//;-: V'' Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive in 2007 witin funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/englisliofbusinesOOsnydricli THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS BY FEANKLYN B. SNYDER AND RONALD S. CRANE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. .*••<* • PRINTED IN THE U. S. A, CONTENTS CHAPTBB PAGE I. The Importance of English in Business .... 1 II. Matters of Form 7 Spelling 7 Abbreviations 11 Numbers 15 Capitalization 17 Punctuation 18 III. Grammatical Difficulties 47 Pronouns 47 Verbs 53 Conjunctions 68 Idioms 69 Glossary of Grammatical Terms 73 IV. A Business Man's Vocabulary 81 The Ideal of a Good Vocabulary 82 The Shortcomings of the Average Vocabulary ... 88 Methods of Enlarging One's Vocabulary 95 Adaptation of Vocabulary 97 V. The Construction of Sentences 106 Unity 107 Coherence 118 Emphasis 130 VI. Paragraphs 140 The Ideals of Paragraph Structure 144 Adaptations of these Principles to Business Writing . 158 VII. The Preparation of Articles and Reports . . . 163 Gathering the Material 165 Analyzing the Material 172 Making the Outline 172 Writing the Article or Report 180 Bibliographies and Footnotes 183 iii 4iiai3 iv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE VIII. A Business Man's Correspondence 190 Business Letters 190 Friendly Letters 223 IX. Talking in Public 229 APPENDIX .? Suggestions to Teachers 247 INDEX 255 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS CHAPTER I. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH IN BUSINESS. I. Why Worry About English? 1. The student who is looking forward to a business career is inclined to dislike anything that takes his attention from the profession he has chosen to master. Accordingly, when some one says to him, ''You should learn more about English, it will help you in your work," he is Ukely to reply with a question: "Why should I worry about that? If I know my own business I'll get on all right, won't I?" And not infrequently he turns away from his adviser, confident that the study of English has little or no place in the training of a business man or woman. 2. Yet many people know that this skepticism concerning the importance of English in business is not shared by pro- gressive men of affairs. Large firms are every day establish- ing classes in English for the benefit of their employees; questions concerning correct usage come with astonishing regularity to teachers of English. It is plain that the gulf which once was thought to separate the business man and the teacher is rapidly narrowing. The teacher can learn much from his friend in business; the business man can learn some things from the schoolmaster. 3. When they have gone so far as to accept in a vague way this truth that good English has a place in successful business, some persons, however, make a mistake. They think that there is such a thing as ''business EngUsh," 1 2 /•' ftftie iSNGtlSHvOF BUSINESS entirely different from the literary English of the schools. They realize that the phraseology of a business letter differs in many respects from that, say, of Macaulay's Essays, and are inclined to make for themselves a new business rhetoric, and to feel, unconsciously perhaps, that the less they interest themselves in the old principles, the easier it will be to master the new. 4. In a limited way, of course, this is true. The ordinary student of English, unless he be a sort of ''perpetual Fresh- man, " has in mind the attainment of *' style " ; he is interested in the creation of beauty — to use words of perhaps too large significance. The typical business man has no such ideal. His purpose is, let us say, to sell automobiles. If by his writing he can realize this ambition, he is quite satisfied. He does not concern himself with aesthetics. And yet to think that the English he uses differs in any fundamental way from that of his friend who writes short stories, is to err. There is no more a "business English" than there is an ''historical English" or a "geological English"; it is all one speech, one written language. What differences there are between the pages composed by story-teller, historian, geologist, and automobile salesman, arise only from the necessity of adapting one written language to the solution of different problems. 5. To return, however, to the main question: why is it that thoughtful people today realize that good English, in the large — and true — sense of the phrase, has an important rela- tion to business? Why are firms and individuals each year paying more attention to the letters and other written matter they send out? Why should the young business man under- take to master the writing and speaking of English? 6. First of all, because the habitual use of good English, whether in speaking or writing, helps one to make a good impression upon other people. It is in a real sense a mark ENGLISH IN BUSINESS 3 of distinction. A business house is particular about the appearance of its letter paper; it should be equally concerned with what is written on that paper. The young man who is advised to be careful about his personal appearance, in order to make a favorable impression upon his associates or em- ployers, should be equally careful about his use of the national tongue. 7. Today, as most people know, the bulk of all business is transacted by letter. A firm is known to its clients not only by the goods it sells, but by the letters it writes. It often makes its first appeal to a prospective customer by a letter. If the letter is carefully typed, on good paper, and is well composed, it makes a favorable initial impression. The high school graduate applying for a position writes a letter; if it is a good letter, he may receive a personal interview. The outcome of that interview will depend to a considerable extent upon the candidate's ability to express himself well in conversation. From this point of view, then, a command of English is highly desirable: it enables one to make a better impression, in writing or in speaking, than is possible when one is not master of his tongue or pen. 8. In the second place, a good command of English will enable a person to convey ideas to other people effectively; it will help him to do more business. The world of trade moves through the exchange of ideas. Smith has something to sell; Jones wants to buy. If Smith can show Jones that Smith's goods will satisfy his demand, he will get the business he wishes. Whether or not he succeeds will depend to a considerable extent on his ability to express himself in EngUsh. 9. This practical value of the command of a language has seldom been more clearly recognized than by Benjamin Franklin and Lincoln. Neither man had the opportunity to secure a formal education; each man yearned for power to 4 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS influence others; and each, as a young man, set dehberately about the task of learning to write well in order to convey his ideas to others in the most effective way. Today we still read Franklin's letters and Lincoln's speeches, and wonder at the lucidity and force with which they expressed them- selves. They made the language their tool, and used the tool to admirable purpose. 10. A command of English, then, will aid the business man in these two ways : it will help him make a good impres- sion on others, and will render easier his task of conveying ideas effectively. The very fact that a command of English has this immediate value to the business man, suggests that it will aid him in still a third way: it will give him self-confi- dence. Watch a skillful artisan ten minutes, and see how his mastery of his tools enables him to go about his work easily and swiftly. Put those same tools into the hands of a man unacquainted with their use, and the result will be a bungling job — or a wreck. This lack of confidence which the untrained man is so conscious of is one of the most certain causes of his failure. Similarly, the business man who "knows what he means, but can't express himself," makes a poor showing beside his rival who, no more skillful perhaps than the inarticulate competitor, has yet the confidence which comes from mastery of the chief tool with which business is transacted — the English language. 11. The chief tool — but not, of course,- the only tool. Mere mastery of language will not ensure any person's success. But of two men equally endowed in other respects the one who has most effectively mastered the English language will attain the fullest measure of success. II. How To Use This Book. 12. The English of Business is primarily a text-book, intended to be studied, with exercises, illustrations, and ENGLISH IN BUSINESS 5 suggestions to the teacher. It assumes a knowledge of the rudiments of grammar, but makes clear the meaning of the few grammatical terms which seem unavoidable in such a work. To get the most from it one should read it carefully, working out the exercises in each chapter, and revisuig them when they have been criticized by the instructor. 13. The general reader, who may not be a student in any organized class, but who wishes to improve his own com- mand of English, will find here much practical advice on the most important questions of both spoken and written English. Omitting the exercises, if he pleases, but marking those paragraphs which seem to him particularly suggestive, he can gain much from simply reading the book through. 14. Third, the book illustrates correct usage in those matters of form which most often perplex a business man, and about which confusion is easy. Many people will thus find it a convenient reference book to keep on the table as they write. Its use in this way is made simple by the index and a system of cross references in the text. For instance, one of the commonest sources of trouble to the letter writer is the punctuation of quotations. Where should the semi- colon be in the following sentence, inside, or outside the quotation mark? He said, "I'll show you"; but nothing ever came of his remark. Turn to the index under ''quotations, punctuation of," and then to paragraph 83, and you will find the question an- swered. Other questions of the same sort can be readily answered in the same way. EXERCISE 1. 1. Write a letter to one of your friends, urging him to begin the study of English, and telling him how it will help him. Do not simply paraphrase this chapter, but put in as many new reasons as you can think of. 6 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 2. Describe some person you know whose ability to speak well helps him in his business. 3. Write a paragraph stating as well as you can what you hope to gain for yourself from the study of The English of Business. 4. What bothers you most when you write? Lack of ideas? Spelling? Punctuation? Sentence structure? Grammar? Idi- oms? Look over the written work that has been criticized and returned to you, and make a list in your note-book of the errors you have made. Keep adding to this Hst throughout the course, and at the end note what errors you have succeeded in ehminating and what still remain. CHAPTER II. MATTERS OF FORM. I. Spelling. 15. No business man will question the importance of correct spelling. The omission of the second ''o" from too, the use of there for their, loose for lose, it's for its — such shps may be merely the work of a careless typist, and may reflect in no way on the standing of a firm; but it is the firm that suffers in the opinion of the reader. 16. And yet, as anyone who writes at all will realize, infallibiUty in spelling is rare. Even when a student knows how to spell a certain word he often finds himself puzzled when he "stops to think." And the person who never stops to think, but merely trusts to his instinct, will probably err more often than his self-conscious associate who says, "I know how to spell the thing, but now that you ask me I can't be sure.'' 17. For such uncertainty there is no infallible remedy. Some people set much store by rules as aids in spelling. No doubt some of these rules may occasionally prove helpful; there is a certain security that comes from remembering such simple associations as those stated in the following paragraph from E. C. Woolley's Mechanics of Writing (Bos- ton, D. C. Heath & Company, 1909, p. 34) : In case of doubt whether to use the digraph ei or the digraph ie in words like receive and believe, the question may be determined by reference to the word Celia. If c precedes the digraph, e follows the c, as in Celia. Thus: receive, receipt, conceive, conceit, perceive, deceive. If I precedes the digraph, i follows the I, as in Celia. Thus : believe, belief, relieve, relief. 7 8 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS But the trouble with such procedure is that the rules given in many handbooks — Woolley (paragraphs 52-100) has an especially full list — are too elaborate to be of much practical service. 18. Again, Usts of commonly misspelled words appear in many texts (there is a list covering twenty-seven pages in Woolley, paragraph 101). But to most people it will seem a waste of energy to spend time learning what words other persons misspell. A list of words may very well be valuable; but each student should make his own, including the words that particularly bother him, and keeping it where he can see it as he writes. It will save much consulting of the dic- tionary. 19. But the surest way for the student to attain a reason- able mastery of the lawless intricacies of English spelling is first to train himself to recognize his own mistakes, and then to have a dictionary at hand and to use it freely. He should turn to it whenever there is the least doubt as to the spelling of a word, and at the same time should fix the ques- tionable word in his memory by writing it out three or four times and adding it to his list. 20. For the purpose of such reference the best dictionaries are the small ones, like The Desk Standard Dictionary (New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company) or Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, Mass., G. &. C. Merriam Company). 21. On the question of simplified spelling, there is such great diversity of opinion that we hesitate to recommend the new forms lest we thereby contribute to a still greater confusion than exists even today. Nevertheless, some sort of simplification seems bound to come eventually, and to come probably along the lines suggested by the American Simplified Spelling Board. For such persons as may care to use it we append the first list, of three hundred words, which the Board published in 1906, and which has since met with MATTERS OF FORM 9 acceptance from a good many writers and publishers. Con- servative writers are hardly ready as yet to lend their ap- proval to the subsequent and more revolutionary suggestions of the Board. abridgment carest defense accouter catalog demagog accurst catechize demeanor acknowledgment center deposit addrest chapt deprest adz check develop affixt checker [ = chequer] dieresis altho chimera dike anapest civilize dipt anemia clamor discust anesthesia clangor dispatch anesthetic clapt distil antipyrin claspt distrest antitoxin clipt dolor apothem clue domicil apprize coeval draft arbor color dram archeology colter drest ardor commixt dript armor comprest droopt artizan comprize dropt assize confest dulness ax controller ecumenical bans coquet edile bark [= barque] criticize egis behavior crept enamor blest crost encyclopedia blusht crusht endeavor brazen cue envelop brazier curst Eolian bun cutlas eon bur cyclopedia epaulet caliber dactyl eponym caliper dasht era candor decalog esophagus 10 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS esthetic idolize omelet esthetics imprest opprest estivate instil orthopedic ether jail [= gaol] paleography etiology judgment paleolithic exorcize kist paleontology exprest labor paleozoic fagot lacrimal paraffin fantasm lapt parlor fantasy lasht partizan fantom leapt past [= passed] favor legalize patronize favorite license pedagog fervor Hcorice pedobaptist fiber liter phenix fixt lodgment phenomenon flavor lookt pigmy fulfil lopt pl«w fuhiess luster polyp gage mama possest gazel maneuver practise [v. and n.] gelatin materiahze prefixt gild [noun] meager prenomen gipsy medieval prest gloze meter pretense glycerin mist [= missed] preterit good-by miter pretermit gram mixt primeval gript mold profest harbor molder program harken molding prolog heapt moldy propt hematin molt pur hiccup muUen quartet hock [= hough] naturalize questor homeopathy neighbor quintet homonym nipt rancor honor niter rapt humor ocher raze husht odor recognize hypotenuse offense reconnoiter MATTERS OF FORM 11 rigor stedfast thruout rime stept tipt ript stopt topt rumor strest tost saber stript transgrest saltpeter subpena trapt savior succor tript savor suffixt tumor scepter sulfate valor septet sulfur vapor sepulcher sumac vext sextet supprest vigor silvan surprize vizor simitar synonym wagon sipt tabor washt sithe [= scythe] tapt whipt skilful teazel whisky skipt tenor wilful slipt theater winkt smolder the wisht snapt thoro wo somber thorofare woful specter thoroly woolen splendor thru EXERCISE 1. wrapt List in your notebook all the words you have misspelled so far in this course, using the correct form. Look the list over before writ- ing each subsequent theme, and add to the Ust whenever you mis- spell a word or feel doubtful about it. n. Abbreviations. 22. The general rule concerning abbreviations is that with certain exceptions they should be used sparingly in compositions written in connected sentences. Those that are always admissible are such common ones as Mr,, Mrs., Dr., A.D.,B.C. 12 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 23. Abbreviations indicating military rank, such as Lieut, Capt., Col., Gen., or the civilian title of Professor (Prof.) are commonly used, but not by the most careful writers. 24. In compositions not in connected sentences — tables, bills, lists of goods, memoranda, bibliographies, footnotes, etc. — abbreviations are in place provided they are clear to both the reader and writer. 25. Whenever they are used, abbreviations should be properly punctuated: a period should follow the contracted form {Dr., A.D., viz.). The exceptions to this rule are few: MS and MSS usually take no period. 26. The following table shows the abbreviations in common use today: 1. ACADEMIC AND OTHER TITLES. A.B. Bachelor of Arts M.D. A.M. Master of Arts M.C. B.D. Bachelor of Divinity M.P. C.P.A.Certified Public Accountant Mr. D.D. Doctor of Divinity Mrs. D.D.S. Doctor of Dental Surgery Messrs. Dr. Doctor Mmes. Hon. Honorable N.P. J.D. Doctor of Law (/msDodor)Ph.D. LL.B. Bachelor of Laws Prof. LL.D. Doctor of Laws {Legum Rev. Doctor) Doctor of Medicine Member of Congress Member of Parliament Mister Originally Mistress (French Messieurs) (French. Mesdames) Notary Public Doctor of Philosophy Professor Reverend 2. MILITARY TITLES. Pvt. Private Lt. Col. Corp. Corporal Col. Serg. Sergeant Brig. Gen. Lieut. Lieutenant Maj. Gen. Capt. Captain Gen. Maj. Major (usually not abbreviated) Lieutenant Colonel Colonel Brigadier General Major General General MATTERS OF FORM 13 MONEYS, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES. ac. acre in. inch bar. barrel kilo >. kilometer bu. bushel £ pound sterling c. (or cub.) ft. cubic feet lb. pound weight cwt. hundredweight m. (or mi.) mile, minute d. penny (Enghsh) mo. month dwt. pennyweight oz. ounce f. franc pt. pint ft. foot qt. quart gal. gallon s. (or /) shilUng; e.g., 6s. 8d. or 6/8 h. (or hr.) hour sq. : ft. square foot hhd. hogshead yd. yard 4. NAMES OP ' THE STATES.^ Alabama Ala. Nebraska Nebr. Arizona Ariz. Nevada Nev. Arkansas Ark. New Hampshire N. H. California Cal. New Jersey N.J. Colorado Col. New Mexico N. Mex. Connecticut Conn. New York N.Y. Delaware Del. North CaroUna N.C. District of Cohimbia D. C. North Dakota N. Dak. Florida Fla. Oklahoma Okla. Georgia Ga. Pennsylvania Penn. Illinois lU. Philippine Islands P. L Indiana Ind. Porto Rico P.R. Kansas Kan. Rhode Island R.L Kentucky Ky. South Carolina S.C. Louisiana La. South Dakota S. Dak. Maryland Md. Tennessee Tenn. Massachusetts Mass. Texas Tex. Michigan Mich. Vermont Vt. Minnesota Minn. Virginia Va. Mississippi Miss. Washington Wash. Missouri Mo. West Virginia W.Va. Montana Mont. Wisconsin Wis. Wyoming Wyo. * Best usage is against abbreviating any of the following: Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, Samoa, Utah. 14 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 5. MISCELLANEOUS ABBREVIATIONS. acc. (or a/c) account. A.D. (Lat. anno Domini) In the year of our Lord. Used only with the year, not the century. A.M. (Lat. ante meridiem) forenoon, anon, anonymous. B.C. Before Christ. Used with year or century named immediately before : 44 B.C. ; fifth century B.C. c. (or ca.) (Lat. circa) about. Used with dates: Chaucer was born ca. 1340. of. (or cp.) compare. Used in references: cf. System, July, 1919, p. 49. ch. (or chap.) chapter. c. o. d. cash on deUvery. cr. creditor, do. ditto; the same, dr. debtor. e. g. (Lat. exempli gratia) for example. etc. (Lat. et cetera) and so forth. Never say "and etc." ex. example. ff. and the following. Used after page numbers in footnotes and other references: pp. 72 ff. f. o. b. free on board. ibid. (Lat. ibidem). In the same place. Used in footnotes to save repetition of an immediately preceding reference. Ibid, is more common than ib. id. (Lat. idem) the same. i. e. (Lat. id est) that is. inst. the present month. 1. c. (or loc. cit.) (Lat. loco citato). In the place mentioned. Used in footnotes. MS manuscript. Plural MSS. n. b. (Lat. note bene) note well. op. cit. (Lat. opere citato) in the work cited. Used in footnotes. p. page; pp. pages. P.M. (Lat. post meridiem) afternoon. p. o. post office. P. S. postscript. pro tem. (Lat. pro tempore) for the time being. q. (or qy.) query, question. q. V. (Lat. quod vide) which see. Used in references. MATTERS OF FORM 15 r. s. V. p. (Ft. rSpondez sHl vous plait) please reply. ult. (Lat. ultimo) last month. V. (vs.) (Lat. versus) against. V. (vid.) (Lat. vide) see, consult. Used in references. viz. (Lat. videlicet) namely. III. Nvunbers. 27. The only serious problem involved in the writing of numbers is this: when should the number be expressed in figures, and when written out in words? Usage in these matters is now fairly standardized, and conforms to the following principles. 28. Any numerical expression that stands at the begin- ning of a sentence is always expressed in words, not figures. One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two different persons took part in the campaign. 29. ' With this single exception, the following sorts of numeri- cal expressions appear normally in figures: (1) A number greater than one hundred that cannot be expressed in one or two figures. There were 1872 persons engaged in this campaign. (2) Sums involving both dollars and cents. We offer this at $5.42. (3) Pages or other divisions of a book. Consult the Encyclopcedia Britannica, vol. IX, p. 428. Section 9, paragraph 22, of the last Annual Report. (4) The number of the year and the day of the month, in dates. Some firms today affect the practice of writing these out in full, especially in the heading of letters. There is no reason, however, for wasting the time of a typist in writ- ing ''January twenty-two, nineteen twenty" when ''January 22, 1920" is quite adequate. 16 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS (5) House, room, and telephone numbers. 278 Fifth Avenue. Room 317, Monadnock Building. Midway, 4727. 30. The following sorts of numerical expressions are normally spelled out in full: (1) The hour of the day. At twenty minutes past four yesterday afternoon I telephoned to you asking for an immediate interview. Or: At four-twenty yesterday, etc. (2) The years, or years and months, of a person's age. He died at the age of fifty years and ten months. (3) Sums less than one hundred, which do not involve both dollars and cents. Our company has established agencies in ninety-five cities and villages throughout the Middle West. We will pay you sixty-five dollars a week. (4) Round sums. Ten thousand bulletins will be ready tomorrow. About five hundred answers have already come in. (5) Isolated sums of money in cents. Add twelve cents to the list price for postage. EXERCISE 2. Rewrite the following sentences, making whatever changes are desirable: 1. The $.03 postage stamp reappeared during the war. 2. The war strength of an infantry regiment was approximately 3000 men. 3. There were over seventy-five replies. 4. My salary is $35.00 a week. 5. He will be 49 his next bu-thday. 6. My telephone is Hyde Park nine four nine. 7. The article I want you to read is in volume three of the International Encyclopaedia, page ninety-four. MATTERS OF FORM 17 8. The registration this year is three hundred and twenty-seven; last year it was 285. 9. 285 students were registered here last year 10. My address is 614 Clark Street. IV. Capitalization. 31. There is little probability that any student will be greatly puzzled concerning the use of capital letters; for the sake of completeness, however, we include illustrations of the accepted usages. 32. A capital letter stands at the beginning of (1) every sentence, (2) every luie of poetry, and (3) every direct quota- tion that is composed of one or more complete sentences. Examples follow: (1) There is no need to illustrate this usage. (2) I am the owner of the sphere, Of the seven stars and the solar year, Of Csesar's hand and Plato's brain, Of Lord Christ's heart and Shakespeare's strain. (3) The manager sent this note to all department chiefs : " Com- plaints have come to me that employees of the company have been making promises in the company's name, which it later de- veloped could not be kept. This practice is, obviously, a most harmful one." But: The manager's letter stresses the fact that making promises in the company's name which cannot be kept, is a harniful practice (in this indirect quotation no capitals are used). 33. In all titles of books or articles, every word except conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and unemphatic auxili- aries, begins with a capital.^ Carlyle's History of the French Revolution. Lincoln's Letters and Addresses. John Doe's article, "Filing Systems in Large Offices,'* in the last number of System. 1 This is the normal usage in America. Bibliographers and librarians favor the French practise, which capitalizes only the first important word of a title: "Filing systems in large offices." 18 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 34. The following classes of words are capitalized as in- dicated in the illustrations: (1) Persons: John B. Smith. (2) Days, months: Monday, January 22. (3) Business firms: Marshall Field & Company; The American Radiator Company; The Metropolitan Elevated Railway Company. (4) Institutions: The State Home for the Blind. (5) Historical events: The Civil War (but note that no capital appears when one writes: "By the end of 1917 Russia was in a state of civil war."); The Renaissance; The French Revolution. (6) The names of rivers, mountains, streets: Red River, Madi- son Street, Pike's Peak, Mount Washington. (7) Titles of persons when used with the name: Cardinal Mercier, General John J. Pershing, President C. T. Jebb. But: the cardinal was present; a general was in chief command. (8) Names of the Deity: God, the Almighty, the Creator. 35. It is best to be conservative in the use of capitals as a method of emphasis. Excessive capitalization, even when it does something to point out important words or ideas, is, like the use of red ink, of doubtful value. It is far better to gain emphasis by the skilful arrangement and presentation of ideas, rather than by merely mechanical devices. V. Punctuation. 36. There is no need to show how essential correct punctuation is to clearness and true emphasis in writing. Everyone can recall instances in which careless placing of points has seriously interfered with his ease of understanding or has even conveyed a positively wrong meaning. Only a few days ago, for example, a legal document came to one of the writers of this book for revision. In it appeared this sentence: ''These certificates are not valid unless signed by the President or a Vice-President, and the Secretary." Later on this sentence was repeated, with slightly different punctuation, thus: ''These certificates are not valid unless MATTERS OF FORM 19 signed by the President, or a Vice-President and the Secre- tary." When the inconsistency was pointed out, the lawyer responsible for the document exclaimed: "Why, that is bad punctuation, and bad law too ! " The shifting of a single comma had changed the sense radically. 37. Again, it is hardly necessary to suggest that to many people punctuation is a somewhat mysterious affair. The student who confesses that he sprinkles commas into his compositions in obedience to no rule, but simply to satisfy a vague sense of the fitness of things, represents with fair accuracy the attitude of many persons. And there is at least this justification for his attitude, that punctuation is indeed a complicated matter. When one considers that we punctuate for a variety of motives, ranging from a perhaps unreasoning respect for conventional usage to a desire to make clear the grammatical and logical structure of our sentences, or to emphasize an important idea; that under- lying the innumerable rules set forth in the manuals there is discernible no one simple principle; and that really successful punctuation involves art no less than science, it is little wonder that many persons despair of every mastering the subject. 38. The subject, however, is not really mysterious. The average person, with a little application, can attain at least a practical grasp of its leading principles. In the following paragraphs we give a simple account of these principles in so far as they are essential to effective writing. We omit con- sideration of some of the less important details, and we confine ourselves for the most part to those rules which are generally agreed upon by present-day pubHshers — in a word, to the science of punctuation as distinguished from the art. 39. The reader who wishes a more elaborate treatment of the subject will find it in such works as the Manual of Style issued by the University of Chicago Press, a similar 20 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS volume prepared by the Riverside Press of Boston, or, perhaps most conveniently, in Professor George Summey's excellent Modern Punctuation: Its Utilities and Conventions (New York, Oxford University Press, 1919). 40. Punctuation is concerned with the manipulation of certain conventional signs or points. Those in present use are the following : The period (.) The question mark (?) The exclamation point (!) The dash (— ) The colon (:) The semicolon (;) The comma (,) Parenthesis marks, or curves ( ) Double dashes ( ) Brackets [ ] The apostrophe (') The hyphen (-) Quotation marks (" ") and (' ') Italics (indicated in manuscript by one underline) 41. By the use of these points or marks a writer may do four distinct things: (1) indicate to his reader the limits and character of each of his sentences considered as a whole; (2) make clear the internal structure of his sentences; (3) call attention to the peculiar character or use of certain individual words; and (4) set off matter quoted from another writer. We treat the subject, accordingly, under four headings: the Sentence as a Whole; the Internal Structure of the Sentence; Word Punctuation; Quotations. A. The Sentence as a Whole. 42. The mark of punctuation to be placed at the end of a sentence depends upon the form and meaning of the sentence as a whole. There are in practise four possibilities: the MATTERS OF FORM 21 sentence may be declarative, imperative, interrogative, or exclamatory. 43. If the sentence is either declarative or imperative, it should end with a period. Decl.: Business is certain to pick up in the ne^rt month or so. Imper.: Make your checks payable to H. Brewer & Company. 44. If the sentence is interrogative either in form or meaning, it should end with a question mark. Interrogative in form as well as meaning: When may we expect to receive your order? Interrogative in meaning only: Perhaps you would prefer to look at another pattern? The question mark is rarely used with indirect questions. The period is the proper point after such a sentence as: "He asked when he might expect to receive their order.'' 45. If the sentence is exclamatory either in form or sub- stance, it should end with an exclamation point. Exclamatory in form as well as meaning: What an idea! Exclamatory in meaning only: You do not mean it ! B. The Internal Structure of the Sentence. 46. To indicate the logical and grammatical relations of the parts of a sentence, the student has at his command five points — colon, semicolon, comma, dash, and marks of paren- thesis. It will help him if he will get in mind the pecuHar effect of each of these points considered by itself, and then note some of the constructions in which they are used. 47. The colon has at present but one distinct use: it is employed, as in this sentence, to indicate that the matter following is a continuation or explanation of that which precedes. 48. The semicolon is distinctly a mark of coordination; it is almost never used except when (as in this sentence) the 22 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS clauses or other elements separated by it have equal rank in the sentence. Wheii thus used, it is a mark of greater separation and emphasis than the comma. 49. The comma is not so specialized as are the colon and the semicolon. It is the most commonly used, as it is the lightest and least emphatic, of all the marks of punctuation. 50. The single dash is a means of indicating an abrupt change of either thought or construction within the sentence — any relation, in fact, that the writer desires to emphasize strongly. 51. The marks of parenthesis (curves) and the double dashes are used — as here — only in the punctuation of paren- thetical matter. In ordinary parentheses that are too re- mote from the context to be punctuated effectively by com- mas, most writers prefer the double dashes to the curves. The curves, or marks of parenthesis proper, are being more and more restricted to use with single word parentheses — dates, numbers, or letters indicating a series, etc. 52. These, then, are the distinguishing characteristics of the marks used to indicate the internal structure of a sentence. The next step is to see what kinds of structural relations within a sentence need punctuating. 1. SENTENCES CONTAINING ANALYSES OR QUOTATIONS. 53. Consider first the tjrpe of sentence which consists of an introductory statement followed by an enumeration of details ^ an analysis, a quotation, etc. What point should stand after the introductory statement? The answer differs under different circumstances. Notice the following cases: (1) When the introductory statement is formal, and when the enumeration or quotation is long (in the case of a quota- tion, two or more complete sentences), the proper mark is the colon. MATTERS OF FORM 23 Analysis: Let us divide the question as a whole into these two parts: first, what should a business man's vocabulary consist of? second, what does it usually consist of? Quotation: John Stuart Mill thus states the chief objection to the extension of government control over business: "The third, and most cogent reason for restricting the interference of govern- ment, is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power. Every function superadded, etc." (2) When the second part of the sentence is short and informally introduced, a dash may take the place of the colon in the case of an enumeration or explanation, and a comma in the case of a quotation. Enumeration: The merits of the plan are these — cheapness, practicability, and general serviceableness. Quotation: Finally the judge said, "The case is postponed until next week." (3) When the enumeration or explanation is introduced by an expression such as namely, that is, for example, etc., the punctuation before this expression may be either a colon, a semicolon, a dash, or a comma, according to the length and formality of the sentence. The following sentences will illustrate the various possibilities: The reasons which have been urged against government interfer- ence in business are many: for example, John Stuart Mill feared the rise of a powerful bureaucracy. Or: The reasons which have been urged . . , are many; for example. . . His proposal can mean only one thing — ^namely, an acknowledg- ment of failure. So far only one large firm has adopted this system, namely, the Jones Radiator Company. (Some publishing houses omit the conrnia after namely.) EXERCISE 3. Insert the proper punctuation marks in the following sentences: 1. The problem is this are there enough houses to care for the families of the men whom we propose to bring here 24 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 2. My exact words were these I shall be glad to act as coach of the team if you will give me an assistant 3. The objections to your proposal are three expense danger and difficulty of operation 4. He said I'll be glad to act as coach 5. This phenomenon has received a recognized name among alienists namely aphasia 6. Of laborers there are two main divisions the manual and the professional 7. They are to be distinguished carefully from men who in all other respects look and behave very much like them the tool- owners or Capitalists 8. I bought an automobile for three reasons namely it will help me in my business it will be a source of pleasure and it will keep all my family out of doors a great deal 9. I bought an automobile for three reasons namely business health and pleasure 10. There are many instances of a poor boy's working his way through college for example William Jones and John Smith 11. When you come bring what we need tools spare tire and the jack 12. My father called to me from the garage bring the tools the spare tire and the jack ' 13. The capital and leading questions on which you must this day decide are these two first whether you ought to concede and secondly what your concession ought to be 2. COMPOUND SENTENCES. 54. Consider now a second type of sentence, that made up of two or more main clauses which do not stand in the rela- tion of introduction and analysis or quotation. The usage differs, once more, as the sentences differ, and can better be exemplified in detail than stated in general. (1) In general, separate by a semicolon all coordinate clauses, whether long or short, between which there is no conjunction, or only a logical connective such as therefore^ moreover^ however^ accordingly, so, then, hence, etc. MATTERS OF FORM 25 No connective: In your letter of November 3 you asked for an extension of two months; this we are unable to grant. Logical connective only: Strikes in our factory have resulted in a stoppage of production; accordingly we are unable at present to fill your order. (2) When, as very frequently happens, the clauses of a compound sentence are connected by one of the coordinat- ing conjunctions {and, hut, or, nor) or by for, the punctuation differs according ^o the length and complexity of the clauses and the degree of separate emphasis the writer desires to give to one or both of them. It is difficult to formulate general rules; but the following illustrations will make clear the best usage today: (a) When the clauses are long, and usually when they them- selves require internal punctuation, separate them by a semicolon. We found, as soon as we had taken our inventory, that our con- dition was even better than we had expected; and this fact was the basis of our report. (b) When you wish to give distinct emphasis to each of the two or more clauses in the sentence, separate them by semicolons, even though they are short. We did all that any firm could do for a workman; and in return he led the strike! (c) When the clauses are only moderately long or emphatic, a comma is generally sufficient to separate them. We telegraphed you on Friday asking your terms, and you did not reply till the Thursday following. (d) When the clauses are very short and closely connected, ordinarily no punctuation is necessary. We telegraphed you on Friday and you replied a-t once. 55. To this last rule there is one common exception: clauses connected by hut, no matter how short, are almost 26 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS invariably separated by at least a comma. The reason is, of course, that hut implies a decided change in the direction of the thought, and therefore a decided break between the clauses. We ordered six, but you sent only four. EXERCISE 4. Supply the necessary punctuation: 1. The boys father wanted him to be an electrician he himself was eager to study law 2. The boy was eager to study law his father however wanted him to be an electrician 3. This is no time for hesitation every citizen must vote 4. We expected to win the game but the other team was too strong for us 5. I shall certainly be in New York by October first if you are there then lets run out to Sandy Hook together 6. We won the first game they won the second 7. The boys on the team were confident for they had not yet lost a game but unfortunately the other team was as confident and more powerful 8. We ordered six grindstones and you sent only four 9. We ordered six grindstones but you sent only four 10. We went to town at eight oclock and you did not appear till after twelve 11. Our next stop was the hardware store here we obtained hinges staples padlocks nails and putty 12. If the temperature of the water is too high the plant is immediately killed if it is too low its growth is retarded 13. A man employed for a day at a time is a casual laborer a man employed for a week at a time who can that is be dismissed at a weeks notice is a workman a man however who is employed by the month is in the first grade of the salariat a man employed by the year is in the second grade of the salariat and a man employed on a lease of years is in the highest grade 14. I suppose I must go if 1 dont he'll be anxious 15. A hot fire is necessary therefore a strong draft must be provided MATTERS OF FORM 27 16. The meerschaum finally becomes saturated with nicotine then there is less danger of its breaking 17. There seemed to be no chance for misunderstanding the sentence so I put no comma in 18. The report will spread to remote villages and people in the backwoods will be induced to seek the college 3. COdRDINATE SERIES. 56. A third sort of problem arises when a sentence con- tains a coordinate series, made up, not of main clauses, hut of single words, phrases, or dependent clauses. Should they be punctuated by commas or semicolons? Is any punctuation necessary? The general answer is much the same as in the preceding cases: the pointing depends on the length of the elements composing the series and on the degree of emphasis desirable; the longer or more emphatic the elements, the stronger the punctuation. (1) Consider first a number of sentences in which the series are made up of short and unemphatic elements, and hence are properly punctuated by commas: (a) The company expects that all employees will notify the manager when they are in financial difficulties, and will refrain absolutely from patronizing the "loan sharks." (b) The gain to our officers, employees, customers, and to the general public would be pronounced. (c) We hope to purchase, to install, and to operate in accordance with your suggestions. Sentences (b) and (c) contain examples of what may be called the ''a-b-c series": in (b) three nouns — ''officers, employees, and customers" — and in (c) three verbs — "to purchase, to install, and to operate" — are grouped together with a conjunction between the last two only. In punctuat- ing such series, some printers would omit the comma before the and. If, however, as in our two examples, the elements 28 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS of the series are strictly coordinate, logic and clearness demand that the comma appear. The importance of insert- ing the comma wherever you intend the elements to be understood as coordinate may be illustrated by the following sentence, which means one thing with the comma after *' Secretary, '' and quite another when the comma is omitted. *'The order on this occasion will be: President, First Vice- President, Second Vice-President, Auditor, Actuary, Secre- tary, and Treasurer." (2) The stronger punctuation necessary when the elements of the series are longer or more emphatic is exemplified in the following: We confidently expect that our employees will take advantage of this offer; that they will appreciate the spirit in which it is made and the opportunity it opens to them; and that before the year is over every man on our rolls will be a shareholder. EXERCISE 5. Supply the necessary punctuation marks: 1. Two acres of land a shanty and a horse will give any European peasant a fair start in fife 2. The new coach did a lot for us he raised the tone of all our athletics he made every man proud to be on a team and he made our men respected as gentlemen wherever they played 3. We offered two things to take back the shipment entire or to allow an extra thirty days for payment 4. I want you to study arithmetic English and Civil Government 5. There will be a chance for every man to take part in some form of athletics even if he is not a star he can play on one of the class teams or join a dormitory league or at least play indoor baseball 6. The serf of the early Middle Ages of the eleventh and early tweffth centuries of the Crusades and the Norman Conquest is already nearly a peasant 7. We think that the premises of both controversialists were unsound that on these premises Addison reasoned well and Steele ill and that consequently Addison brought out a false conclusion while Steele blundered upon the truth MATTERS OF FORM 29 8. The structure of the elementary cell can be studied under powerful lenses its divisions conjunctions differentiation and multi- plication into the incredibly intricate substance of plants and animals can be traced 9. The new thinkers descended from the magisterial chair and patiently fussed with lenses tubes pulleys and wheels 10. There are no such pipes to be smoked as those that follow a good day's march the flavor of the tobacco is a thing to be re- membered it is so dry and aromatic so full and so fine 4. DEPENDENT ELEMENTS NOT IN COOEDINATB SERIES. 57. A fourth set of problems arises when the sentence contains dependent elements — nouUj adverb, and adjective clauses, participial and infinitive phrases, prepositional phrases, words in apposition — not arranged in a coordinate series, and hence not discussed in paragraph 56. For such constructions the appropriate point is usually the comma; but often no punctuation is necessary. Is there any rule which will help one to decide between these two alternatives? 68. We may say at once that there is no rule which one can apply mechanically to all cases: here, even more perhaps than in the other departments of punctuation, intelligence and a clear knowledge of what one wishes to say are absolute essentials. There are, however, two simple principles, which will serve as guides in actual practice. First, whenever the student is puzzled whether or not to punctuate a de- pendent element, he should ask himself this question: Is this phrase or clause essential to the meaning of the sentence, or is it not? Is it, in the terms of the grammarian, restrictive or nonrestrictive? In the following sentences, for example, the italicized expressions are non-restrictive; they could be left out without seriously affecting the main idea of the sen- tence: "General John J. Pershing, the Commander in Chief of the American Expeditionary Force in France, was born in Missouri"; "Our new catalogue, which has just come from the 30 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS press, contains 300 pages." The italicized expressions in the following, on the contrary, are essential to the meaning of the context, and hence are restrictive: ''William the Second became Emperor of Germany in 1888"; ''The goods which you orderea on November 3 were shipped on the 6th" (here the adjective clause "which you ordered on November 3" limits the meaning of "goods" in such a way that to omit it would destroy the sense of the whole sentence). 59. In such cases the procedure is usually simple enough : set off non-restrictive elements by commxis; leave restrictive elements unpunctuated. We say "usually simple enough"; there are some cases of restrictive modifiers, particularly of an adverbial type, in which one will have to call to his aid a second principle, that of position. 7s the modifying expres- sion in its '^ natural' ' place in the sentence? The "natural" place for adverbial modifiers is in the predicate; that is, immediately after the verb of the main clause. When they are thus placed, unless they are markedly non-restrictive, they are not punctuated. Occasionally, however, for empha- sis or some other reason, they are thrown to the beginning of the sentence. When this is the case, they should be set off by commas unless they are extremely short or intimately connected in thought with what follows. 60. The following sentences illustrate the application of these principles: (1) Closeness of Relationship. (a) Adjective clauses: Restrictive: The man who was here gets $1 .24 an hour. The system which will do you most good is, etc. Non-restrictive: The President, whom you saw here a moment ago, was once one of our foremen. MATTERS OF FORM 31 The chief advantage of this plan is its flexibility, which mil appeal to anyone. (b) Participial phrases: Restrictive : The train running between Cleveland and Akron was more than an hour late. Non-restrictive : The manager, hearing of the trouble, called the men to the office. (c) Adverbial clauses: Restrictive: We hope you will call whenever you are in town. Non-restrictive : We have not yet received an answer, although we have written twice. (d) Infinitive phrases: Restrictive : He went to New York to place his order. Non-restrictive : It seems to us, to sum it all up, a most unusual opportunity. (2) Position. (a) ^'NaturaV* order: The trouble began shortly after the chairman opened the meeting. He went down town to get his laundry. (b) ^' Inverted'^ order: Shortly after the chairman opened the meeting, the trouble began. To get his laundry, he went down town. 32 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS EXERCISE 6. Supply the necessary punctuation: 1. The studies that are the most useful are not always the ones that appeal most to the undergraduate 2. To stop the Germans Marshal Foch used the Americans 3. We want every girl to take at least one course in Domestic Science even though she already knows something of the subject 4. The board engaged Mr. Smith to act as manager 5. We hope you will bring your car to us whenever it needs repairing 6. To put it briefly the board expects to support you in what- ever you do 7. Marshal Foch used the Americans to stop the Germans 8. If you wish the car properly overhauled you must leave it for three days 9. The player fielding the ball ought never to have to stop to think before throwing it 10. The runner seeing what was happening came all the way from first on one play 11. The undergraduate who is not always a sure judge of such matters is usually certain what studies will be useful 12. You must leave your car for three days if you wish it properly overhauled 13. When the team is ready for the game I want you to send me word at once 14. Send me word at once when the team is ready for the game 15. To save labor however is to reduce the demand for labor the more labor saved the less is the demand relative to the supply and since the price of labor is determined by the relation of its supply to its demand anything that reduces demand while leaving supply undiminished tends to reduce the price of labor in general 16. He committed a serious error in correcting which he had much trouble 17. The old gentleman across the aisle who had been getting more and more excited now stood up 18. As an example of the extended use in economics of the term land we may point out that land includes water and air MATTERS OF FORM 33 19. It will never rank high as an intercollegiate game for the students find greater enjoyment in a contest between teams 20. I advise you however to investigate for yourself 21. If our laws are not what they should be it is time they were amended. 22. Equality demands that the occupations among which the individual may exercise his choice shall be the same for everybody it is of course true that not everybody is equally fitted for every occupation in other words the actual power of choice cannot in the nature of things be made equal since a man cannot "choose" to do something he simply cannot do equality therefore only demands that the restriction of choice shall be made by the individual himself but that as regards his right of choice if he is able to exercise it all occupations that are open to anybody shall be open to everybody 23. By the Kodak system no dark-room is required for any part of the work not even for developing as anybody can without previous experience develop films perfectly with a Kodak Film Tank and get better negatives than are possible by the old dark- room method 24. When the instruments are laid away especially if they are not to be used for some time the compasses should be left open for otherwise they will lose their spring 25. It cannot be too often repeated that economics as an abstrac- tion of certain human activities regards man in a particular and partial way economically speaking man is an instrument for the production of commodities 26. Between Capital which is the sum of the concrete tools of production and Labor which is the abstraction of the energy and skill of laborers and workmen there can be no relations whatever things can be related to things men can be related to men men and things can be related but the thing Capital cannot be related to the notion Labor 27. Ruling pens hke any other sharp instruments become dull with use 28. Like any other sharp instruments ruling pens become dull with use 29. Ruling pens become dull with use like any other sharp instruments 34 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 5. PARENTHETICAL EXPRESSIONS. 61. The punctuation of various sorts of parenthetical expressions is illustrated in the following examples : (1) No punctuation: We can perhaps explain best by using an illustration. {Perhaps is so closely related to the rest of this sentence that it requires no punctuation.) (2) Punctuated by commas, double dashes, or marks of parenthesis (curves). 1. The reason, however, was clear. 2. Your actions throughout — and this is our chief reason far proceeding as we are doing — have been dilatory and evasive. (Commas would hardly be strong enough here.) 3. Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations (1776) wro^fce one of the first comprehensive statements of the principles underlying modern business. (Present usage tends to limit curves within a sentence to single-word parentheses, dates, figures, etc., and to use the double dashes for longer expressions.) 62. The terminal punctuation of clauses or sentences en- closed within curves is sometimes puzzling. Two cases may be distinguished: (a) When the parenthesis is contained within a sentence, no mark of punctuation whatever is placed immediately before the second curve; whether any punctua- tion appears immediately after the second curve depends upon whether or not the parenthesis stands at the end of a clause or sentence or other group that would normally be punctu- ated. If it does so stand, the mark which would be placed at the end of the clause were the parenthesis not there is placed after the parenthesis. No punctuation ever appears immediately before the first curve of a parenthesis. We four (the President, Vice-President, Business Manager, and Cashier) are unanimous in this recommendation. This recommendation is concurred in by all four of us (the Presi- dent, Vice-President, Business Manager, and Cashier). MATTERS OF FORM 35 (b) When the parenthesis is a complete sentence by itself, whatever terminal punctuation is demanded by the nature of the sentence is placed within the curves. We offer you two per cent for cash. (This is our regular practice.) But if you desire credit, please fill out the enclosed blank. EXERCISE 7. Supply the necessary punctuation marks: 1. They offer us a discount of two percent 2% for cash with the order this is their regular practise we however find it more advantageous to pay in fuU at sixty days 2. Our entire exhibition plows harrows and all ordinary farm machinery is ready for the Fair 3. Our entire exhibition is ready for the Fair we are displaying plows harrows and all ordinary farm machinery 4. The Shakespeare First FoUo 1623 is the first collected edition of his works 5. You can almost certainly be of great assistance to us 6. He will not however be able to do much work this month 7. His accident it happened three weeks ago will keep him in the hospital for a month longer 8. Please let us have your check for $32.56 the amount of your note plus interest as soon as convenient 9. Please let us have your check for $32.56 as soon as convenient this is the amount of your note plus interest ■- 10. Mr. Smith has taken the place of Mr. Edson in our sales force and will call on you before long probably by the last of this month with our new line of Spring shoes 11. The aim of economics is therefore to economize human energy by a substituting for it wherever possible animal mechanical or natural energy h utihzing it only where its yield is greater than its cost 12. The historic example is that of the Great Charter of John which conferred on the people of England excluding however the class of the serfs numbering four-fifths of the whole population certain privileges thereafter called rights other examples are pro- vided by the professions medical legal clerical accountance etc each of which possesses privileges conferred by charter 36 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 6. