Page:When You Write a Letter (1922).pdf/119

 when names are used to write them in full. It is better to say, "Mr. and Mrs. James Brown Scott" than "Mr. and Mrs. James B. Scott." We can properly write "Mr. and Mrs. Scott" if their identity is sufficiently clear to warrant the omission of the surnames, but it is not good form to use initials only, as "Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Scott." Such a method is too business-like and suggests haste and lack of care.

The formal note is written in the third person throughout as:

If the persons concerned all live in the same city, only the street number need be given at the end of the note, and in cases of intimacy even, that may be omitted.

In the engraved invitation it is not always so easy to adhere strictly to the third person throughout the note. In this country at least, the engraved invitation