What Etiquette Is

People like to get along with other people. All your life you will be influenced by others, and in turn you will influence them. In order to set some standard for behavior, society has created what we call "etiquette". Webster's New World Dictionary defines etiquette as "the forms, manners, and ceremonies established by convention as acceptable or required by society, in a profession or in official life." This section is to help you to learn how to follow the rules of etiquette. Also it should help you to learn to reason and become adaptable enough to make a few of your own rules for those inevitable social occasions that have no definite plan. Thus we might also consider etiquette as the ability to reason and do the right thing at the right time. If you can do this, you will have social grace.

There are three main steps toward becoming a socially gracious person. The first one comes at home, mostly during your early years, when family influences and relationships will probably carry on for the rest of your life. The second occurs at school, when you begin making friends and learn to get along with many other people. The third comes when you move from school out into the whole world of friends and strangers, which we call society. The main point for you, as an individual, is to be prepared to use good manners at all times in any one of the three settings-- home, school, society.

Social grace comes with having poise. Poise comes with experience in meeting all kinds of people and knowing what to do or say. If you study this section, which gives you many of the acceptable rules of etiquette as well as some suggestions for meeting new problems, you will learn to feel more secure in all kinds of social situations.