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING THE USE OF THE COMMA, 63. Two general suggestions regarding the use of the comma may be made here. (1) A comma, though not demanded by any of the above rules, is often needed for the sake of clearness, as when two words or phrases might with- out it be wrongfully taken together, or one part of speech confused with another. For example, the comma after this in the following sentence is necessary to prevent one from construing this as an adjective modifying agreement: "Be- cause of this, agreement is still out of the question." A further example of the same thing is the comma after "dic- tate" in the following; if it had been left out, the reader might well have interpreted "your ideas" as the object of "dictate" instead of the subject of "will arrange": "You will find that as you dictate, your ideas will arrange them- selves in proper sequence." In all such cases confusion or misinterpretation may he prevented by separating by commas all expressions that might erroneously he read together. (2) One should be careful, however, not to over-punctuate. A sen- tence broken up by commas that are not necessary is bound to seem clumsy and heavy. The chief end of punctuation is not to mark every slight turn or break in the thought, but to make the essential meaning of the sentence instantly clear. EXERCISE 8. 1. Insert the proper punctuation marks and capital letters in the following excerpt: there are days when the trout will rise everywhere and take badly but a very short time will show whether this is such a day or not if the rise is really a good one and choice of water can be made without interfering with the sport of any one else the angler should so have arranged matters that he is now as the rise is begin- ning not far from a really good pool which has not yet been fished at such times i prefer a good stream at the head of a long deep pool MATTERS OF FORM 37 to any other place a heavy basket may be made especially if there is some ripple on broad shallow reaches of a good river where trout are plentiful but there is more chance of an unusually large trout where there is deep water not far away and there is a separate character of its own about a pool which is attractive and gives a sort of personality to it one such comes often to my memory it is a pool in a north country river just large enough to hold salmon yet not so broad that the best of it cannot be fished easily with a single- handed rod by wading one bank is the edge of a grass field the other is fringed with bushes and the stream slopes from the field towards the bushes the rough broken water at the top is fairly shallow and full of good trout when they are feeding 2. In the following passage remove all of the punctuation which seems to you unnecessary and revise that which you think is in- correct. Give the reasons for the changes you make. The political power of the individual, is his power of self -direction: but since it is obvious, that the power of self -direction, presupposes the power to keep oneself alive; the condition of political power, is economic power. Assuming — ^however — ^the possession of economic power [the power of keeping oneself alive] ; the power of self -direc- tion (or political power), that depends upon it, cannot always be best employed, by the individual himself! He may find it advan- tageous, at times, to surrender, temporarily, his power of directing himself; and to confide his direction to somebody else, or to a group. This act, of transferring a portion of one's own right and power of self-direction, is accomplished, in a modern, democratic state, by the process called, voting; which, in essence, consists in concentrating upon the Executive, (empowering; as it is called) the powers hitherto dispersed, among the individuals voting. By electing (in fact) we empower; for we surrender, in voting, a portion of the power, we possess, of directing ourselves; and transfer it to an executive representative. Or, we may look upon the matter, under a different image. C. Word Punctuation. 64. The third of the general problems of punctuation has to do with the punctuating of single words for the sake of indicating case, the omission of letters, the division of words, compounding, abbreviations, status in the language, and 38 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS the like. In these matters the determining factor is not logic but convention. 1. THE POSSESSIVE CASE. 65. The only case which is indicated by a mark of punctu- ation is the possessive case of nouns. 66. The possessive case of common nouns is formed, in the singular, by adding 's to the simple form of the word: dog, dog's; man, man's. In the plural, when the nominative plural ends in s, the apostrophe follows the s; dogs, dogs'; soldiers, soldiers'. In the case of such irregular plurals as men, women, children, deer, etc., the possessive case is formed by adding 's: men's, children's. 67. The possessive case of proper names is normally formed by adding 's: John, John's. Even if the name itself ends in s (e. g., Burns), the same rule applies when the name contains only one syllable: Burns, Burns' s; Jones, Jones's. Names of two or more syllables ending in s usually take only the apostrophe: Phyllis, Phyllis'; Summers, Summers'.^ 68. The personal pronouns, I, he, she, it, have special forms for the possessive case, and do not take the apostrophe. No one would think of writing she's for her, or he's for his. But many people write it's for its, forgetting that it's is only a contraction for it is, never the possessive of it. EXERCISE 9. Form the possessive case of each of the following: Child, children, men, Burkett, Johnson, books, house, houses, pipes, Keats, narcissus, Alice, MacLucas, Meyers, Ames, goose, geese. 1 PubHshing houses differ on this matter; some would print "Lucas's book"; others "Lucas' book." MATTERS OF FORM 39 2. OMISSION OF LETTERS. 69. The omission of letters in contracted forms or words is indicated by an apostrophe : it's ( = it is) ; doesn't ( = does not); hasn't (= has not); don't (= do not); I'd (=7 would); I'll (=7 shall or will); o'clock. 3. WORD DIVISION. 70. The division of a word, part of which is printed or written at the end of one line and part at the beginning of the next, is indicated by a hyphen placed at the end of the first line. The invariable rule is that the division must be made at the end of a syllable. If one is in doubt just where a syllable ends (sy-llahlef or syl-lahlef or syll-ahlef), he should consult a dictionary. There is no infaUible rule on the matter. Never divide words of one syllable, or such words as hesideSy alsOy ovevy and other short words of two syllables. 4. COMPOUND WORDS. 71. The compounding of two or more words into a group that has the force of one word is indicated by placing a hyphen between the parts : fortune-hunters, green-goods-man, matter-of-fact, short-story, seventy-five. On account of the general tendency of the elements of compounds to coalesce, as time goes on, and eventually to be felt merely as a single word, it is a safe rule to omit the hyphen and write the word soUd whenever real doubt exists as to the need for the punc- tuation. But because the evolution of words is not uniform, no simple rule can be laid down. As in the case of spelling, the best thing is to consult a recent dictionary,^ or to follow the practise of good publishers. Even so, however, difficul- * For a good brief statement of the principles involved in the formation of compounds, see The Desk Standard Dictionary, New Edition, 1919, p.vii. 40 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS ties will still persist. To-day and today, to-morrow and tomorrow, all appear in reputable American publications. In all really dubious cases the solid form is to be preferred. The following should never be hyphenated: throughout, nevertheless, together, inasmuch, nowadays. 72. Over and above these cases in which the hyphen may or may not be used, there are several in which usage insists that it must always appear. (1) A hjTphen should always be used in the series of cardinal numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine, however they are used; and, with few exceptions, in all cardinal numbers when they are used as attributive adjectives {i.e., "a three-hun- dred-pound weight ") . Eighty-two; but one hundred and one. A ten-thousand-dollar man; one-hundred-dollar shares. (2) A hyphen connects the parts of all ordinal numbers that involve two or more elements. The twenty-second year of his life; the one-hundred-and-thirtieth anniversary; one thirty-second of an inch. (3) A hyphen connects the elements of fractions when they are used attributively. A three-eighths inch drill; but three eighths of an inch. 5. ABBREVIATIONS. 73. After abbreviations a period should be placed, though when an abbreviation like percent (for per centum) has become estabUshed as a word, no period is necessary. The period marking an abbreviation does not take the place of other punctuation necessary to show the structure of the sentence, except that if an abbreviation closes a sentence, a second period is never added. In the sentence, *'We offer two alternatives; viz., thirty days at four percent, or sixty at MATTERS OF FORM 41 two, '* it would have been improper to omit the comma after viz. On the other hand, the single period after viz., in the last sentence, does not need to be reinforced by a second. 6. TITLES. 74. Titles of books, names of magazines or newspapers, and names of ships are usually distinguished by being set in italics (indicated in manuscript by one underline) : G. D. H. Cole's Self-government in Indiistry; System, vol. IX; Paul Jones's ship Bon Homme Richard; the U.S.S. Texas; the New York Times. Titles of chapters in a book, or of articles appearing in a larger publication such as a magazine or newspaper, are usually set off by quotation marks: See the chapter entitled "The Business Man's Vocabulary" in The English of Business; John Doe's letter, "The Workingman, " in yesterday's New York Times. Put briefly, the best usage today favors italics for whole publications, and quotation marks for parts of a whole. 7. SLANG, TECHNICAL TERMS, FOREIGN WORDS, ETC. 75. Sometimes it is desirable to indicate that certain expressions do not belong to the writer's general vocabulary, but are, for example, slang, borrowings from a foreign lan- guage, or technical terms. Such expressions should be enclosed in quotation marks, or, in the case of foreign phrases, printed in itaUcs. He was nothing more or less than a "shyster." When you wrote that letter you certainly " got our goat." The French call it sabotage, and we have adopted the word. 42 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 8. EMPHASIS. 76. Finally, one may give emphasis to a word or phrase by printing it in italics. This device, however useful it is on occasion, should be employed cautiously; too frequent use of italics, like promiscuous capitalization, defeats its own end. EXERCISE 10. Supply necessary punctuation in the following sentences, ex- plaining the reasons for the marks inserted : 1 . There is no exact American equivalent for the popular Enghsh term swank. 2. The statement will be found in H L Gantts organizing for work p 26 cf also in the same work the chapter entitled an exten- sion of the credit system to make it democratic. 3. Its a fair question whether the author of the new scheme a well known Enghsh engineer will ever be given an opportunity to demon- strate its real merits. 4. Many terms that are of social significance escape precise definition and the term proletariat is no exception. 5. The best statement of this view is to be found in Lenins the state and revolution written before his rise to power. See also the Bolshevik theory by R W Postgate and the state its origin and function by W Paul. 6. The elegy in a country church yard by Thomas Gray 1716 1771 is one of the best known of English poems. 7. The French word cliche has recently come into vogue among English and American writers to designate any hackneyed ex- pression. 8. ' Not all of the persons who have used the term profiteering in the last few years know either the circumstances of its origin or its original meaning. 9. Burns poem the cotters Saturday night owes its popularity to its half sentimental half humorous picture of Scottish peasant life. MATTERS OF FORM 4$ D. Quotations. 1. INDIRECT QUOTATIONS. 77. Material which in substance is quoted, but which does not appear in the original phraseology, is not set off by any special mark of punctuation. One should of course be careful to acknowledge the source of such material, either in the text itself or in a footnote. Thus in the sentence, Franklin's adage about getting up early in the morning is still popular, no special punctuation sets off the words getting up early in the morning, because they are not precisely those Franklin used. 2. DIRECT QUOTATIONS. 78. On the other hand, all quotations that preserve the exact words of the original must be enclosed in quotation marks. Compare the following sentence with that in the preceding paragraph: Franklin's advice about *' early to bed and early to rise" is still popular. Here the words in quota- tion marks are borrowed unchanged. 79. If the quotation contains more than one paragraph, the quotation marks appear at the beginning of each para- graph and at the end of the last. Very frequently, however, both in printed and typed matter, quotations extending beyond one or two lines are distinguished by being set in smaller type, or by being spaced more closely. When this is done, many writers omit the quotation marks altogether. (See the quotation from Woolley's Mechanics of Writing in paragraph 17 of this chapter.) 80. A quotation within a quotation is set off by single inverted commas, usually called "single quotes"; thus: He answered at once: "Franklin's old adage, 'Early to bed and early to rise, ' appeared first in P^or Richard's Almanac." 44 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 81. If a quotation is interrupted by such expressions as *'he said/' etc., it is treated as in the following example: "We will give you ten days," said the manager, "and at the end of that time we shall expect a decision." 82. Square brackets ( [ ] ) are used to set off explanatory material introduced into a quotation by an editor or some one other than the original writer. 83. The terminal punctuation of direct quotations is at times puzzling. Should the mark ending the clause or sentence be placed within or without the final quotation marks? The best usage today favors putting a terminal comma or period within the quotation marks, no matter whether or not it belongs logically to the quotation; all the other points — colon, semicolon, exclamation point, question mark — are placed inside or outside the "quotes'' according as they belong to the quoted matter or to the entire sentence. Consider these examples: (1) His words were, " I will not." (The period is always within the final quotes.) (2) He said, "I will not," and left. (Here the comma after not is no part of the quotation; yet because of the general practise it stands within the quotes.) (3) They say, "We will give you ten percent discount"! (Here the exclamation point stands outside the quotes; it is no part of the quoted matter, but indicates the exclamatory nature of the entire sentence.) (4) They write " No ! " and add nothing to that one word. (Here the exclamation point is part of the quotation; hence it stands within the quotes.) (5) He says, in the chapter called "In the Beginning": "This is where I found my starting point." (The colon stands outside the quotation marks because it functions in the sentence as a whole, and is no part of the title of the chapter.) MATTERS OF FORM 45 EXERCISE 11. Punctuate the following: 1. Soon the table was cleared and laid out afresh and Lucy- preceded the maid bearing eggs on the tray and sat down unbon- neted and like a thorough bred housewife tc pour out the tea for him Now we'll commence said Adrian tapping his egg with meditative cheerfulness but his expression soon changed to one of pain all the more alarming for his benevolent efforts to conceal it could it be possible the egg was bad oh horror Lucy watched him and waited in trepidation This egg has boiled three minutes and three quarters he observed ceasing to contemplate it Dear dear said Lucy I boiled them myself exactly that time Richard likes them so and you like them hard Mr. Harley On the contrary I hke them soft two minutes and a half or three quarters at the outside an egg should never rashly verge upon hardness never three minutes is the excess of temerity If Richard had told me if I had only known the lovely little hostess interjected ruefully biting her lip We mustn't expect him to pay much attention to such matters said Adrian trying to smile Hang it there are more eggs in the house cried Richard and pulled savagely at the bell Lucy jumped up saying oh yes I will go and boil some exactly the time you like pray let me go Mr. Harley Adrian restrained her departure with a motion of his hand na he said I will be ruled by Richard's tastes and heaven grant me his digestion 2. it must be remembered however that the engineer has two distinct functions one is to design and build his machinery the second is to operate it in the past he has given more attention to the former function than to the latter at first this was but a natural and necessary condition for the various engineering structures were comparatively few and were operated in a measure simply and independently now however with the multipUcity of machines of all kinds the operation of one is many times intimately dependent upon the operation of another even in one factory in addition to this the operation of one factory is always dependent upon the successful operation of a numbcF of others because this interoperation is necessary to render service or produce results the complexity of the 46 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS operating problem has greatly increased for the operation of a large number of factories in harmony presents much the same problem as the harmonious operation of the machines in one factory it is only however where the factories have been combined under one management that any direct attempt at this kind of control has been made to be sure the relation between the demand for and supply of the product supplemented by a desire to get the greatest possible profit has resulted in a sort of control which has usually been based more on opinion than facts and generally exercised to secure the greatest possible profits rather than to render the greatest service 3. all through my boyhood and youth i was known and pointed out for the pattern of an idler and yet i was always busy on my own private end which was to learn to write i kept always two books in my pocket one to read one to write in as i walked my mind was busy fitting what i saw with appropriate words when i sat by the roadside i would either read or a pencil and a penny version book would be in my hand to note down the features of the scene or commemorate some halting stanzas thus i lived with words and what i thus wrote was for no ulterior use it was written consciously for practice it was not so much that i wished to be an author though i wished that too as that i had vowed that i would learn to write that was a profi- ciency that tempted me and i practised to acquire it as men learn to whittle in a wager with myself description was the principal field of my exercise for to any one with senses there is always something worth describing and town and country are but one continuous subject but i worked in other ways also often accompanied my walks with dramatic dialogues in which i played many parts and often exercised myself in writing down conversations from memory 4. no shaving edge whether it is a barbers straight razor or a safety blade can keep its original keenness for more than one or two shaves without stropping stropping that's the real secret of shaving comfort you can be sure of a fine keen edge for every shave if you use the razor the razor that sharpens its own blades built right into the frame of the ■ razor is a remarkable self stropping device simple and efficient which renews the fine keen edge of the blade day after day you dont have to take the razor apart nor remove the blade just slip the strop through the razor head and move the razor back and forth along the strop in 10 seconds you have a new sharp shaving edge CHAPTER III. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES. 84. This chapter is not a treatise on grammatical princi- ples in general, but simply a practical discussion of those difficulties which interrupt most often what should be the smooth course of business English. These difficulties arise usually in connection with pronouns, verbs, conjunctions, and idioms. Accordingly the chapter is divided into five parts, the first four corresponding to these grammatical elements, and the fifth being a glossary of grammatical terms. I. Pronouns. 85. Here are two sentences that illustrate what are perhaps the most common of grammatical stumbling blocks: "When one is ready to buy, they ought to close the deal quickly.'' ''Who did the President send for?" What is wrong? They, in the first sentence, is in the plural number, when it should be in the singular; who, in the second, is in the nominative case, when it should be in the objective. The number of a pronoun, and its case, are the two things that cause inexperienced writers most difficulty. But the princi- ples governing number and case are relatively simple; a little study, in connection with a faithful working out of the exer- cises, should go far towards clearing up the difficulties. A. Number. 86. The number of any pronoun should be the same as the number of its antecedent, or, in the case of a demonstrative pronoun used as an adjective, the same as the number of the 47 48 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS word it modifies. Thus, in the sentence, ''When one is ready to buy, they ought to close the deal quickly," the pronoun ^'they'^ should be changed to "he" to agree in number with the singular antecedent "one." Similarly, the expression ^' these kind of furnishings" is ungrammatical because the plural pronoun "these" modifies a singular noun, "kind." EXERCISE 1. Supply the proper form of the pronoun in the following sentences: 1. When a person's sales fall off, (he, they) ought to find out the reason at once. 2. We long ago gave up handling (these, this) kind of machines. 3. (These, this) sort of shoes will wear a long time. 4. If either John or James asks for this work, give it to (them, him). 5. We asked for the President and the Manager, but (he, they) had left the office. 6. If the company agrees to do anything, (it, they) should five up to (its, their) word absolutely. 7. If any of the boys are at home, tell (him, them) to come at once. 8. If any one of the officers misses the Directors' meeting, (he, they) will be reprimanded. 9. (This, these) are the kinds of themes we usually write. 10. (These, this) kind of themes we are accustomed to. 11. If anyone wants to make the team, (he, they) must be out for practice every night. 12. No one of the four kept (his, their) grades above the passing mark. 13. Every one will have a chance to meet (their, his) adviser. 14. When a team goes on the field, (it, they) ought to expect to win. 15. Every student ought to have a right to choose (his, their) own form of athletics. B. Case. 87. The case of a pronoun is determined hy its use in the sentence or clause; case, unlike number, is entirely independent GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 53 23. No class is doing as much work as (we, us). 24. I would rather have him do it than (we, us). 25. He is getting on faster than (I, me). 26. There is no one getting ahead faster than (I, me). 27. Let him have a vacation rather than (I, me). 28. I would rather stand the loss than have anything come between you and (I, me). II. Verbs. 95. Here are five sentences that illustrate the principal difficulties in the handlmg of verbs: (1) Neither of the two were ready. (2) Living in New York, the increased cost of livmg astonished him. (3) I will be ready for you tomorrow. (4) I am in Chicago today, and I was there a week. (5) The orders laid on my desk. In (1), the plural verb were does not agree with the subject neither, which is singular. In (2), the participle living is ^'dangling"; that is, unattached grammatically to the logical subject. In (3), the form will should give place to shall In (4), the present tense am should be followed by the present perfect have been, not by the imperfect was. In (5), the writer has confused the principal parts of the verbs lie and lay. (He should have written, "The orders lay on my desk.") Let us look now in a little more detail at these five matters of (A) the agreement of the verb with its subject, (B) the use of the participle and the gerund, (C) the use of the auxiliaries "shall," "will," "should," and "would," (D) the sequence of tenses, and (E) certain principal parts. A. Agreement. 96. A verb should agree with its subject in number and person. Usually this requirement causes little trouble. Some people, it is true, need to be cautioned against such 54 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS gross violations of agreement as "he don't" for "he doesn't," "I says" for "I say" or "I said," etc. And it is sometimes hard to remember that, as in the following sentence, the verb agrees with the subject and not with the predicate noun: "Inefficiency and weakness are (not is) the result of careless management." But ordinarily difficulties arise only when the number of the subject is for one reason or another not evident at a glance. 97. Thus when the subject is a collective noun such as "committee," "board," "posse," etc., the number of the verb depends upon the sense in which the writer understands the subject. If he thinks of the subject as a single unit, the verb must be singular; if he has in mind the various parts of which the larger unit is composed, the verb should be plural. For example, both of these sentences are correct: The committee was unanimous in its recommendation. The committee were of ten different minds. Some collective nouns are not susceptible of a double inter- pretation, as one can see by trying to use the subject of the following sentence with the verb "were": "The division was in action at St. Mihiel." 98. Again, when a singular subject is followed by a paren- thetical expression introduced by "with," "together with," "as well as," and the like, there is a tendency for the verb to be attracted into the plural. It should always be singular. The principal, as well as the ten teachers, was at the game. 99. Again, one should guard against the habit of allowing a verb which should be singular to slip over into the plural because of a plural noun which stands nearer to it than the grammatical subject. It would be an error to allow the importance of the word "automobiles" in the following sen- tence, and its nearness to the verb, to transform "has" into GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 55 "have": "The general use of automobiles has resulted in many changes." 100. Sentences introduced by "it," "there," "here," in which the logical subject follows the verb, sometimes cause trouble. In such cases one should remember (1) that after an introductory "it" the verb is always singular no matter what may be the number of the logical subject, and (2) that after an introductory "there" or "here" the verb is singular or plural as the noun that follows it is singular or plural. (1) It was the hope of large profits that caused him to undertake the venture. It is the results that count. (2) There is good reason for his discharge. There are two hundred workmen now in this factory. Here is the pattern I have been looking for. Here are all the orders we have been able to secure. 101. Sentences containing compound subjects are also frequent occasions of error. There are several variants of this construction. (1) The parts of the compound subject may be joined by "and," "but," "both . . . and." In such cases the verb is always plural. (2) Two or more singu- lar nouns or pronouns may be connected by "or" or "nor," "either . . . or," or "neither . . . nor." The verb is always singular. (3) Two or more plural nouns or pronouns may be connected by these same conjunctions. The verb is then plural. (4) One singular noun or pronoun and one plural noun or pronoun may be connected by "or," "nor," etc. Here the verb agrees with the nearer of the two parts of the subject. The sentences that follow exemplify these four types of construction: (1) The workmen and their employers have reached an agreement concerning hours and wages. Both the higher price of materials and the greater cost of labor have forced us to raise our rates. 56 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS (2) Neither No. 27 nor No. 27A is in stock. (3) Neither the wages of the workmen nor the salaries of the officials have risen as rapidly as the cost of living. (4) Either the Directors or the President of the Company is responsible. Either the President of the company or his principal subordi- nates are at fault. Either you or he is to be promoted. In this last sentence the agreement is in person as well as number. Sometimes the rule cannot be applied without awkwardness, as in the sentence, "Either you or I (are? am?) to be promoted. Such sentences had best be avoided entirely. 102. The indefinite pronouns (or adjectives) "each,'^ "either," "neither," "every," "everybody," are singular, and take singular verbs. "None" is either singular or plural according as one means "not one" or "not any." Each of our chief competitors is beginning to feel the pressure of our more aggressive methods. Everybody knows that the basis of credit is potential ability to pay. None of the three possibilities has come to pass. None of our rivals have succeeded in underbidding us for the job. EXERCISE 3. Insert the proper form of the verb in the following sentences: 1. It (don't, doesn't) sound true to me. 2. He (says, said) to me at the beginning, "Here is the job." S. He (don't, doesn't) please our customers. 4. The vote of the Directors (was, were) unanimous. 5. The team (was, were) on the field at three o'clock. 6. The wearing power of the tires and their low cost (is, are) what we hke best. 7. The three-ton truck, with the two smaller ones, (was, were) all we had to work with. 8. The manager, together with his two assistants, (was, were) at the factory all night. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 57 9. The importance of accurate systems of cost accounting (has, have) been made clear to everyone. 10. The developments in electric machinery (has, have) lessened our problem. 11. The increased production and the lessened wear on our own trucks (has, have) been noticeable for over a year. 12. The widespread adoption of these systems (has, have) been very gratifying. 13. It (was, were) fifty dollars. 14. It (was, were) five hundred strikers in a soUd crowd. 15. There (were, was) fifty dollars in it. 16. There (was, were) five hundred strikers in the crowd. 17. John and James (have, has) gone home. 18. Both the President and the Manager (is, are) in the office. 19. Neither of the two (is, are) at home. 20. Neither tires nor accessories (is, are) guaranteed. 21. Either Mr. Smith or his agents (is, are) responsible. 22. Either the agents or Mr. Smith himself (is, are) re- sponsible. 23. Each of the four leaders (has, have) returned. 24. None of the four leaders (has, have) returned. 25. None of the workmen (has, have) ever complained. B. The Participle and the Gerund. 103. The participle, especially the present form in 4ng, is commonly misused through failure to remember that it has a double function in a sentence: it is at once a part of a verb and an adjective. As a verb it implies a subject. As an adjective it must modify some noun or pronoun in the same sentence. Hence it must modify the word which would logically he its subject if it were a verb with a subject. Thus, it is in- correct to write : " Going to New York, the increased cost of living astonished him." Here, grammatically, the participle ''going" modifies the noun "cost"; but it should modify the implied subject, that is, the person who went to New York. A correct form would be: "Going to New York, he was astonished at the increased cost of living." 68 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 104. The gerund, or verbal noun, is commonly misused in two ways. The first is analogous to the illogical and ungrammatical use of the participle just discussed. For instance, in the sentence, "By going to New York, the in- creased cost of living is made apparent," the gerund "going" implies, logically, an agent, someone who went. But no such agent appears in the sentence. It is better to write: "By going to New York, one can see how enormously the cost of living has increased." 105. The second misuse of the gerund is due to a failure to realize that it is a noun as well as a verb. Many persons write such sentences as "We have no objection to you placing your order through Mr. Smith," or "We are in favor of your company taking this up." The error in these sentences will be apparent if you will remember that the object of the preposition to is not you but placing; and the object of the preposition of not your company but taking. Correctly phrased, the sentences would read: "We have no objection to your placing your order through Mr. Smith;" and "We are in favor of your company's taking this up." In all such cases the gerund should be preceded by the possessive case of the noun or pronoun. 106. The rule set forth in paragraph 103 does not apply to a number of expressions, originally participial phrases, which have now acquired the force of prepositions or con- junctions. The italicized words in the following sentences are, if regarded strictly as participles, grammatically incor- rect; no one, however, would think of objecting to their use: Considering the circumstances, your decision seems to us alto- gether wise. Assuming that the Express Company does itis part on schedule time, the shipment should reach you by the first of next week. Owing to an unexpected scarcity in steel rails, the construction of the siding has been delayed. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 59 107. Analogous to the misuse of the participle is the ungrammatical or illogical emplojrment of a phrase intro- duced by due to. One often reads sentences like the follow- ing, which is incorrect because the writer failed to reaUze that ''due" is an adjective and consequently must modify a noun or a pronoun expressed in the same sentence: ''Due to an unexpected scarcity of steel rails, the construction of the siding has been delayed." As the sentence stands, the phrase introduced by "due" modifies the noun "construc- tion"; the meaning, however, is that the delay was due to scarcity of the rails. The error may be corrected in two ways: either by recasting the sentence so as to make "due" modify the correct noun, as, "We regret that there has been a delay in the construction of the siding, due to a scarcity of steel rails" (here "due," etc. clearly modifies the noun "delay"); or by substituting for the adjectival phrase "due to" an adverbial phrase introduced by "owing to" or "on account of" (see the third example under paragraph 106). Perhaps the best practical rule is to avoid the "due to" construction altogether except as a predicate adjective. EXERCISE 4. Rewrite the following sentences when necessary, and explain the reasons for all the changes you make: 1. Having no guarantee, it was necessary to pay the costs my- self. 2. Driving without his license, the first poHceman he met arrested him. 3. Using the two machines alternately, it is easy to see which is the better, 4. You will not object to us publishing the book. 5. You will not object to our company publishing the book. 6. Riding through the next county, the roads were the worst we had ever seen. 7. Due to the office being closed, we could not answer your letter till today. 60 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 8. We shall be able to care for this order at once, due to the reopening of all our factories. 9. The increased production was due to the fine spirit of all the workmen. 10. Rowing out from the wharf, a large motor boat ran into the dory. 11. We have no objection to students dancing in the gym- nasium. 12. By dancing in the gymnasiiun, the floor has been injured for basketball. 13. By dancing in the gymnasium, the students injure the floor. 14. In running from third base to home, it is against the rules to go more than three feet from the direct baseline. 15. Between first and third there is no rule against a player run- ning outside the baseline. 16. Due to the fact that he was a left-handed pitcher, the runner could not get a good start from first. 17. I have no objection to the boy playing football. 18. By using an electric sewing-machine more work is finished. 19. The farmer does not object to the factory worker having dayUght-saving if he Ukes it. C. '^ Shall" and "Will." ' 108. The confusion in the use of shall and will (and their past forms should and would) is due primarily to failure to realize that expressions involving the future may indicate on the part of the speaker either (1) a mere expectation that something is going to happen (simple futurity), or (2) deter- mination, promise, or assurance. When a writer wishes to express determination, etc., he should not use the form that states merely that something will happen in the future, and vice versa. The following table will help to make clear the usage of ''shall" and ''will" in direct statements: GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 61 FUTURITY. DETERMINATION.^ Singular Plural Singular Plural 1st P. I shall WeshaU I will We wiU 2nd P. You will You will You shall You shall 3rd P. He will They will He shall They shall In other words, and to sum up the prevailing usage in a convenient rule: To express simple futurity, use shall in the first person, and will in the second and third. To express- determination, etc., use will in the first person, and shall in the second and third. Futurity I shall be there at ten. You will find our catalogue enclosed. He will take your order. We shall be in the market by December. You will receive our next catalogue. They will adjust all complaints. Determination I will attend to this matter personally. You shall have complete satisfaction. He shall never again have credit. We will make good in this, or sell out. You shall have no further cause for complaint. They shall never again interfere with you. 109. The use of should and would in simple statements is similar to that of shall and will. To express futurity, use should in the first person and would in the second and third; 1 Here, and in what follows, "determination" is used to cover several more or less distinct attitudes of mind, all of them implying that the speaker feels himself in at least partial control of the situation. Some- times the attitude is one of promise, sometimes of mere willingness or acquiescence, or, in the negative, of refusal. 62 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS to express determination, use would in the first person and should in the second and third. Futurity I (we) should be glad to be there. You (he) would, of course, have met us half way in this offer. Determination I (we) would accept your offer if I (we) could afford it. If you (he, they) had not left town, you (he, they) should have spent Sunday with us. 110. In questions that call for an answer, the best usage demands that one use in the question the form one expects in the answer. "Shall you be in town over Sunday? " "Yes, I shallJ^ (Futurity) " Will you accept the position on the terms outlined in my last letter? " " I wilV (Promise) "Should you care to look through our stock?" "Yes, I should very much like to do so." (Futurity) " Would your firm be willing to accept this scheme of payment?" **So far as I know now, it would." (Futurity) 111. In conditional clauses introduced by if, etc., the rule is to use should in all three persons and in both numbers to express futurity, and would in all three persons and in both numbers to express determination or willingness. If we should do that, it would cost us a hundred dollars. If he should ask it, we should have to say "No." If he would only let us demonstrate to him the practicability of our plan, we beUeve that we could convince him. In the first two of the foregoing sentences the use of would and should in the final clauses ("it would cost"; *'we should have") is correct; in both cases the writer expresses simple futurity, not determination. 112. In addition to the uses described in the preceding paragraphs, the auxiliaries should and would have special GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 63 meanings quite independent of their relation to the ideas of futurity and determination. Should may be used in all three persons as an equivalent of "ought to," as in the sen- tences, ''You should take more pains with your letter-writ- ing," and "We should undoubtedly employ more salesmen." Would may be used also in all three persons to express the idea of habitual action, as when one says, "He would go home from work, eat his supper, and settle down for a long evening of study." These uses are not to be confused with the more difficult constructions discussed in paragraphs 108-111. EXERCISE 5. 1. Supply the proper forms {shall or mil) and give your reasons: 1. I be glad to meet him. 2. I meet him at two o'clock. 3. You be there at ten, I suppose. 4. He follow orders implicitly. 5. We surely make it right. 6. You never fool us again. 7. They find that we mean what we say. 8. you be ready by ten? 9. he be there promptly? Yes, he . 10. he be discharged? No, he not. 2. Supply the proper forms {should or wovM) and give your reasons: 1. We be glad to have your business in the future. 2. He be a good salesman if he work harder. 3. They be forced to make the payment. 4. He not be given further credit. 5. We give him credit, but do not feel that it is for his interest for us to do so. 6. If it prove to be true, it be a serious thing for their company. 7. Whenever I be in town, I be glad to meet him. 64 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 8. If they only be decent about it, we • meet them- more than half way. 9. You not allow your tires to be so flat. 10. They always answer in just the same way. 3. Supply the proper forms {shall, will, should, would), and give your reasons: 1. If I find that he was at the head of his class, I recommend him for the scholairship. 2. Shall I make the offer more definite? Very well, I . 3. you be ready for college next fall? I . 4. He have been here now, if his machine had not broken down. 5. I rather talk to the manager himself. 6. I give your letter to the manager himself. 7. I rather have you go to college; but if that be impossible, it be worth a good deal to have had this business experience. 8. I be there if you . 9. I not fail to be there; you? 10. you reach the station before I do, it be wise for you to check the trunks. D. Sequence of Tenses. 113. The writer who bears in mind that the tense forms of verbs should indicate the actual time of the action, and that in extended narration one should avoid needless shifts from one tense to another, will ordinarily have little trouble in deciding which tense to use. A few special situations, however, may cause some difficulty. 114. One somewhat puzzling construction is the com- pound sentence involving a change from a tense denoting incomplete action to one denoting completed action. The rule in this case is to follow the present tense by the present perfect, and the past tense by the past perfect. I am (present, incomplete) in Boston today, and I have been (pres- ent perfect, completed) here a week. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 65 I was (past, incomplete) in Boston last Thursday, and I had been (past perfect, completed) there a week. 115. Trouble may also arise over the tense of the verb in a dependent clause or in an infinitive or participial phrase. In such situations, the tense of the subordinate verb is always reckoned from that of the verb in the main clause, and can be determined in any particular case only by knowing exactly what meaning you wish to convey. These illustrations will make clear the need for nice discriminations on the part of the writer : (1) We did not receive your order until a week after our arrange- ments were made. (Probably inexact) We did not receive your order until a week after our own arrangements had been made. (Precise) (2) We hope to increase the salaries of all our men, especially of those who were with us for five years or more. (Inexact) We hope to increase the salaries of all our men, especially of those who have been with us for five years or more. (Precise) (3) We should have been glad to have had your business. (Proba- bly inexact) We should have been glad to have your business. (Precise) We should be glad to have your business. (Precise) In each of the foregoing the error is not strictly grammatical; the sentences marked ''inexact" might conceivably be cor- rect. It is extremely improbable, however, that their authors meant just what they said, and more than likely that one or another of the improved forms would have been more precise. (Notice this last sentence: ''It is . . . more than likely that one or another of the improved forms would have been more precise." The tense of would have been was determined by considering whether the writers meant "would be more precise now,^^ or "would have been more precise when these sentences were first written.^' Obviously the second is the preferable meaning; hence the tense that places this whole part of the action in the past.) 66 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 116. One exception to the rules set forth in the preceding paragraphs is worth bearing in mind. Statements of general truths — facts as true today as they were in the past — are usually made in the present tense, no matter what may he the tense of the principal verb. Thus it is customary to say: *'He added that honesty is (not was) always the best policy." EXERCISE 6. Rewrite the following sentences if alterations are necessary, giving reasons for any changes you make: 1. He was in the office Thursday, and has been there for a week before that. 2. The tires are in good condition, and had been inspected regularly every month. 3. There was no chance to use the machine before the hay has been cut. 4. We received your order today, a week after our Chicago office had been closed. 5. We should have been pleased to have met you personally. 6. We expect the tires to be returned, although they had been used nearly sixteen months. 7. We anticipated trouble, for he has always been hard to please. 8. We should have been glad to have let you place the order. 9. We are glad to have had you place the order. 10. I would go if I had owned the farm myself. 11. There would have been no trouble if I had been there. 12. We were walking about town, and suddenly we remember that we ought to have gone the other way. 13. I am now in the high school, and I have been here three years. But my friend had entered a year before me; he is still here. 14. It would have been impossible to win the war without the help the British navy had given. 15. England and France were losing the war; but the American army had come, and turned the tide. 16. No one should have expected the "Y" to do as much as it had done. 17. If the ''Y" had not been in the field, there would have been much more trouble for everyone. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 67 18. The craze for dancing in 1914 was nation-wide; by 1920 it has died out in many places. 19. I was ready for college in 1917; but before the time for registration has arrived, I have decided to enter the navy. 20. There would never have been such efficiency in the navy if the high schools and colleges had not sent many of their graduates into the service. E. Principal Parts. 117. A few verbs offer certain difficulties because of the ease with which their forms are confused with similar forms of other verbs having quite different meanings. Errors occur most frequently in the case of lay, lie; loose, lose; raise, rise; set, sit. The following table of the principal parts (present tense, past tense, and past participle) of these verbs will make clear the distinctions: Present. lay (to place; transitive) lie (to recline; intransitive) lie (to prevaricate; intrans.) loose (to unfasten; trans.) lose (to misplace; trans.) raise (to elevate; trans.) rise (to get up; intrans.) set (trans.) sit (intrans.) Past. laid lay lied Past Participle. laid lain Ued loosed lost loosed lost raised rose raised risen set sat set sat EXERCISE 7. Supply the proper form of the necessary verb: ■ all the morning in the shade. the tires in the shade. — down each afternoon for half an hour. 1. We — 2. We — 3. I have 4. Have you the books on the table? 5. I am afraid he has about it. 6. I am afraid he has too long in the hammock. 68 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 7. I am afraid he has the tires in the sun. 8. If you the key, I have another. 9. I the fastenings with a hammer. 10. You should have the saddle girths as soon as you had finished your ride. 11. Have you the records? 12. I here all the morning. 13. He has in that chair an hour. 14. He the jar under the faucet. 15. We have all our clocks an hour ahead. 16. We his salary ten dollars a week. 17. His salary has ten dollars a week. 18. I at six o'clock. 19. We should have earlier. III. Conjunctions. 118. Though conjunctions present few problems to the average writer, one or two cautions may prove useful. 119. One should not confuse the coordinating connec- tives and, hut, or, with subordinating connectives such as although, because, if, when, where, while. And, hut, or connect elements of similar construction or common dependence; because, when, where, while, etc., connect a dependent clause with a main clause. 120. Confusion of the sort just described arises most often in the use of the conjunction while. As it is a subordinating and not a coordinating connective, its use is limited by careful writers to dependent clauses involving a statement of time. In the sentence, "We handle orders originating west of Ohio, while our New York office takes care of those from the east," the relation between the two clauses is really one of simple addition, and the proper connective is and, not while. On the other hand, the use of while in the following statement is correct, as the relation the writer means to express is really one of time: "We were doing our best to hurry your order while they were neglecting ours." GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 69 121. Again, be particularly careful not to use the prepo- sition like for the conjunctions as, as though, or as if. As a preposition, Zz/ce may be followed by an object, but it may never introduce a clause. It is correct to say, "He is like his brother,'* or "He acts like his brother," for in these sentences like is a preposition governing the object brother. But to say " Do it like he does, " or " He acts like he was going to order from us," is grossly ungrammatical, for here the preposition like is made to do the work of the conjunctions as and as though. The sentences should read "Do it as he does," and "He acts as though he was going to order from us." When used as a connective, like must always he fol- lowed by a noun or pronoun, never by a subject and verb. EXERCISE 8. Rewrite the following sentences if necessary, giving reasons for any changes you make: 1. Do it like I told you to. 2. He acted like an experienced workman. 3. They drill like soldiers. 4. They drill Hke the soldiers do. 5. Do not act like him. 6. They write like they didn't want the order filled. 7. While the Ford is a good car, there are others that make less noise. 8. It looked like my old gun, and I oiled it like I always did. 9. To use like as a conjunction is to misuse the language like a foreigner. 10. Some foreigners find it easy to learn English, while others, like the Chinese, find it very difficult. IV. Idioms. 122. Every language contains numerous constructions which cannot be exactly paralleled in other languages and which are not susceptible of explanation on grounds of logic or general grammar. The Englishman or American says, 70 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS for example, ''I am cold." To express the same idea the Frenchman says, "II fait froid" (literally, "it makes cold'')» and the German, "Mir ist kalt" (literally, "To me is cold). Such constructions, many of which are survivals from a past stage of the language, are called idioms. 123. A mastery of the idiomatic peculiarities of the lan- guage is one of the surest marks of a skillful writer. This mastery, however, cannot be acquired from dictionaries or text-books on grammar; it can only come from wide and long-continued reading of good literature done with the "idiomatic eye" open. The most that we can attempt here is to illustrate the correct use of a few idioms concerning which writers or speakers frequently become confused. It will be noted that the majority, though not all, of these idioms involve prepositions: According to our agreement we are obliged to replace any goods damaged in transit. In accordance with our agreement we are replacing the two chairs damaged in transit. We agree with you concerning the necessity of increasing pro- duction. We agree to all your terms except the last. The directors were unable to agree among themselves as to the best policy to adopt. He became angry at the delay, (things) He frequently becomes angry with his employees, (persons) We are not certain whom (not as to whom) you have in mind. We are entirely averse to (not from) meddling any further in the matter. The movement may be compared to the tacking of a ship. Compare our soap with that produced by any of our competitors, and you will at once appreciate its excellence. The office force consists of sl bookkeeper and two stenographers. The merit of our plan consists in its simplicity. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 71 The functions of City Manager correspond in general to those of the Mayor. We suggest that you correspond with us whenever you have need for new office fittings. This firm deals in only the more expensive makes of furniture. He has dealt with us constantly for nearly a dozen years. The result is different from (not than or to) what we expected. Our methods are different from (not than or to) those of our rivals. We are forced to differ with you on this question. (Means disagree with.) We are glad that you were pleased with the drill press you pur- chased from us several years ago. We are certain that you will find our lathes equally (not equally as) satisfactory. We cannot help feeling (not cannot help but feel) that you have not given our plan a fair trial. He proposed of his own accord to make the damage good. We do not care to undertake it on (not of) our own accord. He climbed upon (or on to, not onto) the platform. He took the receiver off (not off of) its hook. We are somewhat prejudiced against him. His conduct is prejudicial to discipline among the men. He has become thoroughly reconciled to the loss of his influence. It is difficult to reconcile your actual performance with the prom- ises made in your letters. As regards further extension of credit, we have just one thing to say. With (or in) regard to your request for a further extension of credit, we have only one thing to say. You cannot blame us for becoming tired of waiting longer for an answer. They were tired with their day's exertion. We shall wait for (not on) you in the office. 124. Certain frequently used constructions are objec- tionable on the ground that they violate English idiom. 72 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS One of these is the use of the relative pronoun which as an adjective. There is something not only clumsy but un- English about such a sentence as ^'We have received your report of sales for the month of August, which report we have placed on file." It is much better to write, "We have re- ceived and placed on file your report of sales for the month of August." 125. Some people would include among unidiomatic, and therefore objectionable, constructions, the use of a preposi- tion at the end of a sentence, and of an and at the beginning of a sentence or of a paragraph. This is mere pedantry. Sentences ending with a preposition sometimes lack, it is true, the vigor which comes from concluding on an emphatic idea or word; but this is a matter of rhetoric, not of idiom or grammar; and frequently, especially in the somewhat familiar style suitable to most business writing, it is better to sacrifice emphasis to the superior ease and naturalness of the prepositional ending. It is better in most cases, for example, to write "We are offering the most remarkable bargains you have ever heard of," rather than "We are offer- ing the most remarkable bargains of which you have ever heard." The prohibition of an "an^" at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph is entirely without basis in usage, as anyone can readily demonstrate by turning over a few pages of almost any good modern prose writer. EXERCISE 9. Rewrite the following sentences, making the italicized expressions correspond to the best idiomatic usage: 1. The workmen couldn't agree with themselves as to what they wanted. 