Read over each page of your letter, as you finish it, to see that there are no errors. If you find any, correct them carefully. In writing a familiar letter, a very common fault is tautology, or a too frequent repetition of the same word—for instance, “Yesterday I received a letter from sister Mary, which was the first letter I have received from sister since she left.” The sentence should be, “Yesterday I received a letter from my sister Mary, the first since she left us.”
Unless you are writing to one of your own family, put always the pronoun “my” before the word “sister.” Say also—“my father,” “my mother,” and not “father,” “mother,” as if they were also the parents of your correspondent.
To end the sentence with the word “left,” (for departed,) is awkward and unsatisfactory—for instance, “It is two days since he left.” Left what? It is one of the absurd innovations that have crept in among us of late years, and are supposed to be fashionable. Another is the ridiculous way of omitting the possessive S in words ending with that letter; for instance, “Sims’ Hotel” instead of “Sims’s Hotel”—“Jenkins’ Bakery” for “Jenkins’s Bakery.” Would any one, in talking, say they had stayed at Sims’ Hotel, or that they bought their bread at Jenkins’ Bakery. This is ungrammatical, as it obliterates the possessive case, and is therefore indefinite; and moreover, it looks and sounds awkwardly.
Many persons who think themselves good grammarians put on their cards “The Misses Brown,”—“The Misses Smith.” Those who really are so, write “The Miss Browns”—“The Miss Smiths”—the plural being always on the substantive, and never on the adjective. Would we say “the whites glove” instead of “the white gloves”—or the “blues ribbon” for the “blue ribbons.” Does any lady in talking say, “The two Misses Brown called to see me?”
It is also wrong to say “two spoonsful,” instead of two spoonfuls. Thus, “two spoonsful of milk” seems to imply two separate spoons with milk in each; while “two spoonfuls of milk” gives the true idea—one spoon twice filled.
Avoid in writing, as in talking, all words that do not express the true meaning. We are sorry to say that sometimes even among educated people, when attempting smartness or wit, we find a sort of conventional slang that has, in truth, a strong tinge of vulgarity, being the wilful substitution of bad words or bad phrases for good ones. When we find them issuing from the lips or the pen of a lady, we fear she is unfortunate in a reprobate husband, or brother, from whom she must have learnt them. Yet even reprobates dislike to hear their wives and sisters talking coarsely.
Unless you know that your correspondent is well versed in French, refrain from interlarding your letters with Gallic words or phrases.
Do not introduce long quotations from poetry. Three or four lines of verse are sufficient. One line, or two, are better still. Write them rather smaller than your usual hand, and leave a space at the beginning and end; marking their commencement and termination with inverted commas, thus “ ”.
One of our young relatives when seven or eight years old, tried her hand at story-writing. In finishing the history of a naughty girl, much addicted to falsehood, the terminating sentence ran thus:—
“Arabella did not cure herself of this fault; but when she grew up, and became an authoress, she never marked her quotations.”