Applied Business Correspondence
A 600-page textbook cut down from the Course in Business Correspondence that Herbert Watson, former head of mail sales at the A. W. Shaw Company, wrote for Shaw.
What it is
A 600-page textbook cut down from the Course in Business Correspondence that Herbert Watson, former head of mail sales at the A. W. Shaw Company, wrote for Shaw. It treats a letter as a selling job to be engineered. Part I builds a size-up chart of questions, from the complete "load" the letter must carry to the action desired. Later parts cover the Big Idea and its "features", beating indifference with negative and visionary ideas, clarity, sincerity, six motives (love, gain, duty, pride, self-indulgence, self-preservation), the close, attention "stoppers", letterheads and enclosures, form-paragraph systems, test mailings and idea records. Each rule is followed by real letters in numbered panels: an Addressograph offer, a Delta Land Company letter built on the word CORN, a Ford top maker's letter that drew 36% replies. Problem sections close each part.
Why read it now
The size-up chart holds. Deciding the reader's state before writing (does he care, is he opposed, does he know the subject, what should he do next) is the brief many copy teams still skip. Watson's claim that 90% of business letters need no attention device, only a clear idea, fits transactional email and WhatsApp replies today. His rule that a stopper must lead into the idea matches current ad research: attention that does not connect to the brand or the offer is mostly wasted. The split between the idea a reader is sold on and the motive that makes him sign still works. What has dated: the six motives and their ranking are one man's experience, and he admits he does not know why the order works. The stationery chapters belong to 1922. The testing chapter is the strongest: mail 500 names, roll out only above a set return, and distrust small tests with low thresholds, which he shows can mislead. Use: answer his chart questions before any sales email or broadcast, then test it on a slice of the list first.
Passages worth keeping
In fact, for 90% and perhaps more of the individual letters written or dictated in business, a properly addressed envelop and a postage stamp will insure the attention of the person addressed.
أغلب رسائل العمل لا تحتاج إلى حيلة لجذب الانتباه، فوصولها إلى الشخص المعني يكفي، والجهد الحقيقي يذهب إلى الفكرة وإقناع القارئ بها.
A forceful Stopper and a good idea combined will not get results if the attention that is won by the Stopper is not the kind of attention that will intelligently light up the idea.
لا يكفي أن تلفت النظر بقوة، فإن لم يقُد ما يلفت النظر إلى الفكرة نفسها ضاع أثره حتى لو كانت الفكرة جيدة.
The simple truth isn't always enough. Sometimes it must be staged.
قول الحقيقة وحده لا يقنع دائمًا، فأحيانًا تحتاج الحقيقة إلى عرض يجعل القارئ يراها ويشعر بها.
But always remember to distinguish between the idea that the reader is to be sold on, and the motive that persuades him to sign the order.
الفكرة التي يقتنع بها القارئ شيء، والدافع الذي يدفعه فعلًا إلى الشراء شيء آخر، وعلى الكاتب أن يعالج الاثنين.
It is no disgrace to have a letter fail, even after you have taken the most painstaking care in writing it.
فشل الرسالة في الاختبار أمر طبيعي حتى مع الإتقان، والخطأ الحقيقي هو التمسك برأي لا تؤيده النتائج.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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