2. He agreed with all our requests. 3. We are sure as to what sort of machine you need. 4. The recent increase of prices should be compared to that after the Civil War. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 73 5. The moving part consists of two elements: the crank and the handle. 6. The uses of the machine gun correspond with those of the rifle. 7. The mower was entirely different to what I had expected. 8. We differ from all our competitors. 9. The democratic candidate is equally as good as the re- pubUcan. 10. No one who has used it can help hut like it. IL When you get off of a moving car, be very careful. 12. As regards to Mr. Smith, we think very highly of him. 13. We are thoroughly tired with them. 14. I have been waiting on you for an hour. 15. You returned the goods on July 24, which shipment we have just received. V. A Glossary of Grammatical Terms. Adjective. A word which modifies, or states the attributes of a noun or pronoun. From the point of view of their position in the sentence, adjectives are of two kinds — attributive and predicate. An attributive adjective is one which stands in immediate association with the noun or pronoun which it modifies, as ''brown shoestrings," "a capable salesman." A predicate adjective is one which stands in the predicate of the sentence after a copulative verb (am, ore, is, was, were, shall be, have been, had been, become, seem, etc.). Example: *'The order is readi/ for shipment." Adverb. A word which modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. Examples: "He will go soon'' (modifies the verb "go"); ''He is unusually skillful" (modifies the adjective "skillful"); "He works very swiftly" (modifies the adverb "swftly"). Antecedent. A noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers, or in place of which it is used. Examples: "Mr. Jones came home Thursday. He brought back an unusually large number of orders" (the noun "Mr. Jones" is the antecedent of the personal pronoun "he"); "The man who was here yesterday was Mr. Smith" (the noun "man" is the antecedent of the relative pro- noun "who"); "He whom I described ..." (the pronoun *'he" is the antecedent of the relative pronoun "whom"). 74 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS Apposition (in apposition with). A noun or pronoun is said to be in apposition with another noun or pronoun when it stands innnediately after the first noun or pronoun, with no connecting word between the two, and names the same person or thing. Example: "Mr. Johnson, president of the company" ("presi- dent" is in apposition with "Mr. Johnson"). Cardinal Number. That form of the numeral which expresses directly the number of units involved, as one, six, ten, twenty- five. See Ordinal. Case. That property of nouns or pronouns which indicates their grammatical relationship to other words. Modern EngUsh grammar recognizes three cases: Nominative, Possessive, and Objective. Nouns have two forms for these three cases, one for the Nominative and Objective, and one for the Possessive: the latter is normally characterized in the singular by the addition of 's to the simple form of the noun, and in the plural by the addition of an apostrophe if the plural form ends in s, otherwise by the addition of 's. For the case forms of pronouns, see paragraph 87. Clause. A group of words containing a subject and predicate. Clauses are of two principal types — main or independent clauses, and dependent or subordinate clauses. Main or inde- pendent clauses are clauses which are capable of forming a complete sentence by themselves, as "Business has improved greatly since the beginning of the year." When two or more main clauses are grouped together in a sentence, they are said to be coordinate clauses, as "We were ready, but you caused a delay." Dependent or subordinate clauses are clauses which are used in a sentence with the function of a single part of speech (noun, adjective, or adverb), and which, therefore, are not capable of forming a complete sentence by themselves. A dependent clause used in a sentence with the function of a noun is called a noun clause. Example: "That business has im- proved greatly since the beginning of the year is becoming more and more apparent" (here the italicized group of words is used as the subject of the verb "is becoming") . A dependent clause used with the function of an adjective, that is, to modify a noun or pronoun, is called an adjective clause. Example: "The goods which you ordered are now ready to ship" (the clause in itaUcs modifies the noun "goods"). When an adjec-s tive clause, as in this example, is introduced by a relative pro- GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 75 noun it is said to be a relative clause. A dependent clause used with the force of an adverb is called an adverbial clause. Exam- ples: "The goods had been shipped when your telegram was re- ceived'' (here the italicized clause modifies the verb ''had been shipped"); ''He works more rapidly than you ever did" (here the clause modifies the adverb ''more rapidly"). Compound Subject. A subject consisting of two or more eo- ordinate elements as, "The engine and the baggage car were demoHshed." Conjunction. A word used to join words or groups of words (i. e,, clauses or phrases) in a sentence. Conjunctions are of two classes — coordinating and subordinating. The first join words or groups of words of equal rank or of the same grammatical construction; they include and, but, or and nor. The second join dependent with independent clauses. The principal conjunctions of this type are when, where, though, since, because, while, inasmuch. Coordinate. Any words or groups of words that modify the same element in the sentence in the same way are said to be coordi^ nate. So also are two or more main clauses in the same seu" tence. The two italicized phrases in the following sentence are coordinate: "The purpose of this letter is to call your attention to our new plan, and to set forth its merits." Declarative. A sentence is said to be declarative when it asserts something to be true. Example: "The market for iron cast- ings has expanded greatly in the last two months." Exclamatory. A sentence is said to be exclamatory when it ex- presses strong surprise or other emotion. Example: "To think that after all we have done for him he should have left us so suddenly!" Gerund. A form of the verb ending in "ing" used in the sentence as a noun but without losing some of its verbal attributes (i. e., ability to take an object, to be modified by an adverb, etc.). Examples: "Selling goods is a fine art"; "By going to New York he got his contract approved"; "We have no objec- tion to your ordering direct from Paris" {not "to you order- ing"). See also Phrase. Idiom. A form pecuHar to any language; particularly, an expres- sion sanctioned by usage, and not to be explained grammatically or logically. Thus, it is idiomatic to say, ''He is in prison j'* but not to say "He is in reformatory," 76 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS Imperative. A sentence is said to be imperative when it expresses a command or direct request. Example: "Take advantage of this offer at once." Infinitive. A form of the verb, usually but not always introduced by "to," which is used in a sentence either as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Examples: "To believe his story without proof would be foolish" (here the infinitive "to believe" introduces a phrase which is used as the subject of the verb "would"); 'The first thing to do is to survey the field" (here the infinitive "to do" modifies "thing"); "We are ready to grant you full credit facilities" (the infinitive "to grant" modifies the adjec- tive "ready"). See also Phrase. Interrogative. A sentence is said to be interrogative when it asks a question. Example: "Do you wish us to ship by express or freight?" Intransitive. See Verb. Modifier. Any element in a sentence — word, phrase, or clause — which limits or explains another element. Nominative Absolute. A somewhat unidiomatic construction in which a substantive in the nominative case stands not as the subject of a verb, but in a subject-relation to a present partici- ple, the whole phrase being used as an adverb: "The goods being ready, we telegraphed you." Noim. Any word whose function is to name a person or thing: e. g., "dog," "goodness," "machine," "John Smith." Several classes of nouns may be distinguished. A Common Noun is the name that is applied to all members of a given class: as "ship," "chair," "typewriter." A Proper Noun is the name which k used to distinguish an individual from the other members of the same class; as, "Boston," "John Smith," "The Chicago Tribune," "The American Steel and Wire Company." A Collective Noun is the name of a group which can be thought of as a single unit or as composed of many individuals; as, "commit- tee," "squad," "firm," "company." Number. That property of a noun or pronoun, usually expressed by a distinctive form, which indicates whether one or more than one object or person is designated. There are two numbers — - Singular and Plural. Object. The word has three uses in modern English grammar — ■ namely, in the phrases "direct object," "indirect object," and "object of a preposition." A Direct Object is a word standing GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 77 in the predicate of a sentence and designating the person or thing affected by the action expressed by the verb; e, ^./'He sent me the feooA;" ("Book" is the direct object of "sent"). An Indirect Object is a word standing in the predicate and designatr ing the person or thing to whom or for whom the action ex- pressed by the verb was performed ("Me" in the preceding illustration is the indirect object of "sent"). An Object of a Preposition is the noun or pronoun which the preposition enables one to use either as an adjective or an adverb. In the sentence, "The contract was signed by the President," "Presi- dent" is placed in an adverbial relation to the verb "signed" by means of the preposition "by"; it is said to be the object of "by." Ordinal. That form of the numeral which indicates the place of a unit in a series; as first, sixth, tenth, twenty-fifth. See Cardinal. Parenthetical. A word, phrase, or clause thrown into a sentence that would be grammatically complete without it, is said to be parenthetical. Examples: "We do not, however, intend to accept his offer"; "By waiting until spring — this was his argu- ment — they would find the market much more favorable to them." Participle. A form of the verb used in a sentence as an adjective. There are three forms of the participle, the Present, the Past, and the Perfect. Examples: "writing" {present), "written" (past), "having written" (perfect); "going" (present), *'gone" (past), "having gone" (perfect); "loving" (present), "loved'* (past), "having loved" (perfect). See Phrase. Passive. See Voice. Phrase. A group of words not containing a subject and predicate, used in a sentence with the function of some part of speech (adjective, adverb, etc.). Phrases are of four classes according to the part of speech by which they are introduced. An Infini- tive Phrase is a phrase introduced by an infinitive. Like the infinitive by itself (see Infinitive), it may take the place of either a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Example: "To sell goods effectively requires long training" (here the phrase is made up of the infinitive "to sell," the object "goods," and the adverb "effectively"; the whole phrase is the subject of the verb "requires"). A Participial Phrase is a phrase introduced by a participle. Though a participle by itself is always an adjective, and consequently must always be attached to a noun or pronoun in the sentence, a participial phrase may be 78 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS used either as an adjective (as in the sentence, "The man unloading coal is an ItaHan") or as an adverb (as in the sentence, " Having been out of town for a week, I have only just read your letter"). A Gerund Phrase is a phrase introduced by a gerund; it is always used as a noun. Examples: ^^ Running down hill is easy" (here the gerund phrase is the subject of the verb ''is"); "By buying your coal in the early summer you get the advantage of the lowest prices" (here the gerund phrase is the object of the preposition ''by"; the whole group "By . . . summer" is a prepositional phrase modifying "get"). A Prepositional Phrase is a phrase introduced by a preposition. It may be used either as an adjective or as an adverb. If the former, it is also called an Adjective Phrase; if the latter, an Adverbial Phrase. Examples: "The man at the second desk is the Manager" (an adjective prepositional phrase modifying ''man*'); "We are wilHng to wait until the first of the month" (an adverbial prepositional phrase modifying the verb "wait"). Predicate. That part of a sentence which makes an assertion about the subject; the verb and its modifiers. Predicate Noun. A noun standing in the predicate of a sentence after a copulative verb {am, is, was, were, appear, become, etc.) and naming the same person or thing as the subject. Example: "The President of the company is Mr. Johnson.'' Pronouns may be used in the same construction, as "This is he." Predicate Substantive. A more general term for "predicate noun." Preposition. A word that enables one to use a substantive (i. e., a noun or pronoun) as an adjective or adverb. Thus, in the following sentence the preposition "to" makes it possible for the noun "city" to stand in an adverbial relation to the verb "went": "He went to the city." The chief prepositions in EngUsh are in, out, by, from, to, toward, for, against, beneath, above, besides, beside, before, after, into, since, among, amid, within, notwithstanding, on account of. Principal Parts. The forms of a verb on the basis of which all the others are constructed. In English, these are the present indicative, past indicative, and past participle. Pronouns. A word used in place of a noun, referring to a person or thing, but not naming it. There are five classes of pronouns — personal, relative, demonstrative, interrogative, and in- definite. The Personal Pronouns are /, you, he, she, it, and their various forms (me, our, them, etc.). Their antecedents GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES 79 may be either persons or things; they are called Personal Pro- nouns because they enable one to distinguish between the person speaking, or First Person (7, we, etc.), the person spoken to, or Second Person (you), and the person spoken of, or Third Person {he, she, it). The Relative Pronouns are who, which, that, what, whoever, whatever, and their various case forms. They have a double function; they are pronouns in that they refer to an antecedent, and they are connective words in that they connect a dependent clause with some substantive in the main clause. The Demonstrative Pronouns are this, that, these, and those. Their function is to refer emphatically to a person or thing. The Interrogative Pronouns are who, which, and what. They are used to introduce questions. The Indefinite Pro^ nouns include such words as one, everybody, some, all, which do not refer to a specific person or thing. Sentence. Grammatically, a sentence is a group of words con- taining at least one main clause. A sentence consisting merely of a main clause is called a Simple Sentence. Example: "It pays to advertise." A sentence consisting of a main clause and one or more dependent clauses is called a Complex Sentence, Example: "The goods concerning which you wrote last week had already been shipped when your letter came" (this sentence contains an adjective clause, ''concerning which . . , week" and an adverbial clause, "when . . . came"). A sentence which contains two or more main clauses is called a Compound Sentence. Example: "We were ready, but you were not.'' Subject. That part of a sentence of which anything is affirmed. Examples: ^'The order is ready"; " 'When will you come' was the telegram." Substantive. A general term, embracing nouns and pronouns. Tense. That property of verbs which enables them, by changes in form, to indicate the time of the action. There are six tenses in English — ^present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. Transitive. See Verb. Verb. A word expressing action, being, etc., that enables a sentence to make a statement about a subject. A verb followed by a direct object is said to be a Transitive Verb. Example: "We have written two letters." A verb which makes an assertion without reference to any object is said to be Intransitive, Example: "I have been writing since dinner time." A verb 80 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS used to help make some form (tense, voice, etc.) of another verb is known as as Auxiliary Verb. Example: "We shall expect you on Saturday" (here "shall" helps to form the future tense of "expect"). The chief auxihary verbs are be, have, may, can, will, shall, must, and do. Voice. A transitive verb may make a statement in two ways: it may indicate that the subject performed the action, or it may indicate that the action was performed upon the subject. If the former, the verb is said to be in the Active Voice; if the latter, in the Passwe Foice. Examples: "We caW your atten- tion to an error in your statement" (active); "Your attention is called to an error in your statement" (passive) . The passive of a verb is formed by prefixing some form of the auxiliary be to the past participle of the verb. CHAPTER IV. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY. 126. Words are the tools of business. They are, of course, much more than that, and a treatment of words might proceed along many lines besides the one to which we shall limit ourselves. But for the purposes of this book it will be well to confine our interest in words to their practical use as the chief tools for the transaction of business. 127. When we have thus fenced off the field in which we are to work, we find a twofold problem : first, to continue the analogy of words as tools, we must fill the carpenter's chest with an adequate selection; and second, we must use these chosen implements as effectively as possible. Or — discard- ing an analogy which is perhaps inappropriate, because words cannot be bought and possessed as can a hammer or a saw, and are of but little value till they have been made of service through use — ^we must master the best possible stock of words, and must employ them as well as we can. 128. Such a problem demands hard work for its solution. Even in the cases of those rare individuals who possess what seems to be a natural gift for using words, there has usually been far more time spent in study and practice than appears on the printed page. "Easy reading, hard writing; easy writing, hard reading, " is almost always true. The average student can profitably expend a considerable amount of energy in acquiring and mastering a good vocabulary. 129. But the task need not be irksome. A little analysis of the problem, and a systematic approach to it, will do much to simplify its complications. Accordingly, let us divide the 81 82 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS question as a whole into these four parts : First, what should a good vocabulary consist of? Second, what does it usually consist of? Third, how can it be enlarged and improved? And fourth, how can one adapt this vocabulary to his subject- matter and his reader? I. The Ideal of a Good Vocabulary. 130. What should a good vocabulary consist of? As large as possible a stock of words that are in good use; that is, that are used today, by careful speakers and writers, throughout the country as a whole. This is what some Writers mean by demanding that our words be in present, reputable, and national use. 131. How can one tell whether or not a word is in good use? By consulting a dictionary. Among the larger or unabridged dictionaries the best for American usage are Webster's International (G. and C. Merriam Company) and the New Standard (Funk & Wagnalls Company); of the smaller dictionaries the most serviceable are perhaps Web- ster's Collegiate and The Desk Standard. If the student is ever in doubt about a word, he should look it up, and before he uses it, make sure that it is not labeled "obsolete," ''obsolescent" — becoming obsolete — , ''provincial," "vul- gar," or "slang." If the abbreviation for any one of these terms appears after the word, it is not in good use, and should be avoided. EXERCISE 1. 1. Look up the following italicized words in a dictionary, and mark those which are not in good use today, in the sense in which they are used in these sentences: 1. A human sometimes acts foolishly. 2. We had a swell time. 3. We suspected that he was guilty. 4. We suspicioned that he was guilty. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 83 5. It is aggravating to be ill. 6. His sickness was aggravated by the accident. 7. His home run was a corker. 8. The sail was ripping in one of the seams. 9. The dinner was ripping. 10. He allowed that it was true. 1 1 . His employer allowed him three weeks for his vacation. 12. He dressed hke a dandy. 13. We had a dandy time. 14. We didn't enthuse over it. 15. He located in Des Moines. 16. I located the old claim easily. 17. The boat drifted onto the rock. 2. Using a large dictionary, Hst all the meanings of the follow- ing words: degree, import, jar, joint, moral, mute, offer, period, pick, pool, principal, keep. 3. Look up the following terms, and write their meanings in your notebook: colloquial, obsolete, obsolescent, archaic, slang, provincial. 132. The demand that a word be in present use suggests two specific cautions. First, avoid words which have already disappeared as part of the living language. It is interesting to know such words, but they are of little value in ordinary writing. And second, avoid words which may some day be in good use, but are today too slangy or technical for the written page. The many new words which appear to have come into the language more or less as a result of the w^ar, are interesting examples of international borrowing, and some will probably establish themselves in good use. Camou- flage, U-hoat, poilu, seventy-five, Tommy, duds, gassed: these and many others are intelligible to almost everyone. But in any except the most informal writing it will be well to use them sparingly. Not only are they new, but, curiously enough, they are also already hackneyed from over-use. 133. Reputable words are, of course, those which are used by careful writers. Just as at a dinner one will not offend by his manner of eating, so he will see to it that the 84 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS pages he writes are free from offense in the form of words which are either unduly colloquial, or taboo in cultivated circles: words like "corker," "ripping," "rotten," etc. 134. The phrase national use almost defines itself; one should avoid words that are not current over the country as a whole. A phrase intelligible, say, only on the plains of Texas, or the idiom "I want in that room," comes under this ban. It is not in good use in all parts of the country. 135. It should be remembered, however, that though this geographical consideration is important in the determi- nation of national usage, at least one other point is to be borne in mind. Words or idioms which have a wide geographic cal but limited class or occupational usage are objectionable in ordinary writing. The newspaper man, for example, talks of "the morgue," "the dead-line," "the cub," "drop- ping the leads"; but unless he is writing for an audience of fellow-craftsmen, or consciously striving to suggest the atmosphere of his own office, he will not use such expressions in print. Similarly, the intelligent business writer will keep his own work free from technical words and phrases which, though clear enough to him and to his immediate associates, may prove misleading or obscure to an outsider. EXERCISE 2. 1 . Make a list of words that are part of the technical vocabulary of some game, business, or profession with which you are familiar. Thus in baseball we have strike, ball, fly, grounder, bunt, out, three- bagger, runner, pitcher, etc. 2. How many of the words italicized in paragraph 1 are in good use in other connections? 3. What does fly mean (1) to a housewife? (2) to a fisherman? (3) to a camper? (4) to a yachtsman? (5) to an aviator? (Use a dic- tionary.) 136. So far our advice about words has been chiefly negative: strive to avoid words which fail to pass the test of A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 85 present, reputable, and national usage. There are, of course, other and more positive considerations. Precision is one of them. A writer's vocabulary should be so ample that when he wishes to express a certain exact shade of meaning he will not have to content himself with something which vaguely suggests what he has in mind; he will have the one word which alone will say precisely what he means. Much of Joseph Conrad's power of description can be traced to his rare skill in choosing words that suggest with precision the picture in the mind of the writer. It would be hard to change any of the italicized phrases in the following half-paragraph from Lord Jim without sacrificing some of the effectiveness of the whole: It was the dusk of a winter's day. The gale had freshened since noon, stopping the traffic on the river, and now blew with the strength of a hurricane in fitful bursts that boomed like salvoes of great guns firing over the stream. The rain slanted in sheets that flicked and subsided, and between whiles Jim had threatening glimpses of the tumbling tide, the small craft jumbled and tossing along the shore, the motionless buildings in the driving mist; the broad ferry- boats pitching ponderously at anchor, the vast landing stages heaving up and down and smothered in sprays. The next gust seemed to blow all this away. The air was full of flying water. There was a fierce purpose in the gale, a furious earnestness in the screech of the wind, in the brutal tumult of earth and sky, that seemed directed at him, and made him hold his breath in awe.^ 137. In this connection again, the dictionary, or such a book as Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (Everyman's Library), is invaluable. Take the common adjective ready, for example. In Webster's New Inter- national these words are Hsted as synonyms: prompt, expedi- tious, speedy, unhesitating, dextrous, apt, skillful, handy, expert, facile, easy, opportune, fitted, prepared, disposed, will- ing, free, cheerful. Instead now of writing, ^'I foimd him 1 Lard Jim, Doubleday, Page & Company, p. 4. 86 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS always a ready workman," it is probable that you can ex- press your meaning more precisely by using one or two of the suggested synonyms. EXERCISE 3. 1. List as many words as you can think of which express the varying shades of red and blue. 2. Look up the itahcized words in the following passage, find their synonyms, and see whether by substituting some of the synonyms for the originals you can improve the passage: "Man has not yet found a moot question on which all of right and justice belonged to one side. Wherever there is controversy there is division of right and division oi fault. The division may not be equal, but while men remain imperfect the causes they espouse will not he faultless." (Saturday Evening Post, May 15, 1920, p. 29.) 3. Look up the synonyms for the following adjectives: common, usual, strange, certain, ordinary, strong, weak, able. 4. From one of the longer themes which you have written for this course, list all the important adjectives and verbs; then look each one up in a large dictionary or in Roget's Thesaurus and record all of its synonyms. In how many cases can you substitute a more precise or effective word for the one you originally used? 138. Of course the business writer can hardly be ex- pected to work out all the fine discriminations of meaning that interest the literary artist. The precision with which he is concerned, moreover, is precision of fact and idea rather than of sensation or feeling. Nevertheless, for everyone the ideal is the same : that his vocabulary should be so rich that he can do with it precisely what he chooses; that he can convey to his reader exactly what he means. , 139. The student should not be misled, however, into the common but erroneous belief that effectiveness in writing demands always the use of unusual or "literary" words. Quite the contrary is true. Plain, homely words and idioms are often more valuable — more suggestive and full of meaning — than more "high-sounding equivalents. Do not be afraid to use them freely. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY S? SOME HOMELY WORDS IN GOOD USE.^ Ail, antic, back (v.), balk (v.), blackmail, blink, boor, brag, brawl, budge, bungle, cant (n.), chuckle, chirl, clap, clinch, clog, clutch, curt, daft, daub, dawdle, dock (v.), dolt, drone (v.), drub, fag (v.), fang, fetch, flinch, foist, fumble, fume, fuss, gabble, gad, gang, garble, gUb, glum, glut, grub (v.), grudge, gruff, gulp, hag, haggle, headstrong, hearsay, heave, hoax, hobnob, hodge-podge, hoodwink, huff, hush-money, inkUng, jaunty, jeer, job, jog, holt, kidnap, knack, lag, lank, leer, loll, lout, lug, makeshift, maul, mess, mope, mumble, nag (v.), new-fangled, niggardly, nudge, odds, 'offset, outlandish, pat (a.), peevish, pert, plod, prig, quack, qualm, quash, quirk, quit, ram (v.), rank (a.), ransack, rant, rip, romp, rot, ruck, sag, scare, scramble, scrawl, scribble, scuffle, sham, shipshape, shift, shirk, shred, slam, slink, slipshod, sluggard, smash, smother, smug, sneak, snivel, snub, snug, sop, spill, spurt, squabble, squat, squeamish, stuff, sulk, tang, tawdry, tether, thrash, truckle, tussle, twit, underHng, uproar, upside-down, vent, vixen, warp, whack, wheedle, wince, wrangle. EXERCISE 4. 1. Choose ten words from the foregoing list, and use each cor- rectly in a sentence. 2. Look up all the words in this list that you are not familiar with, and record their meanings in your notebook, with a sentence of your own composition to illustrate each. 140. One more idea in this connection : a person engaged in any special business or profession should make his own technical vocabulary as large as possible. This does not in any way contradict what has been said about national usage as a test of a word's value; it means merely that when every- one around the table is ''talking shop, " or when one is writing for specialists, a specialized, technical vocabulary is an asset. It is the spoken shorthand of the craft, and though its terms may sometimes appear unintelligible to the outsider, it is of value on the proper occasion. In general, however, the ^ Reprinted by permission from Baldwin's Composition: Oral, and Written, Longmans, Green & Co. , p. 149. - 88 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS importance of a technical vocabulary needs but little em- phasis; the stress should be placed on the other side. The average man picks up the language of his own business fast enough; the danger is that he will allow his enthusiasm for the vocabulary of his specialty to blind him to the necessity of enriching his store of non-professional words. EXERCISE 5. Write a short paragraph explaining the exact meaning of each of the following technical terms: overhead, turnover, credits, balance, bond, cost plus, security, shorts, common stock, preferred stock. II. The Shortcomings of the Average Vocabulary. 141. The poverty of our vocabularies is a well attested fact You can prove this by the experience of any travellei : it is easy to learn enough French, say, to exist with comfort in France — to ask for food and lodging, to enquire prices, and to get the general purport of newspaper articles. Or you can test it by seeing how easily a child of four, who knows only three or four hundred words, makes his wants clear, and asks intelligent questions. 142. The fact is that about two thousand words comprise the working vocabulary of the average intelligent person, and that of this whole number only a few hundred are often used. Such a state of affairs indicates real poverty, mental poverty, which is the more deplorable because riches are to be had almost for the asking, if only we were not too lazy to grasp them. EXERCISE 6. Study the italicized words and phrases in the following editorial from the Saturday Evening Post of May 15, 1920.^ What do they mean? How many do you ever use yourself? 1 Copyright 1920, by the Curtis Publishing Company of Philadelphia. Reprinted by permission. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 89 THE POLITICAL RESURRECTION. From coast to coast the voters are kicking over the traces. Long party-broken and trained to stand mthout hitching, they have sud- denly erupted all over the country like a case of confluent measles that will be worse before it is better. Voters are actually mixing in national pohtics on their own account — unbidden, unauthorized and uninstructed by party leaders. In the twinkling of an eye we seem to have wiped out and for- gotten the entire poUtical education of a lifetime. In other days we believed that a voter's business was to vote, and vote as he was told; that a boss' business was to boss, to frame up slates, discover issues, write platforms and announce candidates, without comment, advice or interference from the rank and file of the party. About the time winter thawed into spring a change took place. It was almost as if the voter had had a section of his skull Ufted off and had all his old political ideas of the sacrosanctity of bosses removed and a set of new and opposite conceptions neatly inserted in their place. Watch him perform under the stimulus of his newly implanted brain cells. He jeers openly at the most sacred canons of political behavior. Without a single by-your-leave he tries to name his own presidential candidate. He manifests small interest in that candidate's party record of affiliations or in the esteem or disesteem in which he may be held by party satraps. He stupefies his former overlords by his full-throated announcement that he will vote for the man of his choice on whatever ticket that man's name may appear. The existing situation is without parallel in American history. Viewed through the eyes of the bosses it appears to be a ghastly and unthinkable reversion to pure democracy in our government. 143. To the aid of this limited and over-used vocabulary the average person summons a fairly large assortment of slangy words and expressions, the use of which is generally another indication of mental poverty. 144. Generally, we say; not always. Without considering the man whose speech is slangy because he knows nothing else, one will find intelligent persons using slang in conversa- tion, and to a limited extent in writing, because they think it adds zest to what they say, or breaks pleasantly the serious 90 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS tone of a long discourse, or is easily understood by the maD in the street. 145. Most people, indeed, would probably grant that at times the use of slang is justifiable. Nevertheless, despite this feeling, and despite the argument that the slang of today will soon be in good use, and thus will cease to be slang — an argument urged chiefly by those who are ignorant of the facts and habits of language — these things seem to be true: that slang in general is short-lived, local, inexact, and often vulgar. 146. That slang is often short-lived will be admitted b> anyone whose memory extends back for fifteen years. Already the ''skiddoo," "hand him a lemon,'* ''twenty- three for you" of 1905 have lost their pungency. Once they were on the lips of nearly every high school student in the land; today they are almost forgotten. Not many years ago the latest bit of slang was ''off your trolley,'' an expression which though obviously inexact, had at times an undeniable appropriateness. But today it has ceased to function as part of the everyday speech of the street. There is no reason for thinking that the slang of today will be any more permanent than that of two decades ago. 147. That much slang has primarily a local significance is equally easy to demonstrate. To call a man a "loop hound" may mean something in Chicago, where everybody is aware that the popular theaters and restaurants are within the so- called "loop" of the elevated railways; but what does it mean to a Bostonian? "Dog-robber" has a definite sig- nificance to some army men; but unless one has spent some time in uniform he will probably have to search long for its meaning: an officer's servant or "striker." 148. The inexactness of slang is another of its obvious weaknesses. The boy coming home from his day in the country reports "some time," and conveys a general impres- A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 91 sion, nothing more. "Stunning/' "great," "corking/' "swell/' apply to everything he likes, from a new necktie to an attractive partner at a dance. 149. And finally, the fact that much slang is vulgar, at least in its origin, is enough to condemn it. Gentility and slang may at times be found keeping company; rowdiness and slang are invariable companions. The wise person will make sparing use of a sort of speech against which so serious an indictment can be sustained. 150. Again, the average man's vocabulary is padded with a generous supply of trite expressions, which once, perhaps, were full of meaning, but which today, because of long and careless use, add nothing of value to conversation or writing. The ordinary business man's letter-writing vocabulary offers ample illustration of this sort of expression. "Yours of the 21st inst. received"; "Enclosed please find"; "In reply we beg to state"; "Hoping for a continuation of your favors, we beg to remain" — such expressions, and the many like them to be discussed in Chapter VIII, have no place in modern business correspondence. They waste time, and give an unnatural flavor to the letters in which they are used. They are as out of place as the old frigate Constitution in the Atlantic Fleet. 151. Similarly, phrases like the following, which do not often occur in business correspondence, but which crop up all too frequently in miscellaneous written matter, ought by all means to be avoided in the interest of fresh and sincere expression: "last but not least"; "the irony of fate"; "along these lines"; " venture the suggestion " ; " points of interest " ; "a full measure of success"; "for a mere song"; "it stands to reason"; "in the last analysis"; "slowly but surely." From such threadbare combinations it is but a step to the country newspaper's "lamented fellow-citizen," "plaudits of the multitude," and "hymeneal altar." 92 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 152. Unfortunately, too, the average vocabulary con- tains a large number of words which, because the objections to them are extremely miscellaneous, are perhaps best classed merely as faulty diction. Some of the more common expres- sions of this sort are: Ad: a colloquial abbreviation for advertisement. To be avoided in writing. Affect: often confused with effect, which may be either a verb (mean- ing to bring something to pass) or a noun (meaning result); whereas affect is always a verb, meaning either to influence or to make conscious use of. All the farther: often used in conversation, but always improper, as in the sentence, "This is all the farther we can go." Say rather, "This is as far as we can go," or "We can go no farther.^' Already: never to be used when the writer means all ready. Alright: there is no such word. An ignorant misspelling for all right. Auto: a contraction to be avoided in writing. Balance: often misused for remainder. Blame on: unidiomatic, as in the expression, "We blame this on you." Say, "We blame yon for this." But what: an awkward and unidiomatic combination, as in the sentence, "I do not doubt but what he will be here." Say, ^'but that he will be here," or, better, avoid the construction entirely, and say, "I am sure he will be here." Can: often misused for may. Can denotes power; may, permission. "Can I lift this" in the sense of "Have I strength enough," is correct; "Can I go now? " should generally be "May I go now?" Claim: frequently misused for maintain or assert, as in the sentence, ''We claim that we have the best vacuum cleaner on the mar- ket." Its correct use is illustrated in the following: "We claim to be the inventors of this device." Different: The best American usage is "different from," not "dif- ferent than" or "different to." Enthuse: a recent coinage which is not yet in good use. Say, "Become enthusiastic," or "show enthusiasm." Get it: as in "Do you get itf or "Do you get meV Slang: to be avoided in writing. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 93 Gent: an impossible and never-to-be-used abbreviation. Gotten: an obsolescent form. The past participle of "get'* is "got." Had ought: as in "He had ought to have done it." Never correct. Say "He ought to have done it." Intelligent, intelligible: frequently confused. Intelligent means "showing intelligence"; intelligible means "capable of being understood." Thus we speak of "an intelligent person," "an intelligent question," but "an intelligible explanation." Later, latter: often confused. Latter refers only to the second of two units ("The latter half is the better"); later has various uses, but never takes the place of latter. Like : never to be used as a conjunction in place of as or as if. The construction "I did it like he did" is entirely indefensible; say "as he did." The sentence, "He looks like his father" is correct; like here is a preposition governing /a^/ier. But to say "He looks Uke his father does" is incorrect, for like is here used as a conjunction. Loan: a noun, not in good use as a verb; say "lend." Locate : not a desirable substitute for settle or establish oneself. Lots of: as in ''lots of room for improvement." Not incorrect, but in all except rather colloquial writing much or many is to be preferred. Most: an adjective, frequently misused for the adverb almost, as in "I am most ready" or "Most every one of them could be reUed on for a contribution." Use almost or nearly in both cases. Neither: a safe working rule is not to use neither unless it is to be followed by nor. Never say " Neither he or I was ready." Off of: unnecessary; say off. Onto : though frequently used, onto is still felt by many to be an unjustifiable combination of on and to. It is perhaps better to avoid it on the principle of not using words that may give offense to some readers. Usually on or upon is sufficient. Party: often used for person, but imjustifiable except in legal docu- ments. Phone: an admissible contraction in ordinary conversation; to be avoided in writing. Practical, practicable: often confused. The distinction is illus- trated by the following: "He is a practical (not too theoreti- cal) man"; but, "It is a practicable plan (capable of being put into practise)." 94 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS Proof: not to be misused for evidence. A piece of evidence is any- thing which tends to estabHsh a certain fact; enough evidence to remove all doubt constitutes proof. Proposition: avoid the loose misuse of this word for offer, state- ment, job, etc. "Our proposition is this"; "that is a tough proposition^^ '. both are undesirable. Proven : an obsolete form of the verb to prove, surviving in certain legal phrases, as, for example, "not proven." Good use to- day favors proved as the past participle of the verb. Quite: strictly, quite means entirely — ■ ''the glass was quite full"; it should be used sparingly in the sense of somewhat or rather. Said: as an adjective with the meaning of "the same" or "referred to before," as in the phrase, "the sate? goods having been I shipped," this word should be avoided in business writing. It is proper only in legal contexts. Same: as in "will attend to same at once." A rehc of the times when business letters were considered chiefly as legal records. It has no place in the vocabulary of today. Such: as in "We sell men's furnishings for less than such can be procured for elsewhere." Such is an adjective, not a pronoun; ■ say "for less than they can be procured for elsewhere." Suspicion: a noun; never to be used for the verb "suspect." Do not say "I suspicioned him when I first met him." Say "I suspected him," or "I was suspicious of him." That: frequently misused in place of the adverb so, as in "We are unable to do it that promptly." Transpire : not to be used for happen. It means "become known." Without: a preposition; not to be used for the conjunction unless, as in the sentence, "We cannot fill your order without you send . us a more specific address." EXERCISE 7. 1. Study the preceding list of "faulty diction"; select the ten words or expressions which you think are most apt to be misused, and write sentences in which they are used correc%. Thus: "He made me a loan of five hundred dollars," or "Most of us were on time." 2. Study the vocabulary of one of your longer themes written early in this course. How many words or expressions similar to those listed in paragraphs 150 and 151 can you find? For each A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 95 one that you note try to find an equivalent expression that is at once fresher and more exact. III. Methods of Enlarging One's Vocabulary. 153. We are now ready for the third of our questions: How can one improve his vocabulary, and thus render easier the expression of his ideas? ^ 154. First of all, the student must interest himself in the problem; he must realize the importance of a mastery of words; must satisfy himself that so long as his ideas are cramped by a limited vocabulary, he will not express himself as well as he might. 155. Once he has found himself in this state of mind, the next step will follow inevitably: he will begin to pay attention to the words he reads, as well as to those he speaks or writes. And at this point we cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of reading good prose— the prose of such masters of precise and attractive expression as Macaulay, Huxley, Stevenson, or Kipling. From them, as the result either of unconscious absorption or of deliberate attention, the student will most certainly derive a stock of new words that may add immensely to the effectiveness of his own writing. Above all he should study their use of homely but expressive idioms, their mastery of the words that give directness and vigor to everyday speech. 156. The process of improving one's vocabulary thus appears to be twofold: one part negative, one positive. The negative part consists of getting rid of the undesirable ele- ments; they are weeds in a garden. The positive part must, of course, be the acquisition and use of new words. The earnest student will learn two or three a week, jotting them down in his notebook, satisfying himself of their exact mean- ing, and then he will use them in his speech and writing; it will do no good merely to list them in a book. Moreover, as 96 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS Professor Palmer urges in his valuable Self-CuUivation in English,, he should not be self-conscious about these new possessions, but should use them audaciously. He will become accustomed to their sound before long. They can never be a part of his living vocabulary till he can use them without any feeling of constraint or unfamiliarity. 157. When once a person begins an honest attempt thus to enlarge his stock of words, he will be doubly pleased. He will be astonished at the rapidity with which his vocabulary will grow; and he will be surprised at the usefulness of the new acquisitions. 158. To be sure, mere linguistic fluency will not insure a man's success in business. Other things being equal, how- ever, of two men, the one who has a better vocabulary, and uses it more effectively, will advance more rapidly than his similarly endowed but dumb competitor. EXERCISE 8. 1. In the following selection from an editorial in the Saturday Evening Post, May 15, 1920,i mark the words which you do not habitually use, but which you should add to your working vocabu- lary. Look up their meaning, and use ten of them in a letter written to a friend. HIGH SPOTS. As a people we are suffering from an aggravated case of watching the high spots. The disease is not altogether new, but the present attack is serious. Its ravages have already made the patient blind to the everyday, wholesome foundations of life. The chief symptom is easy to recognize. It consists in a failure to be interested in anything except the unrepresentative, the excep- tional, the extreme. Finally the patient reaches an advanced stage of the malady, when he feels competent to judge and condemn civilization wholly by its froth and fringes. The brain and nervous system of modern man, like other organs 1 Copyright 1920, by the Curtis Publishing Company of Philadelphia. Reprinted by permission. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 97 or systems of the human body, are the result of long evolution* Thus when people become abnormally excitable they always tend to go back to more primitive levels. When a man is angry or excited he acts like his ancestors of a hundred thousand years ago. The poise, reason and intellect so painfully acquired through long cen- turies are thrust aside. When people go back to these primitive levels they are like children. They are interested in the eccentric and the bizarre. They are on the circus level instead of being sensible and rational. What this country needs is a revival of its sense of proportion. We shiver naturally enough at the news of strikes, industrial unrest and red riots, and there is plenty of all three, but when we walk down the street we fail to notice the workmen who are quietly plying their trades with every appearance of industry. 2. Start today keeping a list of useful new words, not technical or very unusual terms. Find them anywhere, put them down in your notebook, and bring to class each day at least one new one that you have learned. Use them, in your writing and your speech. IV. Adaptation of Vocabulary. 159. The clause "who . . . uses it more effectively," in the last sentence of paragraph 158, is the clue to the fourth part of the present problem. Words are of no value unless one uses them, and successful use of words depends to a large extent on skill in selection or adaptation. 160. In the first place, words must he well adapted to the subject-matter. Precision, as we have already said, is essen- tial. By all means avoid inexact words, unnecessary ex- aggerations; choose words that are precise. 161. Sometimes one can gain exactness by employing specific or concrete in place of general or abstract words. A general word often indicates lack of careful thinking, and usually leaves a hazy impression on the reader. The con- crete word, moreover, by furnishing the reader with a specific image, has the very desirable effect of arousing his interest. Three sentences from Kipling's "The Ride of Little Toomai, " 98 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS describing the rush of the elephant Kala Nag through the jungle, will illustrate the value of concreteness more aptly than many pages of theorizing: The branches closed over his head again, and Kala Nag began to go down into the valley — ^not quietly this time, but as a runaway gun goes down a steep bank — in one rush. The huge limbs moved as steadily as pistons, eight feet to each stride, and the wrinkled skin of the elbow-points rustled. The undergrowth on either side of him ripped with a noise like torn canvas, and the saplings that he heaved away right and left with his shoulders sprang hack again, and hanged him in the flank, and great trails of creepers, all matted together, hung from his tusks as he threw his head from side to side and plowed out his pathway. 162. Here the student may perhaps object: ^' Yes, I can see how valuable an element concreteness is in 'literature/ But I am not concerned with writing 'literature'; my task will be to produce letters that will make more business for myself or my firm." At bottom, however, the two problems are precisely the same. For example, the writer of the following sales letter could have increased its general effective- ness by using more concrete terms. It was written to a farmer who was interested in small gasoline engines: We are sure you will like this engine and appreciate its good points. It has all the merits of No. 24A, which we handled last j'^ear, and in addition has several new features. We should he glad to arrange with you for a demonstration at your farm. Something like this would have been much better: You will like this engine. It is better than No. 24A, which we handled last year, because it will do all the work of the old one, and in addition run more quietly, start more easily, use less gas, and take up less room on the floor. When may we bring one out to your farm for a demonstration? Without any undue increase in the total number of words, the merely general expressions italicized in the first version of this letter have become specific in the second. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 99 163. Again, one can frequently gain exactness and hence effectiveness by preferring a simple, direct word or phrase to an expression which, though perhaps more striking in itself, has yet become hackneyed by over-use. Why is it that trite words and phrases like those hsted in paragraphs 150 and 151 add nothing to any written work? The reason is simple: having lost through much handling the precise significance they may once have possessed, such expressions actually obscure the writer's thought; instead of illuminating the subject under discussion, they really befog it. Their very commonplaceness, moreover — that quality which makes them so easy for the careless writer to use — creates an un- favorable impression. They are thus adapted neither to the subject-matter nor to the reader. EXERCISE 9. 1. Write a theme of two or three pages on one of the following subjects, paying special attention to choosing words that are precise, specific, concrete, and simple: A saw mill. A trolley-car. Playing first base. A picture you see often. An old house. Changing an automobile tire. Picking cotton. Harvesting wheat. Cutting down a tree. A picturesque tree. An interesting store-window. Trying on a new hat (or dress). An old horse. A deserted farm. A tractor. Running an elevator in an office building. 100 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 2. Imagine that some article belonging to you or your house- hold has been lost or stolen. In from four to ten lines describe it so accurately as to distinguish it from other articles of the same sort or class (for example, a ring, a pocket-book, a horse, an automobile). 164. This second concern, of adapting words to the reader j involves a good many considerations. One of them has to do with the matter of tone. Just as certain subjects require a more dignified tone than others, so one's common sense tells one that different people should be addressed ui different ways. Language should be a bridge between the writer's mind and the reader's; it should never drop a veil between the two. It should arouse the reader's interest, should be readily intelligible, stimulating, suggestiye, and never irritat- ing or baffling. 165. Here are three letters advertising the same washing machine, addressed respectively to a housewife, her husband, and a Peoria firm. The tone of each letter is adapted to its particular reader, and all of the letters are as vivid and full of suggestion as possible: (1) Dear Madam: Which is harder, to scrub the clothes as your grandmother used to do, or to sit in a rocking chair and read a magazine? What would you give to have that Monday morning job of boiling, scrub- bing, and wringing taken off your hands? How much would it be worth to you to be able to spend "Blue Monday" with the children, or to drive to town with your husband, without knowing that the sheets and table cloths were waiting to make life miserable when you got back? It would be worth a lot, wouldn't it? Well, we can free your Mondays of all their drudgery. We can make them the best instead of the worst days in the week. For only three dollars a month — and not for many months, either — you can sit in your rocking chair and read your favorite magazine, while "Hercules" does the washing — ^yes, the scrubbing and the wringing, too. Do you beHeve us? Sign your name now on the enclosed postal card, and let us prove what we say! A BUSINESS MAN'S VpC4J2ULARl 101 (2) Mr. Up-to-date Farmer: Why did you buy a tractor? Because you had worn out too many horses breaking up those acres of corn land. Why did you buy a milking machine? Because you and the boys had got tired of that everlasting job, morning and night, 365 days in the year. You bought a tractor to spare your horses, and a milking machine to spare yourself. Of course both machines helped you make more money, but that was only an incidental matter. Well, now, what is the hardest job your wife has? You don't need to think twice: it is the washing — scrubbing and wringing those work shirts of yours, the towels the hired men wipe their hands on. You've seen her at it. Why not be as kind to her as you were to your horses and yourself? Why not take that back- breaking job away from her and give it to a machine? It can't be done? Oh, yes it can. Just sign this postal card — it doesn't put you under any obligation — and we'll bring a "Hercu- les" washer out to your place and show you that we are telling the truth. Don't think twice about this — treat your wife as well as you do your horses. (3) The A. B. C. Co., Peoria, Illinois. Gentlemen: Your success in handUng the "Hercules" tractor and milker leads us to hope that you will be interested in the latest addition to our Une, the "Hercules" washing machine. It is planned with particular reference to the needs of the farmer, and will sell even better than our other products. When Mr. Brown is in Peoria next month he will be glad to give you any information concerning the machine, and to arrange for a demonstration at your office. Yours very truly, J. F. Smith, The Hercules Company. 