a sample, for brevity and business-like style. Business letters should always be as brief as possible and right to the point. In this respect the foregoing letter is truly praiseworthy.

Should quite a large number of our correspondents note the foregoing points and make the necessary improvement in their business letters we shall be greatly obliged.

J. M. A.