Letter writing has evolved and adapted over time, but I
still see elements of these basic principles still occurring today. Personally,
I still write and receive letters about four times a month – about one letter
sent/received per week – to a couple pen pals for whom written letters are the
only available means of communication. One of my pen pals is currently deployed,
and there is a very specific way to address the envelope to ensure it goes to
the right person or does not get confiscated because of confidentiality
reasons.
Similarly, in the actual letter, I see salutations as a form
of respect, though the ones in the manual of The Principles of Letter Writing are quite embellished. The author
says, though, “very often the largest part of the securing of goodwill is in
the course of the salutation itself” (Anonymous 502). I don’t see it as much
different as addressing a professor as “Doctor” or a schoolteacher as “Mrs.” It’s
become much more informal over the centuries, I feel. Rhetorically speaking, if
a letter is being sent to a certain audience to persuade or inform them (which
is in the definition provided – “a suitable arrangements of words set forth to
express the intended meaning of its sender”), it’s a smart move. It shows that
you, as the speaker, has a social knowledge and decency to use “humility and
certainly not pride” when addressing someone (497). I’d be more willing to read what someone has
to say if they took the time to research who I was and address me properly rather
than someone who addressed me otherwise.
Someone else mentioned emailing as a modern form of letter writing, and I'd agree. In the appropriate situations, we still know how to open an email to make sure our recipients know that what they are about to read is what we mean to say and we think it's important.
I really liked how you incorporated the quote about how embellishments to salutations “should be chosen to indicate humility and certainly not pride” (497). Humility is usually synonymous with modesty, and I actually wrote my synthesis paper about the use of modesty in rhetoric!
ReplyDeleteAccording to classical rhetoricians, modesty usually indicates a rhetor’s good character/good will and knowledge of a subject, both of which you subtly refer to: “I’d be more willing to read what someone has to say if they took the time to research who I was and address me properly rather than someone who addressed me otherwise.” The phrase, “took the time to research” insinuates both a person’s integrity [to do research] and knowledge [as the result of research]. So really, the “humble expressions” in letter salutations are a form of modesty, which is a tool for building up ethos! I wonder if, because of our modern, simplified versions of salutations, we are actually limiting ourselves and overlooking a valuable rhetorical device.