102 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS EXERCISE 10. Choose either (1) or (2), and (3): 1. Write two letters describing a baseball game, or the making of hay, the first to some one who knows nothing about the subject; the second to a young man who has been a farmer or a ball-player a good many years. 2. Write two letters describing a pair of socks you have just knitted, or some piece of sewing you have done; the first to a man who knows nothing about either knitting or sewing, and the second to a woman who is an expert in both. 3. Imagine yourself trying to sell something that you know about: a sewing machine, an automobile, a scythe, a wheel-hoe, a flannel shirt, a pair of new army shoes, a middy-blouse, an apron, etc. Write two letters, the first to some one who knows nothing of the merits of your goods; the second to a man who has bought regularly of you, and needs only to be reminded to buy again. 166. One negative suggestion in this connection, to avoid anything that will create friction between the writer and the reader, is capable of lengthy development, and we shall have more to say about it in the chapter on Business Correspon- dence. A few remarks must suffice here. One should be cautious about using technical terms, unnecessarily learned or bookish words. They may make for exactness under certain circumstances; they would obviously be out of place in a letter to a small merchant in the country. Foreign words — especially phrases which at times appear in the conversation of persons eager to seem " cultured '' — are nearly always inappropriate. As for slang and colloquial- isms, although at times they may seem effective, the best rule is to be on the safe side. They may be offensive. 167. Too many words are sure to annoy an intelligent reader. Study condensation. Many times a phrase will do the work of a clause, a word that of a phrase. This does not mean, of course, that one should write in short, choppy sentences. It means what Benjamin Franklin had in mind A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 103 when he said that his whole rhetoric consisted of this simple rule: ^'Use no unnecessary words." 168. The following letter is a characteristic example of a sort of wordiness which to the writer probably appeared praiseworthy; he thought that he had composed an unusually suave and business-like document. As a matter of fact he merely wasted time — ^his own, his stenographer's, and his correspondent's. Gentlemen: We should like to state that an examination of our records shows no such order as your favor of the 15th inst. refers to. Though it is possible that one of our clerks failed to make proper entry of your order, we doubt very much whether this is the case, and are forced to the conclusion that the letter containing this order has mis- carried in the mails. If you will kindly send us a duplicate, we will be pleased to give it our immediate attention. What he should have written was something hke this: Gentlemen: We find no record of the order mentioned in your letter of the 15th, and fear it must have been lost in the mail. If you will send us a duplicate, we will attend to it at once. EXERCISE 11. 1. Rewrite the following letters, avoiding the unfortunate wordiness, but being sure that the new versions are absolutely clear: (a) Your invitation to come to New York for a conference reached me yesterday. Unfortunately there are no Sunday trains to St. Johnsbury; hence I shall have to go by motor from here, and then take the Quebec sleeper for Springfield. I do not know just when the connecting train from Springfield reaches New York, but think it will be some time about ten in the morning. At any rate, you may expect me before noon on Monday, as you requested. (6) Your esteemed letter enquiring about Mr. John Smith has been received and referred to me. I find on examination of our records that Mr. Smith has done business with our house for twenty 104 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS years, and that he has always been prompt in payment. We have never had to send more than one statement. His credit with us, accordingly, is excellent, though he has never run accounts of more than $300.00 a month. His annual report on the state of his own business shows that it is growing steadily, in what we think to be a sound manner. So far as we know there is no reason for not extending liberal credit terms to him; in fact, we should say from our experience that he is an unusually desirable customer. Assuring you that it has been a pleasure to serve you, we remain, Yours very truly, X. Y. Z. 2. Without changing the meaning of the following sentences, rid them of unnecessary words by reducing the number of affir- mations wherever possible, by substituting single words for phrases, and phrases for clauses, and by eliminating mere verbiage: 1. There is one point about which I have as yet been unable to make up my mind. 2. We wish to say that we appreciate the confidence you have reposed in us. 3. Pursuant to your conversation with our Mr. Jones, we beg to advise that we have 45 of your liners which are too small for our use, and also 39 of the same which are damaged. 4. The examination was a long and difficult one. 5. What we had to eat was not as well prepared as we had hoped it would be. 6. I came to this university in order that I might be near to my home during my college course. 7. The house of Mr. Kennedy is the one which stands on the north-east corner. 8. A very interesting thing that was to be seen at the exhi- bition was a model of a typical network of British front-line trenches. 9. The book which lies on the desk contains much detail that is very illuminating with regard to this subject. 10. A feefing of terror that cannot be described came upon me. 11. There is one school of reformers which advocates the so- ciafization of credit as the surest cure for our present economic difficulties. I A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY 105 3. Take two of your earlier themes and criticize them in accord- ance with the suggestions in paragraphs 167 and 168. See how many words you can ehminate without changing or weakening the thought. 169. Mere theorizing about good diction, however, and scrupulous care in the avoidance of the common errors, will never make one's writing effective. If words are to do their full part in business, they must be fresh, vivid words, aglow with the writer's personality, and able to awaken in his reader a responsive interest. Just here is the mystery. One man writes correctly, but leaves you unmoved; the next touches something that answers. It is evanescent and intangible, this quality which we call style; but though the attainment is difficult, the pursuit is fascinating, and not futile. CHAPTER V. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES. 170. Before taking up the question of sentence structure, the student should be sure that he understands what a sentence really is. It is not any collection of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period; it is a group of words that contains at least one complete idea expressed in an independent clause. ''Referring to yours of the 21st" is not a sentence; the idea is incomplete, and the fragmentary idea that is expressed appears in a participial phrase, which should always be dependent upon, or attached to, an in- dependent clause. "We are unable to ship till November 1. Because of the strike." Of these two groups of words, the first is a complete grammatical unit, and is properly punctu- ated as a sentence; the second is not complete; it is again a mere fragment — this time a dependent clause — and has no right to stand betwe^ two periods. To this statement of the normal nature of a sentence, the only common exceptions are expressions like ''Yes," "Of course not," "Certainly," which usually occur only in dialogue. 171. The next task is to see what sorts of sentences are good, and what are not. The discussion will be simple and practical, despite the fact that it will be impossible to avoid the famihar rhetorical terms Unity, Coherence, and Empha- sis. But no one should be alarmed at the presence of these suggestions of formal rhetoric. They stand for perfectly real psychological facts, as necessary for the business writer to take into account as for the literary essayist. What they suggest is simply this: that it is difficult for a reader to grasp 106 THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 107 more than one idea at a time; that a badly arranged sen- tence will inevitably be confusing; and that unless the important ideas in a sentence are made to appear important, the reader will be misled. I. Unity. 172. In any sentence the first rhetorical essential is Unity. No sentence is unified unless it contains a complete idea, expressed in a grammatically independent statement. 173. Three simple cautions will clear up the whole matter: (A) Each sentence should contain enough to make it a grammatical and rhetorical unit; (B) No sentence should contain too much — ^better too few words, or too few ideas, than too many; and (C) If a sentence contains more than one clause, and the idea expressed in one is of greater impor- tance than that expressed in the other, the construction should indicate clearly which is the main idea, and which the sub- ordinate. A. Include Enough in Each Sentence. 174. First, each sentence should contain enough to mike it a grammatical and rhetorical unit. The writer who does not realize that every group of words which he punctuates as a sentence must contain at least one independent clause is likely to produce such ungrammatical expressions as the following : Answering yours of the 21st. We have sent you one gross No. 22B. Because we are out of No* ^3. Due to the action of the War Industries Board. We are obliged to refuse your request for an extension of time. Because we make it a rule to treat all our customers alike. Each of the italicized groups of words is grammatically in- complete. The first is a participial phrase; the second and 108 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS fourth, adverbial clauses; the third, an adjective phrase. None of them should be punctuated as sentences. EXERCISE 1. Revise the following sentences, stating the reasons for the changes you make: 1. In this book we studied many rules. Those which were most serviceable to us. 2. The papers are corrected by the instructor and then re- turned to us. Thus giving us a chance to see our own mistakes. 3. After we made something in the shop, it was exhibited. And usually sold. 4. In reply to yours of the 25th. We are unable to employ any additional salesman at present. Because conditions have made it necessary for us to cut down our selling force. 5. Answering your recent letter we beg to state. That we shall be glad to extend credit to Mr. Smith on our usual terms. 6. Most of my experience has been in the office. Although for six months I worked in the shop, learning the business. 7. None of the men had any real grievance. Because of our profit-sharing plan. 8. We did not have the right material to work with. Not even a globe for geography and the only map of the United States was at least thirty years old. 9. School was to me a wonderful world. A world in which several of my friends were already living. 10. The spectator often notices that the players are penalized for breaking certain rules governing the game. Like the rule against guarding an opponent with both hands at once. 11. The next game was the Iowa-Purdue game. Iowa winning from the heavy Boiler-makers by a large score. 12. Then it began to snow. Not in nice big, soft flakes, but in cutting blasts that stung your face, blinded you, and got into your hair and down your neck. 13. There are two cautions to observe in the use of the telephone. CalUng the number and speaking so that the other person may hear distinctly. 175. Some careless writers split into two or three gram- matical sentences an idea which might better be expressed in THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 109 one. In such cases the error is rhetorical rather than gram- matical, as in the following : We are out of these goods. We have already written to our manufacturers for more. They will ship to us on May 1. We should receive the shipment on May 10. Then we can re-ship to you on May 11. Here, in contrast with the expressions in paragraph 174, each unit of the whole is grammatically correct; that is, it con- tains an independent clause. But notice how much more effective it would be to combine the five sentences into two, perhaps after this fashion: We are out of these goods,but have already ordered from the man- ufacturers. They will ship to us on May 1, and if we receive the goods in ten days, we can re-ship to you by the 11th. EXERCISE 2. Revise the following sentences, stating the reasons for the changes you make: 1. We studied Manual Training. This is most important for boys. The girls took Domestic Science. This taught them to keep house. , 2. I joined the group of workmen. With them I entered the main building. I allowed myself to be carried along by the crowd. Soon I found myself in the main factory. Among all the machines. 3. There are six salesmen at present. Each of them has a definite territory to cover. They report their sales each day. At the end of each week they send in summaries. 4. I saved all my pictures and made a kodak book. I found this very interesting. 5. Some of the pictures we took were good and some were not. As a rule, we had good luck for beginners. Anyway the work was very enjoyable. 6. Below the chutes are the "sorters." These are huge steel screens. They are about twenty feet wide and thirty feet long, and are nearly level. In fact, they slope only about an inch to the foot. 110 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 7. I do not like trigonometry. There are many reasons for this. 8. I talked first with the registrar and was then sent to Mr. Perkins, who had been appointed my adviser. I had much difficulty in finding Mr. Perkins. I chased from building to building until I found him. B. Do NOT Include too Much. 176. The second suggestion, that no sentence should contain too much, is quite as important as the first. Business letters are full of gross violations of this principle, violations that might easily have been avoided had the writer had his wits about him. Sometimes the error is partly one of faulty punctuation. As has already been stated (paragraph 54), the best usage of the present day demands that a semicolon, not a comma, be placed between two independent clauses not connected by one of the coordinating conjunctions {and, hut, or, nor). It is a violation of this all but universally accepted principle to write such a sentence as the following : Now, Mr. Brown, we wrote you ten days ago saying that if there was any good reason for your needing an extension, we would grant it willingly, you have not answered that letter in any way, we feel sure, therefore, that there is none. To crowd three such distinct statements as these into one sentence is to make that sentence do more than it can do effectively; to this extent the difiSculty is not merely one of punctuation. But try substituting semicolons for the commas after willingly and way, and you will see that the whole is greatly improved. It would be better, however, to split the whole into two parts, thus: Now, Mr. Brown, we wrote you ten days ago saying that if there was any good reason for your needing an extension, we would grant it willingly. Since you have not answered that letter in any way, we feel sure that there is none. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 111 177. Again, people write sentences like the following: We have not heard from you since May 1, so we conclude that the engine reached you in good condition. We are out of No. 28B, accordingly we substitute No. 29. The most obvious objection to these sentences is that they are poorly punctuated. So and accordingly are not coordinate conjunctions; they are merely adverbs with a certain connec- tive meaning. Usage requires, therefore, that the clauses introduced by them be separated from the preceding clauses by a mark of punctuation at least as strong as a semicolon. A mere change in punctuation from a comma to a semicolon would not, it is true, transform the sentences into thoroughly satisfactory expressions of the thought the writers wished to convey. It would be better in both cases to subordinate the first clause and so to lay greater stress on the second and more important idea, thus: Since we have not heard from you since May 1, we conclude that the engine reached you in good condition. As we are out of No. 28B, we substitute No. 29. But at present the important thing to remember is that so, accordingly, hence, therefore, wherefore, moreover, however, then, are not coordinating conjunctions, and that when one of them introduces the second clause of a sentence, these two clauses should be separated by a semicolon. EXERCISE 3. Rewrite the following sentences, stating the reasons for whatever changes you make: 1. A man walked down the street as if in search of shelter. We approached him, he was a queer-looking person, he was tall and heavily built, by his clothes one would judge that he was a laborer, a large hat was pulled down over his head. 2. Upon our arrival the hall was already crowded, so we had to stand in the rear. 112 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 3. While a small boy I worked in a drug store after hours, although too young to do much I was deeply interested in the mysterious names on the bottles. - 4. I was unable to stand the hard work in the shop, accord- ingly I got a transfer to the office. 5. After my schooling I went to work and helped my younger brother through school, he is now working and taking care of my mother. 6. He was an excellent workman, accordingly he was promoted rapidly. 7. We have written three times about this matter, and you have made no reply, accordingly we feel justified in saying that unless we hear from you by May 1, we shall place the matter in the hands of om* attorney, and he will start suit. 8. He had explained in person that he should be unable to come, therefore he considered a letter unnecessary. 9. The finish was at hand, continuing our wild course we mounted the curbing and at a speed of forty miles an hour smashed into a tree. 10. We were off, with every turn of the wheels the buggy gained momentum. 1 1 . My father would not let any of us talk when we were out for a drive, he said it made him nervous. 12. Unusually on the last day a meeting is held, then accounts are shown and business and rules discussed. 13. A good salesman is popular, therefore he must smile as often as possible. 14. There was no way of getting over the road at this point, consequently the only thing that we could do was to make a detour. 15. Going to bed on another evening you find your bed clothes missing, some one has invaded your room and played a joke on you. 16. The water is unusually deep at the foot of the rocks, so there is little danger of getting hurt by striking the rocky bottom. 17. The challenge has been thrown out to us, will we take it, or let it pass? 178. Another type of sentence which contains too much is that which is usually called too "loose," or "stringy." THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 113 This one, for instance, is grammatically correct, but very ineffective: We wrote you a week ago about the shipment of bolts you sent us on May 10, and explained that we had sent no such order, and asked for instructions concerning their disposal, for we cannot possibly use them ourselves, and should not have accepted them from the transportation company had we known what the shipment contained. i- Even worse is the following: Your favor of recent date requesting information about Mr. of Janesville is at hand, and in reply we beg to state that we have had Mr. 's account on our books for ten years, but know very little coDceming him, for he opened his account by depositing $5000.00 in cash in our savings' department, and has neither added to nor withdrawn from that account since, merely sending in his book once or twice a year to have the interest entered. In the following rewritten version, the two main points: receive each a separate sentence, and all the paraphernalia of stiff phraseology is eliminated. Mr. of Janesville, concerning whom you inquire in your recent letter, has had an account with us for ten years. But we know very little about him, for since making his first deposit of $5000.00 he has merely sent in his savings' book once or twice a year to have the interest entered. 179. The lawyer, intent on including in each of his sen- tences everything that could possibly be useful in fixing the meaning, is perhaps more given than other men to the writing of long, ununified sentences. Caring nothing for style as such, and very deferential to precedent, he produces such sentences as this, thinking that he has made a good job of it because there is no ambiguity anywhere: The party of the first part agrees and covenants with the party of the second part to pay the said party of the second part the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) in five equal installments of two thousand dollars ($2,000.00) each, payable on the first days of January in each of the following years, namely, the year 1920, the 114 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS year 1921, the year 1922, the year 1923, and the year 1924, and the party of the second part agrees and covenants that when and if the said party of the first part shall have made these five payments in full and on the days when they are due, the said party of the second part will release the party of the first part from all claims under the action specified in section 2, above, of this agreement, but if the party of the first part shall fail to make the payments specified above when and as they shall become due, or any of them, then the party of the second part shall be at full liberty to proceed against the party of the first part in the manner set forth in section 2, above, of this agreement. In this by no means unusual example, it would have been much better to divide the whole into three sentences, thus : The party of the first part . . . year 1924. The party of the second part . . . section 2 above, of this agreement. But if . . . of this agreement. The rewritten form is just as sound, legally, as the original; moreover, it is easier to understand, because it does not keep one's mind too long on the stretch. When one idea is com- plete, that completeness is indicated by a period. . 180. Logically more obj ectionable than the long, " stringy' ' sentence, is that in which unrelated ideas are crowded together between two periods. I ask to be considered for the position of rodman. I graduated from the Oak Park High School in 1917, and at once entered the navy. I am 21 years old, and Mr. C. P. Jones of your firm can tell you about my character and reputation. There is, of course, only the remotest connection between the fact that the writer is 21 years old and that he is known to Mr. Jones. We want to sell a separator to every farmer in Orleans County, and have won the friendship of 936 men in New Hampshire. In this case there is a slight logical connection between the two ideas, but it is not close enough to warrant jumbling them together in one sentence. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 115 EXERCISE 4. Revise the following sentences, stating the reasons for the changes you make : 1. The boss let it go at that, but a few days later he called me in for a private talk and suggested that I apply for the position, and said he would recommend me, so I sent in my letter. 2. There are ninety students in our class who are going into business, mostly mto offices, but I am eighteen years old and want to work in a factory. 3. I told my employers the circumstances concerning the acci- dent,- but this did no good, then I told them they could get some- one else in my place, which was perfectly satisfactory to them. 4. In a large city one comes in contact with men of many differ- ent sorts, and the restaurants and theatres are entertaining if you have always lived in the country. 5. Until the latter part of July, I had made no definite selection of a school, but for various reasons I preferred and finally, after considering everything, I decided that I could do better here and have greater advantages than in any other school in the Middle West, and so I wrote for credit blanks, upon receipt of which I immediately forwarded them to the principal of the school from which I had just graduated. 6. Everyone helped to carry the provisions ashore, and then part hunted wood for the bonfire, while some went for water and others helped to spread the picnic dinner, which we were eagerly awaiting, for we had had a very early lunch. 7. In a city of this size one comes m contact with many different people, and one of these who impressed me greatly I will try to describe. 8. The white caps are perfectly beautiful, and one is able to see them stretching to the horizon, and when the white caps are dashed upon the shore, one is able to see the shore a long distance away, it seems as if the water were being churned by them. 9. Whatever questions I asked were answered in EngUsh except by the beginners who had not yet learned English, and it was with this class that I had the greatest difficulty. 10. At high school we had sketching to do, and one of my first sketches was of our house and lawn, and I was really quite sur- prised when the teacher immediately recognized it. 116 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS C. Importance of Proper Subordination. 181. The third and last of the cautions concerning unity is this: When a sentence contains more than one clause, and the idea expressed in one is logically of greater importance than that expressed in the other, the construction should indicate clearly which clause contains the main idea, and which the subordinate. Or, to put the matter in more specific terms, use an independent clause to state the most important idea, and dependent constructions of one kind or another — adverbial clauses beginning with when, where, since, as, etc., adjective clauses, participial phrases, etc., — to express the ideas of less importance. 182. The reason for this somewhat forbidding "rule" will be apparent to anyone who will read the following two sentences : (1) We received your letter canceling the order when the goods were already in the freight car. (2) When we received your letter canceling the order, the goods were already in the freight car. In (1) it is obvious that the clause "when the goods were already in the freight car, " is dependent upon, or subordinate to, the main clause, "We received your letter." This is quite proper, if the most important idea, from the point of view of the writer, is that the letter arrived. But if the writer feels — as most readers will think he should feel — that the idea of chief importance is that the goods were in the car when the letter came, then form (1) is unfortunate, since it puts this chief idea in a subordinate clause. Form (2) is in this case the one to be preferred. 183. Here is another example of the same sort of thing: (1) Concealing all indications of his wound, he walked quietly at the head of the column. (2) Walking at the head of the column, he concealed all indi- cations of his wound. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 117 In (1) the participial phrase "concealmg all indications of his wound" is the dependent element; the participle modifies, and is dependent upon, the grammatical subject, he. This is a proper arrangement of the sentence, if the most important idea to be expressed is that he walked at the head of the column. But if the significant or interesting fact is that he concealed all indications of his wound, then this idea should be expressed in the independent clause, as in (2). EXERCISE 5. Revise the following sentences, if revision would change or im- prove them, and give reasons for the changes you make: 1. Your letter reached us when it was too late to stop the ship- ment. 2. When we had just decided to promote him he resigned. 3. He was cool and collected, talking to the men and pacifying them. 4. Gladly accepting his offer, we wrote at once in reply. 5. These woodsmen are very skilful in their work, and the largest trees are felled in a very short time. 6. I had sauntered along a block when a big soldier seized me and demanded to know where I was going. 7. He was busily engaged in carving the turkey and just then there came a tremendous rap at the door. 8. The weather at these times of the year is very pleasant and it makes a person want to be out of doors all the time. 9. It was about ten years ago on a very cold Thanksgiving even- ing, and the ground was heavily laden with snow. My folks and I were very comfortable, seated around the fireplace, roasting marshmallows, 10. There is an increasing demand for instructors in physical culture, and it is my desire to take up physical training, but as yet I have been unable to do so. 11. "Oh, I didn't know that you were in town!" I exclaimed, and she answered that she had been back for some time. 12. We were about five miles from the lake when we heard a crashing of brush about fifty yards from the trail and out ran a big black bear. 118 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 13. Last year was my first year there and one of the most amus- ing things happened. 14. Every cent of money that you collect or that you give out should be carefully recorded in your books and you will not get in trouble with anyone. 15. I was about ten years old when I persuaded my mother to let me take piano lessons. II. Coherence. A. Misplaced Modifiers. 184. Here is an old illustration that will make clear at once the desirability of coherence in sentences: ''Piano for sale by a gentleman in an oak case with hand-carved legs." Obviously the words italicized were intended to modify piano, yet because they were misplaced, and seem to modify gentleman, the resulting meaning is ludicrous. The writer who is careful to keep together in the sentence the words, phrases, and clauses that belong together, will not be bothered by this sort of incoherence. The five following illustrations make clear different sorts of misplacements, and methods of rectifying them : (1) We told you when the goods arrived we would make the shipment. What does the clause "when the goods arrived" modify? One cannot tell. The sentence should have been cast in one of the two following forms; they mean quite different things: When the goods arrived we told you we would make the shipment. We told you we would make the shipment when the goods arrived. (2) The colors maroon and olive are pleasing to the eye as found on the body of this car. Here, of course, the writer meant the ^^ colors as found on the body of the car"; but he said '^eye as found on the body of THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 119 the car.'' He should have written; ''The colors maroon and olive, as found on the body of this car, are pleasing to the eye." (3) When half worn out, you can get lots more mileage out of your tires if you will let us re-tread them. In this case the sense is clear enough, after a fashion; but strictly the phrase ''when half worn out" seems to modify "you," the pronoun nearest it. Logically it modifies "tires, " and should have been placed so that this relationship would be clear, as thus: "You can get lots more mileage from your half-worn-out tires if you will let us re-tread them." (4) We only need three more days to finish the job. We do not ever intend to place an order with them again. This is the best job we almost ever saw. The firm has just been organized, and has no business as yet, scarcely. In these sentences the incoherence is due to the misplacing of single words: only, ever, almost, and scarcely. Though it may be clear what the meaning of the statements really is, that clearness is due to the intuition of the reader, not to the arrangement of the words. A careful writer would have phrased them thus: We need only three more days to finish the job. We do not intend ever to place an order with them again. This is almost the best job we ever saw. The firm has just been organized, and as yet has scarcely any business. (5) To carefully inventory the stock will take three months. He asked us to cordially greet every new customer. There is no reason to again discuss the matter. These sentences are examples of what is commonly known as the "split infinitive"— a construction in which an adverb intervenes between the so-called "sign of the infinitive" (to) 120 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS and the infinitive proper. It is well to avoid the construction whenever possible — and it usually is possible — because it is awkward, and because there is a very general prejudice against it among careful writers and readers. The sentences would have been better thus: Carefully to inventory the stock {or to make a careful inventory of the stock) will take three months. He asked us to greet each new customer cordially. There is no reason to discuss the matter again. (This last sentence is slightly unidiomatic : it would be much better to say ''for discussing.") 185. It is not possible, nor would it be helpful, to illus- trate all of the ways in which a writer may go astray through misplacing his modifiers. It is better for the student to fix his mind steadfastly on the positive aspect of the matter, and endeavor in whatever he writes to place all modifying expres- sions, he they single words, prepositional or participial phrases, adjective or adverbial clauses, as close as possible to the words they are designed to modify. Thus he will gradually, but surely, form the habit of constructing sentences that say exactly what he intends them to say. EXERCISE 6. Revise the following sentences, giving reasons for the changes you make : 1. I always bore an inward grudge against him on this account which it was difficult to suppress. 2. Apples were strung in the doorways which we tried to bite without touching. 3. A man who is under no restraint will often do something on the spur of the moment which is discreditable to him. 4. I had to stay in the office till ten o'clock, for I had wasted the time during the day that should have been devoted to work. 5. As a beginner, the work was hard for me. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 121 6. We told him when we employed him we would pay him $25.00 a week. 7. We only have five men on the road, and need no more. 8. His team was the most skillful we almost ever had. 9. We only need two more days in which to complete your order. 10. He asked us to accurately copy his entire record! 11. There is no doubt, certainly, that we shall be able to com- pletely fill your order. 12. Doe's Restaurant is the best place in the city on Randolph Street. 13. All Saints' Eve is one of the merriest times of the year for boys and girls that one can imagine. 14. One night last summer I was to take a girl friend that I had not seen for almost a year out to dinner. 15. The telephone in the hands of people who only use it to carry on long-winded conversations with you is a nuisance. 16. Not only does this fact concern the college student but also men in every sort of occupation. 17. All boys who committed crimes were either tried before a Municipal Judg^e or Criminal Judge. 18. An old man, wearing a matted gray beard, was reclining against a bank of moss on the north side of a great tree, smoking an old, red-clay pipe. 19. We came to the realization that a tropical storm was upon us in its first stages. 20. At chapel his cheerful look gives a pleasant atmosphere to the student-body, which does not seem to be present when he is not addressing the audience. 21. I am feeling much better and I hope to soon be in my usual good health. 22. He must at least inspect his company once a week. B. Ambiguous Pronouns. 186. The following sentence illustrates a second sort of incoherence : "When our representative inspected the engine with Mr. Jones, he said that it was in good condition." What does it mean? Probably that the representative said the engine was in good condition; but the italicized he might 122 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS refer to Mr. Jones. All pronouns should refer unmistakably to their real antecedents. In the case of this sentence, it would have been just as easy, and much clearer, to write: Our representative, after inspecting the engine with Mr. Jones, said that it was in good condition. 187. In general, the antecedent of every personal and relative pronoun should be a definitely expressed substantive, not merely an idea stated or implied in what has been written. (1) He went to the service station for this tire, but they did not have it. Here the personal pronoun they refers, so far as the logic of the sentence is concerned, to the salesmen at the service station; but if one tries to parse it as the sentence stands, the word refers (ungrammatically) to station. Had the writer said, "He went to the service station for this tire, but was unable to obtain it, " he would have avoided the blunder. (2) You ask that you be allowed to postpone payment for two months, which we regret we cannot grant. Here the relative pronoun which is without a definite gram- matical antecedent; it actually refers to the whole idea expressed in the first clause. This sentence should have been: "You ask for a postponement of two months; this we regret we cannot grant." 188. A common but utterly ungrammatical misuse of a pronoun results in sentences like these: Every person must have recreation, and if they do not get it their work suffers. The House of Representatives has certain rules which they are compelled to abide by. Here the trouble is that plural forms, they, their, have been carelessly used to refer to singular antecedents. The result- ing incoherence is obvious. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 123 EXERCISE 7. Improve the following sentences, giving reasons for whatever changes you make: 1. In the country there are comparatively few people, which allows each inhabitant to know his next door neighbor well. 2. The bank examiner felt that the cashier was not so much interested in the welfare of the bank as he should be since he had not been able to talk the matter over with him. 3. If a person has decided to go to , during the foUowmg vacation he should write to the University for an admission blank. This should not be delayed too long. 4. I am familiar with the engines of a number of cars and know their good and bad points. 5. Her mother told me that when she was fifteen years old she had graduated from high school. 6. If any announcements are to be made, the President is the one who does it. 7. Although the guards are looked upon by some as being less important than the other members of the team, it is utterly wrong. 8. If any student has a grievance, they will find the Principal always ready to hsten to them. 9. Since the fly is an enemy of life, we must seek to destroy as many of them as we can. 10. You are sure to steer straight into somebody's back, or to step on their toes. o, . , , , j 11. While the manager was talkmg with Mr. Smith, he learned of our previous action. 12. The jury is selected by the school for the purpose of repre- senting them in all cases brought before them. 13. Several of the other towns near Wahiut challenged us to games. We accepted most of them. 14. In Indiana, towns of over three thousand inhabitants must provide night schools if over twenty people petition for it who have children between fourteen and twenty-one employed during the day. , ^ ,. , i • i. t 15. When I look back on the four years of Enghsh which I studied in high school, it immediately divides itself into two divisions. 124 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS C. Ungrammatical Modifiers. 189. As important as attention to pronouns is care in the use of participles and other phrasal modifiers. Here the problem is at bottom one of clear reference; it is essential that such elements be attached grammatically to the words they modify. 190. The construction which requires the greatest care is the participial phrase. Unless one bears in mind that the participle is at once an adjective and a verb, and that the sentence should be so constructed that the noun or pronoun which the participle modifies is the subject of the action which it expresses, it is easy to write such ungrammatical sentences as the following: (1) Checking up the order received from you yesterday, it is apparent that you have erred in citing the numbers of the items from our catalogue. In this case the participle checking modifies the subject of the principal verb, and this subject is the pronoun it. But the writer meant that he checked the order, or that some other person checked it; he should have so phrased the sentence that checking would be attached to its logical sub- ject, as thus: "Checking up the order received from you yesterday, I find etc.'' A participle standing at the beginning of the sentence modifies the grammatical subject of the sentence, and therefore this grammatical subject should be the same as the implied or logical subject of the participle. (2) Caused by the action of the War Industries Board, our stock of machines is low. The only difference between this case and the preceding is that here there is a past participle instead of a present. (3) Starting for my monthly trip to St. Paul, the influenza quarantine made it impossible for me to leave town. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 125 Here the inconsistency between the explicit grammatical relationship of the participle and the implied meaning of the sentence is so gross as to be obvious.^ 191. Another construction which calls for careful han- dling is the phrase introduced by due to. Due is always an adjective, and must be used so that it modifies a substantive actually in the sentence. Forgetfulness of this fact is likely to result in such sentences as the following: Due to strikes, our factories have been forced to close down temporarily. Here the adjective due is without proper relation to the rest of the sentence; for if we parse it as modifying /actones, the sense of the sentence is spoiled. As a matter of fact the phrase is used in this sentence with an adverbial meaning, that is to say, as a modifier of the verb have been forced to close. 192. Usage, however, does not sanction this wrenching of the construction from its proper grammatical function; due is used correctly only when it is used as an adjective. In this particular sentence, and in perhaps a majority of the cases in which the temptation to use a due to phrase arises, it is better to have recourse to an unmistakable adverbial construction, such as owing to or on account of. Either of these phrases would make the present sentence coherent. (See above, paragraph 107.) 193. All this about due to phrases applies with equal force to certain other constructions. For example, in the sentence, "As director and manager of the corporation, much of the responsibility was placed at his door," the phrase ''as director and manager of the corporation" is without proper relation to the rest of the sentence. Gram- * For a treatment of the similar difficulty involved in the "dangling" gerund, see above, paragraph 104. 126 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS matically, it is in apposition with the subject, much; but logically it refers not to much but to his. The writer should have so revised the sentence as to make the grammatical and logical relations of the phrase coincide; as for example, ''As director and manager of the corporation, he had to bear the blame for the failure." EXERCISE 8. Revise the following sentences, giving reasons for the changes you make: 1. Looking over our records for the past year, it is evident that your account has not been active. 2. Our prices are dropping steadily, caused by a general reduc- tion of costs. 3. Due to the inefficiency of certain workmen, we are unable to increase our monthly output. 4. As originator of the co-operative scheme, the credit for our happy year was largely his. 5. After perusing the catalogue the next logical step would be to write for an application blank. 6. The average sale is usually large due to the nature of our business. 7. I came early next day, and my patience was rewarded after having waited two hours. 8. Having found that discussions alone were not sufficient to keep the girls alert, another interest was introduced. 9. Every year thousands of dollars are lost in crops, due to this destructive bird. 10. After walking around in the stubble for a while, the gun began to feel heavy, and I did not care whether I saw any rabbits or not. 11. The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has four large markets called the East, West, North, and South, due to their situations. 12. Starting at once to work, the lawn was soon mowed and he then raked it carefully. 13. Living on the lake shore almost all of my life, it was natural that I should take to swimming earlier than children living inland. 14. Having become a scout the good a boy derives is almost limitless. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 127 15. Real music seemed to come from these unusual instruments, due, of course, to a real orchestra behind the scenes. 16. Unlike the treatment meted out to Cuba, Porto Ricans were given many liberties. D. Parallel Structure. 194. Fourth and last, it will help any writer to secure coherence in his work if he will take care that ideas which have the same function in the sentence are similarly expressed. No doubt this device of ''parallel structure" is of more impor- tance to the artist than to the business writer; but a few illustrations of the ease with which it may be used to increase the coherence — and hence the effectiveness — of a sentence, will show that even the business man will find it helpful. (1) We have learned of your excellent work, and that you have sold more goods than any other man in this field. In this case the two ideas following the verb have learned have precisely the same function in the sentence: their equal rank is indicated by the fact that they are joined by the coordinating conjunction and. Yet the writer of the sen- tence obscured this parallelism of thought by giving to the two object-ideas dissimilar grammatical constructions; the one he expressed in the form of a phrase {of your diligent work), the other in the form of a clause {that you have sold, etc.). A skillful writer would have given the same construc- tion to both, as in the following: We have learned of your diligent work and of your success in selling more goods than any other man in this field. (2) You have been encouraged to buy your supplies of your dealer, and in expecting him to render the best service possible. The trouble here is of the same sort: the first object of the verb have been encouraged is an infinitive phrase, to buy; the second is a gerund phrase, in expecting. 128 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS (3) The new tire, the best we have ever made, and which has aheady been generally adopted for cars of the better sort, is now ready for distribution in your territory. The writer of this sentence wished to describe his new tire in two ways: by saying that it was the best his firm had ever made, and that it had already been generally adopted. For the first qualifying idea he used a phrase in apposition with tire — the best [tire] we have ever made — and for the second a relative clause — which has already, etc. He thus obscured the real relationship of the two ideas. He should have written something like this: The new tire, which is the best we have ever made, and which lias, etc. In general, it is a safe rule not to use the and which or and who form unless a which or who has already appeared in the sentence. (4) You and Mr. Smith drew up this agreement together, and it was approved by both of you. The trouble here arises from shifting, in the middle of the sentence, from the active to the passive voice. The two clauses are coordinate; the same voice should be used in I)oth: You and Mr. Smith drew up this agreement together, and both , of you approved it. 195. Somewhat akin to the incoherence resulting from failure to make use of parallel structure, is that which appears in sentences like these : The coast-guard service of the United States is as good, or better than, that of any other country. There are as many if not more words derived from French than from Latin. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 129 This sort of "split comparison" is always awkward, and nearly always avoidable. The preceding sentences would be correct if written thus: The coast-guard service of the United States is as good as, or heiter»than, that of any other country. There are as many words derived from French as from Latin, if not more. But in both cases it would have been better to recast the sentences, and to avoid the double comparison entirely. EXERCISE 9. Revise the following sentences, giving reasons for the changes you make: 1. We started the jobs together, and they were finished at the same time. 2. We think that this territory is the best you could take, and offering unusual opportunities. 3. When he began trading with us he found that we always lived up to our agreements, often doing even more than we had promised. 4. He wrote a long report on conditions in Texas, and which the Directors ordered printed. 5. This machine, our latest model, and that we guarantee absolutely, will save money for you in many ways. 6. We bought the machine together, and it was paid for by November 21. 7. Each room had a different temperature, some so cold that one nearly froze, and the next room would be too warm. 8. Many more practical subjects, such as logic, psychology, and even Latin and Greek, are as good or even better mind-developers than m-athematics. 9. Another popular way of attracting ducks and to get them ta sit and swim near your canoe is by floating a number of decoys. 10. Everyone knows that he would much rather be waited upon by a salesman with a smile upon his face and who has a pleasant word for everyone than one who is scowling and unpleasant. 11 I had the privilege of selling the surplus honey, and to keep what I made for my own use. 130 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 12. To receive the highest rank in Camp Fire a girl must be a guide in some organization or it must be won as a Craftsman. 13. The third crop of alfalfa hay is just as good and sometimes richer in protein than the first crop. 14. Why should we let the prizes go to other people when we could do just as well if not better than they? 15. Pictured stories always make a deeper impression than tell- ing them. 16. With the help of this system the chemist can determine be- forehand just what substances will be formed and also their com- position. 17. After much waste of printing paper and chemicals, and receiving no satisfaction from "The Science of Photography," we went to Lucille's father for advice. 18. By mixing with people you develop yourself and your ideas are broader because of the views of others. 19. These students retain a great interest in their university and aid it by speaking well of it, and financially. EXERCISE 10. 1. Read an essay by Macaulay, Stevenson, or Chesterton, and copy into your notebook at least twenty sentences involving effective applications of the principle of parallel structure. 2. From a current newspaper or magazine or from the themes which you have written earher in the course select at least fifteen sentences which could be improved from the point of view of parallelism, and bring them to class with suggestions for revision. 196. In conclusion, it should be clear that Coherence in a sentence is as important as Unity. No matter how straight a person thinks, unless his sentences are as clear and well- ordered as his thoughts, his reader will miss something. III. Emphasis. 197. It is a dictate of mere common sense to say what one has to say as forcibly as is desirable. Vigor, emphasis, are necessary in any piece of writing if it is to fulfill its mission THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 131 of lodging the author's ideas in the mind of the reader. These qualities, it is true, are dependent to a considerable extent upon similar traits in the personaUty of the writer himself. Nevertheless, within limits, they can be procured by a careful use of a few relatively simple rhetorical devices. 198. First of all, the most important ideas in a sentence should he given the most important positions. What are impor- tant positions? The beginning and the end, particularly the end. In the following sentences a shift of the chief idea to a more important position throws it into stronger relief: (1) Unemphatic: To serve you cheerfully and well is our pur- pope, even though your orders are so small that you might expect them to receive only perfunctory attention. Emphatic: Even though your orders are so small that you might expect them to receive only perfunctory attention, it is our purpose to serve you cheerfully and well. (2) Unemphatic: Our many years of experience make us sure that you will like this paint, although you have never used it before. Emphatic: Our many years of experience make us sure that, although you have never used this paint before, you will like it. (3) Unemphatic: Our filing system is easy to install, it costs little, it will increase your profits, your clerks will like it, and it will expand automatically with your business. Emphatic: Our fiUng system is easy to install, it will expand automatically with your business, your clerks will like it, it costs little, and it will increase your profits. The last sentence illustrates the advantage of arranging ideas in the order of cUmax, the most important at the end of the sentence. 199. In the second place, as we have pointed out in Chapter IV, nothing helps more to give force to one's state- ments than the use oi fresh, appropriate, vivid words. 132 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 200. As a general rule, one should use the active instead of the passive voice. The passive voice, in all statements in which without falsifying the meaning the writer might have used the active, is a weak construction. How much more direct and vivid, for example, is the second sentence in each of the following pairs than the first: (1) Passive: You are requested to send an application for credit to Mr. Jones, who will see that it is properly taken care of. Active: Please send your application for credit to Mr. Jones, who will care for it properly. (2) Passive: Your attention is invited to our new catalogue, which mil be mailed to you today. Active: Today we mail you our new catalogue. You will find it worth your attention. 201. Again, brevity, condensation, usually makes for emphasis. Unnecessary clauses (particularly the introduc- tory There ts), prepositional phrases, and useless adjectives weaken one^s writing. Too much is usually worse than too little; Herbert Spencer called "Economy" the most important principle of rhetoric.^ -^ 202. In the third place, one can sometimes repeat a word or phrase which one wishes to stress. The mere fact that it occurs twice, three times, impresses it upon the reader's mind. The superiority of the second of the following sen- tences is due to the repetition of the verb will increase: The use of our service will increase the length of your truck's life, the amount of business you can do, and your profits. The use of our service will increase the length of your truck's life, it mil increase the amount of business you can do, and it will increase your profits. 1 In his Philosophy of Style, an essay which any student interested in the theory underlying these practical suggestions will do well to read. It is accessible in many reprints, j THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 133 203. Repetition is not always effective; when it is un- designed it is extremely ineffective. The unnecessary and jingling repetition of plan, build, and home in the following sentence will illustrate this fact : If you are planning to build sl home, you should plan a building which will be neither homely nor too ornate, but all that a home should be. EXERCISE 11. Revise the following sentences, giving reasons for the changes you make: 1. When we wrote Mr. Brown we said we would buy the house, although we were not entirely satisfied with it. 2. You are requested to have the enclosed circular posted where it can be read by all your employees. 3. In reply to your letter of the 21st we beg to state that on examination of our files we find no such order as is referred to in your communication. 4. It is suggested that the matter of closing at noon on Wednes- days during July and Augu^ be taken up with all department managers and assistant managers. 5. Our checks and letters-of-credit may be cashed at all banks in the civiHzed world, and at many hotels, too. 6. A statement which we can rely upon was made by Professor Jones one day with reference to the old custom of refraining from smoking while one is on the campus. 