If the Letter is to be in answer to another, begin by getting out that other letter and reading it through, in order to refresh your memory [...]
Next, Address and Stamp the Envelope. "What! Before writing the Letter?" Most certainly. And I'll tell you what will happen if you don't. You will go on writing till the last moment, and just in the middle of the last sentence, you will become aware that 'time's up!' Then comes the hurried wind-up — the wildly-scrawled signature — the hastily-fastened envelope, which comes open in the post — the address, a mere hieroglyphic — the horrible discovery that you've forgotten to replenish your Stamp-Case — the frantic appeal, to every one in the house, to lend you a Stamp — the headlong rush to the Post Office, arriving, hot and gasping, just after the box has closed — and finally, a week afterwards, the return of the Letter, from the Dead-Letter Office, marked "address illegible"!
Next, put the date in full. It is another aggravating thing, when you wish, years afterwards, to arrange a series of letters, to find them dated "Feb. 17", "Aug. 2", without any year to guide you as to which comes first. And never, never, dear Madam (N.B. this remark is addressed to ladies only: no man would ever do such a thing), put "Wednesday", simply, as the date!
"That way madness lies."»
Lewis Carrol, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing
Lewis Carrol, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing
Very sage advice!
ReplyDeleteActually, I always prepare the envelope first.
DeleteI think I always write the complete date. But maybe I didn't when I was younger.