10. The correct manner of folding commercial note and letter paper so that each will fit the envelope commonly used for either. 11. A simple rule to cover all cases where a stamp should be enclosed for reply. 12. Some obvious good features of the plan for learning a foreign language thru correspondence with some one in a foreign country, this system being now actually employed in several places in this country; ⚫ some possible disadvantages also. 13. a friend. The politeness or otherwise of sealing a note to be delivered by II. Suggested Oral: 1. With samples in the hands of pupils, discuss a collection of formal invitations and declinations, or regrets, which have been in actual use. Let these be gathered from any available source by pupils and teacher and kept for reference. Consider items of spacing, arrangement, printing or engraving, etc., as matters of custom and of taste. 2. In the same manner, discuss a similar collection of all the different bills, bill-heads, and receipted bills that the class can collect, noting similarities and differences and any other interesting points. In like manner, discuss a collection of blank and of cancelled bank checks. Determine in this discussion whether a bank check is also practically a receipt; also, how many times it may be used as a receipt and to whom it has this use last. 3. 4. In like manner, discuss a collection of all sorts of short advertisements, collected from some of the best possible publications. After agreeing upon a few model forms, paste these for future reference upon a sheet of manila or other stiff paper. 5. A report from committees of the class who shall have obtained information (1) as to whether the name of the county on mail sent to very small towns is necessary to insure safe delivery, or is chiefly desirable as an aid to rapid postal service; (2) as to the work done inside one of Uncle Sam's mail cars; (3) as to the most common annoyances to postal clerks in the matter of unsatisfactory addresses; (4) as to how minute should be the items of a letter heading to ensure prompt return mail; (5) 92 as to what sort of business form the average self-supporting citizen will probably most often need to make out. III. Suggested Written: 1. Write formal notes of invitation, of acceptance, of declination with regrets, for a picnic or some other social gathering. 2. Make out in correct form a bill to your teacher for all your school properties to the least item, with a reasonable valuation assigned to each. Write her a receipt also for the total amount of the bill. 3. Assuming that you have become a self-supporting citizen, write out your own receipt to some other person for cash for rent, for borrowed money, for cash due you for board, and for any other item you select. sale. 4. Write out a suitable advertisement of something wanted or for 5. Answer in as good form as possible an advertisement cut from a newspaper. 6. State an imaginary but possible case where omission or error in location, date, address, or signature, gave rise to some fortunate result or Make this as explicit as possible, and if convenient, write to the reverse. in story form. Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine! Ralph Waldo Emerson. * Reprinted by permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company, authorized pub lishers of Emerson's works. ON THE USE OF ABBREVIATIONS For the sake of convenience, many names are often abbreviated, or cut off. They are then called abbreviations, and must be followed by a period, to show that the name is not written in full. Certain titles, or forms of address, showing honors, position, or respect, are nearly always thus abbreviated. These abbreviations are most apt to occur in letter headings, addresses, and business papers. examples and in certain business papers you may use matheIn your arithmetic matical abbreviations; but in your letters and language exercises you are not permitted to use either figures or abbreviations, except in a few definite cases, such, for example, as tables of statistics. To use them elsewhere is to proclaim either ignorance of correct form, or shiftlessness and indolence. This is an important matter, the more so because it is one not usually understood. You have only to study a few issues of the very best magazines, such as The Atlantic, The Century, Harper's, The Outlook, or Scribner's, to see what are correct forms in writing. Your school readers, too, are usually printed correctly. Remember that the use of a newspaper is not sufficient authority for any form, since many excellent newspapers are sadly careless in these matters. The most scholarly writers do not often abbreviate the names of the days of the week nor of the months of the year; and it is only permissible to do so in case the full date, 94 including the year, is given. How absurd the poems in Lesson VII would look, if the names of months and of days had been abbreviated! To employ as few abbreviations as possible is a safe rule, and is also in accordance with the present wise tendency among good writers. In calendars the names of the days are often abbreviated to save space. In a diary, also, this may possibly be allowed. But in formal letters and notes the full form should be used in accordance with the usual practice of our best writers of literature. Thus you may write February twenty-second, or February 22, or Feb. 22, 1900, but never Feb. 22. The textbooks indorsing this incorrect form show in their own pages of literature that it is not good form after all. Then do not by your own usage indorse forms which well-printed publications condemn as ignorant and shiftless. are. It is required by courtesy that in written addresses we always use the titles Master, Miss, Mister, or Mistress. The two former are never abbreviated, and the two latter always The only other title besides Mr. and Mrs. that is used alone is Dr. for Doctor. And while you may see a sign reading Dr. Smith, you will do well to remember that Doctor Smith is a better form wherever the initials are omitted. You may use either of the following forms: Professor Case, or Prof. A. B. Case Captain [Colonel, General] Case, or Capt. [Col., Gen.] A. B. Case The Honorable Mr. Case, or the Hon. A. B. Case While you may omit the the in writing the two last titles, you must not omit it in oral speech, hence it is safer always to write it. Notice the title of a certain modern novel, "The Honorable Peter Stirling." As the use of titles is chiefly to show respect, it is urged by some very particular persons that pre-titles should always be written in full, even when the initials occur also. Since no one objects to the full form, you are certain to give no offence when you thus write every title in full. Certainly, the appearance of a written name is far more pleasing to the eye when no titles are cut off. Professor Richard T. Ely is a more courteous form than Prof. R. T. Ely; but remember always that Prof. Ely, Rev. Smith, and similar forms are not to be found in the most carefully printed publications. Here are two other important cautions: 1. You must not abbreviate the name of a State, unless the name of town, or of county, precedes. Even then it is better form to write all out in full, and many business houses now require that the names of States be always written in full. Thus you may write Austin, Mower County, Minn., or Austin, Minnesota, or even Austin, Minn., but never In Minn. 2. You may not use the abbreviations A.M., P.M., or M. unless a given hour or day precedes, as 12 M.; Tuesday A.M. The title Esq. for Esquire is sometimes used instead of Mr. as a mark of especial respect. It is usually given in the United States as a sign of the legal profession, and in England to all literary and professional men. As a mere mark of respect it is now used less than formerly. When used, it is separated from the surname by a comma, as, A. B. Case, Esq. The title Honorable is given, in the United States, to all members and ex-members of Congress and of State legislatures, |