should not feel the criticism is an attack on you personally. If you do, your capacity to learn from experience  and  to  improve  will  be  diminished. SMOOTH VERSION. —Someone  must  check the  smooth,  or  final,  version  of  the  corre- spondence before it is presented for signature. This task normally falls to the supervisor of the originating office. The supervisor should check the  smooth  correspondence  for  the  following: Use of correct standard subject identifi- cation  code  (SSIC),  if  used Inclusion   of   all   required   informa- tion  or  the  exact  transcription  of  the approved   draft Use  of  correct  titles  of  all  addressees (action,  via,  and  information) Observance of proper chain of command for  addressees Proper labeling and attachment of en- closures, if any Inclusion  of  proper  number  of  enclosures Use  of  approved  format If the supervisor finds typographical or spelling  errors,   correct  them  in  the  manner approved  by  your  command.  If  your  command permits,  you  may  make  up  to  two  ink  corrections if  they  are  neatly  made. SECURITY  CLASSIFICATION.  —Proper security classification of correspondence is a serious problem in the Navy, largely because people  overclassify  it.  When  you  write  cor- respondence, be sure you show the classifica- tion on the rough draft and handle the draft as required  by  that  classification. No  simple  rules  for  security  exist.  You  must follow various policy directives, and, when in doubt,  apply  common  sense.  Overclassified correspondence results in too few people being informed  too  slowly. Assign  each  piece  of  correspondence  the lowest classification possible consistent with the proper  protection  of  the  information  contained in it. You do not have to classify correspondence according to the classification of its references unless  the  correspondence  is  actually  classified. Classify  correspondence  and  documents  according to their content, not according to their rela- tionship  to  other  documents.  That  procedure  is particularly important when documents are part of a series. Various paragraphs or sections of a single document may contain different classifi- cations.  The  document  must  bear  the  highest overall  classification  of  its  contents.  The  assigned security  manager  will  assist  you  in  determining  the correct  security  classification  for  outgoing correspondence. Department of the Navy Information and Personnel   Security   Program   Regulation, OPNAVINST  5510.1H,  contains  regulations  and guidance   for   classifying   and   safeguarding classified   information. Types of Correspondence Official  correspondence  in  its  true  sense  covers all  recorded  communications,  including  messages. Since  the  preceding  section  covered  naval  mes- sages,  we  have  confined  our  discussion  of  types of correspondence in this section to letters and endorsements,  memoranda,  and  NAVGRAMS. STANDARD NAVAL LETTER. —Although you  always  double  space  rough  text  to  allow  space for reviewing officers to make corrections or insertions,  always  single  space  the  smooth  final copy.  Figure  2-15  illustrates  a  one-page  standard naval letter in finished form. Before  you  begin  the  letter,  you  should determine  the  addressee(s)  to  enter  in  the  To  Block and  the  addressee(s),  if  any,  to  enter  in  the  Via Block.  Then  follow  the  procedures  shown  in  the Department of the Navy Correspondence Manual, SECNAVINST 5216.5C to prepare the letter. ENDORSEMENT. —An endorsement is a brief form of a naval letter on which an official recommends  action  or  makes  comments,  forwards a  letter,  redirects  a  misaddressed  letter,  or endorses  a  letter  back  to  the  originator  for  further information.  You  will  frequently  use  endorse- ments to transmit correspondence through the chain  of  command.  An  endorsement  becomes  part of the basic letter; therefore, it is not routinely used to reply to a letter. Place  an  endorsement  on  the  signature page  of  the  basic  letter  if  space  and  length of  endorsement  permit  (see  fig.  2-16).  The 2-39