The Letter Writer
Written by Studio AM.
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For thirty years Senora Bermudez wrote letters for people who could not, or would not, write their own. Her table stood at the north end of the market, between the notary and a woman selling brooms, and the price was the same for a love letter as for a complaint to the water company, which she considered a matter of principle rather than of pricing.
A client might arrive with a long grievance and leave with four clear sentences. Much of her craft lay in deciding what to leave out. A man would talk for twenty minutes about the fence his brother had moved, and she would write four lines that made no accusation at all, because she had found that a clear description was more likely than an accusation to open a useful exchange.
She was praised throughout the market for making people sound clear and reasonable. Yet sometimes she wondered whether she had removed too much. The facts were still there, but would a client recognize their own voice? Each evening she reread the letters she was proudest of, checking not only what she had cut but what remained.
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Questions
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.
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Question 1 of 4
What is the passage mainly about?
The answer is A: How a letter writer makes complaints clearer while considering what her edits leave out
The writer reduces long complaints to clear descriptions, then considers whether the result still preserves the client's voice.
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Question 2 of 4
What did Senora Bermudez charge for a love letter?
The answer is C: The same as for a complaint to the water company
The first paragraph says the price was the same for a love letter as for a complaint to the water company.
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Question 3 of 4
Why did she avoid writing accusations?
The answer is B: She finds clear descriptions more likely to invite a useful exchange.
Her choice follows her experience that descriptions are more likely to open a useful exchange. The passage does not make this a guaranteed response.
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Question 4 of 4
What does 'grievance' mean in this passage?
The answer is D: a complaint about being wronged
Clients arrive with one and describe things like a brother moving a fence, so a grievance is a sense of having been wronged.
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