Page:When You Write a Letter (1922).pdf/72

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Jan. 13, 1921
Tuscola, Illinois

Dean T. A. Clark

University of Ill.
Urbana, Ills
Dean Clark,

Came home the week end of Jan. 8 and was unable to return to school because of the mumps. Do not know just when I can get back. This letter is so that my absence from classes may be taken care of thru your office.

Yours

The friendly or social letter should have a considerably different form from the business letter. It should taboo abbreviations entirely, it should be written on plain stationery such as has been already suggested, and it should begin and end differently from the business letter. The complimentary beginning should be "Dear Mr. Green" or "Dear Walter," as the closeness of the relationship decides. There is little if any difference between "My dear Grace" and "Dear Grace," some authors holding that one form and some that the other is the more formal. I