The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 366–379 · Part 2: Part Second
105. Letters for real business (optional) optional
Goal: Your child writes short letters for practical purposes: ordering, asking, and arranging.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Sections 366 to 379 are fourteen letter-writing tasks, to be used "as the needs of the pupils suggest": inviting a friend to a lecture, asking an uncle about summer work, ordering wood, subscribing to a magazine, asking a painter for an estimate, hiring a boy to shovel paths, asking the postmaster to forward mail, and others.
The lesson, step by step
Choose two
The book's note says to use these as needed. Read the list together and let your child choose two, one friendly and one business.
Talk it through
The book says each letter is better if the situation is discussed first. For each: Who is it to? What exactly do you want? What will they need to know (address, time, amount)?
Write
Your child writes both letters, each 3 to 6 sentences in the body, in the right form.
Check it gently
For the business letter: is it short, plain and polite, with your address included? For the friendly one: is it warm? Fix one thing in each.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
Dear Sir:
Please deliver three cords of dry oak wood to my house at 14 Elm Street as soon as you can. I will pay the driver when the wood arrives.
Yours truly,
Arthur Bell.