52. Appeals.—When brief, these are in the nature of notices; when longer, they are like open letters. They aim to move people to take action benefiting some good cause, and should be as brief as is possible while giving a sufficiently full explanation of the necessity for action. Always state plainly and definitely how the action desired may be taken, to whom contributions may be sent, etc. The following is an example of a brief appeal. Like any such communication, it may be lengthened as much as is desirable, by dwelling on the good that a library would do under the conditions mentioned, by citing examples of successful school libraries elsewhere, etc. Such expansion is only necessary when the people to whom you make your appeal know little or nothing of the matter.
The public school which has just been completed near the iron foundries has no library of its own and there is no public library near it. Good reading matter is much needed there, and the pupils of other public schools in the city are earnestly requested to contribute books and magazines toward the formation of a school library. Anything in the way of interesting reading will be welcomed, in German as well as English, for there are a great many Germans among the pupils. Old magazines and old books will be of as much value in the beginning as new ones.
Contributions may be left in the office of the principal of any public school.
Exercise 88.—Write an appeal: (1) for old magazines to send to hospitals; (2) for pictures for your class room or for those of another school; (3) for books for your own library in your grade room; (4) for money for the fresh-air fund; (5) for pupils to join the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; (6) for volunteers to aid in a benefit entertainment of some sort, drill, play, fair, etc.; (7) for old clothes and shoes for the very poor of the city who are suffering from the cold; (8) for examples of map making, penmanship, drawing, or some other school work to send away as models to a new school; (9) for pupils to hand in more material for the school paper.
53. Petitions.—A petition is a form of open letter, asking a favor, and addressed by a number of people to an authority who can grant the request. There is a form fixed by tradition for the opening of a petition, but the content is varied according to the conditions, and the wording of a petition needs the greatest care. As in any literary exercise, the first thought should be of the essential points you wish to cover, and a brief outline should be made, comprising an exact statement of the concession you wish granted and the best reasons you can give for the granting of it.
To the Mayor and Common Council of the city of Wakefield, Indiana, we, the undersigned, members of the Eighth Grade of Public School No. 12, respectfully petition that the west end of Elliott Park, above the driveway, be set apart for a school picnic on the afternoon of Tuesday, May the fourteenth, between two and six o'clock.
There is no other place suitable for a picnic within walking distance of the school and all the members of the Eighth are not able to pay carfare. If our petition is granted, we guarantee that no damage will be done to the trees or shrubs, that the park will be vacated promptly at six o'clock, and left in good condition.
Exercise 89.—1. Write a petition to the authorities of your city or town, asking for permission to use a certain street for coasting, for shinney, for baseball, etc.
2. Write a petition to the principal of your school, asking that a new study may be introduced into the school curriculum; that the weekly holiday be on another day; that school open later and close later, or vice versa; that punishment by staying after school be abolished; that the hours of schools be shorter and more work be done at home; that school be closed an hour earlier in order that the pupils may be present at a meeting or celebration of some kind; that your grade be allowed to use the assembly room for a debate; that you be permitted to flood a part of the playground to make a skating pond; that one of your studies be omitted from the course of study; that pupils be not marked tardy until ten minutes after the opening of school.
54. Advertisements.—The advertisement is an outgrowth of the notice, and in its simplest form is still a notice, as when the expense of printing causes the advertisement to be as brief as possible. It is then written on the same principle as the telegram, that is, using the fewest words possible to express clearly a given amount of information.
Exercise 90.—Write, after studying similar advertisements in the newspapers, advertisements for help of all kinds,—janitor, sewing girls, errand boys, maids, nurses, coachmen, farm hands, apple-pickers, telephone girls, stenographers, etc. Also advertisements for rented furnished rooms, for houses to rent, etc., giving all essential details in as few words as possible.
The above are virtually notices without having the real characteristic of the advertisement, which differs from the notice in that it not only gives information but seeks to do this in so attractive and pleasing a manner that people will be induced to buy the wares offered.
Exercise 91.—As a class exercise, take any one of the following topics, limit the number of words used to two or three hundred, and see who can write the most practical and attractive advertisement. Your aim is to state as forcibly as possible all the favorable aspects of your topic, so that they will appeal most surely to the people you wish to reach. Study the advertisements you like best and see their method. Note that you are attracted by those that seem honest and moderate, and that you are repelled by extravagant overstatements.
1. Write an advertisement for an amusement park which has been opened near your town.
2. For a country school for boys; for girls.
3. For a city school for boys; for girls.
4. For an excursion on a railroad or on a line of steamers.
5. For a summer resort in the North; for a winter resort in the South.
6. For a sanatorium in your town; for a skating rink; for a new hotel.
7. For an academy making a specialty of nature study; of modern languages; of athletics.