7. All of our students dance. Some, it is true, merely think they dance, but there isn't one student who will not get up and dance. Look at any of the dances at the local clubs or hotels. Parleys with our Deans as to this or that dance, and whether or not it is permissible, also prove that the students of this University are vitally interested in the subject of dancing. 8. OriginaUty in construction is encouraged by the teacher and the student is given the opportunity to offer new ideas if any occur to him, which is frequently the case. 9. There is another question which ought to be considered by us — ^the question as to whether we should open a branch station at Troy or not. 134 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 10. When we arrived on the scene of action, only one man was found there, and he was the foreman. 11. It is a fact that Music students show very Uttle interest in the regular campus activities. A university athletic meet barely meets with a comment from them, and little support is received from them for the dramatic productions given. EXERCISE 12. Do you think that Matthew Arnold's use of repetition in the following paragraph lends emphasis to his ideas? If so, how does it differ from the ineffective repetition illustrated in paragraph 203? "Nothing is more common than for people to confound the inward peace and satisfaction which follows the subduing of the obvious faults of our animality with what I may call absolute inward peace and satisfaction, — the peace and satisfaction which are reached as we draw near to complete spiritual perfection, and not merely to moral perfection, or rather to relative moral perfection. No people in the world have done more and struggled more to attain this relative moral perfection than our English race has. For no people in the world has the command to resist the devil, to overcome the wicked one in the nearest and most obvious sense of those words, had such a pressing force and reality. And we have had our reward, not only in the great worldly prosperity which our obedience to this command has brought us, but also, and far more, in great inward peace and satisfaction. But to me few things are more pathetic than to see people, on the strength of the inward peace and satis- faction which their rudimentary efforts toward perfection have brought them, employ, concerning their incomplete perfection and the religious organisations within which they have found it, lan- guage which properly applies only to complete perfection, and is a far-off echo of the human soul's prophecy of it." 204. To sum up the gist of this chapter, we might say that the guiding principles of sentence structure are these: One sentence, one main idea; each word or phrase where it will most clearly bring out that idea; and the most im- portant phase of the main idea in the most important position. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 135 205. Throughout the preceding discussion we have assumed that the principles set forth apply equally to all forms of writing. But it is a fair question for the student to ask whether or not these principles may be somewhat modified in business writing? Is there not a special tech- nique applicable to the business letter, a technique which places little emphasis upon the rules explained in this chapter? 206. The general answer to such a question must be negative. Although the successful correspondent may think that the Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis of the class- room mean but little to him, the chances are overwhebning that when he writes well he writes so that his letters exem- plify all three of these principles. It may well be, of course, that composing as he usually does in relatively brief units, he uses shorter, terser sentences than would be appropriate in a long essay. Nor need he, as a rule, fear informality or even occasional colloquialisms, provided they are well adapted to the subject and the reader. But these are only apparent exceptions to the rule, and the liberties involved, if indeed they can be called liberties at all, are in no way peculiar to business writing, but appear quite as frequently in all of the less formal varieties of literary composition. In short, for the writer of business letters as for the historian or novelist, the canons of Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis remain as essential guides in all his work. And the reason is perfectly plain. The mind of the business man is not in any fundamental different from that of, say, the lawyer or the essayist; it can be appealed to most easily by writing which makes one point at a time, which avoids the various pitfalls of mixed-up sentences, and which places the stress where it properly belongs. 136 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS EXERCISE 13. Revise the following sentences, giving reasons for the changes you make: 1. Floyd had a shop fully equipped after his own ideas, into which once in a while he let me gaze for the barest instant. 2. High school opened on the eighth of September and a meet- ing was called for the following day of all candidates for the football team. 3. When in the fifth and sixth grades, the mention of college was to me as pleasant as the suggestion of castor oil. 4. Years ago this country was covered by a lake, making the soil rich and productive. 5. The ground is covered with leaves which rustle when one walks through them, and when the wind blows they scatter over the campus. 6. I yearned for something to keep me busy and from which I might also derive some pleasure. 7. These extra meals no one really needed, but being one of the unwritten laws of the boat, everyone was on hand for all. 8. While the worker struggles for unionism he allows his leader to become a king not only among the workers but he will manipu- late matters to suit himself. 9. Buildings that were nearly finished when the war broke out are no nearer completion than they were at that time, due to lack of funds. 10. Father came in to tell us that the rain had stopped and for all of us to get up at once. 11. If hard work will do it, there is no reason why a girl who has the opportunities offered by a college education should fail, if she prepares herself for the proper work. 12. While still at breakfast the telephone bell rang, and the call proved to be for me. 13. As a beginner, history was a bore to me, and I did not get along very well the first year. 14. Having laid the fire the night before, all that is necessary is to touch a match to the kindling. 15. I went over to chapel at ten o'clock to make up my chapel credits, as I can only go to chapel three times a week. 16. A better picture will often be produced by thinking about the subject a length of time before beginning. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 137 17. I thought he was the most beautiful fish I had ever seen, and I stood on the bank at the water's edge when he gave one flop and slipped into the water. 18. Some of the Canadian woods have the traces of the trail of the red men left, and as a child in Ontario, Hiawatha and other Indian legends invested the woods with life, and perhaps a Uttle fear for me. 19. Perhaps I can explain more fully the duties of an auditor by relating the duties of an auditor of a company in our city and to whom I was an assistant. 20. The next morning everybody tied their beds on their pack- horses and started for home. 21. After studying the outline of the hill against the sky, the profile of an elephant's back was easily seen. 22. In high school we were kept in study rooms where we were made to at least pretend to study. 23. So I went to the head-master of the school and he asked me what course I intended taking up and after I told him a commerce course, he said that, as it would be best to go to a mid-western school, the best mid-western school was at . 24. He had only gone there a few times when he found out his error. 25. We had driven about forty-five miles out of Pontiac when suddenly we heard a crunching sound. 26. While at the breakfast table the next morning his eye lit on a tea-set which greatly interested him. 27. Not only must we consider the methods of securing news but also the putting of such news into proper form for publi- cation. 28. There are many other tricks to be learned, but which can only be learned after experience in the game. 29. The House of Representatives has certain rules which they are compelled to abide by. 30. The building took weeks as the boy could only work on it after his day's work was done and following the long walk to the neighbor's. 31. Has anybody here lost their pocketbook? 32. Alongside the track is the judges' stand, and this is always crowded in the afternoon when a race is in progress. 33. It was then necessary for me to take some definite action. After talking it over with the other delegates and telling them what 138 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS I had resolved, we decided that the best way to bring about the desired results was^o organize a Battte Ground Club. 34. Paper has doubled in price since the war began. But since we do not feel this jump in price so much, we pay little attention to it. It is those which affect our daily bread and comfort that touch us most closely, as is only natural. 35. We do not give credit for eating or sleeping. Neither should we for exercising. The same principle applies to all. 36. This club is built on the same plan as the driver, moreover a thin brass plate is screwed to the bottom of the head. 37. In the selection of a cast, comphcations resulted, as there were too many girls who wanted leading parts, and I was afraid my enemies would increase to an alarming number when I commenced sorting them over, so with an abundance of explanations, I finally had the number thinned out and got the girls I wanted for the parts. 38. A thin cardboard is placed on the type, then several layers of damp cloth are laid on top of that. 39. We were nicely seated in the freight car and were con- gratulating ourselves on our success in getting a ride home. Then a head appeared through the car door and we were asked to give an account of ourselves. 40. This twist will cause the ball to suddenly settle toward the earth, and at the same time turning to the left of the home plate. 41. Camp was left behind for the homeward journey after the first of September, making just two months in camp from the first of July. 42. In order to know just how fit a surfman is, he must first pass a civil service examination. 43. Foreign labor is much cheaper than native labor, as a result of this foreign-made goods can be sold in this country more cheaply than American-made goods. EXERCISE 14. Rewrite the following paragraphs in such a way as to make them consist of unified, coherent, and properly emphatic sentences: 1. There are three reasons why you had better not take up the newspaper profession, the first being the matter of health, in regard to which you have not the requisite physical strength to stand the nervous strain and the hard work, and in the second place, the THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 139 character of the work itself. It is often unpleasant, if not actually repellent, and though it may give you a short cut to a general knowl- edge of life, in the end for the third reason, it is likely to place a definite limit on your literary achievement. 2. Swimming is not so easy as it seems when you are standing beside the pool watching others. But in the water you go through the exercises and are stiff as a yardstick, and when you let go of the pole you go to the bottom of the tank, though of course they fish you out immediately. And in many cases a feeling that you must struggle to keep above water causes your sinking, but you cannot seem to help the feeling that you are going to drown. 3. The University of offers help in various ways to students who need it, and they do not feel that they are disgraced because they are working for what they get. Scholarships are awarded to those who do excellent work in their studies, and if they do good work but not quite so good, they can get a service scholarship. It also finds outside employme'nt for such as desire it, so there are plenty of ways for the poor student who cares enough for an educa- tion to get it. 4. My brother and I decided one summer to go on a camping trip through the Adirondacks, and everything was in readiness. We had bought the necessary outfit and mapped out our route for a month ahead. The route was to take us through the whole north woods, but my brother was taken suddenly ill and our trip was completely spoiled. 5. Will you kindly inform the chairman of the heat and ventilat- ing committee that the conditions in the classroom can be im- proved, if he will take the trouble to come and see for himself that the air draught is out of order? It has not worked well ever since it was installed, and it can be fixed without much expense or trouble, but the authorities are very careless in regard to these matters. CHAPTER VI. PARAGRAPHS. 207. Here is a typical example of a well-paragraphed business letter: Dear Mr. Jones: Thank you for your letter of the 26th, in which you say that the car has proved even tetter than you had expected. It is always a pleasure to receive such comments from our friends. We are sorry that a "broken "bottle cut the new tire. Very prohahly the damage can he repaired at your own service station; if it cannot, send the tire to us and we will attend to it at once. It is impossible to tell in advance just what the cost will "be, "but it should not exceed ten dollars. Should you wish to huy a new tire now, our advice would he the - - - - cord. Of course most of the cord tires now on the market would give you good service, hut we have made up our minds that the - - - - is the hest for pleasure cars like yours. Shall we send you one? Yours very truly, A. B. C. Co. . John Doe, Uanager. 208. In this letter there are eight sentences, arranged in three paragraphs. The beginning of each new paragraph is marked, in print, by the indention of the first line; in typed letters there is usually a similar indention, and almost al- ways an extra space. This indenting and spacing have only one purpose: to arrest the eye of the reader. They are the external indications of a relatively important break in the thought. 209. In general, as in this illustration, a paragraph is a unit by itself, centering round and developing some definite topic. Thus, paragraph (1) is an acknowledgment of the 140 PARAGRAPHS 141 preceding letter; paragraph (2) takes up the possibiHty of repairing a cut tire; paragraph (3) gives advice about new tires. 210. At the same time the three paragraphs are closely related to one another, and taken together, form a complete whole, a letter. 211. To understand the nature and function of the paragraph as a unit in composition, then, it will be necessary to consider it in two ways : first, as a single unit ; and second, as one link in a chain. The present chapter Hmits itself to the first of these concerns. 212. Let us admit at the outset that in business writing, especially in letters, the paragraphs will seldom be as long or as complete in their development of a central idea as the theory set forth in text-books on rhetoric would demand. The business writer uses short paragraphs because his correspondent can read them easily, and can grasp their meaning at a glance. Nevertheless, it will be of value to understand the ideals of paragraph structure; thereafter we may consider the liberties which the business writer may take with the schoolmaster's principles. EXERCISE 1. Divide the following student's essay into paragraphs which correspond to the main divisions of the subject: THE OPERATION OF A WHOLESALE HOUSE. Imagine yourself on a visit to a large wholesale house in Chicago. You step into the building from the street, pass through the double doors, and find yourself in the general office. Directly in front of you is a long passageway running the entire length of the building. On both sides of the passageway are rows of cages and desks, with their occupants busily at work. Perhaps what first impresses you is the activity which is everywhere exhibited. The whole place seems to be alive with swarming humanity. Hundreds of men and girls are seated at desks, walking rapidly to and fro with papers, 142 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS or accosting one another for a few moments of conversation. The scene appears to be the height of confusion, but in reaHty it repre- sents the highest stage of perfection in organization that has yet been reached. A clerk steps up to you and takes your order. He happens to be a very obliging person, and somewhat of a talker as well; so, while you are waiting for your goods, he explains to you the course which orders must follow in being filled. Upon coming into the house, orders must be transferred to a uniform blank, sometimes called a "register." On this register is written the name and address of the customer, the consignee and destination of the goods, the desired date of shipment, and a list of the articles wanted, arranged according to the distribution of the stock. Two copies are made of the register: one goes to the shipping department; the other forms a permanent record of the transaction. The order clerk sends the register to the Credit Department for its 0. K. If the customer is in good standing, the Credit Manager places his initials on the slip; if not, he will either hold the order for payment in advance or send the goods on C. 0. D. terms. From the Credit Department the register is sent to the stock room. The stock man takes the desired goods from the shelves and wraps or crates them for shipment just as though he were a country storekeeper selling his merchandise over the counter. The register and goods are then sent together to the shipping department. Here they are checked up for possible errors, bills of lading are made out, and the goods are loaded on wagons for shipment. In your case, since the article is not to be shipped, it is sent to the delivery desk instead of to the Shipping Department, and in a short time your purchase is in your possession. The register is next taken to the Billing Department, where an invoice is made out in triplicate. The original is sent to the customer, the duplicate goes to the Bookkeeping Department, and the triplicate to the Accounting Department. In the Book- keeping Department the sales are posted into ledgers directly from the duplicate invoice; in the Accounting Department the profit on each sale is computed and the total of sales and profits for each day recorded. There is but one thing left to make the transaction complete. That, of course, is payment. It is to be as- sumed that you will send in a check within the stipulated net period in order to keep your account balanced on the books. If all orders represented transactions as simple as that described above^, the routine of business life would be much easier, and yet much more monotonous, than it really is. But probably fifty per cent of the or- PARAGRAPHS 143 ders received by any wholesale house contain features which make each particular transaction the object of special consideration. For instance, an order may be the result of a great deal of hard work and anxious effort on the part of the Sales Department. It may, perhaps, represent an unusual profit which has attracted the attention of the General Manager. Again, the Credit Manager, considering that the customer already owes the company too much money, may countersign the order only after exhaustive investigation. The requisition may be of special interest to the stock man because it calls for articles of peculiar size or quality. The Shipping Clerk may remember the transaction by the strenuous efforts he put forth to start the goods towards their destination in record time. Besides the departments which have already been mentioned, there are special departments which are almost indispensable to any business. Among the most important of these is the Advertising Department. Since advertising has come to be a profession, this department has grown to large proportions in many concerns. Closely allied to the Advertising is the Sales Promotion Depart- ment; in fact, the two are combined in all companies except those whose business demands special work in soliciting. The Corre- spondence, or "Kick," Department may be in charge of the Sales Manager. The Mailing Department takes care of the distribution as well as the opening and seaUng of letters. Every company has many special departments incidental to its business which have been designed to meet the peculiar conditions under which it operates. In order to make a worldng unit of the whole aggrega- tion of departments, definite organization is essential. This is accomplished by the interlocking and division of labor and by the detailing of responsibility. The division of labor concerns the splitting of the work into departments. The interlocking of labor represents the degree with which the various departments will work in harmony with each other. Unless each person understands his work and his place, he will be as a broken cog which produces a jar in the entire machine. The detailing of responsibility is some- times rather elaborate. In the first place, each worker is responsible to his immediate superior, who is usually the Department Manager. The Manager, in turn, is responsible to the General Manager for the work of his department. Again, the General Manager is re- sponsible to the Board of Directors, if the company is a corporation, for the proper conduct of the office. The Board of Directors is responsible to the stockholders for the success of the business. In 144 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS practise, the President of the corporation is given general authority by the Board of Directors, and he works in harmony with the General Manager in supervising the business. I. The Ideals of Paragraph Structme, 213. Ideally, the paragraph is a unit in itself, with an internal structure governed by the same laws as the sen- tence: Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis. It will develop one idea; the different sentences composing it will stand in proper order and connection; and the most important phases of the central topic will receive adequate and appropriate emphasis. A. Unity. 214. First of all, a paragraph must treat only one subject; it must have the very essential quality of Unity. This is not merely a schoolmaster's rule; it is a principle of all clear writing, and depends for its sanction upon the way the human mind functions. The following paragraph from a circular intended for Vermont farmers confuses two matters — the credit of the concern, and the merits of the separator — and by so doing fails to make either point effective: We have acquired the agency for the A. B. C. separator in Orleans and Caledonia counties. Our credit, we hope, is well established with the farmers of the locality through our many dealings with them as agents for various farm tools. They will believe us when we tell them that we have never handled any article in which we had as absolute confidence as we have in this separator. It will do anything that any other separator will do, and some things besides. It is easier to wash, easier to run, and skims better, than the one you have now. Trade that old one in; we will make a liberal allow- ance. Our promises are always kept: look us up in the Grange Register, or in Dunn's, if you want to learn about our reputation. None of our notes have ever gone to protest; we have never failed to pay a bill. Or ask your banker what he knows about us. Now PARAGRAPHS 145 when we are trying to help you make more money out of your dairy, we put our hard-earned reputation behind everything we say. If you take one of these separators on trial and don't like it, we will send your money back the very day we get your letter asking us to ; yes, all of it, including what you paid for freight. EXERCISE 2. 1. Rewrite the preceding illustration, dividing it into two or more paragraphs. 2. Rewrite the following ununified paragraphs, dividing each as seems desirable: {a) A farmer's life is not an easy one. He has to work hard all day, and even on Sunday has to "do the chores." In haytime particularly he is dependent on good weather. If his hay is cut and is rained on, it will be poor hay. He must get up early in the morn- ing to milk the cows, and even if he is tired in the evening he must milk them again. When it looks Uke rain he must "cock" the hay to keep it dry, and then must spread it and toss it when the rain is over. In winter he has to cut ice and do his lumbering. In the spring come plowing, harrowing, and sowing. If the hay is put into the barn before it is dry, it will "sweat," and perhaps catch fire. If it is too dry and burned by the sun, it loses much of its value as fodder. In the summer and autumn he must work in the harvest fields. All of these things take muscle and brains. (6) There are two chief sorts of trouble that a chauffeur must guard against: engine trouble and tire trouble. Both can be more or less avoided by a careful driver. Engine trouble may be due to many causes: poor lubrication, dirty gasoline, a leaking radiator, poor batteries, too "rich" or too "thin" a mixture, carbon in the cyUnders, dirty spark-plugs, and many other things. Tire trouble is due to defective tires, poor roads, reckless driving, improper inflation, faulty alignment of the wheels, and carelessness in putting on new tires. The chauffeur who wishes to reach his destination safely will look his engine over carefully before starting, testing the ignition, making sure there is plenty of water in the radiator, and enough gas and oil for the day's run. He will tighten any loose nuts, inspect the fan-belt, and examine all the grease cups. He will test the air-pressure in the tires, inspect them for rim-cuts and bruises, and will be sure that the "spares" are in good condition. 146 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 215. A paragraph which treats of only one main idea, can usually be reduced to a single sentence — a sentence which will not, of course, contain everything that appears in the completed paragraph, but which will state concisely the topic of the whole. Accordingly, till the student has mastered this essential of paragraph unity, he will do well to state the ''topic sentence" first, and then, using this sentence as a guide, to develop and amplify the central idea. In the fol- lowing paragraph the topic sentence is italicized; whatever follows grows logically out of it: We are prepared to meet all the wants of a lover of Oriental rugs. From our stock rooms you may select rugs of all prices and pat- terns. Our cleaning department will renovate your own rugs in the most modern way, each rug receiving just the treatment it re- quires, whether that be a shampoo, gasoline bath, or vacuum clean- ing. If repairs are called for, our native weavers will treat your rugs with all the care you would use yourself, and with the skill of masters of their craft. Whatever your needs are, we can supply them* 216. Now of course the business writer will not always practice such formality in the building of his paragraphs. Nevertheless, he will not infrequently find use for this topic- sentence device. It will serve as a guide and check to him- self, and as a valuable aid to his reader. The following brief paragraphs, in each of which the topic sentence is italicized, show how readily the plan lends itself to the practice of the business man: (1) During our ten years' dealings with you we have always been pleased with the treatment you have given u^. The courtesy and efficiency of your salesmen, particularly of Mr. Brown, would in themselves have made friends for you. Then again, you have been liberal in extending credit, and when, in the depression of 1907, our own collections were very slow, you carried our account for six months without complaint, and at the same time continued ship- ments. But most important of all, we have learned that what- PARAGRAPHS 147 ever we buy of you will be satisfactory. Only three times have we returned engines to you, and in each instance the rejection was due to the transportation company. (2) Many farmers in your own part of the state have already found that a "Peerless Milker" means money in their pockets. John Smith, of Swampscott, writes that he milks twice as many cows now that he has installed "that contraption/' as he calls it, and without spending a cent more for help. George Calderwood, of Chatham, gets along now with one man, whereas before he always tried to have two. Joel Brown, of Provincetown, has added eight cows to his dairy, and has let the hired man go — a saving of $70.00 a month in wages, and the addition of a good many dollars for extra cream. 217. This, then, is the first essential of paragraph struc- ture: a paragraph should treat of only one main idea. Al- most as important is the adequate development of that idea. For instance, the paragraphs printed above would have been ineffective had not the topic sentences been expanded, or developed, at some length. 218. How this development is to be accomplished will depend very largely upon the nature of the i4ea. Sometimes one will give reasons, as in (1), above; sometimes, specific instances, as in (2); sometimes, particulars and details; sometimes, causes or effects; sometimes, a definition; some- times, a comparison or contrast; sometimes, an analysis of the topic-idea into its component parts. Sometimes, too, the nature of the topic will necessitate the use of several methods in combination. The important thing is that after deciding what idea the paragraph shall contain, the writer develop this idea so effectively that the reader may not only grasp the meaning, but be convinced of its truth as well. 219. There is no better way of ensuring an adequate development of each topic, or of testing the development after it is complete, than by asking questions. What does this mean? Will the reader understand these terms? Do 148 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS they need illustration? Will another specific instance help? Why is this statement true? The answers to these and similar queries will usually furnish abundant material from which to amplify the topic statements. EXERCISE 3. 1. in each of the following paragraphs pick out the topic sen- tence and state the method or methods of development which the author has used: (a) A profession is a voluntary association of men who profess or undertake to administer a social function efficiently and responsi- bly without consideration of reward. The elements of this definition are worth examination. Note, in the first place, that the association must be voluntary; for it is contrary to the spirit of any profession that the men who make the profession should have been forced to do so; a profession must be a voluntary act. Note, in the second place, that the nature of the profession must be that of a social function; in other words, a necessity of society; and, in the third place, that the professing members of the profession undertake on their own responsibility to discharge the fimction efficiently. Note finally, that the consideration for the services rendered by a profession is not reward or pay, but the satisfaction of a duty dis- charged and of a function performed. It is true, of course, that professional men do, in fact, charge for their services; are, in fact, paid; and actually live by the exercise of their professional skill. The claim, however, of a profession as distinct from a trade is that pay or reward is incidental and not primary; and that the efficiency of professional service is not measured or determined by the amount or prospect of the material reward. It is this char- acteristic of claim, if not of fact, that secures to a profession a socially higher status than belongs to a trade in which services are measured out on a cash basis. (6) Tolerance too is learned in discussion, and, as history shows, is only so learned. In all customary societies bigotry is the rufing principle. In rude places to this day any one who says anything new is looked on with suspicion, and is persecuted by opinion if not injured by penalty. One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, so "up- PARAGRAPHS 149 setting"; it makes you think that, after all, your favorite notion may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded; it is certain that till now there was no place allotted in your mind to the new and startling inhabitant, and now that it has conquered an entrance, you do not at once see which of your old ideas it will or will not turn out, with which of them it can be reconciled, and with which it is at essential enmity. Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it. Even nations with long habits of discussion are intolerant enough. In England, where there is on the whole probably a freer discussion of a greater number of subjects than ever was before in the world, we know how much power bigotry retains. But dis- cussion, to be successful, requires tolerance. It fails wherever, as in a French political assembly, any one who hears anjrthing which he disUkes tries to howl it down. If we know that a nation is capa- ble of enduring continuous discussion, we know that it is capable of practising with equanimity continuous tolerance. (c) All these unprecedented conditions have conspired to give business for business' sake a fascination and overwhehning im- portance it has never had before. We no longer make things for the sake of making them, but for money. The chair is not made to sit on, but for profit; the soap is no longer prepared for purposes of cleanhness, but to be sold for profit. Practically nothing catches our eye in the way of writing that was written for its own sake and not for money. Our magazines and newspapers are our modem commercial travelers proclaiming the gospel of business competi- tion. Formerly the laboring classes worked because they were slaves or because they were defenceless and could not escape from thraldom — or, mayhap, because they were natural artisans; but now they are coming into a position where they combine and bar- gain and enter into business competition with their employers. Like their employers, they are learning to give as little as possible for as much as possible. This is good business; and the employer fehould realize that at last he has succeeded in teaching his em- ployees to be strictly businesslike. When houses were built to live in, and wheat and cattle grown to eat, these essential indus- tries took care of themselves. But now that profit is the motive of building houses and raising grain, if the promised returns are greater from manufacturing automobiles or embroidered Mngerie, one is tempted to ask if there are any longer compelling reasons for building houses or raising food? 150 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS (d) Arnold's lecture on "Literature and Science," delivered in America in 1883, was addressed to a people mainly employed, like those for whom Spencer legislated, in the "production, prepara- tion and distribution of commodities." But when we turn from Spencer's Education to this lecture we are in the presence of quite a different order of ideas. The difference is not felt merely in the fact that we have turned from a self-educated man to a man who has undergone the best traditional discipHnes, from an advocate of the natural sciences to an advocate of humane letters, from an edu- cational theorist to an educational expert intimately in touch for thirty years with educational practise in England and on the Continent. No: the difference is felt primarily in the opposition of two unhke conceptions of man and his destiny on the planet. To Spencer, man is an animal, who by natural cunning has managed to get his head a little higher than the apes and to live more com- fortably than they, and who by the scientific extension of his cun- ning may expect to Uve still more comfortably. To Arnold, who waives the question of man's ultimate origin, man is now essentially a moral being, who by certain disciplines has fortified his instinct for righteousness, wisdom and beauty, and who by the continued use of these disciplines may expect to make progress in perfecting his essence. Between the lines of scientific cunning along which an animal achieves comfort and the lines of discipline along which a moral being perfects his essence there are many points of contact and coincidence. But the ends are not the same. Between the ultimate ideals there is an irreconcilable conflict which it is idle to slur over or to attempt to disguise. The special service of Arnold's light-handed but firm critical meditation is in showing how far hterature and the natural sciences go together, and where they part. 2. Select five of the following topic-sentences, and write well- unified paragraphs developing them. Indicate the method or methods you use. 1. An automobile is easier to ride in than a trolley-car. 2. Woollen clothes wear longer than cotton ones. 3. A business woman should dress neatly. 4. Making hay is hard work. 5. It is hard to sharpen an axe. '- 6. A business letter should be neatly typed. 7. Typed letters are better than written ones. PARAGRAPHS 151 8. Many things may spoil a potato (wheat, cotton) crop. 9. An umpire in a base-ball game has a hard job. 10. Beans should not be hoed when they are wet. 11. This school room is well (poorly) ventilated. 12. "Babe Ruth" is a great ball player. 13. Football develops a man in many ways. 14. A referee in a basket ball game must be an athlete. 15. Once I had a strange experience. 16. Gophers ruin crops. 17. I almost smashed our car the other day. 18. She was an expert needlewoman. 19. Well-chosen pictures add much to a room. 20. "Scouting" is good fun for boys (girls). 21. A girl has better judgment than a boy. 22. It is easy to grow radishes. 23. Housecleaning is fun (hard work). 24. Dancing is good exercise. 25. All girls (boys) should know how to swim. 26. My first dive was a funny one. 27. A man's signature should be easily legible. 28. Our visit to the Chautauqua was lots of fun. 29. The term "profiteering" has come to be used in a rather definite way. 30. My ideal of an educated man is a fairly broad one. 31. The term "Business English" is a misnomer. 3. Write a paragraph explaining the meaning of one of the following terms: adjustment letter, salary, bibliography, overhead charges, stockholder, lockout, arbitration, free trade, single tax, turnover. 220. So far we have been concerned with the substance of a paragraph: it should deal with only one main idea, and should develop that idea adequately. No less important is it, however, that the sentences composing the paragraph follow one another so as to make the main idea as clear as possible, and that the connections and transitions between the different parts be appropriately indicated. In other words, Coherence must go hand in hand with Unity. 152 • THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS B. Coherence. 221. The first means of securing coherent, and therefore clear, paragraphs is to see that the individual sentences are. arranged in some recognizable order. Of all the possible orders from which a writer may choose, the business man will probably find most use for two: he will either state things as they occurred in chronological sequence; or, if he is explaining something, he will be guided by the demands of logic. The first of the following paragraphs carries out a simple chronological plan; each sentence prepares for the one that follows, as each event gave rise to the succeeding one. The second, in which the element of time does not enter, attains its coherence by following the topic idea through in logical fashion, the general statement with which the para- graph opens being supported by various particulars. (1) (Chronological) Now, Mr. Brown, this is the history of that order. On October 1 you placed it with our salesman, Mr. Jefferson, asking him to do all that he could to rush it. Two days later, after .receiving the order from Mr. Jefferson by wire, we telegraphed you that we were hurrying it through, and could probably make delivery by October 10. To this wire you replied by letter on October 4, saying: "Thank you for your trouble. I hope the shipment will be here on the tenth of the month, as we need it badly." On October 9, one day ahead of the time we had set, we shipped the entire order by prepaid express, so that it might be at your factory on time. On the morning of the tenth we received a telegram from you to this effect: "Cancel order of October 1 for special cables. Letter follows." The letter referred to came on the twelfth, and explained that you no longer had need of the cables since you had been able to splice some old ones. To this we replied that the order had been accepted in good faith by us, had been rushed through at your request, and had been shipped before we received your telegram. Consequently we did not feel that we ,shoi;ld accept the goods for credit, as they were of special sizes and lengths, and almost unsalable in ordinary trade. To this you made ho reply, but returned the entire order to us by freight on October 20. PARAGRAPHS 153 (2) (Logical) A live commercial association can do much for a city. First of all, by collecting information about credit ratings, and fur- nishing the results to its members, it can stabiUze the granting of credit and protect merchants against "slow-pay" or "dead-beat" customers. Again, by carefully studying the business needs of the city and calUng attention, through advertising compaigns, to the ability of local merchants to satisfy these needs, it can further promote the interests of its members, and keep the money at home which might otherwise have gone to Chicago stores. Third, as an organization of the city's representative men, it can exert a powerful influence in favor of municipal improvements: good streets, better lighting, libraries, adequate parks, etc., and thus contribute in large measure to the best sort of civic development. {Here the develops ment proceeds from small things to larger: first, credit ratings; second, development of all local trade; third, genuine improvement of the city.) The careful writer will see to it, then, that there is some definite order in the arrangement of sentences in his paragraphs. If he is scrupulous about this, his reader will seldom say, "I don't follow him." 222. Almost invariably it will be wise to assist the reader by using appropriate connectives and transitional phrases, such as the italicized words in the preceding illustration. Of course no one should depend upon these phrases to make his meaning clear, but one may well employ them as sign- boards marking changes in the direction of the highway. 223. For instance, to indicate simple continuation of the thought, such words as and, again, second, next, in the first (second, etc.) place, furthermore, moreover, besides, are helpful. But, on the other hand, on the contrary, however, express con- trast; hence, consequently, as a result, accordingly, imply consequence or effect; therefore, for this reason, hence, intro- duce a logical conclusion. The student who aspires to clear- ness and precision of effect will master a generous stock of such connectives and use them as one means of indicating the direction and connection of his thought. 154 THE ENG^LISH OF BUSINESS 224. Of these connectives, and and but always stand at the beginning of the sentence or clause. The others, for the most part, may be used either at the beginning or in the middle. The initial position is most emphatic; the middle is less formal, and not infrequently makes for smoother transition. However, is almost invariably "buried" by careful writers: "We followed out our plan, however, despite the warning of the strikers.'' EXERCISE 4. 1. Fill in the blanks in the following paragraphs, using some of the words italicized in paragraph 223 : (a) We want you to be absolutely satisfied; we make this definite offer: , we will give you credit for the goods you have returned; , we will allow an extension of thirty days on the rest of the shipment. you in your turn wish us to be satisfied. you will, of course, send us your check for the amount now overdue. of this arrangement, we shall be able to continue our pleasant relations in the future. (b) An educated woman has a better chance of success than the uneducated one. In the first place, she usually knows more about men and women. , she has had better mental training. , she has had an opportunity to test herseK in competition with others. , when she goes out into the world she is well prepared to solve its problems. (c) We asked for a price by the dozen. You, , sent only the price of the single article. we are still somewhat hesitant about ordering. (d) The American soldier was full of initiative and resourceful- ness. The German, , was helpless except when under strict supervision. , when the two met hand to hand, the German was worsted. (e) Some people use cord tires on Fords. We, , believe that it is more economical to use a good fabric, the light car hardly warrants the heavy tires. we are sending your car with the standard fabric equipment. (/) " ," he said, "I am a friend of the League of Nations. I believe in such an international association. I shall vote for the Peace Treaty.'' PARAGRAPHS 155 2. Look over the themes you have written so far for this course and make a Ust, classified according to the suggestions in para- graph 223, of the connective words or expressions you have used to link together your sentences. 3. Read a dozen pages of some good modern English prose writer, and list all of the connective words or phrases you find. If you notice any expressions not listed in paragraph 223, copy them into your notebook. Look over your lists before you write your next three themes. 225. Very often, again, it promotes coherence to carry the same subject through a paragraph by means of pro- nouns, or synonyms, or to employ in general the same kind of sentence structure throughout. Nothing detracts more from ease and smoothness of transition than frequent or needless shifts in person or point of view. For example: The X. Y. Z. Adding Machme is much more than its name sug- gests. It adds, to be sure, and that is its chief function. But it subtracts as well; it multiplies; it divides. It gives subtotals and final totals. It even extracts square- and cube-roots. It is a highly trained mathematician always at your command, and— li cannot make a mistake. 226. Closely akin to this method of securing coherence is the repetition, at the beginning of the sentence, in slightly different terms, of either the subject or object idea of the preceding sentence. Thus: There are various good ways of keeping accounts; the best is to use the A. B. C. loose leaf system. This system is not the product of any theorist's brain; it is the result of ten years of experimentation in a large and constantly growing business office. It is the result of practical business experience, acquired by three inteUigent men who were determined to simpUfy the complex machinery of the modern office. Their success in lightening the work in their own office resulted in the adoption of their simple system by dozens of their friends who saw and approved what these men had done. When you see you too will approve: may we show you now? 156 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 227. The business writer need not worry much about other methods of giving coherence to his paragraphs. The important thing is that he realize the value of the quality, that he have some plan in mind, and that he be consistent throughout the paragraph. EXERCISE 5. 1. Study the methods of securing paragraph coherence used in each of the paragraphs printed in Exercise 3 of this chapter. 2. Look over your paragraphed version of the theme printed in Exercise 1 of this chapter, and make any improvements you can in the coherence of the paragraphs. 3. Rewrite the following paragraph in such a way as to improve the coherence: On the other hand, if I chose traveling I would probably learn as much as I would at summer-school and would be rested after the change. This would enable me to do better work next year. Many people consider traveling valuable in obtaining an education. By seeing new sights and meeting new people you are aided in taking a broader view of life. Travel broadens people and is in itself a great pleasure. It widens your knowledge and seems to go hand in hand with the knowledge obtained at a university. C. Emphasis. 228. For the purposes of business writing the problem of proper emphasis may be reduced to two simple suggestions: (1) Make the main idea of the paragraph prominent by stating it clearly, briefly, pointedly, early in the paragraph, and whenever practicable, by restating it in slightly varied terms, at the end. (2) Do not give to subordinate ideas disproportionate space; avoid digressions from the main line of thought; ''play up" the principal idea, and do nothing which might interfere with the central effect. |The following paragraph illustrates the effective use of the beginning and end: We want your aid in making the "JournaV as attractive as possible. We have just finished our tenth year, and during this PARAGRAPHS 157 decade the number of our subscribers has increased from 348 to 140,000. Such a healthy development indicates that our work has not been unappreciated by the pubhc. But we are going to do better still during the next ten years— if you will help us. For the sake of the "Journal," take ten minutes, now, and tell us what we can do to make the paper still more attractive to its readers. 229. ^The thoughtful writer will find at his disposal other means of giving emphasis to his paragraphs. A climactic arrangement of ideas, sharply varied sentence structure, vivid and unusual words — all these devices, provided they are not overworked, may be helpful.J But at first it will be sufiicient to remember the importance of the beginning and end of a paragraph, and to guard against the easy habit of allowing digressions to interfere with what should be an unbroken march of ideas. EXERCISE 6. Rearrange the sentences in the following paragraphs so that the emphasis shall be better distributed: 1. Eight Hghts on the main street have been broken; four are so dirty as to be useless. The electric lighting in this town is very poor. Sometimes the current is not turned on till long after dark; other times it is allowed to burn all day. It has got to be a regular joke: you have to carry a lantern to find the lights on dark nights. This is the worst town in the county; all the travelling men laugh at us. 2. However pretty a daisy field may be to look at, no farmer enjoys the sight, for it means less hay in the barn and less money from the creamery. Daisies ruin a hay field. Whatever the "summer boarder" may think of them, the farmer knows they are pests. They kill off the clover and timothy, and exhaust the soil rapidly. They make poor hay themselves, for the cattle dishke them. 3. Our car is easy to take care of, easy to start, and easy to control. Anyone can run a Ford. Three foot-pedals and one brake lever are all one needs to bother about. The new equipment of starter and hghts is much better than the old. Gear-shifting 13 158 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS easy, and it is almost impossible to make a mistake. A person who has been confused by the intricacy of some of the larger cars is pleased and surprised when he first runs a Ford. 4. At the close of the day's business Saturday there were in the Savings Department 135 accounts, totalling $18,425.58. In the Commercial Department there were 161 accounts, with $42,158.75 deposits. People should patronize their local bank better. This is a good showing, but not what it should be. The bank is growing daily, but more accounts must come in if it is to be as helpful as local merchants wish it to be. 5. A "Chautauqua" brings in many visitors from the outside. It gives people a chance to hear famous lecturers and to see inter- esting entertainments. It furnishes a combination of amusement and education. A "Chautauqua" is a good thing for any town. It is one of the best things a town can support. It stimulates business and encourages serious thinking. II. Adaptations of these Principles to Business Writing. 230. Such, then, are the ideals of paragraphing, so far as the paragraph as an independent unit is concerned. What departures from this standard may the business man permit himself? 231. Certainly what has been said about paragraph unity may well be modified for the business man. He will never, to be sure, permit himself to spoil a paragraph by forcing it to treat of more than one main idea; but he need not fear the result of breaking up into two or three short paragraphs what in non-business writing would normally be a fairly long paragraph. Especially since most of his writing will be in the form of letters, he will use these short, easily read paragraphs far more often than he would if he were com- posing literary essays. The short unit is inviting; it is readily grasped by the eye of the reader; several relatively brief paragraphs, moreover, make a better appearance on a sheet of letter paper than does a single long one. Notice that the second of these two letters is distinctly more appeal- PARAGRAPHS 159 ing than the first, although the words are precisely the same in both : (1) Dear Mr. Jones: Have you ever thought of using our garage for storing your car? We are equipped to take tetter care of it than you can at home, and if you will try us for a month, you will find that we can actu- ally save you money. Our building is absolutely fireproof; we have help enough so that we can wash, adjust, or repair on a moment's notice. Our service station is completely equipped with everything that could be needed in a first-class city establishment, and our workmen are all experts. It is not disparaging to you to say that we can do better work in such a shop than you can do at your bench in '"Gasoline Alley. '' And about the cost? Just figure ten minutes on this one question: How much is your time worth? Uot less than two dollars an hour, is it? All right; we can save you money. (2) Dear Ur. Jones: Have you ever thought cf using our garage for storing your car? We are equipped to take better care of it than you can at home, and if you will try us for a month, you will find that we can actually save you money. Our building is absolutely fireproof; we have help enough so that we can wash, adjust, or repair, on a moment's notice. Our service station is completely equipped with everything that could b» needed in a first-class city establishment, and our workmen are all experts. It is not disparaging to you to say that we can do better work in such a shop than you can do at your bench in ' 'Gasoline Alley. • ' And about the cost? Just figure ten minutes on this one question: How much is your time worth? Not less than two dollars an hour, is it? All right; we can save you nloney. In (1) the topic sentence is developed in one paragraph; in (2) the development is identical, but it is spread over five paragraphs, which make an admirably balanced appearance on the page. 232. This does not mean, of course, that adequate devel- opment of a given topic is any less essential in business than 160 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS in literary English. It means only that what normally would appear as a single paragraph, may, in the business letter or circular, be divided into several shorter units. 233. Again, the fact that a series of short paragraphs may be more serviceable in a letter than a single long and logically unified one, does not in any way justify the rather common practice of beginning a new paragraph with each new sentence. When the process of shortening is thus carried to extremes, the paragraph has lost all of its signifi- cance and much of its value. The man who cannot ''get his ideas over" without separating every two sentences by a double space, will soon find himself driven to copious under- lining and violent capitalization. Such devices catch the eye of the unpractised reader at first, but they soon lose their effectiveness. A writer who desires to convince his reader as well as to arrest his attention, will depend not upon red ink, but upon the ability to state an idea well and develop it cogently. 234. In other respects what we have said concerning the ideal paragraph applies with little or no modification to the business inan's writing. Incoherence and faulty emphasis are always baffling. 235. There now remains the consideration of the para- graph as one unit in a series. Here the chief concerns are such matters as smooth transitions from one paragraph to another, and methods of so connecting the different units that they will form a coherent whole. All these are dis- cussed in the next chapter on ''The Preparation of Articles and Reports." EXERCISE 7. 1. Rewrite the two illustrations used in paragraph 221, arrang- ing the material as you think it should appear in a business letter. 