Tuesday, February 14, 1984
Daily Nebraskan
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Lets say, just for the sake of discussion, that
you've recently moved. You're a little lonely in your
new environment. The mail carrier arrives with a
hand-written letter addressed to you. You open it. '
This is what it says:
Drzr Keren:
All of us are miserable since youje moved. The
kids keep complaining, "Tlierc's no one to play
with, "Fred misses carpooling with Cliff each day,
and I fight back tears each time I see your empty
house next door.
Bob
L
, After your letter, Fred and I came up with an idea
how 'bout both our families spending a week's
vacat ion together this summer? There must be some
lake or lodge halfway between South Dakota and
Georgia where we could meet. July would be the best
month for us, but we're pretty flexible all summer.
Talk it over with Cliff and see what he thinks.
The winter weather is going to be a drag. Tlie kids
never iire of the snow, and Fred and I have gotten a
lot of use out of our cross-country skis, but I 'm long
ing for spring at this point
Write soon!
Now, chances are that you'd be very touched by
that letter. You would imagine that your old neigh
bor had sat down, had reached deep into his or her
soul and had searched for exactly the right words to
tell you how much everyone missed you.
That's what you'd think but you'd be wrong.
If you got that letter, your old friend would have
copied it from a book. The volume is called The
Complete Book of Eff ective Personal Letters. It is
published by Prentice-Hall, and it was written by a
husband-wife freelance writing team named Robert
and Elaine Tietz.
Mr. and Mrs. Tietz had a very clever idea. They
realize, with some sadness, that we are well on our .
way to becoming a post-literate society. People don't
read as much as they used to; they watch television.
People dont write as much as they used to; they pick
up the telephone.
Cut the personal letter is not quite dead, at least
not yet. So lir. and llrs. Tietz asked themselves:
What do most people do when they want to write a
letter? Certainly they have the impulse to sit down
and put something on paper. But they can no longer
do it; writing a personal letter is a skill that disap
peared from their lives many years ago.
Thus, the book. It contains more than 400 per:
sonal letters designed to fit virtually all occasions.
Readers of the book are openly invited to plagiarize
from it.
That's the whole point," Robert Rietz said cheer
ily. "We want to make it as simple as possible for any
person to write a letter. A person is free to copy our
-Daily
-Nepraskari;'-
EDITOR
GENERAL MANAGER
PRODUCTION MANAGER
ADVERTISING MANAGER
ASSISTANT
ADVERTISING MANAGER
CIRCULATION MANAGER
NEWS EDITOR
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS
Larry Sharks, 472-1 7SS
Danfsl thiiSI
Trtcy L. Cir
Kt "y Grcasoehmt
f.!yr '
"itti V. TrS-lstt lit
Leurl Her"I
Jinn t'yUi'.sr ." .
ViefclF.i--3
JiM Crown
L'k Frost
PcJ Clark
Ptlty Pryor
JJf Cccilv.ia .
Chris Vcisch
Lorrl V.snzzr
Crsrj Andrei en
SPORTS EDITOR
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
EDITOR
COPY DESK SUPERVISOR
NIGHT NEWS EDITOR
........ ASSISTANT
NIGHT NEWS EDITOR
WIRE EDITOR
ART DIRECTOR
. PHOTO CHIEF
Th nailv Mfthraskan fUSPS 144-C2Q1 is DUbliShed bv thi
UNL Publications Board Monday through Friday in the fall
End spring semesters and Tuesdays and Fridays in the
summer sessions, except during vacations.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and com
ments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-25S3 between
9 a.m. end 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also
has access to the Publications Board. For information, call
Carta Johnson, 477-5703.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebras
kan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 63583
0443. ALL &ATCHIAL COPYRIGHT 1SI4 DAILY
Erighten comsom's dap.
cznd a perconal in ilie-
" ' : Dally Nebrasiiair:.
letters word for word, changing only names and
places so that they apply to his own situation. Or he
is free to make as many changes as he wants, if he
feels like being creative."
There is a comprehensive table of contents that
guides the reader to the various letters. There are
far, far too many to list here, but they include a letter
to write when a neighbor's unwanted dog to on your
lawn; when someone has been helpful during your '.
hospitalization; when you stood someone up by
missing a prearranged appointment; when you
would like to arrange a conference with your child's
principal; when a friend is getting a divorce; when
you would like a job recommendation from a former
employer; when you want to resign from your
church board; when your favorite disc jockey gets
fired and you want to complain; when you want the
president of your child's Little League to remove an
incompetent coach; when a magazine has billed you
incorrectly.
"Let's face it," Tietz said. "Letter-writing is a dying
art. For many, many people it's not such a simple
thing to do. They'd like to do it, but when they lean
over a piece of paper, nothing happens. So they pick
up the telephone instead.
"I don't think that using the letters in our book is
such a terrible thing to do. I don't consider it the
same thing as a kid cheating on an exam, for exam
ple. My feeling is that if we can help get more people
started writing letters again, then we've provided a
service." " .
He said that a letter copied from his book is better
than a greeting card: The store-bought greeting
card is better than nothing, but it's just not the same
as a note someone has sat down and written in his
or her own hand.
"Ill admit, this book wouldn't have been necessary
30 or 40 years ago. People back then took the time to
sit down and write personal letters. 13ut these days,
.television has taught us that everything can be
completed in an hour. When you see Quincy on
television solve a complicated case in an hour, you
don't think it's worth spending a whole hour just to
sit down and write a letter expressing your feelings.
With our book, you don't have to spend an hour
thinking up what to say in your letter."
Tietz said that he hopes people all over America
start copying letters from the book. And how will he
feel if he receives a "personal" letter in the mail one
of these days, opens it up and discovers that it's a
letter that he wrote himself and included in the
book? .
"I'd be pleased as punch."
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