How to Write a Letter

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 124, 7 November 1941, Page 5

How to Write a Letter

GREAT deal of commercial English is thoroughly justifiable. The English a business man uses does not need to be the English of Shakespeare, of Burke, or of Galsworthy. They’re doing different jobs. And that brings me to the heart of the matter. The goodness or badness of a piece of English depends on

how well or how ill it does the job for which it is intended. To state the case more scientifically, the first thing that the student of English prose must look to is its function or purpose. Good prose is prose which adequately fulfils its function. When you are confronted with a piece of prose or are trying to write a piece of prose and (like the gentleman in the French comedy) we're doing

that all our life in one way or another, we must say immediately: "Is this good English?" And follow it with the further question: " Good English for what?" What is the purpose of the prose which I am reading or writing? Am I attempting to state facts coldly like a scientist, am I attempting to move people against their will by appealing to their emotions, am I just writing a chatty conversational letter to a friend or relative? Am I writing a letter which I hope will bring me a job? B: I should say a letter applying for the job was the most important. Many a job’s been lost because the applicant wrote the wrong sort of letter. A: You're right there. But my point is that all four of these tasks require good English, but the goodness of the English will be different for all four purposes, The letter to the friend will be colloquial and barely grammatical with all the ease of conversation; the letter to the prospective employer will ~ be formal and nicely rounded. The scientific piece of prose will be a clean piece of writing where every word has a clear and precise meaning; the persuasive speech may use vaguer, more emotive language with words that neither the speaker nor his audience could define accurately, but which have a powerful emotional effect on both, Four very different styles and yet all of them can be good English. It depends on the success of each in its particular job. --(Winter Course Talk, "Can People be Taught to Write?" Professor Gordon, Victoria University College, 2Y A, October 27.)