2. Rewrite the following passages, paragraphing them for use in a business letter: PARAGRAPHS Ibl (a) Brown, Green & Co. have been designing, planning, and carrying through diversified building projects in the industrial field for nearly fifty years. This breadth of experience has enabled them to conceive and develop new ideas — to anticipate and provide for the requirements of tomorrow. It has enabled them to introduce many manufacturing methods now in general use, and to contribute generously to the advancement of architectural and engineering practise. The Brown, Green organization applies an understand- ing of commercial and business conditions, as well as technical skill, to the carrying out of your industrial projects. You need this full- rounded service and this background of experience and pioneer- ins; if you would "build with foresight." Our representative is equipped to take up your problems in detail. (6) You undoubtedly are deeply interested in protecting the weKare of your family after you are gone. You may have accumu- lated an estate ample enough to insure them a comfortable living, but have you taken any steps to prevent this estate disappearing when you are no longer here to watch over it? The number of fortunes that have wasted away through the lack of business judg- ment on the part of heirs is astounding — probably every reader of this knows of at least one. You can prevent your estate disappear- ing in this way by putting it in the hands of a responsible trust company. Our more than thirty-eight years of banking and invest- ment experience is at your disposal in this connection at any time. (c) Regardless of your ability to buy any car you choose, con- sider if you can find the justification of finer quality in a costlier car than . To appreciate its value you need not be a enthusiast in the sense of those thousands who hold it essentially the greatest of cars. But j^ou must recognize its long-held position among the leaders in performance, rehability, and distinction. And consider what an endorsement is represented in its more than five years leadership of fine car sales! Now that its price advantage is even more intensified, will not its sixth year of sales leadership show even a greater margin of popular preference? EXERCISE 8. 1. Select from Exercise 3 of this chapter any five topic-sentences not already treated, and expand them into paragraphs, taking special pains to apply what you have learned concerning coherence and emphasis. Underhne all transitional or connective expressions. 162 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 2. Write a paragraph on some particular aspect of one of the following subjects. Before handing it in, underline your topic- sentence and state the method or methods of development which you have used. 1. Business Correspondence. 2. The Financing of High School Athletics. 3. Getting a Job for the Summer. 4. Securing Advertisements for the School Pap^r. 5. Class Pontics. 6. The Market for Second-hand Automobiles. CHAPTER VII. THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES AND REPORTS. 236. Up to this point we have been considering only the smaller elements of composition: words, sentences, and paragraphs. Skill in using these is a fundamental part of the equipment of any writer. But, after all, the successful arrangement of words into sentences and paragraphs is to the practical business of composition only what a mastery of scales and chords is to finished performance on the piano. In other words, if one is seriously interested in writing effectively, one must know how to combine these elements into larger wholes. 237. That the business man or woman may be called upon to write at considerable length, everyone realizes. Often a person just entering upon work with a large concern is asked to look up information about the business and to make a report on some phase of it: the purpose of such in- vestigation being, of course, not to present information to the Manager or President, but to familiarize the newcomer with the field. Letters, reports — from a brief summary of the. accomplishment of a week to an annual report to the Board of Directors — advertising bulletins, trade pamphlets, techni- cal articles in professional journals: with all of these types of writing the business man is familiar, and some or all of them he is sure sooner or later to have to attempt. The young engineer, for example, sent to examine and report on soil conditions in a certain locaUty, must write his report to the company; unless he can write moderately well, the value of his investigations may be materially impaired. So, too, the assistant advertising manager who can himself prepare a leaflet descriptive of a new car, or the credit man 163 164 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS who in a lucid report can explain certain phenomena appear- ing in his district — these men are more valuable to the company and hence in a better position so far as their own advancement is concerned, than their rivals who lack this power. The student may feel sure, therefore, that no time is wasted which he spends in endeavoring to secure a mastery of these larger forms. 238. The business letter is of course the type of writing with which the student of this book is likely to have most to do. Because of its exceptional importance, and because the composition of business letters demands a special sort of technique, we treat the subject by itself in the next chapter. In the present chapter we confine our suggestions to other forms of business writing. To make these suggestions as definite and practical as possible, let us assume that the student has been asked to prepare a report or article on some matter connected with business : the opportunities for a new store in Fargo, North Dakota; the year's record of a selling force; the desirability of installing a profit-sharing plan in a factory; a new and promising method of settling industrial disputes. How should he go to work? 239. Most experienced writers would say that his task will be four-fold : First, he must get the necessary information. Second, he must analyze this material, rejecting the unim- portant items, interpreting the significance of everything, and grouping together all related facts. Third, he must make some sort of outline or plan for the finished report; and Fourth, on the basis of this plan, he must write the report itself. 240. Some proficient writers will at once point out that these steps must necessarily overlap; that, for instance, the process of analyzing the material should not be completed THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 165 until the final revision of the whole article is in the typist's or printer's hands. But for the large majority of writers, the process will conform fairly closely to that outlined in the last paragraph. The first step is the fundamental prelimi- nary of any such writing; the second is largely a process of mental classification; the third involves the use of pencil and paper, and generally starts after the analysis has at least been begun. Hence in working out the hypothetical problem, we shall follow this order. I. Gathering the Material. 241. The first thing to do, then, is to get together as much pertinent information on the subject as can be used. And here at once one realizes that the method will differ somewhat according to whether the writer is already in possession of the necessary facts, or must seek for them in printed sources. 242. Assume for the time being that the writer knows enough about his subject to make recourse to printed sources of information unnecessary. What does he do? He makes a mental examination or inventory of his own knowledge; he thinks the subject over from one point of view and another; he selects the most important phase of the question, and decides how to approach it: in other words, he proceeds almost at once to the second of the four steps, a careful analysis of the information he possesses. 243. In making this analysis it will be extremely helpful, especially if the subject is a complicated one, to use in a modified form the system of written notes described below (paragraphs 248 ff .) . If one will take the trouble to jot down on a separate slip of paper each idea or bit of information as it occurs to one, the process of analysis will involve little more than an intelligent sorting of the slips into packs, each of which will contain information or conclusions regarding one 166 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS of the larger aspects of the subject. The writer will then be in a position to make his outline without unnecessary delay. 244. But suppose now that it is desirable to consult what others have written about the subject: naturally, the first thing to do is to discover what printed material exists. If the report concerns the year's accomplishment of a selling force, the information is accessible in the firm's books. But suppose the topic is the desirability of establishing some sort of profit-sharing plan, or anything else on which there is a considerable body of literature; in this case it will almost certainly be necessary to have the help of a good library. 245. That help is available in many forms. Most large libraries have a staff of reference librarians who are glad to direct investigators to the best available material, or to furnish them with bibliographies and reading lists. Again, the card catalogue shows what books and pamphlets dealing with the subject are on the shelves of that particular library. And third, in all libraries are some or all of the various indexes to articles published in magazines. Of these perhaps the most useful is The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, in which the articles appearing in some hundred leading magazines are listed alphabetically under the name of both author and subject. Thus, on the question of profit-sharing, appear in the Readers' Guide for 1918, p. 415, these entries:^ Extent of profit-sharing in the United States; its bearing on indus- trial unrest. B. Emmet. J. Pol. Econ. 25: 1019-33 D '17. Fair basis of profit-sharing. G. K. Parsons. Ind. Management 55: 140-4 F '18. Human Valuation. G. K. Parsons. Ind. Management 55: 399-401 My '18. See also Bonus system; Copartnership. The Supplement to the Readers^ Guide deals in a similar way with magazines of a more highly specialized sort, the scientific 1 All abbreviations used in these entries are listed and explained on one of the introductory pages of the Guide. THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 167 journals that represent the learned professions and the arts and sciences. Still another guide, constructed on much the same plan but more closely related to the world of business, is The Industrial Arts Index, which covers engineering and trade periodicals. The help which this work would afford the man interested in profit-sharing may be illustrated by a glance at page 371 of the 1918 volume: Can profit-sharing with employees be successfully worked out? R. H. Ballard. Am. Gas Eng. J 107: 517-19 D 8 '17. Tested profit-sharing plan of the Miller lock company. D. Wolf. Ind. Management J 6: 486-8 D '18. Why I believe in profit-sharing. H. S. Dennison. Factory 20: 424 Mr '18. The Annual Magazine Subject Index treats in the same way a large number of foreign and somewhat highly specialized American periodicals. The Business Digest and Investment Weekly offers as part of its service an alphabetical digest of recent articles, and brief summaries of the material there treated. Finally, The Book Review Digest lists and abstracts current books on a large variety of topics. It, too, would prove helpful. Turning, for example, to the subject index at the back of the volume for 1918, one would find (p. 544) this entry: PROFIT-SHARING Burritt, A. W., and others. Profit-sharing. (My '18) Then under the name of the principal author, A. W. Burritt, appears on p. 72 nearly a full column of information about the book itself, including quotations from the more important reviews. 246. Through some such channels as these the investi- gator will be guided to the information he seeks. Assume now that he has collected four or five printed books and a dozen magazines, all dealing with the matter of profit-shar- ing. The task ahead looks formidable: here is material 168 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS enough for two weeks of solid reading. How can he do anything worth while in two days? 247. Well, one should always remember that his task is to consult, not necessarily to read, these documents. The magazine articles offer no particular difficulties; five minutes used in glancing through the entire article will often save an hour that might be wasted through exhaustive reading of what proved to be an insignificant paper. In the case of a book, the problem is not so simple. But by a judicious use of the table of contents and index one can probably eliminate certain chapters as unnecessary, and by treating those that remain as he has treated the magazine articles, he can save much time. One should consult the references, then; not necessarily read them entire. The task in hand is to extract pertinent information, not to read everything a certain man has written. EXERCISE 1. By making use of the catalogue of the largest library accessible to you and of the periodical indexes listed in paragraph 245, con- struct a list of not fewer than seven articles and books relating to one of the following topics. In recording the titles observe the directions concerning form and order given in paragraphs 277 and 278. Make your notes from the books and articles themselves 1. Workshop Councils in America. 2. Evening and Continuation Schools. 3. The Federal Reserve System. 4. The Effects of the War on Foreign Exchange. 5. Recent Proposals for the Reorganization of the Railroads. 6. Recent Phases of the Co-operative Movement in America. 7. Scientific Management. 8. Standardizing the Dollar. 9. Cost Accounting. 10. Training Employees. 11. Employment Systems. 12. Factory Management. 13. Farm Management. THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 169 14. German Propaganda during the Great War. 15. Grafting Fruit-trees. 16. School Entertainments. 17. Athletics in the High School. 18. High School Fraternities. 19. The Selective Draft Law of 1917. 20. Self-government in Schools and Colleges. 21. Teachers' Unions. 248. In order that this information may be readily avail- able when it is time to write the paper, it will be worth while to use some rational system of note-taking. Merely to write down on a large sheet of paper each fact or opinion that is of interest, and then, when the first sheet is full, to start a second — such a method is an inevitable handicap. It is much better to adopt some sort of ''loose-leaf'* or "card" system, whereby all the facts dealing with one particular phase of the question can be readily grouped together. 249. Concerning this matter of taking notes there is no need for dogmatism; whoever writes at all frequently will work out his own system. But a few suggestions, based on the practice of experienced investigators in all fields, may help the beginner without in any way hampering the freedom of the more accomplished writer. 250. First of all, one should be systematic, not constantly changing from one method to another. Furthermore, the notes should be on cards or slips of a uniform size. Any stationer will cut sheets of paper to what appears the most practicable size: 4x6 inches is very generally useful. Again, it is important to use a separate card for each distinct point or fact. Unless one is scrupulous in attending to this last matter, he sacrifices much of the value of the "loose-leaf" system. 251. What should appear on the cards? First of all, at the top of the card there should be some sort of heading, as a guide to future classification. Whether one writes the 170 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS heading before making the note proper, or leaves it until the rest of the card is filled, makes little or no difference: the important thing is to provide each note with a catchword that will be easily intelligible later on. The heading should not be too inclusive; on the other hand, it must not be so specific as to apply only to the fact noted on that particular card, instead of serving as a label for a group of cards. Some- times it will be useful to supply more than one alternative catchword. Often, too, a series of headings in descending order of generality (as on the sample notes given in para- graph 254) will aid one in the task of classification. 252. The body of the note may consist of a direct quota- tion from the source, or of a brief analysis or summary. For most purposes the second alternative is preferable; it necessi- tates more thinking, and thus advances the writer further along the road of classification and analysis. Occasionally, however, a direct quotation is necessary. In this case the quotation marks must always appear. In either case, how- ever, each particular note should deal with only one point. If, for example, a paragraph contains two facts, both of which seem pertinent, it will be better to make two notes on it than one, for it is more than possible that these facts will be classified under two different headings. 253. Finally — and this applies whatever one's own per- sonal modification of the system just outlined may be — each card must contain an exact reference to the source of the in- formation it records. Few things are more exasperating to a writer than to find a pertinent note, perhaps a valuable tabulation, with no indication of its origin. It would be foolish to make these identifying references too elaborate; they are not bibliographical entries. But they will surely include (1) the name of the author; (2) enough of the title to make identification easy and certain; and (3) a reference to volume and page. If the source is a magazine article THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 171 there is usually no need to note the title of the article; the title of the magazine, together with a reference to the volume, the year, and the page, is all that is necessary. 254. The following notes have the features just defined, and may stand as typical examples of the way the system appears in practice: (1) Quotation: Profit-sharing. U. S. Steel Corporation. No. of sub- scribers and amts. subscribed between 1908 and 1913. A. Williams, Co-partnership and Profit-sharing, p. 182: "Year Subscribers Shares Preferred Shares Common 1908 24,884 30,621 1909 19,192 18,000 15,318 1910 17,444 24,672 1911 26,363 19,229 29,119 1912 36,946 30,619 30,735 1913 36,119 34,551 25,793" (2) Analysis: Profit-sharing. U. S. Steel Corporation. Method of payment for shares. A. Williams, Co-Partnership and profit-sharing, p. 182: Payment by monthly installments, deducted from wages or salaries, in no case to exceed 25% of month's wages or salaries. Three years allowed a man to pay for his stock. 172 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS EXERCISE 2. Bring to class for criticism three "quotation" notes and three "analysis" notes taken from one of the articles or books examined for Exercise 1 of this chapter Supply each note with a heading and with a bibliographical reference according to the models shown in paragraph 254. n. Analyzing the Material. 255. Suppose now that the student has accumulated all the materials for his article or report. Some of them are his own ideas or experiences; others are facts or suggestions extracted frpm reading; all are carefully entered on cards. His next task is to analyze this material to discover its meaning and the relation of its parts. 256. The first step is to sort the slips as one would a hand of cards; to arrange them in packs, each containing notes with the same or a similar heading. At first there will probably be a large number of such packs. Gradually, however, more' inclusive groupings will seem feasible, and after trying various combinations and orders, one will reach a point where it is possible to make an outline for the pro- jected work. ni. Making the Outline. 257. Of the value of an outline too much can hardly be said. It tests the analysis of the material; it enables one to see the subject as a whole, in its proper order and propor- tion; and usually it serves as guide inwriting. ' 'Usually, '' we say; some people find it advisable to proceed at once from the classification and arrangement of their notes to the writ- ing of a first rough draft, and then to make an outline as a guide to revision and rewriting. Here again one should not be dogmatic; one man's mind works best one way, another's another. It is probable that most students will find it better to make a complete outline before doing any of the THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 173 actual composition. If, however, some individual is of the other sort, he should not hesitate to use his own method. But let him be sure that at some point in the process he makes a more or less detailed outline as a check upon the structure and proportion of the whole work. If he makes the outline before beginning to write, he will find it advisable not to carry too far the analysis into sub-points, lest the process of composition lose all spontaneity and become a mere mechanical matter of filling in the outline. If, on the other hand, he constructs his formal outline after he has written a rough draft, the more detailed the division into points and sub-points, the more useful it will be as a guide in revision. In either case, however, one of the most essential qualities of a good plan, as of good writing in general, is simplicity; no matter how numerous or detailed may be the sub-points, the main headings should he few and fundamental 258. The commonest form of an outline— usually the only one necessary— is the so-called 'Hopical outline."^ A moment's study of the following example will show that it is simple in both phrasing and form, and yet that it includes all the ideas or topics which the completed paper will contain: Topical Outline for Report on the Cost op a Firm's Letters.^ A. Direct Cost 1. Salaries a. Dictator's time cost b. Stenographer's time cost c. File clerk's, mail boy's, and messenger's time d. Mail sorter's time 2. Stationery a. Letterheads b. Envelopes c. Special printing d. Carbon paper 8. Carbon copy paper for files 1 Reprinted by special permission from System, November, 1919, p. 856. 174 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 3. Equipment and miscellaneous supplies a. Typewriter upkeep b. Ribbons for typewriter c. Stenographer's supplies d. Phonographs and cylinders e. Furniture f. Special office and mailing appliances, such as scales, seahng machines, and the hke 4. Stamps a. Direct postage cost b. Stamp-affixing machine cost 5. Waste a. Returned mail b. Loss of stamps c. Spoiled stationery B. Overhead Cost 1. Direct department expense a. Salaries of correspondence officials b. Incidental department expense 2. Indirect or house expenses a. Salaries of general officers b. Rent c. Light and power d. Fuel e. Taxes f. Insurance By the use of such an outline one can see at a glance that the finished report will be divided into two large parts, the first (A) dealing with the direct cost, and the second (B) with the overhead cost. Furthermore, the large section (A) is in turn composed of five coordinate smaller ones — (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) — in each of which one item of the direct cost is considered. These five points are again subdivided, the smaller sections being lettered (a), (b), (c), etc. If an outline is properly constructed, each division, of whatever size, will equal the sum of all its sub-points; thus here, divisions (A) and (B) together give you all the facts about the cost of THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 175 the letters; divisions (1) and (2) under (B) state the whole case for overhead, and so on. Notice too that the writer of this outline has avoided the artificial division of his plan into "Introduction," ''Body," and ''Conclusion." 259. By way of observing how such an outline helps in the analysis of a subject, the student might consider point "A4b": "Stamp-affixing machine cost." It is a fair question whether it would not have been more logical to include this item with "A3f": "Special office and mailing appliances." If this latter course had been chosen, point 4, "Stamps," would not have been subdivided into (a) and (b); but would have appeared simply as "4. Postage." It is illogical and misleading to start a series (with A, I, or any other character) unless there are to be at least two units in the series: an object or idea or process caimot be divided into only one part. When, therefore, one is tempted to make a subdivision with only one part, as, for instance, thus, I A II A B, a moment's consideration will show that A=I, and should consequently appear as I, thus, I II A B. 260. To sum up: a good topical outline is an excellent means of testing and improving the preliminary analysis, as well as a useful guide in the process of composition. The analysis of the material is probably adequate if (1) in the outline the sum of the main points or of any group of sub- 176 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS points equals a complete and satisfactory treatment of that phase of the whole matter; if (2) each set of points is arranged according to a single principle of order — chronological, spatial, cause and effect, the relative importance of parts, etc. — so that there is no overlapping; and if (3) the outline contains relatively few main points (usually a large number of main divisions betokens a failure to analyze the subject-matter into its fundamental parts). Good form, as well as logic, requires, too, that each series of coordinate points or sub- points be phrased in the same kind of grammatical construc- tion: thus, if the first point in a series is a noun, all the remaining points should be nouns. 261. In most cases a topical outline will be a sufficient guide. If, however, one is engaged in a long or complicated piece of writing, it may be useful to make a more elaborate outline. For this purpose the ''paragraph outline" and the ''complete-sentence outline" are particularly valuable. 262. A paragraph outline consists of a series of numbered sentences or short groups of sentences, each of which is the topic sentence of a paragraph of the completed article or report. The value of such an outline is twofold: (1) it enables one to settle the precise proportion of treatment and to guard against too elaborate development of minor matters; and (2) by fixing the thought in advance at each stage of the composition, it greatly facilitates the actual process of writing. 263. If, for example, it were desirable to make a para- graph outline on "The Cost of a Firm's Letters," for which a topical outline has been given in paragraph 258, it would be something like this: 1. There is both a direct and an indirect cost to be reckoned with in estimating the total expense of a firm's letters. 2. Under the head of direct cost come salaries, stationery, equipment, stamps, and waste. THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 177 3. The salary charge includes the time of the dictator, stenog- rapher, file clerk, mail sorter, etc. 4. The stationery charge includes letterheads, envelopes, printing, carbon paper, and copy paper. 5. The equipment charge includes typewriter upkeep and sup- pHes, phonographs, furniture, and special office apphances. 6. With the stamp charge must be included the cost of postage and of stamp-affixing machines. 7. Waste includes returned mail, lost stamps, and spoiled stationery. 8. The overhead cost embraces certain direct departmental expenses and certain indirect or house expenses. 9. The direct departmental expense includes salaries of cor- respondence officials and incidental department expenses. ^ 10. Indirect expenses include the proper share of salaries, rent, light, power, fuel, taxes, and insurance. Of course in the case of this particular subject the topical outline is so clear and ample that a paragraph outline would hardly be necessary. In more complex investigations, where each main point of the topical outline might have to be expanded into several paragraphs, the second form of outline would be a great aid to the writer. 264. Still a third sort of outline, the "Complete-sentence Outline," furnishes admirable training for the student, and enables him still more accurately to test the analysis and interrelations of his material. In this third form the material for the report already outlined might appear thus: The cost of a firm's letters is both direct and indirect: A. The direct cost includes the charges for 1. Salaries, which embrace a. the dictator's time cost, b. the stenographer's time cost, c. the time cost of the file clerk, mail boy, etc., d. the mail sorter's time cost. 178 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 2. Stationery, which embraces a. letterheads, b. envelopes, c. special printing, d. carbon paper, e. carbon copy paper. 3. Equipment and miscellaneous supplies, which include a. typewriter upkeep, b. ribbons for typewriter, c. stenographer's supplies, d. phonographs and cylinders, e. furniture, f . special office appliances. 4. Stamps, which include a. direct postage cost, b. stamp-affixing machines. 5. Waste, under which may be grouped a. returned mail, b. lost stamps, c. spoiled stationery. B. The indirect cost includes the charges for 1. Direct departmental expense, in which must be included a. salaries of correspondence officials, b. incidental departmental expenses. 2. Indirect or house expenses, which include an appropriate share of a. salaries of general officers, b. rent, c. light and power, d. fuel, e. taxes f. insurance. Such an outline is composed, as its name indicates, of com- plete sentences. Each large section (A or B), like the head- ing of the whole report, is a complete grammatical unit, and might be arranged on a page as a sentence, thus: "The THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 179 direct cost includes the charges for (1) salaries, which em- brace (a) the dictator's time cost, (b) the stenographer's time cost, etc." Such an outline, because it compels the student to think carefully about the relations between his points, is frequently an aid either in planning or in revision. EXERCISE 3. 1. Take one of your compositions written during the first part of the course, make a new and detailed outline of it, rearranging the points, if necessary, and supplying new material essential to an adequate presentation of the subject, and rewrite the essay in the light of the fresh outline. 2. Make a careful topical or complete sentence outline of one of the following subjects: 1. The Use of a Library Card-catalogue. 2. The Gymnasium Facilities of your School (for a report to the School Board). 3. The Organization of a Local Industry or Business. 4. The High School FootbaU Team. 5. The Methods of Instruction in one of your Courses. 3. Make a paragraph outline of Chapter VI of this book. Do not be content with merely copying the first sentence of each para- graph; try to formulate the whole point of the paragraph in a sen- tence preferably of your own composition. 4. Reconstruct the following badly arranged topical outline: SECRET SOCIETIES IN mOH SCHOOL I. Introduction. A. Societies already here. B. Snobbishness cultivated. # C. Extravagance promoted. D. Possibility of co-operation. II. Body. A. Undesirable features. 1. Emphasis on social diversion. 2. Opposition of school board. a. Reasons for this. 180 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS B. Desirable features. 1. Friendships formed. 2. Stimulation of school spirit. 3. Popularity among the students. III. Conclusion: the question of secret societies should be talked over seriously by students, teachers, and school board. 5. Make a complete-sentence outline of the composition printed in Exercise 1 of Chapter VI (pp. 141-44). IV. Writing the Article or Report. 265. Once the material for the paper is collected, analyzed, and outlined, the actual process of composition is in the main simply a matter of applying skillfully the suggestions about words, sentences, and paragraphs contained in the preceding chapters. There are, however, a few points not already discussed which it will be well for the student to bear in mind. 266. One of these has to do with the length of the para- graphs. This is a matter which cannot be arbitrarily settled in advance; for though division into paragraphs is deter- mined in large part by the logical divisions of the material, it is dependent also upon considerations of emphasis and attention. Even when the logic of the case seems to demand it, an unusually long paragraph fatigues a reader. Attention is a fluctuating element; it is not good sense to ask a reader to keep his attention unduly long on any one point. 267. Just what ''unduly long" means will depend upon the material one is using and the audience for which he is writing. Some sorts of exposition, in which the reasoning is not too close, permit of fairly long paragraphs. At other times, it may be desirable to break up one's matter into short paragraphs, each of which the reader can readily grasp as a unit. The desire, too, to emphasize a point or a transition may lead one to separate it from its immediate context and to treat it by itself in a short paragraph. These are, of THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 181 course, merely general hints; in practise a writer must use his own good judgment, with perhaps a little leaning to charity. 268. One can also help the reader through the use of clear and expHcit connecting links between paragraphs. Of course, if the paragraphs follow one another in clear and logical order, an attentive reader will probably follow the thought without undue difficulty. But even so, it is well to unite the different sections by means of connecting phrases, and particularly to indicate changes in the direction of the reasoning, or the beginning of another larger unit of thought. 269. For this purpose the devices suggested m paragraphs 222-224 are useful. Connective words, such as second, third, again, moreover, on the other hand; the simple trick of repeating in the first sentence of one paragraph a word or phrase or idea prominent in the last sentence of the preceding; the use of expressions like To follow the argument one step further. The third part of our problem, or To sum up: such methods of indicating the logical structure of the whole article and of knitting its parts together are practised by most good writers. 270. As a further aid to securing this clearness, many writers adopt the practice of breaking up their text into sections numbered by Roman numerals set in the middle of the page and sometimes provided with sub-titles (as in most of the chapters of this book). Each of the sections thus formed will correspond to one of the main points in the topical outline. 271. Again, the use of a brief, carefully phrased introduc- tory paragraph or section, forecasting the gist and organiza- tion of the whole article will make it difficult for the reader to lose track of the argument. Similarly, a concluding paragraph or section, summing up the whole exposition, 182 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS clinching the nail after it has been driven home, is almost always useful. 272. Some writers, it is true, need to be warned against unduly long or irrelevant introductions or conclusions. It is a poor use of time to develop an argument extensively in the first pages, and then, in the body of the paper, to go over the same ground again in only slightly more detail. But the writer who makes his introductions brief, precise, pungent, and as stimulating as possible, will be well repaid for the labor they cost him. 273. As an additional aid to the reader, if the^ paper is to cover more than a few pages, it should contain a table of contents, and, if possible, an index. The former will make it easy for the reader to get a clear view of what is to follow; the latter will facihtate the work of anyone who may ever care to refer to the work for information about any particular point. Whenever, too, one has made use of a considerable body of printed material, the paper should be provided with footnotes and perhaps a bibliography. These put the reader in a position to verify important statements, and to increase his knowledge of the subject through addi- tional reading. (Full directions for the preparation of footnotes and bibliographies will be found in the last section of this chapter.) 274. One should never forget that the principles of Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis apply as surely to whole compositions as to paragraphs or sentences. To treat only one main idea in one paper, and to treat that idea adequately; to arrange the different parts of the exposition in the best possible order; to accord to the most important phases of the subject the most emphatic development, and to give them the most prominent position: these are only matters of common sense, which every one will appreciate as essentials of effective writing. THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 183 275. And, finally, the student should remember that writing is an art, and that in all arts proportion is more than a desirability; it is a fundamental necessity. The miniature on a piece of ivory, the fresco on the ceiling of a cathedral, the cathedral itself, like a great piece of music or the tragedy of Hamlet, all depend in a large measure for their beauty upon the perfect proportion that exists between all their parts, the balance, the harmony, which lifts them into the realm of true and enduring art. A business man's report on profit-sharing must differ in most respects from a Shake- spearean play; but because the principles of aesthetics, like those of rhetoric, are founded upon the desires and experience of the human race, the same qualities which ennoble the tragedy will make the report effective. EXERCISE 4. 1. Make a list of all the connective or transitional expressions used in one of the articles or chapters examined for Exercise 1 of this chapter. If you think that the connection of the thought between paragraphs could be improved in any place, note your suggestion, together with the passage as it stands in the article, on a separate sheet of paper. 2. In the light of the suggestions in paragraphs 271 and 272, write a criticism of the Introductions and Conclusions of two articles examined for the same Exercise. 3. Make a detailed Table of Contents of one of these articles, indicating the page references for each point. For the proper form see the Table of Contents of this book. 4. Rewrite one of your earlier themes, paying special attention to introduction, conclusion, and transitions between paragraphs. V. Bibliographies and Footnotes. A. Bibliographies. 276. A bibliography is a list of books, articles, and pamphlets, arranged according to some orderly principle. In preparing any sort of a bibliography one has to consider- 184 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS two problems — the composition of the separate descriptions, and the organization of these descriptions into the completed bibliography. 277. What elements should enter into a bibliographical description of a book or magazine article? How should these elements be arranged and punctuated? The best way to answer these questions is to consider a number of typical descriptions. Here are two which will illustrate the best usage of the present day: Cole, G. D. H. Self-government in Industry. Third Edition. London, G. Bell and Sons, 1918. Cole, G. D. H. "The Coal Question in Great Britain." In The New Republic, vol. xx, September 10, 1919, pp. 171-173. The first of these items describes a book, the second a maga- zine article. The differences in form due to this fact are mainly matters of punctuation : the titles of the book and of the magazine in which the article appeared are printed in italics (indicated by one underline in manuscript), whereas the title of the article is enclosed by quotation marks (see paragraph 74, above). The likenesses between the two descriptions are apparent. Each one begins with the name of the author, last name first, then initials, followed by a period. Then comes the title, quoted from the title-page (not the cover) of the book, or from the beginning of the article; this likewise is followed by a period. In the third place we have what may be called the ''facts of publica- tion." In the case of a book these consist of the following details, which should ordinarily be arranged in the order named: the place of publication, the name of the pubHsher, and the date. Note that commas set off the last three of these elements, and that the whole description ends with a period. In the case of an article, the ''facts of publication" consist of the name of the magazine or other publication in which the article is printed, the number of the THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 185 volume (expressed in Roman numerals), the date (usually the year date is sufficient), and the pages covered by the article (expressed in Arabic numerals). ^ All of these details are separated by commas. Every good bibliographical description will contain these elements, arranged in the general order indicated: (1) name of author, (2) title, (3) facts of publication. Sometimes bibliographers add other information — the number of pages in a book, its format (octavo, quarto, etc.), and the like — but there is no need to worry about these niceties in the bibliography of a business article or pamphlet. 278. How should the various items of a bibliography be arranged? A number of orders are theoretically possible — the alphabetical, the chronological, the logical, etc. — , but for ordinary purposes the best is the alphabetical. If one has noted on cards the descriptions of the books or articles which have been consulted in the preparation of the paper, it will be an easy matter to arrange them according to the initial letter of the author's last name, or, if the work is anonymous, according to the first important word of the title. EXERCISE 6. Prepare the bibliography for an article in writing which you assume that you consulted the following items (most of which are imaginary) . Be careful to use the form described in paragraph 277 : 1. A book called "Baseball as it is Played," written by John Smith, and published in New York in 1916. 2. An article by George Brown, in the magazine " The American Boy," for November, 1918, called "How I Learned to Pitch." 3. An editorial in "The Outlook" of June 9, 1916, entitled "Baseball Again." iJn both bibliographies and footnotes, it is customary to omit the abbreviations "vol." and "p." or "pp." when both volume and page numbers are given; thus: The New Republic, xx, 171-173. When there is no volume number, "p." or "pp." should always be inserted. 186 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 4. Chapter V, " Games for Boys, " in the annual report for 1914 of John Doe, Superintendent of Playgrounds in Chicago. 5. An article ''Baseball," in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, volume 3, eleventh edition, pubHshed at Cambridge, England, and New York, in 1910. 6. A book by A. R. Thompson, published in Chicago in 1910, called "Practical Baseball." 7. An article in Scribner's Magazine for July, 1919, called "Baseball after the War," by A. B. Johnson. B. Footnotes. 279. The purpose of footnotes is to enable a reader to verify statements by following them to the source upon which they were based. Whenever, therefore, in a paper which represents research of any kind, one makes important statements which rest for their proof upon some other person's testimony, one should provide the statements with exact footnote references to that testimony. The reader is thus put in a position to estimate the value of the writer's conclusions, and, if he chooses, to extend his knowledge of the subject by consulting more specialized treatments of it. 280. In order to serve this purpose effectively, footnotes should be brief, yet exact and clear. They should include enough to enable a reader to find with a minimum of time and trouble the precise passage in a source upon which a particular statement in the text was based. Exactly what is meant by ''enough" in this connection depends somewhat upon whether the article is accompanied by a formal bibliog- raphy; obviously, if there is a bibliography, the footnotes may be more condensed than would otherwise be possible. 281. Assume first that there is no bibliography. What should each footnote include, and how should the various elements which compose it be arranged? The answer is that it should include in general what a bibliographical description should include (see paragraph 277), and be THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 187 arranged in the same order, with certain modifications in the punctuation, etc.; and in addition should be provided with a reference to the exact page or pages from which the material was taken. Compare, for example, the following footnote references with the bibliographical descriptions of the same works given in paragraph 277 : iCole, G. D. H., "The Coal Question in Great Britain,'' New Republic, Sept. 10, 1919, pp. 172-3. 2 Cole, D. G. H., Self-government in Industry, London, 1918, p. 307. The only differences are that the "facts of publication" are somewhat condensed in the footnote, that the reference ends with a precise indication of pages, and that the various ele- ments are separated by commas, not periods. 282. Of course, in all references to a particular book after the first mention of it, one will naturally abbreviate still further. Thus, subsequent references to the first work of Cole mentioned above might take either of the following forms: ^ Ibid., p. 309. (Note that ibid. — Latin ibidem, " in the same place" — stands for all that is repeated from an immediately pre- ceding footnote reference.) ^See Cole, op. cit. p. 311. (op. cit. — Latir. opere citato, "in the work mentioned" — refers to the work by Cole already mentioned in the text or preceding notes. Such a reference is of course im- proper if more than on work by the author is cited in the article.) 283. If, now, as will usually be the case, the article is provided with a bibliography, the footnotes may be still simpler. Such entries as these would be entirely adequate: (^) Cole, Self-government, p. 311. (2) Cole, "The Coal Question," pp. 172-73. (^) Smith, Recent Investigations, p. 426. C) Smith, "Report A," pp. 184-85. (^) Jones, p. 28. C) Brown, p. 92. 188 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS The entries ^' Jones" and "Brown" include no title; in these cases the assumption is that only one article by Jones and only one by Brown appear in the bibliography. In the cases of the works by Cole and Smith more complete identifi- cation is necessary, as each name appears more than once in the bibliography. 284. Here again the abbreviation "Ihid." may be used to refer to an immediately preceding note in which the full title, or designating catch-word, appears. Thus: (^) Cole, Self-government, pp. 310-11. (2) Ibid,, p. 97. (3) Ibid. 285. Notes may be numbered consecutively throughout the entire article; but if there are many of them, it will be better to begin a new series for each new page. In any case, be sure to put the reference figures (1), (2), (3), etc., at the end of the sentences or quotations to which they refer. Avoid the old-fashioned use of asterisks and daggers. EXERCISE 6. On one of the following subjects, or on one of those listed in Exercise 1 of this chapter, prepare an article or report of between 2000 and 3000 words, provided with either a topical outline or a detailed table of contents, with a bibliography of the material consulted, and with footnote references to the precise sources of all facts or conclusions taken from other writers. Arrange the parts of the composition as follows: (1) Outline or Table of Contents, (2) Text with footnotes, (3) Bibliography. Some of the subjects will obviously need limitation before they can be treated effectively within the suggested number of words. 1. Office Organization in Modern Business. 2. City Planning. 3. Extending Credit to Farmers. 4. Devices for Reducing Industrial Accidents. 5. New Methods of Selecting Personnel in Business Houses. 6. The Work of an Industrial Engineer. THE PREPARATION OF ARTICLES 189 7. Giving Employees Representation on Management. 8. The Work of the Government Bm-eau of Standards. 9. The Community Center. 10. Farm Bureau in (lUinois, Iowa, etc.). 11. Forest Conservation. 12. The Federal Reserve Bank. 13. The Defense of Verdun. 14. The Organization of the "Irish Repubhc." 15. The Work of the United States Bureau of Standards. 16. Making Moving Pictures. 17. The United States Forestry Bureau. 18. The Canadian Mounted Police. 19. The State Constabulary in (Pennsylvania, New York, etc.). 20. The Work of a Public Library. CHAPTER VIII. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE. I. Business Letters. 286. No form of writing is so important in the business world as the letter. By letter one handles routine matters like asking for information or applying for a position; by letter one places orders; by letter one determines credit ratings; by letter one adjusts difficulties; by letter one collects bills ; by letter one sells goods. The letter is the chief medium for the transaction of modern business. ► 287. If a man's letters appeal to his correspondents, he will find this appeal reflected in the amount of his sales. If they are stiff, wordy, tactless, they will do no good. Not long ago a business man sent out a thousand sales letters in the hope of creating a market for a new article, but re- ceived only two replies. His conclusion was, "You can't do business by mail." But when he showed his letter to an expert correspondence critic, the adviser pointed out that the letter he had written was one which would repel rather than attract a customer. When it was revised and sent out a second time, it brought in over three hundred answers. 288. This chapter is not an exhaustive treatment of business correspondence. So large, indeed, is the subject, that even a comparatively inclusive treatment would be possible only in a series of volumes. The aim is to explain the general principles of all successful business letters, and to provide a few illustrations of their successful application to business problems. 289. Five cardinal principles underlie all good business letters. They are, expressed briefly, (A) good form; (B) the 190 A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 191 ''you-attitude"; (C) personal style; (D) clearness; and (E) "Every letter a sales-letter. '^ A. Good Form. 290. Few things are more essential for any business house than good form in its letters. It is a matter of the utmost importance that a letter which bears the name of a firm, which represents that firm to the correspondent, should make the best possible impression upon the person who receives it. 291. Concerning stock and sizes of envelopes, only a few suggestions are necessary. The government stamped en- velope gives probably the best value in stock that can be secured anywhere, and the government will print an in- dividual "return card" free of charge. But the stock used in these envelopes is hard to duplicate; most houses accord- ingly prefer to furnish their own, so that it may match pre- cisely the letter paper. 292. In this latter case, the best stock is one that is un- ostentatious in color, and made up in the ordinary sizes (33^ X 634 or ZYs X 634 inches). Conservatism in these matters is the safest rule. Though pink or blue envelopes attract the eye momentarily, and unusual sizes may produce an effect of novelty, it is generally wiser to choose a white stock of the ordinary size. Never use ruled paper, in either business or social correspondence. 293. The address on the envelope, whether it be written by hand or typed, usually takes one of the two following forms. Of the two,' the first is more generally in favor: Mr. J. P. Doe, 25 Adama Street, Chicago, Illinois. Mr. J. P. Doe, 25 Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois. 192 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 294. The address need have no punctuation marks at the ends of the lines; or it may have commas after all but the last, which is then closed by a period. Some firms omit all points, even after abbreviations and initials, and print the address thus : Mr J P Doe * , 25 Adams St Chicago Illinois This completely "open*' style is not yet in general favor, although it has the advantage of saving the time of the typist. 295. Though the accepted abbreviations for the names of the states are usually understood (see above, paragraph 26), careful firms insist that they be not used. The Post Office Department recommends this usage as safer for all concerned. 296. The "return card" should always be printed in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope. The postal authori- ties discountenance placing it on the back of the envelope, becau'se of the time wasted in reading it. The simpler the card the better. It should normally be nothing more than the following: AFTEB 3 DAYS, RETURN TO THE STATE BANK AND TRUST COMPANY AUSTIN, TEXAS. Even on other than first-class mail such elaborate cards as the following are usually unnecessary: "To the Post- master: If this package remains uncalled for, notify , who will send postage for its return." 297. After the envelope, the next thing that attracts at- tention is, of course, the letter. Obviously, a good grade of paper contributes to the appearance, and hence to the sales- value, of all correspondence. There is no need to use expen- sive bond paper, but if a few dollars will make the difference A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 193 between a stock that takes ink well, is substantial and firm to the touch, and a paper that lacks these qualities, spend the money. White is the best color, though light shades of gray, brown, or blue are sometimes used. 298. The letter-head — the name and address of the firm, and sometimes other information, such as the names of the ofiicers — deserves special attention. It saves the time of the typist, and may have considerable advertising value. Hence it should be well planned, and carefully printed or engraved. 299. Many letter-heads include half-tone cuts of the firm's buildings, and occasionally pictures of the goods manufactured. Such embellishments are seldom of any positive value. They certainly win little favor with ex- perienced men of affairs. The best rule here, as in all matters of form, is to be simple and unostentatious. 300. Under no circumstances should the letter-head contain a dotted or solid line for the date. It is difficult for the typist to put the date exactly where it should be; more- over, the presence of such a printed line usually throws the whole letter-head out of balance. The practise of printing at the bottom of the sheet such statements as "Address all communications to the firm," "Prices subject to change without notice," "No agreement valid unless signed by an officer of the company, " is likewise to be discouraged. Such printed directions mar the appearance of the sheet, and should not appear unless absolutely necessary. 301. Anyone who is in doubt as to what sort of a letter- head to use should consult an expert. A good printing or engraving house will design one that will contain the essential information, be properly spaced and well printed. On the following page are examples of satisfactory letter-heads : 194 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS GOOD.^nE:AR The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Gbmpany Akron. Ohio HARCOURT BRACE AND COMPANY, inc PUBLISHERS ONE WEST FORTY SEVENTH STREET - NEW YORK T«li*heM:eryu<<«7l Cd>b AtMraa: HvknM. Nm York ^tate of Caltfoniia LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL BUREAU ^alf at Ariauma Sears. Roebuck ani> Co Chicago TxtBAStnuERB Ottxcm A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 195 302. Every letter consists of three parts — the Heading, the Body, and the Ending. Let us consider them as they come. 303. The Heading contains the date, the introductory address, and the salutation. The following illustration makes clear the best form to use with a printed letter-head: NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS EVANSTON, ILLINOIS June 4. 1919. Marshall Pield & Company, Chicago, Illinois. gentlemen: 304. If a letter-head is not used, the address as well as the date must be written. In this case one should include enough so that the reader will know exactly how to address his reply. If the firm is established in a large town or city, the street and number, or the numbers of the rooms in an office building, are desirable. 305. The date should be written out in full as in the illustration in paragraph 303; the abbreviation 6/4/19 may be misread as 6 April 1919. . Avoid more ornate ways of indicating the date, such as June four Nineteen-nineteea or, June 4 19 19 or, June Pour Hineteen ITineteen 196 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS These take unnecessary time in typing, and add nothing of value to the appearance of the letter. 306. In a letter which is to be single-spaced on the type- writer — and nearly all letters are of this sort — there should be a double space (1) between the lowest date line and the first line of the introductory address, (2) between the address and the salutation, and (3) between the salutation and the body of the letter. (See model letter, paragraph 322.) 307. The introductory address consists of the name and location of the person or firm to whom the letter is written. The name should be spelled precisely as it appears in that person's signature. If, for example, a letter is signed ''Geo. B. Smith," the address on the reply should not be "George B. Smith," or ''G. B. Smith," but ''Geo. B. Smith." If it is signed "James R. Jones & Co.," the abbreviation "& Co." should not be expanded into "and Company." 308. If a firm's name consists only of the names of the partners, it is proper in the address to prefix the abbreviation "Messrs." Thus: "Messrs. Jones, Smith, and Brown." 