ABSTRACT
That quotation may seem a bit grand and expansive to head a chapter that will be chiefly concerned with the writing of business letters. But Donne’s words do illuminate a quality that characterizes any letterdirectness. Letters presuppose a kind of conversation with the reader, or set out an agenda to be discussed. They are usually addressed to just one person (or to a family or committee as a unit, which amounts to the same thing), and they are written and sent for a precise, ‘one-off’ reason even if they also form part of a long correspondence. It is therefore very important that the writer gets as many things ‘right’ as possible.