309. The title " Esquire " may be used after the name of a man, if one desires to give an impression of unusual dignity. One should not, however, write "Mr. John Brown, Esq."; simply "John Brown, Esq." 310. Senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and judges are by custom entitled to be addressed in writing as "Honorable." The headings of letters in such cases would be as follows: Evansrille, Indiana January 29, 1920 The Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. My dear Senator: (or, Uy dear Sir:) A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 197 The salutation for congressmen, governors, mayors, and judges should be the simple "My dear Sir." 311. Ministers, Catholic or Protestant, should be ad- dressed thus : The Reverend E. A. Smyth.«, Washington, D, C. My dear Mr. Smythe: or in the case of a Catholic, Reverend and Dear Pather: Under no circumstances should the forms "Reverend Smythe," or ''Dear Reverend," be used. If the person addressed is a Doctor of Divinity, the proper form would be: The Rev. E. A. Smythe, D.D. , Washington, D. C. Dear Doctor Smythe: 312. The title "Professor" is subject to common misuse. In strict propriety it should be reserved for those members of a teaching faculty who have been elected to positions of professorial rank. It is as incongruous and illogical to ad- dress as "professor" a person who still ranks as instructor, as it would be to call all the commissioned officers of a regi- ment "Colonel." The salutation "Dear Professor," or "Dear Prof.," is a barbarism. Letters addressed properly adhere fairly closely to the following: Professor John R. Jones, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. My dear Professor Jones: or, My dear Mr. Jones: Mr. John R. Doe, Principal, Westchester High School, Westchester, Massachusetts. My dear Mr. Doe: 198 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 313. The proper punctuation and indention for the address are indicated in the illustration in paragraph 303. 314. Below the address, and separated from it by a double space, appears the salutation. The usual form for a letter addressed to a man is ''Dear Sir"; for a letter addressed to a woman, ''Dear Madam, " whether or not she is married; for a letter addressed to a firm, "Gentlemen." The form "Dear Sirs" is not today in general favor. If the letter is somewhat less formal than the ordinary business communica- tion, the salutation may take one of the following forms: "My dear Sir"; "My dear Mr. Brown"; "Dear Mr. Brown." The proper punctuation mark after the salutation is the colon. The combination of colon and dash is unnecessary. 315. It sometimes happens that a letter addressed nominally to a firm is intended for some particular individual. To indicate this fact many writers are today using the device ■ of including in the heading of the letter a single line of direc- tion, "Attention Mr. J. B. Doe." In such cases the heading will appear thus: > J. R. Smith and Co. , San Francisco. California. Attention Mr. J. B. Doe, Sales Manager. Gentlemen: Usually, however, it is better in such cases to address the letter directly to the individual concerned, and thus to avoid the intrusive and sometimes slightly offensive innovation. Most people would agree, for instance, that the following would have been better form than the address printed just above: Mr. J. B. Doe, Sales Manager, J. R. Smith and Co. , San Francisco, California. My dear Sir: A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 199 EXERCISE 1. Write headings for letters from yourseK to the following: 1. A local clergyman. 2. Wanamaker and Company, Philadelphia. 3. Yom- Congressman. 4. A business firm advertising in the local paper. 5. Your teacher. 316. The Body of the letter, the message, begins two spaces below the salutation. It is ordinarily arranged in rather short paragraphs, each of which states or develops one definite topic (see above, paragraphs 207, 231). There should be a double space between paragraphs, and the first line of each should be indented not more than an inch, or ten spaces on the typewriter. Some firms, in order to save the time of the typist, omit this indention and trust to the double space to indicate the paragraph divisions. This custom, however, has not yet become general. If indented, the paragraphs should "line-up" accurately, each one beginning at precisely the same point on the space-bar. 317. The Ending of the letter, beginning two spaces below the Body, consists of the complimentary close and the signature. The close, in the ordinary business letter, will usually be either "Yours truly" or "Very truly yours." In informal letters the phrase "Sincerely yours," or "Cordially yours," may be used. The close should begin at about the center of the sheet, irrespective of where the line of paragraph indentions is placed. This ensures a proper balance on the page between the address and salutation and the ending. 318. The signature, always easily legible, and always written except in routine correspondence, indicates who is responsible for the statements in the Body. If the writer desires to take the responsibility himself, he signs his name just above the typed name of the firm, thus: (/Sales Manager A. £. Boe & Co.. 200 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS If, on the other hand, the responsibility rests on the firm, the signature of the writer appears below the firm^s name, thus: A. B. Boe & Co* &^0B Manager In a routine letter the typed name of the firm, followed sometimes by the initials of the individual who dictated it, may suffice as signature. A married woman signs her full name, thus: "Mary McAllister Smith," or ''Mary M. Smith, " and adds in parenthesis, below, her designation as a married woman (Mrs. T. B. Smith). An unmarried woman may properly prefix the word ''Miss" in parenthesis, thus: "(Miss) Jane Smith." 319. For purposes of identification it is usually desirable to indicate briefly both the dictator and the typist. This is accomplished by placing at the lower left-hand corner of the letter the initials of the two persons,* thus : FBS-AB, the FBS indicating the dictator. 320. When documents are enclosed with a letter, the fact ^"^^^ndicated thus: "3 enc.,!J as in the illustration in paragraph 322. 321. Never allow the typist to print a line of dots or dashes for the signature. Never add such a statement as "dictated but not read." Unless the writer is willing to take the responsibility for, what he has written, he should not write at all. 322. The following letter embodies most of the foregoing suggestions, and illustrates how careful centering on the page, both horizontal and vertical, adequate balance, proper spacing and indention, all have their effect in giving a letter a pleasing appearance. The irregularity of margin on the right of the typed letter is almost unavoidable. Needless to say, however, the smoother the right-hand margin, the more attractive the whole. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 201 llbaay, Yeraoat. Jttly 26. 1919. John B. Smith and Sons, Chloago, Illinois. Gontlaoen : YottT repreeentatlve Mr. George Jliller has juBt told me that Ifce Orleans county agency for your "Peerleea" milkere and separ- ators Is vacant. Will you oonsider me an applicant for the position? For the last ten years I have been selling farm goods, and have built up a jusinese that is the best in this part of the state. But it is time I added something new to the lines I have been carrying, and 1 should be glad to serve as representative for a firw that is as well thought of as ar» you. Please refer to the enclosed letters for information concerning my character, ex- pertenoe, and general reliability. Yours very truly, 9 •&9« 323. These suggestions concerning good form apply to all business letters, whether or not specially dictated. Though in ''form letters" it is often impracticable to write the signature, and the introductory address may not always appear in full, the form letter should follow as closely as 202 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS possible the rules for the highest class of business corre- spondence. No such communication can ever make quite the impression of the well-typed personal letter; but the nearer it approaches the ideal the more successful it will be. EXERCISE 2. 1. Keeping in mind what you have just read about good form, write the following letters: (a) From John Smith, who Hves at 57 Broad Street, Peoria, Illinois, to Sears, Roebuck & Company, of Chicago, asking for their general catalogue. (6) From yourself, to Marshall Field & Company, of Chicago, applying for a position as salesperson. (c) From Mrs. A. B. Jones, of Greensboro, Vermont, to the Berry- Ball Dry Goods Company, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, seqding a postal money order for 11.27 for four yards of gingham like an enclosed sample. (d) From the Berry-Ball Company to Mrs. Jones, saying that they are out of gingham hke her sample, and asking whether they shall send something as nearly Hke it as possible. •■ (e) From Richard Roe, credit manager of A. F. Johns & Co., 123 Broadway, New York, to A. B. Cuthbertson, 1136 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut, asking for information about the credit of John Doe, 284 Dwight Street, New Haven. 2. Write letters answering any four of the following advertise- ments (taken from the Chicago Daily News) : 1. STENOGRAPHER— A YOUNG MAN with some bookkeeper's experience, and able to take notes accurately. Suite 301, Central Y. M. C. A., 19 S. La Salle St. 2. BOOKKEEPER AND STENOGRAPHER. Competent to keep set of double-entry books and take charge small office: state salary and exp. Ad- dress W Y 73, Daily News. 3. CLERK— YOUNG MAN with High School education for office of south side manufacturing con- cern: good opportunity for party adapted to handling details of management: state age, experience, and initial salary. Address W Y 89, Daily News. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 203 4. GIRL— WITH HIGH SCHOOL EDUCA- TION. To work as copyholder: good opportunity to become a proofreader: permanent position. Foley & Co. 2835 Sheffield Avenue. 5. STENOGRAPHER— YOUNG LADY. Ex- perienced in real estate: state experience and give reference and salary wanted. Address T 73, Daily News. 6. WOMAN— YOUNG. TO WORK IN BILL- ING dept. of coat and suit manufacturer: must be accurate at figures: references required. PERCIVAL B. PALMER & CO., 367 W. Adams St. 7. YOUNG LADY— EXPERIENCED. As Cashier; also ledger poster. L. Fish Furniture Co. 1906 S. Wabash Ave. 3. After writing the letters of application called for in this exer- cise, study the model in paragraph 359, and note any points in which your letters could be improved. B. The ''You-attitude." 324. Few things are more pleasing to a person than the knowledge that some one else is interested in his success, and wishes him well. Once convince a man that your sole purpose is not to make profits from his trade, but that you are trying to be of some service to him, and you have made a friend. 325. How can you convince a man that you have this sort of interest in him? First of all, by feeling it yourself. You must be able to see beyond the month's balance sheet; you must have vision, imagination, if you would succeed in business. You must realize that a satisfied customer is the best sort of asset, and that steadily increasing good-will is of more value than a temporary jump in profits. In other words, you must take as your motto not simply profits, but service. 204 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 326. Of course one may argue that a person who thus emphasizes service is only stressing the means to an end; that the real object of all business is financial profit. With- out debating the question whether the business man finds hiis greatest reward in a growing bank account or in the knowledge that he is contributing something to the welfare of his fellow citizens, one may answer merely that the business man who emphasizes the profits and slights the service is apt before long to find that the goal he seeks is eluding him. 327. When once the business man has satisfied himself of the great importance of service, the next step is to convince his customers of his desire to aid them. Here the letter is important : it should in some way, direct or indirect, suggest to the reader this desire; it should reflect what is generally called tiie **you-attitude." 328. The mere fact that a letter emphasizes the pronoun ''you," instead of ''I" or "we," may seem trivial; the psy- chological value of that *'you" is, however, considerable. The following letters say the same thing. Which would make the better impression upon a reader? (1) We have received your order for 1 doz. cases No. 2 tomatoes, which our Mr. Smith sent us on July 3. We are sure that this year's canning is better than any we have ever put out, and will ship the order in the hope that the excellence of these goods will be a surprise even to those who have known our goods in the past. (2) Thank you foi the order for 1 doz. cases No. 2 tomatoes, which you placed on July 3 with Mr. Smith. Your customers will be surprised when they find that these goods are better than ever before. We hope you will be as pleased with the shipment as we are. The first letter says ''we," "pur," "us"; the second says "you," "your." The difference is only superficial, but it is important. 329. A more fundamental requirement, if your letters are to display this "you-attitude," is knowledge of your customers. Assume, for example, that there are in the same A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 205 town ten men to whom you sell goods, and that you know each one of them intimately. If you could interview each of the ten personally on a business trip, you would treat no two in precisely the same way. The owner of a large store, with whom you had done business for years, would greet you cordially. Ten minutes at the end of luncheon would suffice for your business. On the other hand, a merchant just establishing himself, and having a hard time paying his bills, would require a different approach. He might well be suspicious of you, and think you had come to dun him. So it would go around the circle: in each case your knowledge of the man and of his affairs would determine the course you would take. 330. Now it is quite impossible to vary the letters to these ten men as much as you would your conversation with them. But you can do something in your letters to give each man the feeling of personal interest which you would try to convey in an interview; you can do something, that is, if you have any knowledge of these men, or are willing to look up what your records tell of them. 331. For instance, touches like these may mean much to your reader: "The regularity of your orders gives us much pleasure," or, ''We see that your order this time is twice as large as it was six months ago. We are glad that your business is growing so fast." The moral is, to know as much as you can about your customers, and to let your knowledge of them and interest in them appear courteously, not officiously or patronizingly, in what you write. 332. This courteous interest in the reader is a fundamental of all good business correspondence. It can be a feature of adjustment or collection letters as surely as of others. In- deed, it is most valuable in letters which are intended to smooth over the rough places in business. For instance, suppose the chief purpose of a letter is to point out a man's 206 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS error in ordering. Here is an excellent chance to emphasize the desire to be of service; why stress the fact that he has blundered? 333. Compare the following letter, written to a dealer who had carelessly omitted the catalogue number when ordering an ice-box, with the one which might have been written: We regret the fact that we are unable to ship the ice-box you ordered on April 24 until you send us the catalogue number. You failed to note that this number must be sent in all cases, as we cannot risk shipping without definite identification. It would have been much better to write something like this: Thank you for the order for an ice-box, which reached us April 27. We are not absolutely certain which number in the catalogue your customer picked out, however; and to avoid possible dis- appointment on his part we will hold the shipment until you have notified us — by wire, if you choose — of the exact type selected. Just send a single line: "Send number , " and we will forward the box at once. The first letter says "we," and emphasizes the merchant's mistake. The second says "you," and minimizes the error by emphasizing the firm's desire to be of service to both the dealer and his customer. 334. Just as this last letter, while calling the attention of the dealer to his oversight, lays the chief stress upon a pleas- ant matter, so a collection letter may serve its chief purpose of stirring the debtor's conscience without letting slip a chance to comment pleasantly upon his business or to suggest desirable purchases. 335. For instance, A. B. Willey, an honest but not very progressive merchant, who kept a general store in New Hampshire, found one summer that the campers whom he usually counted on for the bulk of his trade during July and August, were buying most of their provisions in Boston and A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 207 New York. As a result, he was overstocked, his money was tied up, and he fell behind in his payments to two wholesale houses. One of the two wrote this letter: Your accounts for May and June are overdue. Please let us have your check at once, or we shall be obliged to refuse further credit. The . other, whose salesman had reported the reasons for Willey's difficulties, wrote thus: Mr. Smith tells us that your summer patrons are buying in large quantities from New York and Boston, and that as a result your business is dull this year. Of course we can hardly blame a man for getting his food as cheaply as possible, in these days of high prices. But perhaps between us we can convince your customers that they can buy through you as economically as through the city dealers. The enclosed is a sample of a sort of order blank we are dis- tributing to our patrons, which they in turn pass on to theirs. It will make clear the large savings that can be effected by ordering by the dozen or the case, and ought to add considerably to your trade. Shall we send you a hundred or so? When business picks up a little, we shall be glad to have a check for your May and June accounts. Meantime, can we not help you recover the trade that ought to be yours? Of course it took longer to write the second letter than the first; but the first angered an old and reUable customer; the second made a friend of him, insured him more business, and at the end of three weeks, brought the wholesale house a check in full for the amount he owed. If "honesty is the best policy," courtesy is almost as essential. It should be a feature of every letter a business man writes. C. Personal Style. 336. Many people who are actually in the state of mind implied in the phrase "the you-attitude,^' who take a courte- ous interest in their correspondents, fail nevertheless to 208 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS express this interest in their letters because they still use the old-fashioned and now fortunately obsolescent phraseology of the legal document. When business letters were chiefly records of agreements, there was some justification for the stiflfness and formality that made them so uniformly dull. Today there is no need for such overloading. Though a letter will never be as colloquial as conversation/ it should have much of the personal style which the merchant of thirty years ago never thought of in connection with his correspon- dence, but which is today more and more appreciated. 337. The first step in the development of this personal style is the absolute elimination of expressions like the following : Answering (or referring to) yours of such and such a date. Your favor of the 9th inst. at hand. Your esteemed favor received. Contents carefully noted. As per yours of the 14th ult. In reply would state. We wish to state. We beg to state. We are pleased to advise. We are at a loss to understand. We are in receipt of. We credit you with same. Enclosed please find. We hand you herewith. Thanking you for j^our past favors. Trusting to be favored with a continuance of your patronage. Awaiting a reply at your earliest convenience. 338. One should avoid, too, the conventional — and usually ungrammatical — introduction ''Answering yours of the 21st," and the long-winded participial conclusion: "Hoping for," ''Thanking you for," etc. The mere fact that an opening sentence such as "Answering yours of May 24" is hopelessly ungrammatical, is enough to condemn it. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 209 Moreover, this clumsy way of acknowledging the previous letter wastes the very important opening sentence upon a secondary matter. If it is necessary to refer with absolute definiteness to a previous letter, a phrase like *'In reply to your number , " standing by itself in one of the upper corners of the sheet, is always proper and generally sufficient. In any case, one should not sacrifice the opening sentence in this careless and conventional way. It is perhaps more unfortunate to affront the reader by closing with a request that he reply at his ''earUest convenience." If there is need for unusual haste, telegraph; otherwise, except in the case of a notorious delinquent, assume that he will reply with the courteous promptness a business letter always demands. Don't antagonize him needlessly. 339. After the eradication of all such stock phrases from a business vocabulary, the next step will be to adopt a more positive program. For instance, instead of the formal ac- knowledgment in the first sentence, it is far better — and just as easy — to work in a reference to a previous letter or order in a casual and personal way. Compare the four following introductory sentences : (1) Acknowledging your order for 2 cases No. 10 milk, dated July 26. This is ungrammatical. (2) Your order for 2 cases, No. 10 milk, dated July 26, has been received. This is correct, but unnecessarily stiff. (3) Your letter of Dec. 5 is at hand. We are at a loss to under- stand why you have not yet received the shipment of wire. This too is correct, but purely conventional, and negative. (4) You are quite right in thinking that the wire you ordered some time ago should have reached you by December 5. This is easy, natural, and personal. 210 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 340. The following is typical of a sort of acknowledgment which is altogether too common: ''Your account credited with $24.85, as per check and credit memos., received July 10." Even printed forms for routine cases should be gram- matical and courteous. 341. Again, it will help a great deal toward giving one's style a personal flavor to get rid of the useless words which never figure in conversation, but which litter up much busi- ness correspondence: "We must request," ''We would like to ask," "Upon consulting our records we find," etc. No one uses such expressions in a talk with one of his cus- tomers. Why, then, should they appear in letters? They waste time upon non-essentials. The best rule is to be direct, to write courteously, as naturally as possible, and in as few words as circumstances permit. 342. Finally, one should always remember that at the other end of the letter's journey is a man or woman like him- self. The fact that a great corporation is in a sense an utterly impersonal machine blinds us occasionally to the more important fact that each operation in the functioning of that machine is performed by a human being. Keep the other fellow in mind, whether he is a store-keeper at a country cross-roads, or a bank president in New York. Think of him, and treat him like a man. EXERCISE 3. Keeping in mind what you have just read about the "you-atti-" tude" and "personal style," rewrite the following letters: 1. Replying to yours of the 26th inst. We are unable to find any flaws in the parts returned. Our inspection tag shows that the engine was in good order when it left us, and we are bound to believe that it must have received some injury either in the freight car or while your workmen were setting it up. We beg to suggest that you enter claim against the railroad, A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 211 as we are unable to allow anything in such cases unless the broken parts were actually defective. Kindly let us have your check for $432.48, the balance due on this last shipment. Trusting that this will be satisfactory, we remain, etc. 2. In reply to your letter of July 9 we would state that your order was filled and shipped the day it was received. As a business man you ought to know that during the war nine tenths of the trouble with deliveries is not the fault of the shipper. Due to railroad congestion, your order is probably held up somewhere between here and Springfield. Do all of the shipments you send out get through right away? Even though we are sure it is not our fault, we will do what we can to find the shipment, and have started a tracer after it. Hoping for a continuance of your valued patronage, we beg to remain, etc. 3. This is the second letter I have had to write complaining about the errors on my last month's bill. It seems to me that each one is worse than the one before. Why, even the addition is wrong on this one. Please correct it at once, or I shall never charge another thing at your store. 4. We are in receipt of your check for $32.48, and credit you with same. Herewith we beg to enclose a sample of ginghams, as per your request. Awaiting your further commands, we are, etc. 5. Answering yours of July 18. We are always glad to receive your orders, but this is for so large an amount that we wonder whether your business is sufficient to justify the expansion. We beg to state that in such circum- stances we always request customers to submit a report showing a real need for such large increases in stock. Hoping to hear from you along these lines, we are, etc. 6. We are pleased to state that your order for ice boxes will be filled at once. We think the line we are showing this year is equally as good or better than any in the trade, and are sure your customers will like them. Thanking you for your past favors, we beg to remain, etc. 212 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS D. Clearness. 343. The first step toward making letters as clear as they should be is knowledge. If a writer knows the facts, he will probably make them reasonably clear to his correspondent. But to trust solely to the clarifying influence of ideas upon style would be foolish. By giving a little thought to the plan of a letter, to its paragraphing, and to conciseness, complete- ness, and correctness of expression, one can do much to make the task of the reader easy. 1. THE PLAN. 344. It is obviously out of the question"^for a business man to make an outline for each letter he writes. But he can at least have some sort of method, and at times a simple mental plan will not be impossible. 345. For instance, a good letter should refer to only one general subject. Better send a second letter than confuse the reader by discussing too many things. No one should forget the obvious importance of the opening and the closing sentences, and the necessity of making proper use of them. Things which belong together should be kept together. Every letter will have ''sales-value." Such concerns will be part of your regular method of writing. 346. The student who has trained himself in the making of outlines, will find that his ideas will arrange themselves in proper sequence without the exertion of much volition. But if a study of a dozen or two of his letters shows that they could have been improved in these respects, it will pay him to spend a moment in thinking things over before he begins. 347. The suggestion that the writer study his own letters is an important one. Take a random assortment, written, say, two weeks ago. Those that have had time to "^cool off" are easier to criticize impersonally than more recent A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 213 ones. See whether they are clear; whether there is a plan in them; whether the main point is adequately brought out. Note the shortcomings, and guard against them in the future. 2. PARAGRAPHING. 348. Adequate paragraphing does much to make a letter clear. Though there is rarely an opportunity for that sort of paragraph development which one expects in more extensive compositions, the careful writer can at least see to it that each paragraph deals with only one phase of the whole sub- ject, is short enough to be grasped by the reader as a single unit, and that all the paragraphs follow one another in logical and effective order. 349. The length of a paragraph will be determined partly by the nature of the subject, but rather more by the fact — attested by the experience and practise of newspaper writers — ^that long paragraphs are forbidding, and short, crisp ones are inviting. As we have said before, it is better to split a logical unit, which might be developed in thirty lines, into three paragraphs of ten lines each, than to run the risk of having a long paragraph passed over unread. Of course undue brevity is objectionable. ** Sentence para- graphing,'* in which each sentence begins a new paragraph, should almost always be avoided. Too little is almost as bad as too much. To strike the proper balance between the two the business writer must depend upon a study of the letters he sends and receives, and especially upon his own common sense. 3. CONCISENESS. 350. Conciseness in a letter is another quality which makes for clearness. Franklin's rule, "Use no unnecessary words," is the proper rule for the business man. This does not mean that curtness or abruptness is desirable. But 214 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS every phrase which adds nothing detracts in some way; it wastes the time of both writer and reader, and hinders the latter in his task of getting quickly at the main purport of the letter. 4. COMPLETENESS. 351. Completeness, too, is an essential of the clear letter. Though it is usually unnecessary to include a summary of all previous correspondence, enough should be given, in the way of reference to other letters, agreements, or specifications, to put the whole matter easily before the reader, and to enable him quickly to look up additional information in his files. If the letter includes a statement of complex arith- metical processes, discounts, the addition or subtraction of large sums, these should be accurately tabulated. Espe- cially in a letter which orders goods, all the data necessary should be included. A letter which leaves the reader in doubt about a material point, or which adds iki a postscript something which belonged in the body of the letter, is in- excusable. 5. CORRECTNESS. 352. Finally, grammatical correctness is a sine qua non of clear writing. Dangling participles, uncertain relatives — anything which is ungrammatical — will annoy a careful reader, or perhaps mislead him. The student should never forget what we have emphasized throughout this book: the rules of grammar and the principles of rhetoric are aids to the easiest method of exchanging ideas. They are not formu- lated to make writing difficult, but to make good — that is clear — ^writing easy. EXERCISE 4. Take two of the letters written for Exercise 2 of this chapter and rewrite them in accordance with the suggestions given in the text A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 215 i concerning "personal style" and "clearness." When you have done this, write a paragraph summarizing the faults you have discovered in your letters as originally written. E. "Every Letter a Sales-leti^er'^ 353. Finally, every business letter is in a sense a sales- letter. This statement in one way or another fundamentally affects all business writing. Many people forget that every letter gives the writer a chance to "sell" something. It may not be goods; it may be good-will, which in the long run is more important. The thing to remember is that any letter can be the excuse for a sentence or two in which the writer may show his ability as a salesman. 354. To give this sales-value to letters one need not spend hours in study. Of course proficiency is not won at a single stroke, but so far as the fundamentals are concerned, it is largely a matter of a few general suggestions, a little forethought, and practise. 355. For instance, it is good salesmanship always to suggest in some way a desire to be of service to the correspon- dent; the "you-attitude" is good business as well as good manners. Or, if it is necessary to say "no" to a request, it is good salesmanship in the same letter to say "yes" to some- thing else. And the wise man will say "no" in a sentence, but will say "yes" in a paragraph. If the main purpose of a letter is merely to say "no" — to refuse credit, for ex- ample — that letter may be the occasion for suggesting the value of some service, the savings from cash transactions, or the writer's willingness to do something that will help the reader. Or, if obliged to insist upon immediate payment of an over-due account, the good salesman will "bury" this insistence in the middle of the letter, unless he no longer cares to retain the customer's trade. The beginning and end should treat of more pleasant concerns; particularly the end 216 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS should open the way for the correspondent to ask something which can be granted. 356. In general, too, it is good salesmanship to avoid purely negative letters. The careful correspondent will see to it that his openings and closes have a positive quality. He will avoid ''We regret," or, ''Your failure to specify." Such negative introductions are nearly always unfortunate. Similarly, a conclusion which suggests an unfavorable re- action is deplorable. It strikes entirely the wrong note to say, "If this is not satisfactory, we will adjust it." A person reading such a sentence thinks at once, "Of course it isn't satisfactory; they don't expect it to be." 357. It is also good salesmanship always to keep one's temper, no matter what happens. Even when dealing with obdurate cases, one gains nothing by displaying anger, but merely closes the door to future sales. Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re — soft in speech, but firm in action — is a golden rule. The person who blusters in his correspondence is worth little compared to the man who is restrained in speech, but always does what he agrees to do. 358. In all such matters it is easy to form habits. The student should see to it that his are good ones. Perhaps he will be a trifle self-conscious at first; but in the end his facility will return, and the letters he writes will be far better than the old ones. EXERCISE 5. Write five of the following sales-letters: 1. Interest Mrs. John Doe, 19 Peoria Street, Kansas City, Missouri, in a kitchen cabinet or sewing machine. 2. Try to get the order for football suits, head gears, etc., that your team will need next fall. Address the letter to your school Principal. 3. Interest Mr. John Smith, of Peotone, Illinois, in farm tractors. You know that he is a successful farmer in the "Corn belt," and usually has nearly 600 acres in this one crop alone. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 217 4. Interest Mrs. John Smith, of Peotone, in a washing machine. You know that it is hard to get "help" in her part of the country. 5. Interest the manager of a taxicab company in a new device for keeping wind-shields clear of snow, sleet, etc. 6. Write to your school principal, explaining the uses of a pencil-sharpener for which you are agent. 7. Write to a local hardware dealer, interesting him in a device for sharpening the knives of mowing machines — something that anyone can use successfully. 8. Imagine yourself agent for a small electric motor that can be attached to a sewing machine. Write a letter to a housewife interesting her in it. 9. Write a local furniture dealer about the same article. 10. Imagine yourself salesman for the company that publishes your dictionary. Write your school principal, telling the merits of the book, and trying to get an order for the entire school. F. Examples of Good Business Correspondence. 359. To make still clearer the best practise of today, we append the following specimen letters. They are not necessarily ideal in all respects, and certainly should not be slavishly copied. But they are free from gross errors, and illustrate most of the virtues which good business corre- spondence should possess. 1. An application for a position. Mr. J. P. Gough tells me that there is a vacancy in your staff of salesmen. Will you consider me an applicant for the position? I am thirty-seven years old, married, and own my home in Doe- ville. For the past ten years I have been on the road in Indiana and Illinois for the company, handling their lines of shoes, and have acquired an intimate knowledge of the trade in this terri- tory. The enclosed letter from the Secretary of the — — Company bears witness to my success as a salesman. My only reason for wishing a new position at this time is the fact that the Company is discontinuing the manufacture of shoes. Rather than enter a field with which I am unacquainted, I prefer to seek employment with another shoe firm. 218 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS The Kewanee National Bank of Doeville, Illinois, the Commer- cial Club of Doeville, or any officer of the Company, will inform you concerning my character and reputation. If you will grant me an interview, I will call at any time yon may suggest. My telephone is Doeville 5992. (The letter is specij&c, dignified in tone, and gives the neces- sary information. The man who read it called ''Doeville 5992" at once, and arranged for an interview. Two days later the salesman was at work for the new company.) 2. An adjustment letter. (The history of the case was this : the manufacturers had sold a gasoline engine to Mr. X, a Vermont farmer. The engine reached him in good condition, according to the freight receipt, but when it was in place in his barn it would not start; consequently he wrote the company asking what to do. The first letter he received was an unfortunate one, saying that whatever was wrong must be his fault, and advising him to get a friend who understood engines to look it over. Thereupon he wrote somewhat angrily, saying the machine was "no good," and asking for the return of his money. The company's second letter — here printed — was written by a tactful correspondent, who wished to impress Mr. X with the company's fairness, and at the same time to persuade him to keep the engine. It is somewhat longer than it would have been under other circumstances.) Dear Mr. X: Thank you for your letters about the engine. "We certainly do not want to take your money for something that is "no good, " and if you still wish us to, we will send you a check at once for all that you have paid. But perhaps some slight adjustment can be made which will result in the engine's running well, and in saving you the trouble of another trip to the freight office. Our records show that it was tested the day before we shipped it, and ran four hours without stopping. It ought to run now. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 219 Rather than have you put to the trouble of returning it to us, we should much prefer to have our representative, Mr. J. B. Adams, who will be in Greensboro next week, look it over with you. If you and he decide that the trouble should be charged to us, we will take the old engine away, and either send a new one or return your money. But if some slight replacement will make it as good as new, we will furnish the parts and do the work for you, in your barn, and you can pay us or not. Does this seem fair to you? By the way, Mr. Adams can tell you all about our new milker. Have you seen one yet? (The merits of this last letter are, briefly: 1. It begins by agreeing to do what the customer thinks he wants done. 2. It suggests — what proved to be the case — that perhaps some way can be found to remedy matters without putting the customer to the trouble of hauling the engine away. 3. It makes a fair offer, which any reasonable man would appreciate; in fact, it leaves the customer to be the judge of what is fair. 4. It is easy, natural in tone, and free from anything that could possibly give offense. 5. By emphasizing the firm's desire to be of service, and by calling attention to the new milker, it utilizes the oppor- tunity of making "every letter a sales-letter.") 3. Collection letters, A. (A simple ''reminder," with a sales-letter touch at the close.) Our bookkeeper tells me that your account for May is as yet unpaid. The small amount — $57.48 — is not in itself of much im- portance, and may have shpped your mind. May we have a check as soon as convenient? Our new catalogue of winter lines is going to you today. You will find much in it that will interest you. 220 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS B. (A little more urgent.) You remember that ten days ago we wrote you about the May account, which is now two months over-due. As we ourselves are often borrowing money in order to discount our own bills, and paying interest at the bank, we should soon be unable to extend credit to our customers unless they met their own obligations promptly. Will you not let us have a check for the amount — $57.48 — at once? C. (More insistent.) In reply to our last letter you promised a check in full for the May account within five days. At the same time you sent an order for goods amounting to $147.86, for which please accept our thanks. But the five days have elapsed, and no check has reached us. Now of course, Mr. Jones, we are glad to have your trade, and hope to be able to ship the order promptly. But it is only fair to you to say that until the past due account is paid in full, we shall be obliged to withhold further credit. The amount you owe us is so small that you cannot afford to let it go any longer. Please pin your check for $57.48 to this letter, and return it to me, in the enclosed stamped envelope, by the next mail. I shall then be glad to 0. K. your recent order, which will be forwarded at once. D. (Threatening a draft.) This is the fourth letter we have written about your May account — $57.48 — on which you have as yet made no payment. Unless we receive a check in full within five days, we shall draw upon you through your bank. E. (The last appeal — direct, but courteous.) Our draft of October 10, for the amount of your May account — • $57.48 — has been returned to us by your bank, unaccepted. We feel that we have been as considerate in this matter as we possibly can be, in fairness to our customers and ourselves. More- over, you have made no reply to either of our last two letters. We can only conclude that you are trying to evade paying what you owe. Accordingly we shall be obliged to place the matter in the hands of our attorney, unless we receive your check in full by October 22. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 221 4. A Sales-letter. Garage repair men are about as popular as dentists. No one ever goes to see them till he is in trouble. But of course when a tooth really aches, or the car just won't start, then the man whom we hated last week is our best friend. Why wait till the trouble has come before consulting the doctor? Why not let us give your car a monthly — or weekly — overhauling, making all adjustments and minor repairs, and keeping things generally tuned up? The charge will be so small that you will wonder we can afford the service. Bring your car in tomorrow, and we will make a survey of it, on the basis of which we'll name a definite figure. Of course there will be no charge for this first examination, and it alone may save you a smash-up. Don't wait till something goes wrong — come in tomorrow, and let us do the rest. (The letter opens with a sentence which will probably catch the reader's interest; it is persuasive enough to overcome the initial objections of most men, and it closes, as all sales- letters should, with a definite suggestion that the reader act.) EXERCISE 6. Paying careful attention to the matters discussed in this chapter, write the letters demanded by the following situations (do not bother about addresses, sal tations, or signatures): 1. Order the following articles: one-half dozen No. 2 shaving- brushes, at 78 cents each; 3 dozen cakes No. 1 shaving soap, at $1.00 per dozen; 2 dozen boxes ''Printemps" talcum powder, at $1.85 per dozen. Send check in full with the order, and allow yourself 2% for cash. 2. Return a boy's velocipede, size 6, which is too small, and order a size 8, which costs $3.15 more than the smaller one. Send the money. 3. Return a bill for correction, pointing out that the charge of $47.50 for a dress is an error, since it was included in the last month's bill which you paid in full. 4. Acknowledge an order of one bolt of silk, but point out that the customer failed to include a sample or to give the catalogue number of the silk. 222 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 5. When the sample called for in the preceding exercise arrives, you find the goods are out of stock. Send samples of the two shades nearest in color to that desired, and ask whether you may substitute one of them. 6. Write to the manufacturers saying that the separator they have sent you was short one piece: the handle. 7. Acknowledge the preceding letter, and say you have sent the handle by parcel-post, 8. A customer complains that a suit he bought of you does not fit, and asks what to do, since he is now five hundred miles from your shop. 9. Acknowledge the preceding letter, and ask the customer to have the ill-fitting suit altered by a local tailor. You will pay the bill as soon as you receive it. 10. The manufacturers have sent you four 30 by 3 inch tires; you ordered 30 by 3^4, and do not wish the others. Ask what to do with those sent, and urge that the others be forwarded at once. 11. Reply to the preceding letter, expressing regret at your mistake. Suggest that the dealer can find a market for the 30 by 3 tires, but say that you are sending the others at once. Allow him 60 days to pay for the first shipment, if he cares to keep it. 12. A dealer owes you $178.50, that is now two months overdue. Ask for payment. At the same time suggest that he will be in- terested in the fine of farm tools your salesman will show him on his next visit. 13. Acknowledge the preceding letter, and send a check for $100.00 on account. The rest you will paji as soon as you have made some of your own collections. 14. Acknowledge the check for $100.00, sent with the preceding letter, and express the hope that the merchant's collections will be easy, for you too need to meet your bills, and want the balance due settled as soon as possible. 15. Follow up the last letter, which brought no response, with one a little more insistent in tone. 16. Write another, pointing out that the merchant has not acknowledged either of your last two letters, nor yet made the payment due. Enclose a stamped envelope for a reply. 17. Send the check for balance due on the preceding transaction, and explain that your failure to be more prompt has been due to illness. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 223 18. Acknowledge receipt of check in full for balance due, and express regret that you did not know of the merchant's illness. Wish him good luck. 19. Imagine yourself an agent for canoes. Write a sales-letter to a man whom you know to be an enthusiastic camper. 20. Write a sales-letter to a city merchant, pointing out the usefulness of a small delivery truck for which you are agent. 21. Assume that you are an agent for the Ford car. Write to a farmer, trying to interest him in buying one. You know that he lives eight miles from the market where he sells his garden truck. Call his attention to your line of small trucks. 11. Friendly Letters. 360. The object of friendly letters is not to sell goods or to collect money; they have only the most distant connection with the world of business. Consequently one need not worry about their "sales-value." But because they are intimate and personal, one should take as much pains with them as with the letters dictated at the office. 361. Consider first the arrangement of a friendly letter on the page. The formal address is usually omitted; instead of following the business usage and writing James B. Doe, Esq., New Haven, Connecticut. My dear Mr. Doe: you begin at once with the salutation, varying the phrasing in accordance with the degree of intimacy you feel it appro- priate to express, thus: My dear Mr. Doe: Dear Mr. Doe: Dear Doe: Dear James: Dear Jim: 224 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS Similarly, the close and signature are usually somewhat modified. Instead of the conventional Yours very truly, Richard Roe it is customary to use such phrases as Cordially yours, ^ Sincerely yours. As ever, yours. The signature may vary from the full ''Richard Roe" through ''Roe" to "Richard" or "Dick." A married woman signs her own name, not her husband's: "Mary Adams Doe" or "Mary," not "Mrs. James B. Doe." 362. The location on the page of the place and date of writing is also variable. Most people p\it them at the top of the letter in approximately the place they would occupy in a business letter; others place them in the lower left-hand corner of the sheet, after the signature, thus: As ever, yours, James B. Doe Boston, Massachusetts, 28 October 1919. If you use a letter paper that has an engraved heading, show- ing the location of your home, placing the date at the bottom of the sheet gives better balance to the paper. Otherwise it is perhaps wiser to put the place and date at the top of the page, thus : Madison, Wisconsin, 28 October 1919. Dear Mr. Roe: 363. The salutation "Dear Friend," or "Friend Jim," and the close, Your friend, James B. Doe. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 225 are not used today. Similarly, one should never be guilty of mixing in one letter the phraseology of the business and the social letter. Such hybrids as the following are never proper : James B. Doe, Chicago, Illinois. Dear James: or, Dear John: Yours very truly, Richard Roe 364. The body of a friendly letter varies from a few lines of informal invitation to several pages of narrative. In any case it should be simple and natural. Beware of the affecta- tion which marks the letters of the sentimentalist. Talk to your friend in your letter as you would face to face; don't tire him with uninteresting details; don't afflict him with platitudinous comments on your sensations. 365. So far as stationery is concerned, be modest. White or gray paper, of the ordinary sizes, with envelopes to match, is the best. Avoid the gilt-edged and deckel-edged mon- strosities that appear each Christmas on the counters of some department stores. If you wish a die cut for your address, go to a good dealer and select one which is clear and un- ostentatious; let the engraving be done in black or dark blue. 366. The address on the envelope does not differ in any essential respects from that on the envelope of a business letter. The "return card" is, however, frequently omitted. 367. The following letters are models only in that they illustrate current usage as regards form, salutations, close, etc. Never copy the phrasing of another person's letter; to do so will rob your own of the spontaneity and naturalness which should be their greatest charm. 226 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS (1) Evanston, Illinois 28 October 1919 Dear Mrs. Roe: Will you and Mr. Roe dine with us at seven o'clock on Tuesday next? My sister May, and her husband Captain Brown, are to be with us, and I want them to meet you. Cordially, Mary A. Doe. (2) 5746 Dorchester Avenue Chicago Illinois Dear Mrs. Doe: It will give Mr. Roe and me inuch pleasure to dine with you at seven o'clock on Tuesday next, and to meet Captain and Mrs. Brown. Cordially yours, Jane B. Roe. 30 October 1919 (3) ^ ' 5746 Dorchester Avenue Chicago, Illinois Dear Mrs. Doe: Mr. Roe and I regret very much that we shall be unable to dine with you on Tuesday next, as we are leaving for Boston tomorrow evening. We shall look forward to meeting Captain and Mrs. Brown another time. Sincerely, Jane B. Roe. 30 October 1919 (4) ^ ^ Boston, Massachusetts 28 October 1919 Dear James: My cousin Arthur Smith, of whom I have told you, is to be in Boston for a few hours on next Monday, the 3rd of November. Will you join us at dinner at the University Club, at half-past six? Yours, Dick. A BUSINESS MAN'S CORRESPONDENCE 227 (5) 5746 Dorchester Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, October 28, 1919. Dear Mr. Erickson: When you were talking about Conrad's novels last evening, I tried to remember the title of the volume of his personal reminiscen- ces which I wanted you to read. Well, as soon as you had left the house the name flashed back into my memory: The Mirror of the Sea. Get it as soon as you can. If you like him for his fiction, you will — I started to say — love him for this! Cordially, George B. Smith. 368. Formal invitations, in the third person, are not as common as they were fifty years ago. But if you receive one, propriety demands that you answer it in the same style, thus: Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Jones request the pleasure of Mr. John Smith's company at dinner on Thursday evening, January the twenty-fourth, at eight o'clock. Mr. John Smith accepts with pleasure the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Jones for dinner on Thursday evening, January the twenty-fourth, at eight o'clock. EXERCISE 7. Keeping in mind what you have just read concerning the form and style appropriate to friendly letters, write any three of the following: 1. A steamer letter to a friend leaving New York on a given date on the " Olympic." Write both the envelope and the letter. 2. A letter to a classmate who has been ill in a local hospital for several weeks. 3. A letter to a young French student of English in Paris, introducing yourself (you have been given the name and address by your teacher) and suggesting a correspondence. 4. A letter to the same person replying to questions concerning the methods of studying EngUsh Uterature used in your school. 228 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 5. A letter to your father who is out of town on a business trip, asking his advice about taking a job for the summer vacation. 6. You have just returned from a visit at the home of a friend's mother in a neighboring city. Write a letter thanking her for her hospitality. 7. You have just seen an interesting play (or read an interesting book), and in your enthusiasm you wish to recommend it to a friend who lives in a distant city. Write the letter. 8. You are planning to go to a certain college next year. Write a letter to a friend who is already there telling him of your intention and asking him for information about living conditions, tuition, etc. 9. You are making up a theater party for the coming Saturday evening. Write a note asking one of your friends to become a member of the party. 10. You receive a formal invitation to a dinner at the home of an acquaintance, but are prevented by illness from accepting. Write the invitation and your reply. 11. You are giving a birthday party. Write notes of invitation to two of your friends, fitting the style of each note to its recipient. 12. Your older brother, now a Senior in college, has always been particularly interested in Enghsh. Write a letter telHng him of the work you are now doing in your Enghsh course. CHAPTER IX. TALKING IN PUBLIC. 369. Nearly all men and women who attain positions of responsibility are sometimes called upon to speak in public. Any salesman is dependent more or less upon his ability to talk intelligently and convincingly. It is to aid persons of this sort that the present chapter is designed. 370. The student who is seriously interested in the fascinating art of public speech will, of course, look for more elaborate treatment of the subject than is possible here. Such books as E. DuB. Shurter's Public Speaking (Allyn & Bacon), or J. A. Winan's Public Speaking (Century) should be on his table. But even this serious student will do well to begin his work by reading over the simple practical sugges- tions that are given here, going on afterwards to more inten- sive examination of the theory and practise of the art. 371. The most profitable approach to the matter will be through an examination of the common failings — those clogs and handicaps which keep many a man from success. If such an attack seems too negative, it may be justified from the experience of most men who talk for the first time in public. They are conscious of their failings; the audience is conscious of them too. One of America's most distin- guished manufacturers made his first speech at a meeting presided over by Chauncey M. Depew. At the close of the session the speaker, conscious that he had done his part ill, said to the veteran chairman, "What did I do that was wrong?" "Why," Mr. Depew is said to have answered, "You didn't do one thing that was right." He had illus- trated all the mistakes that beginners can make. 229 230 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 372. What are these common failings? Slovenly think- ing is the worst; lack of vocabulary, poor memory, stage fright, poor voice, poor enunciation, and that strange lack of persuasiveness noticeable in the talks of some men who have all the technique of the speaker — these are the chief pitfalls to be avoided. I. Clear Thinking. 373. Inability to think clearly is the greatest handicap to a speaker. It is a source of irritation to his hearers, who, if they are intelligent, approve instinctively of clear-cut reasoning and well-ordered argument. Lincoln tells how as a boy he lay awake in his second-story bedroom, Ustening to the arguments of his father's friends in the room below. Because these men did not think straight they could not talk coherently; and the boy upstairs was annoyed by this nightly display of poor logic. --^ . -- --. ^j, 374. To be sure, man is not a logic-machine; he is sus- ceptible to suggestion as well as to argument; logic alone cannot be depended on to persuade him to act. But clear thinking is the foundation to which the other qualities of the speaker should be added. It is worth much to realize this truth. 375. Slovenly thinking is often connected with lack of ideas about the subject under discussion. If a man knows, he will probably think clearly; at leasfc, he will not be bothered by finding breaks in the line that he is too ignorant to bridge. But if he does not know, he will be no better off than the high-school orator who remembered his introduction and conclusion, but forgot the body of his speech. Do what he will to conceal it, his ignorance will betray him. 376. But sometimes well-informed people think poorly; there is no logical arrangement or development in their ideas. The result is confusion. Many an expert who in answer TALKING IN PUBLIC 231 to direct questions on the witness-stand astonishes the jury by liis comprehensive knowledge, would be unable to put his knowledge systematically before those jurymen without the aid of his attorney's interrogations. 377. Let the student assume for the moment that he belongs to this class of well-informed but somewhat dis- orderly thinkers. How can he improve his power of reason- ing? Well, the process will be different with different people, but one suggestion will be of benefit to every one : he should think the subject through as carefully as he can, before he is to speak, and use a pencil and paper; he should put his ideas down in black and white, see the thing all at once in outline. The mere physical act of writing will serve as a check on his perhaps too agile mind, and will steady it in its task of arrangement. 378. Of course the student must test his various steps as he takes them. He must go slowly, as an Alpine climber cuts his steps in the ice, never relinquishing one foothold till he is certain of the next. He should test the arrange- ment, the grouping, of his ideas, jotting down a phrase or two for each point, and then classifying them: 1, 3, and 7 seem to belong together; 2, 4, and 5 are obviously related. Then let him group them again, renumber them, and test this second result as carefully as he did the first. 379. For this preliminary analysis of the material some people advise the use of small cards or slips of paper, each of which will contain a single topic or idea. These cards — like those we recommend in Chapter VII — can be sorted and rearranged like a hand at bridge, till an order which is satis- factory finally appears. Others prefer to put all their notes on one sheet, and to make a new outline for each revision. Both methods have their advantages. Cards make re- arrangement easy; the large outline helps one to see the sub- ject as a whole. The ideal plan is to combine the two, 232 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS making the first rough outline on a single sheet, and then working out the finer subdivisions by the use of loose slips. But whichever method a man prefers, the important thing is for him to write while he is thinking, and to test what he has written from many different angles. 380. Oftentimes slovenly thinking manifests itself in a speaker's inabiUty to get to the point of his remarks, and in an equally painful inabihty to stop when he is through. Long-drawn-out introductions and conclusions tire an audi- ence; no matter how cogent the main argument may be, few people like to Hsten to footless afterthoughts or irrelevant preambles. A dog turns round and round before lying down because there survive in him habits and instincts developed through long ages of savage life. The speaker who wastes the time of his audience in similar aimless circlings has no such valid excuse. 381. These common but painful faiUngs are due in part to a speaker's inabiUty to put himself in the position of his audience. He must remember that success will not come to him in full measure till he has developed this power. Swift could write pamphlets that set all England agog with interest because he sensed his audience perfectly. Roosevelt never failed to "size up" his crowd before beginning a speech; he had the journalist's and dramatist's abihty to appreciate how it would all seem to the other fellow. The average man will probably fall far short of the skill attained by such masters of the art of persuasion; but he can help himself not a httle if he will only realize the importance of anticipating the reaction of his audience, of listening to himself, as impersonally and objectively as possible, before actually imposing himself upon that audience. 382. But inability to get to the point of a speech, or to stop when one is through, indicates more than a failure to sense the audience; it is usually excellent evidence of poor TALKING IN PUBLIC . 233 analysis of the whole question. The speaker has not decided upon the most important point; he has allowed himself to ramble on through an aimless talk, trusting to providence and the intuition of his hearers to extract the kernel of fact from the shell of verbiage. Perhaps his confidence will be justified; it is not safe, however, to presume too far. It is much better to follow the example of Benjamin Franklin once more, of whom John Adams said that he never spoke for five minutes in the Continental Congress w:ithout ''putting his shoulder to the hub of the wheel." His scientific mind analyzed things in advance; when he talked he went straight to the heart of the question, leaving the nonessentials to be dis- cussed by other persons. 383. "But," you answer, "I have not the genius of a Roosevelt or a Franklin; what good is there in holding up such examples to me, plain John Smith? How can I get any help from these geniuses?" The answer is simple: by apply- ing to your own problems, with all the skill that you can command, the methods which they used. Study your audi- ence in advance; ask questions about your material; decide what is the most important thing you have to say; decide how best to use the precious first two minutes, and the equally precious last one. Very probably Franklin did not go through such a process every time he rose in Congress; but it is cer- tain that during his early years he trained himself consciously and carefully in just such analytical methods, so that by 1775 his mind instinctively made the analyses necessary for successful argument. 384. Of course in such matters there is no golden rule of procedure. No amount of preliminary analysis can abso- lutely insure a man against talking too long; the enthusiasm of the moment may overwhelm his previous good intentions, and start his speech down the track like a wild engine, which nothing but a wreck or exhaustion can stop. But something 234 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS he may do by way of ''Safety First" precautions. For instance, the business man, addressing business men, can hardly do better than follow the example of many French writers, who make their introduction state the whole thesis in a few sentences, then develop the argument with all the force and cogency that they can bring to bear, and at as great length as the circumstances warrant, and finally, in a brief conclusion, sum up the whole matter and clinch the last nail. He tells what he is going to do; he does it as well as he can; he tells what he has done: here are the brief- maker's introduction, main argument, and conclusion. Given such a simple plan, and careful analysis of the material in advance, the chances are that no one will tire his listeners by slovenly argument or excessive discursiveness. 385. Another manifestation of slovenly thinking appears in the verbosity, the ''high falutin" phraseology, the exces- sive use of ijpetical quotation or humorous anecdote, the general " windiness, '' of some speakers. The political stump- speaker who "lets the eagle scream" on the Fourth of July is of this sort. With little to say, he uses ten words where three would do, and conceals — as well as he can — the absence of ideas under a mass of verbiage. 386. Unfortunately this sort of public speech is not the prerogative of the politician alone. Ministers, college professors, labor leaders, and presidents of commercial associations are all numbered among the victims of the dis- ease, which seems to be almost endemic in America. The business man should shun this sort of pubhc utterance. If in his talking he is satisfied to make a noise and to occupy the platform for half an hour, then perhaps he need not worry about the insignificant matters of sense and intelligi- bility. But if his purpose in speaking is to implant ideas in the minds of other men, to move other men to action, then it behooves him to be wary. "C/se no unnecessary words": TALKING IN PUBLIC 235 once more the old advice is the best. Clearness, simplicity, concreteness — these are the quaUties which make the strong- est appeal. 387. In general, then, for the person who is bothered by inability to think things through straight, the best remedy is to know his subject and to plan — plan— plan. It does not matter much how, so long as he uses a pencil, and revises what he first puts down. Unnecessary words as well as irrelevant ideas must be discarded; the central theme must stand out in clear relief, propped up with whatever facts and argu- ments seem necessary. And always a speaker must guard against the notion that because he is to talk for only a few minutes he need not put much time into preparation. Henry Ward Beecher, whose fame as an orator was international, is credited with saying that if he was to talk all the morning at a revival he needed no preparation at all; for a sermon of half an hour he needed a week, and for a five-minute after- dinner speech three months. The briefer the talk, the rhore need there will be for using every minute effectively; in other words, the more need for careful preliminary planning. 388. With such ideas most people will probably agree, while at the same time they may object that putting these ideas into practise is virtually impossible. How can the man who is called unexpectedly from his office to talk to a committee of workmen, how can he put down anything in the form of an outline, much less revise and rewrite as we suggest? 389. Well, as we have already said, there is no such thing as a guarantee policy against slovenly thinking or ineffective speaking. But this is sure : if a person makes it a rule to plan when he does have the chance, his mind will instinctively acquire the habit of shaping its ideas in logical order, and this habit will stand him in well when he is unexpectedly called to his feet. It is astonishing to see how fast the 236 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS trained mind will analyze and coordinate facts. Five minutes, one minute, will be time enough for shaping some sort of a plan. Indeed, if one has improved his opportuni- ties, he will find that even when he is given no warning at all he can formulate, as he is uttering his first sentence of reply to the chairman, the ''one" ''two" "three" of the outline he did not have time to make. EXERCISE 1. On one of the subjects listed in Exercise 2, below, make first a detailed plan for a talk of fifteen minutes before the class, and then reduce this plan to a skeleton outline which you could put on a small card. II. Vocabulary. 390. Another common source of annoyance to the aver- age speaker, as well as to his audiences, is lack of vocabulary. At least, it is to this that he often attributes his hesitancy; he has the facts in mind — of this he is sure. He "knows what he means, but he cannot express himself." 391. Usually the man who takes refuge in this apology deceives himself. Instead of blaming his vocabulary he should say, "Gentlemen, I do not know enough on this subject to talk intelligently about it; pray pardon me for having occupied your time so footlessly;" or, "I have a vague idea that something should be done, but have not yet thought things through." Usually it is lack of ideas, not of words, that interferes with successful speaking. 392. But as we have already pointed out in Chapter IV, a student can do not a little to facilitate the expression of his ideas by making his vocabulary as full and rich as possible. Given the tools, he will probably use them; without them, he will be relatively helpless. The suggestions contained in those earlier sections apply with equal cogency to the problem of the speaker: he should learn as many new words as he TALKING IN PUBLIC 237 can, and use them till they become part of his living vocabu- lary. Words embalmed in a notebook are of no value; only those that live in one's consciousness and grow strong through use are really part of one's equipment. Interestingly enough, too, the task of enlarging a vocabulary by adding a few words each week need not be a bore; it can be made a source of much genuine pleasure. Certainly it is a better way of passing the time on an "L" train or in the subway than puzzHng over the headlines in a neighbor's paper. in. Memory. 393. A poor memory is a handicap to any speaker. Who- ever reads the papers knows how many "memory-doctors" there are in the market, offering to sell formulas and recipes which will enable the buyer to remember the names of all the persons he meets, their telephone numbers, and such worthless bits of information as the populations of the hundred largest cities in the world, The supply of such advertised remedies being abundant, there must be a demand for this sort of commodity; poor memories must be general, and the people who suffer from them must realize that they are at a disadvantage in the business world. 394. Without utterly condemning such methods of memory training, we would point out that the verdict of the psychologist is not flattering to them or their vendors. President Walter Dill Scott, whose work in the psychology of business is known over all the country, says that these systems are '* usually comparatively useless, and are entirely useless except in so far as they assist one in arranging facts systematically and in taking interest in them."^ System, interest: these, the psychologist says, are the greatest aids to memory. What does this mean to the student or business man who wishes to speak in public? J The Psychology of Public Speaking, Pearson Brothers, p. 206. 238 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 395. First of all, the psychologist's emphasis on the value of system merely enforces, from another point of view, what we have said so many times about the value of a plan. As soon as a speaker has formed a systematic plan, a logical plan, in which A leads to B, B to C, and so on, he has lightened the burden on his memory. When there is a logical connec- tion between the various points, or when one suggests its successor, the mind carries over instinctively through the various members of the series. Otherwise the memory alone must be depended upon to bridge the gaps. 396. Moreover, the chances are that while a person is working on his fundamental plan his interest in what he has to say will be growing, and thus in a second way he will be simplifying his task. For whatever makes for interest reUeves the memory. 397. One or two further practical suggestions may be in point. No one should make his task unnecessarily hard. It is almost always unwise to commit a speech to memory. Most people in an audience detect the written out and memorized address, no matter how careful the speaker may be to conceal it. And few people are as much interested in this sort of formal utterance as in the simple, straight- forward talk that comes fresh from the speaker's mind. Moreover, if a speaker has committed his address to memory, he has left himself always open to a sudden collapse — ^than which few things are more mortifying. 398. Indeed, it is usually unnecessary to write out in full even a somewhat formal address, unless one is to read it — a course which should generally be avoided. There is a sort of pleasing honesty about reading a speech; all things con- sidered, it is a better plan than to memorize it and to try to disguise the fact. But when a speaker's eyes are held to his manuscript, he loses contact with the audience, and the very formality of the effort robs it of some of its effectiveness. TALKING IN PUBLIC 239 399. Probably the best plan for the ordinary speaker is to make a fairly elaborate outline, which shall include the facts and figures necessary for the argument. A paragraph outline (see paragraph 262, above) that will give him a sentence for each thought unit is certainly better in this connection than the topic outline. 400. When he has finished this plan, he should talk the speech through. Keeping the outline in front of him, he should go through the whole thing, actually talking out loud if he can. If he must keep silence on account of his neigh- bors, he must at least frame the words mentally, and leave no gaps to be filled in hurriedly when he is before his audi- ence. Let him repeat this ''talking" process once or twice till he has become accustomed to the sound of his sentences. 401. Next let him "boil down" the outline, eliminating the minor points, and talk the speech through once more from this condensed plan, referring to his notes as little as possible. Then will come the final cut in the outline, reduc- ing it to five or six main heads, which can be put on a single card. Let him try it once more, still talking as if to an audience, and see whether these few suggestions are not all that he needs in the way of "reminders." Indeed, if his experience is that of most people, he will not once refer to the card in his hand. 402. But when the time for the speech arrives, there is no need for taking chances with one's nervous system. The complete outline should be on the desk, accessible, but not obtrusive. The chances are that the speaker will forget all about it when he begins to talk, but the fact that it is there will give him confidence. 403. By such simple methods a student can do much to Hghten the task of his memory. Psychologists generally say that it is impossible for a man to increase his natural mental retentiveness. But it is certain that developing an 240 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS interest in a subject, paying attention to the systematic arrangement of what one has to say, and composing the speech in some such way as has been here suggested, will aid a speaker's memory and give him the confidence which is necessary to successful public speaking. IV. " Stage Fright." 404. Fear of a sudden break-down of one's memory is probably the largest element in that strange nervousness which we call "stage fright." Many a man who has spent patient hours in the preparation of his address has found himself unnerved when he stepped before his audience; his knees tremble, his mouth is parched, he longs only for an avenue of escape from the ordeal ahead. 405. To overcome this sort of nervousness is difficult. The mere assertion that you will not be frightened may do some good; perhaps you can hypnotize yourself into thinking that the entire experience will be merely a source of pleasure. But this plan will not work at all with some people. The best advice veteran speakers can give on this matter amounts to little more than this: be so eager to make the speech, so sure of its truth and importance, that you will welcome the opportunity and not dread it. Once again we come back to what we have suggested before: if you have something to say, if you really feel that you must tell this audience something, you will at one stroke wipe away many of the difficulties that might otherwise impede you. The man who is in a hurry for the other fellow to stop so that he himself may get to the platform is virtually immune against the disease. 406. If, then, this common sort of stage fright is some- thing to be mastered by one means or another, there is a second sort of nervousness attendant upon making a speech, which is a good thing. We mean this: unless a man is a TALKING IN PUBLIC 241 little nervous before he begins to talk, the chances are that he is not taking the opportunity seriously enough. It is a serious thing to ask ten — fifty — busy people to stop work and listen to you. Unless you appreciate this fact, and are properly humbled by it, are a little concerned over the out- come, you will do your work less well than you might. But don't let this preliminary nervousness get the better of you. Appreciate the seriousness of your task and the magnitude of your opportunity; approach the platform modestly, but confident that you are master of the situation and that what you have to say will be of interest to your audience. Only through combining a proper humility with an eager self- rehance can you do justice to the occasion. V. Voice. 407. Since this book is not written for professional public speakers, little need be said concerning the use of the voice. The interested student will find it worth his while to consult Chamberlain and Clark's Principles of Vocal Expression (Scott, Foresman and Company), or Nathan Sheppard's Before an Audience (Funk and Wagnalls). Here are only one or two practical suggestions. 408. If the student feels that his voice is too weak for effective speaking, he should practise reading aloud whenever he has the chance. He should read slowly, enunciate care- fully, and pitch the voice a tone or two lower than is habitual. Let him use the best reading and speaking voice he can command, and use it all the time. Breathing exercises will be of some value; reading poetry which demands a variety of expression is also useful. 409. But the best advice is simply not to worry about your voice. Don't force it when you speak; never shout. Talk to some person towards the back of the room, as if no one else were present. If you really have something to say, 242 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS and arrange your ideas well, the listeners will probably forget all about your voice. VI. Enunciation. 410. Except in the case of foreigners, poor enunciation is generally due to simple negligence. It can be corrected by paying attention to the matter as you read, by using your will power, and by practise. The practise, moreover, need not all be vocal. If you are accus'tomed to pronounce the word ''government'' as if it were spelled "govumunt," you can do as much to rid yourself of the habit by silently think- ing the word through, correctly, three or four times, as by uttering the syllables aloud. The important thing is to resolve never to say "govumunt," either to yourself or to an audience. Insist on precision; when you speak to yourself or to others, speak carefully, thoughtfully. If you are the sort of person who talks through almost closed teeth, insist that you open your mouth wider than usual. See whether you can put a pencil between your teeth as you pronounce the vowels. If you can, you will be on the road to improve- ment. Use your will; form as good habits as you can; never allow yourself to slip back into the slovenliness from which you have escaped. VII. Persuasiveness. 411. Finally, we touch upon a large matter: Lack of Persuasiveness. On this subject much that is valuable has already been written, as, for instance, in President Walter Dill Scott's Psychology of Public Speaking (Pearson Brothers), and Influencing Men in Business (The Ronald Press Com- pany). But there are a few simple suggestions that may be of assistance in many ways. 412. First of all, one should remember that most talking done by business men is intended to produce some sort of action on the part of the listeners. If it fails to result in TALKING IN PUBLIC 243 action, it is — unless it be purely entertainment — usually worthless. Now many men who talk well get few results; their arguments are overthrown by a single well-told anecdote or casual suggestion. It is a puzzling phenomenon; men are influenced to act by other things than simple logic. 413. Suppose that you belong to this unfortunate class of men who somehow or other get these unsatisfactory re- sults. What can you do to help yourself? Well, for one thing, remember that the attention of an individual, or of an audience, is a fluctuating quantity. Psychologists have demonstrated the impossibility of keeping the mind firmly on any one subject for many minutes — ^yes, for more than a comparatively few seconds. Hence arises the value of the story that gives the Hsteners a chance to stop thinking for a moment, of the breaks in the argument wliich allow them to relax their mental muscles. 414. You should remember too — and on the significance of this fact you can ponder long — that there are two chief ways of influencing men: by argument and by suggestion. Here again, of course, there is no golden rule of procedure; men react differently to different stimuli; one is "suggest- ible,'' his neighbor is less so. But there are few persons actually proof against subtle suggestion, and there are many on whom argument makes relatively Httle impression. Hence it is the part of wisdom to combine these two things when you are speaking: to let the argument give the reason why, and to clinch it with the suggestion which shall furnish the stimulus to action. If you have the instinct which leads some men unconsciously to employ just this method in their business talking, or if you are willing to observe successful speakers, to see how they make the adjustment between the two factors, and are willing to think things out in advance as we have urged you to do, the chances are that you will find your own powers steadily increasing. 244 THE ENGLISH OF BUSINESS 415. To sum it all up, then: the person who talks in public will find that his chief insurance against failure lies in knowledge of his subject and in careful planning before the event. If he can then fortify himself for the actual speech by realizing both the seriousness of his task and the oppor- tunity it offers, and is skillful in relieving his argument by appropriate anecdote and in clinching it with timely sugges- tion, he may look forward confidently to a greater and more satisfying success. EXERCISE 2. Prepare and give before the class a talk of ten minutes on one of the following subjects: 1. A vacation experience. 2. An interesting book which you have recently read and which you wish to recommend to your classmates. 3. Suggestions for the improvement of the school athletics. 4. Why Chemistry (or any other science) should be studied by girls. 5. Proposals for enlarging the school paper. 6. What I owe to the Boy Scouts (or some similar organization). 7. The lessons of the recent football season. 8. How to improve the social life of the school. 9. The organization of a business office with which you are familiar. 10. Why a young man (or woman) interested in business should have a college education. 11. Your favorite make of automobiles. 12. The merits of (some article of merchandise which you imagine yourself to be selling). 13. The value of good English to a business man. 14. How to pitch a tent. 15. How to make^ a cooking-fire out of doors. 16. How to make hay. 17. How to make a tennis court. 18. The way to train for some field or track event. 19. The game of chess (or checkers). 20. How to care for an automobile. 21. A model dairy (or stock farm). TALKING IN PUBLIC 245 22. Marketing a crop (corn, wheat, cotton, etc.). 23. Fraternities in the high school (or college). 24. How to plant potatoes. 25. How to preserve fruit. 26. The value of a course in home nursing. 27. First-aid for high-school students. 28. The importance of ventilation in the schoolroom. 29. How to entertain children. APPENDIX. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. Though this book is addressed primarily to students who are looking forward to business as a career, and is perhaps best adapted to use in courses in business writing, it can easily be made the foundation of any ordinary course in English Composition. In courses of either type the services it may render are of two sorts: it may be used as a text-book for its body of organized theory and its exercises, and it may be used as a manual for the correction of themes. Little need be said here of the first of these possible services. As to the second use, the numbering of the paragraphs and the provision of a detailed table of contents and index will make it easy for the teacher to guide the student in the revision of his themes merely by inserting a marginal reference to the pertinent paragraph of the text. One caution, however, is in point here: the student must be required to make the correc- tion himself. It will do little good for the instructor to place a ''103" in the margin and thus to refer to the paragraph deahng with the "dangling participle," unless after his attention has been called to the error the student revises the sentence himself. In this connection some sort of composition notebook will prove of immense assistance — a book in which students can keep records of their owti errors, with the necessary correc- tions, compile lists of new words, preserve their own work, and file mimeographed copies of unusually good compositions and additional exercises. Finally, it cannot be urged too strongly that throughout the course the student must do a considerable amount of 247 248 APPENDIX writing if he is to derive full benefit from his work. " Study- ing" a text-book on composition, committing to memory- good advice about sentence structure or the writing of letters, will be of little avail unless this studying is accom- panied by constant practise in writing. CHAPTER I. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH IN BUSINESS. The first chapter may very well be made the basis of a general classroom discussion. Such questions as "Why are you interested in business English?" "What sort of writing does a man have to do in the business you hope to enter?" "What business firms whose advertisements you read seem to pay most attention to their EngHsh?" "Kow does the abihty to speak well help Mr. (some business man you know)? " ''What bothers you most when you write (or speak)?" — questions like these will be inter- esting to almost everyone and will give the teacher a chance both to enforce the value of good English and to illustrate the necessity of a thorough mastery of fundamentals. In revising the written exercises asked for in Chapter I, it may be well not to pay too much attention to the niceties of sentence structure or paragraphing. Flagrant mistakes in grammar and usage should of course be pointed out, but the chief purpose of the chapter is not to teach the pupils how to write, but to open their eyes to the fact that good writing has a place in good business. CHAPTER II. MATTERS OF FORM. This chapter may be entirely omitted by advanced classes, or used as a basis for rapid review and subsequent correction of stu- dents' errors. The most important section, and the only one that need occupy much time, is that on Punctuation. Here the aim of the authors has been two-fold : to state succinctly the principles of present-day punctuation, illustrating everything; and to furnish an abundance of exercises for classroom drill and discussion. CHAPTER III. GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES. Inevitably some students will need more drill in the fundamentals of grammar than others. If a class shows that it does not need APPENDIX 249 special review, the pages of this chapter may well be turned rap- idly, after judicious selections from the different exercises have shown the students' grasp of the subject. For such advanced students, as well as for those whose early training has been deficient, the exercises will be of value only if the students are required to give precise reasons for the changes they make or the forms they select to fill in blanks. Many a person who instinctively knows how, is puzzled to tell why; but though he may instinctively be right, he will usually be less inde- pendent, and in the long run will make more errors, than the stu- dent who can give his reasons. The average class will probably omit almost entirely the "Glos- sary of Grammatical Terms." It is included, however, for the sake of the occasional student who is a laggard not because of unwill- ingness to work, but because he is actually ignorant of the mean- ing of the few technical terms which seem absolutely necessary in any discussion of grammar. CHAPTER IV. A BUSINESS MAN'S VOCABULARY. It will be apparent that Chapter IV does not bring the student far on the road toward the mastery of "Business" EngUsh. The advice here given, and the problems presented, will be as useful to the young person who is sure not to go into business, as to the one who has a position awaiting him. But no time will be wasted by insisting that the boy or girl who is in a hurry to write busi- ness letters spend some days or weeks in working carefully through this preliminary material. Of course, if the chapter is to accomplish its purpose, the study of the suggestions it presents must be accompanied by abundant and constant practise in writing. It is easy to convince a young man that his supply of words is inadequate; it is harder to inter- est him in enlarging it. Much can be done by insisting that each member of the class keep in his composition notebook a list of new words, and that he add to this list each week during the course, no matter what the immediate subject before the class may be. These new words should, of course, be discussed in the classroom, so that all students may have the benefit of each one's work.. And the words should be living words — not those which would rarely if ever occur in conversation or general writing. Furthermore, the student should be led to use these new acquisitions in his own work. 250 APPENDIX The habit of looking over his hst of words before beginning to write each new theme, and if possible, as a supplement to this, the habit of consulting the Hst in Roget's Thesaurus (accessible in Everyman's Library), will soon make themselves felt in a grati- fying increase in his power of expression. In connection, too, with the work on this chapter, the instructor will probably require each student to procure a dictionary. Class- room exercises in using a dictionary will furnish pleasant variations from ordinary work, and at the same time will illustrate the value of the dictionary to anyone who speaks or writes. CHAPTER V. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES. No apology is necessary for advising the teacher to spend a con- siderable amount of time on the fundamentals of sentence structure. Of all the elements of composition, the sentence is, for the beginner at least, the most important. It is the thought-unit of virtually all writing. The fact that most of the exercises seem contrived primarily to illustrate common errors, and not to stimulate directly the student's ability to write, is not such a serious objection to the method of this chapter as it might appear. Experience shows that for one reason or another many pupils reach high school and college without any instinctive feeling for the fundamentals of sentence structure. Such persons need the simplest sort of instruction, instruction based on sound theory, and illustrated constantly by practica' examples. This combination of theory and practise, the present chapter suppHes. Needless to say, much effective study of sentences can be car- ried on in connection with larger problems. Short themes, simple business letters, reports on different phases of school activity: these and many other devices may be used to stimulate interest, at the same time that the primary matters of sentence construc- tion are receiving the weight of attention. No teacher will be satisfied, however, with a mere correction of his students' errors. For the writing of sentences that are not only negatively correct but positively effective, much more is nec- essary — ^the possession of subject-matter which stimulates the writer's interest and arouses all of his powers of mind, and, above all, perhaps, a habit of constantly reading good prose. It cannot be too strongly urged that good writing— even good "business" APPENDIX 251 writing — can come only from a mind that has absorbed a large amount of good reading, and has thought long and closely upon it. "Outside reading" in, say, the essays of Stevenson and Macaulay, the short stories of Kipling, and the more technical exposition of such men as Bryce or Huxley, and occasional analysis in class of selected pages from these and other writers, should, therefore, be a regular part of the course. CHAPTER VI PARAGRAPHS. The method of this chapter is consistent with that of the whole book: first, to place before the students the ideals of all good writing; and second, to develop the special technique of business. Accordingly, there is little in the chapter which would be out of place in a general course in composition, and nothing which is not of value to the prospective business man or woman. Some persons may doubt whether the "topic sentence" method of paragraph development will ever prove useful to the writer of business letters. As we point out in the text, the conventions of the business letter are different from those of the essay, and the business man will surely take some liberties with the general prin- ciples of paragraphing. But the student who in his school work forms the habit of writing paragraphs around a definite topic sen- tence will profit by it when he later takes up the problems of the business office. He will have developed a feeling for the unity and coherence of a paragraph, and will unconsciously weave into his letters the qualities which once he labored to impart to his school exercises. To this end, the students should be required to under fine the 'topic sentences in all themes written after the subject of paragraphs is introduced. This requirement, in addition to the exercises pro- vided in the text, will do much to develop their sense of the para- graph as a logical and effective unit. CHAPTER VII. THE WRITING OF ARTICLES AND REPORTS. The value of this chapter will depend to a considerable extent upon the way the class is led to put into practise the suggestions here given. It will do little good to commit to memory advice about taking notes, for instance; but the student who has actually 252 APPENDIX used the method outlined in the chapter for the preparation of his report, will be benefited by his experience. Many teachers have found that for the purpose of adequately guiding a class in such work, the process may be carried on much as follows: 1. Announce a list of topics from which each student can choose one in which he is interested. (See the suggestions on page 188.) 2. Ask the students to present preliminary lists of books or ar- ticles which they think will aid them in their work. Little atten- tion should be paid to bibliographical form at this stage; the im- portant thing is to see to it that the class learns how to use a library. 3. Explain the ' 'loose-leaf " or ''card" method of taking notes, and require each student to present for criticism half a dozen actual notes which he has gathered for his report. Make sure that the students know what they are doing, and are not working blindly. 4. When the note-taking is virtually complete, require a prelimi- nary outline. 5. This first outline should be revised with care. 6. When a revised outline has been approved, the student is ready to begin writing the report. 7. Last of all, the teacher will insist that when the finished article is handed in, it be accompanied by an adequate bibhography and furnished with footnotes. Of course, such an exercise may be made either elaborate or simple. For most classes the subjects for investigation should in- volve the use of only five or six reference works which can easily be secured at any public library. The important thing is for the class to learn the method of all investigation, so that when in the future more elaborate problems present themselves the students can bring to their solution a certain amount of experience and mental equipment. The list of subjects suggested for reports may be brought up to date and enlarged by any instructor who will turn for sugges- tions to the topical entries in the Reader's Guide. For training in the organization of material few things will be more profitable than the analysis in class of good prose, under the direction of the instructor. It is one thing to tell a class that structure, proportion, balance, are necessary to well-written articles; it is quite another, and far more worth while, for the class to dis- cover these qualities in the works they read. APPENDIX 253 CHAPTER VIII. A BUSINESSMAN'S CORRESPONDENCE. Some classes in Business English may not know enough about the actual transaction of business to use all parts of this chapter with intelligence. For such students there is enough non-technical material which they can comprehend, and the very attempt to master the rest will do something to dispel the prevailing ignorance. In any case, the first problem will be to get the students into the state of mind of business men. To this end the class may well be divided into groups of four or six persons, in each of which one- half shall represent the buyer, and one-half the seller. These small groups should work out their problems jointly, consulting about the letters they write. The device of establishing "firms" will sometimes stimulate interest which might otherwise flag. Prob- lems intimately connected with the experience of the students them- selves can thus be presented and solved. The material of the chapter may be so expanded by the instructor as to cover as much time as he thinks fit; if used in its present form, without additional exercises, it will insure at least an ac- quaintance with the most important principles, and the best prac- tise, of busmess letter writing. To be of the most value, the chapter should be taken up in con- nection with actual practise on the typewriter. If this is impos- sible, the teacher will see to it that the letters written in long-hand conform as closely as possible to the ideals of the best typed cor- respondence. Naturally, the school in which it is possible to in- clude courses in the elements of Business Law, Banking, Sales- manship, Psychology, Business Arithmetic, Bookkeeping, etc., will be in a position to gain most from this treatment of Business Correspondence. Finally, the teacher will realize that this chapter makes no at- tempt to treat in detail the many special problems of business correspondence. The examples of well-written letters (paragraph 359) are only what they pretend to be, illustrations of successful practise. The underlying principles of all business correspondence are discussed in some detail; but the class which has time to go into an elaborate study of, say, sales-letters, will need the guidance of a more advanced text-book. 254 APPENDIX CHAPTER IX. TALKING IN PUBLIC. Some teachers will probably wish to use this chapter near the beginning of a course, and to make the suggestions it contains the basis of short talks by members of the class, distributed over the entire semester. Such use of the chapter will in no way interfere with the orderly development of the remaining material in the book. Wherever the matter is taken up, the class should be encour- aged frankly to criticize the work of their fellows, particularly as regards the structure of the different "oral themes." If time per- mits, the students should hand in outlines of their talks two or three recitations in advance, to the end that they may be criti- cized and revised. INDEX [ The numbers refer to paragraphs. The individual items of the Glossary of Grammatical Terms, pp. 73-80, are not entered.] Abbreviations, to be used sparingly, 22; punctuation of, 25, 73; lists of, 26; abbreviations for names of states not to be used on envel- opes, 295 "A-b-c" series, punctuation of, 56 Accord {of his own), 123 Accordingly, not a coordinate con- junction, 177 According to {in accordance with), 123 Ad, 152 Adams, John, 382 Adaptation of words to subject- matter, 160-163; to reader, 164- 169 Address, introductory, in letters, 307; punctuation of, 313 Addresses, public, the best way to prepare, 399-403 Adjustment letters, 359 Affect, effect, 152 Agree {with, to, among), 123 Agreement of pronoun with ante- cedent, 86, 188; of verb with subject, 96 Already, 152 Alright, 152 Ambiguity, use of comma to pre- vent, 63 Analysis of material, use of cards in, 243, 379 And at beginning of sentence, 125 Anecdotes, value of, 413 Angry {at, with), 123 AnnuM Magazine Subject Index, 245 Apostrophe, uses of, 66-68, 69 Apphcation, letters of, 359 Apposition, punctuation of words in, 58-60 Articles and Reports, the prepara- tion of, 236-285; helps in gather- ing material, 245; note-taking, 248-254; analysis of material, 255-256; outlines, 257-264; im- portance of unity, coherence, and proportion, 274-275; bibli- ographies and footnotes, 276-285 As, case of pronouns after, 94; dis- tinguished from like, 121, 152 Attention, fluctuation of, 413 Auto, 152 Averse to, 123 Balance, 152 Beecher, Henry W., 387 Bibliographies, directions for pre- paring, 276-278 Blame on, 152 Body of business letter, 316 Book Review Digest, 245 Brackets, square, when used in quotations, 82 Brevity as an aid to emphasis, 201 Business Digest and Investment Weekly, 245 Business English and Uterary Eng- lish, 3-4 255 256 INDEX Business letters, 286-359; im- portance of, 286-287; general principles, 289; envelopes, 291- 296; paper, 297; letter-heads, 298-301; heading, 303; saluta- tion, 314; body, 316; compli- mentary close, 317; signature, 318; specimen letters, 322, 359 But at beginning of sentence, 125; punctuation before in compound sentences, 55 But what, 152 Can, misused for may, 152 Cannot help, 123 Capitalization of first word in a line of poetry, 32; of direct quota- tions, 32; of titles of books and articles, 33; miscellaneous rules for, 34; for emphasis, 35 Cardinal numbers, hyphen with, 72 Case of pronouns, how deter- mined, 87-94 Catchwords on notes, 251 Certain whom (not as to whom), 123 Claim, 152 Clauses, punctuation of dependent, 58-60 Clearness in letters, 343-352 Clear thinking, need for in public speaking, 373-389 Climax as an aid to sentence em- phasis, 198; to paragraph empha- sis, 229 Close, complimentary, 317 Coherence, in the sentence, 184- 196; violated by misplaced modifiers, 184-185; by ambigu- ous pronouns, 186-188; aided by parallel structure, 194, 225; in the paragraph, 221-227; aided by arrangement of sentences, 221; by use of connective and transi- tional phrases, 222-223 ;by repeti- tion, 226; in articles and re- ports, 274 Collection letters, 359 Colon, use of, 47, 53 Comma, use of, 49, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63 Common nouns, possessive case forms of, 66 Compare (to, with), 123 Completeness as a quality of good letters, 351 Complete-sentence outline, 264 Compound sentences, punctua- tion of, 54, 176-177 Compound subject, number of verb with, 101 Compound words, when hyphen- ated, 72 Conclusions, 271 Concrete and specific words, value of, 161-162 Condensation, value of, 167, 350 Conjunctions, 118-121; confusion of coordinating and subordinat- ing, 119 Connective devices between para- graphs, 268-269 Connectives, position of, in clause, 224 Conrad, Joseph, quoted, 136 Consist (in, of), 123 Contents, tables of, 273 Conventional phrases in business letters, 337-338, 341 Coordinate series, punctuation of, 56 Correctness as a quality of good letters, 352 Correspond (to, with), 123 ''Dangling participle," 103, 190 Dash, single, use of, 50, 53 Dashes, double, use of, 51, 61 Dates on letters, to be written out, 305 INDEX 257 Deal {in, with), 123 Declarative sentence, terminal punctuation of, 43 Dependent elements not in coordi- nate series, punctuation of, 57-60 Depew, Chauncey M., 371 "Dictated but not read," 321 Diction, faulty, 152 Dictionaries, 19, 20, 131 Differ {from, with), 123 Different, 152 Don't and doesn't, confusion of, 96 Dotted line for dates and signa- tures, not to be used, 300, 321 Due to, ungrammatical use of, 107, 191-192 Each, number of verb after, 102 "Earliest convenience," 338 Either, neither, number of verb after, 102 Emphasis, capitalization or italics for, to be sparingly used, 35, 76; in the sentence, 197-203; aided by position, 198; by vividness of phrasing, 199; by brevity, 201; by repetition, 202; in the paragraph, 228-229; in articles and reports, 274 Enclosures in business letters, how indicated, 320 Endings of business letters, 317- 322 English, reasons for studying, 1-11 Enthuse, 152 Enunciation, suggestions for the improvement of, 410 Envelopes for business letters, stock for, 291-292; sizes, 291- 292; methods of addressing, 293; abbreviations for names of states not to be used on, 295; "Return card, "296 Equally as, 123 Esquire, use of, 309 Everybody, number of verb after, 102 Exclamatory sentence, terminal punctuation after, 45 Exercises, after paragraphs 14, 21, 30, 53, 55, 56, 60, 62, 63, 68, 76, 83, 86, 94, 102, 107, 112, 116, 117, 121, 125, 131, 135, 137, 139, 140, 142, 152, 158, 163, 165, 168, 174, 175, 177, 180, 183, 185, 188, 193, 195, 203, 206, 212, 214, 219, 224, 227, 229, 235, 247, 254, 264, 275, 278, 285, 315, 323, 342, 352, 358, 359, 368, 389, 415 Farther, aU the, 152 Faulty diction, 152 First sentence in a letter, impor- tance of, 338 Footnotes, directions for prepar- ing, 279-285 Foreign words, 166 Form letters, 323 Fractions, hyphen with, 72 Fragmentary sentences, 174 Franklin, Benjamin, 9, 167, 382, 383; quoted, 350 Friendly letters, 360-368; arrange- ment on page, 361; close and signature, 361; salutation, 363; stationery, 365; specimens, 367 General truths, tense in statements of, 116 Gent, 152 Gerund, incorrect use of without noun of agency, 104; without possessive, 105 Get it, 152 Good use, test of, 330 Gotten, 152 Grammatical difficulties, 84-125 Grammatical terms, glossary of, after paragraph 125 258 INDEX Hackneyed phrases, 150-151 ; caution against use in business letters, 337-338, 341 Had ought, 152 Headings of letters, 303; spacing of, 306 Hence not a coordinating conjunc- tion, 177; punctuation before, in compound sentence, 54 Homely words, value of, 139, 155; list, 139 Honorable, 310 However not a coordinating con- junction, 177; position of in clause, 224 Huxley, T. H., 155 Hyphen, use of, 70, 71, 72 Idioms, 122-125 Imperative sentences, terminal punctuation of, 43 Indefinite pronouns, case forms of, 87 Indention to mark paragraphs, 208, 316 Indexes, 273 Industrial Arts Index, 245 Infinitive phrases, punctuation of, 58-60 Infinitive, "split," 184 Initials, identifying, in business letters, 319 Intelligent, intelligible, 152 Interest as an aid to memory, 396 Interrogative pronouns, case forms of, 87 Interrogative sentences, terminal punctuation of, 44 Introductions, 271, 272 Introductory sentences of letters, 338; specimens, 339 Invitations, formal, 368 It, number of verb in sentence introduced by, 100 Italics, indicated in manuscript by one underline, 40; with titles of books and names of ships, 74; with foreign words, 75; for em- phasis, 76 It's, 68 Kipling, Rudyard, 155; quoted, 161 Later, latter, 152 Letter-heads, 298-301 ; unnecessary printing on, 300; dotted line for date not to be used on, 300; specimens, 301 Letter paper, 297 Letters. See Business Letters and Friendly Letters Lie, lay, 117 Like, misused for as or as though, 121, 152 Lincoln, Abraham, 9, 373 Loan, lend, 152 Locate, 152 Loose, lose, 117 Lots of, 152 Macaulay, T, B., 155 Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press), 39 Memorizing an address usually un- wise, 397-398 Memory, 393-403 Messrs., 308 Ministers, how addressed, 311 Modern Punctuation: its Utilities and Conventions (Summey), 39 Modifiers, should stand as closely as possible to word modified, 184 Moneys, abbreviations for, 26 Moreover not a coordinating con- junction, 177 Most, 152 Namely, punctuation before arid after, 53 INDEX 259 "Natural order," punctuation of modifiers in, 59-60 Negative letters, to be avoided, 356 Neither, 152; number of verb after, 102 None, number of verb after, 102 Note-cards, use of in analyzing one's ideas, 243, 379 Notes, value of system in taking, 250; "loose leaf," or card, system best, 248, 250; impor- tance of putting only one point on each card, 250, 252; value of a general heading or catchword, 251; "quotation" and "anal- ysis" notes, 252; form of refer- ences, 253; specimen notes, 254 Numbers, 27-30; at beginning of sentence, 28; when expressed in figures, 29; when spelled in full, 30 Off of, 123, 152 Omission of letters indicated by apostrophe, 69 Only, often misplaced, 184 Onto, 123, 152 Order, importance of in para- graphs, 221 Ordinal numbers, hyphen with, 72 Outlines, 257-264; tests for proper subdivision in, 258, 260; use of terms "Introduction," "Body," and "Conclusion," 258; illogical division into one subpoint, 259; topical outline, 258; paragraph outline, 261-263; complete-sen- tence outline, 264 Over-punctuation, 63 Palmer, G. H., 156 Paragraph outline, 261-263 Paragraphs, 207-235; marked by indention, 208; dual nature of, 211; ideals of, 213-229; unity, 214-220; topic sentence, 215-216; methods of development, 218; test of adequacy of development, 219; coherence, 221-227; empha- sis, 228-229; length of paragraphs in articles and reports, 266-267; in business letters, 207, 212, 231, 348-349; caution against paragraphs of one sentence, 233; spacing between paragraphs in business letters, 316; connecting finks between paragraphs, 268- 269 Parallel structure as an aid to sen- tence coherence, 194; to para- graph coherence, 225 Parenthesis marks, use of, 51, 61 Parenthetical expressions, punc- tuation of, 61-62 Participial phrases, punctuation of, 58-60; with force of prepositions or conjunctions, 106 Participles, rules for correct use of, 103, 190 Particularization, punctuation of sentence containing, 53 Party, 152 Passive voice, ineffective use of, 200 Personal pronouns, case forms of, 87 "Personal style," 336-342 Persuasiveness in speech, 411-415 Phone, 152 Plan as an aid to paragraph coher- ence, 227; in articles and re- ports, 257-264; in letters, 344- 347; in speeches, 389 Position of modifiers in the sen- tence as a factor in punctuation, 59-60; position as an aid to sentence emphasis, 198 Possessive case, punctuation of, 65- 68 Practical, practicable, 152 260 INDEX Precision in use of words, 136-138 Prejudiced against (prejudicial to), 123 Preposition at end of sentence, 125 Prepositional phrases, punctuation of, 58-60 Professor, use of as title in letters, 312 Pronouns, 85-94; case forms of, 87; case of, determined by use in sentence or clause, 87-94; special difficulties in determining the case of relative pronouns, 92; case after than or a^, 94; coher- ence violated by ambiguities in the use of, 186-188; possessive of it not it's, 68 Proof, confused with evidence, 152 Proper names ending in s, posses- sive form of, 67 Proportion, importance of, 275 Proposition, 152 Proven, 152 Punctuation, 36-83; books on, 39; marks of, 40; function of, 41; of sentence as a whole, 42-45; to indicate internal structure of sentence, 46-63; word punctua- tion, 64-76; of quotations, 77-83 Quite, 152 Quotation marks, use of, to set off titles of articles, etc., 74; to set off slang, technical terms, etc., 75 Quotations, direct, punctuation of, 78-83; indirect, 77 Readers' Guide, 245; Supplement, 245 Reading an address usually unwise, 398 Reconcile (to, with), 123 References on note-cards, 253 Regards, as (in regard to), 123 Relative pronouns, case forms of, 87; uses of, 88; special diffi- culties in determining the case of, 92-93 Repetition as an aid to emphasis, 202; ineffective, 203; as an aid to paragraph coherence, 226 Reports. See Articles and Reports Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers, punctuation of, 58-60 "Return card," 296 Rise, raise, 117 Roget's Thesaurus, 137 Roosevelt, Theodore, 381, 383 Said, 152 "Sales-letter," every letter a, 353- 358 Sales-letters, specimen of, 359 Salutations, 314 Same, 152 Scott, Walter Dill, 394, 411 Sections, division of an article into, 270 Self-cultivation in English (Palmer), 156 Semicolon, use of, 48, 53, 54, 56, 176, 177 Sentences, 170-206; definitions, 170; unity of destroyed by punctuation of dependent clauses or phrases as complete sentences, 174; by faulty punctuation be tween main clauses, 176-177; by inclusion of unrelated ideas in same sentence, 180; by failure to subordinate minor ideas, 181- 183; coherence of, weakened by misplaced modifiers, 184-185; by ambiguous pronouns, 186- 188; by ungrammatical modi- fiers, 189-193; by shifts in con- struction, 194-195; emphasis of, secured by giving most impor- tant ideas most important posi- INDEX 261 tions, 198; by use of fresh and vivid words, 199; by use of ac- tive voice, 200; by condensation, 201; by repetition, 202 Sentence structure, principles of, how far modified in business writing, 205-206 Sequence of tenses, 113-116 Series, coordinate, punctuation of, 56 Set, sit, 117 Shall and will, general uses of, 108; in questions, 110 Should and would, uses of in simple statements, 109; in conditional clauses. 111; special uses of, 112 Signatures in business letters, 318 Simplicity and directness, value of, 163 Simplified spelling, 21 ; first list of 300 words issued by the Ameri- can Simplified Spelling Board, 21 Slang, 143-149; indicated by itahcs or quotes, 75 So not a coordinating conjunction, 177; punctuation before, in com- pound sentence, 54 Spacing in business letters, 306 Spelling, 15-21; simplified, 21 Spencer, Herbert, 201 " Split comparison, " 195 "Split infinitive," 184 "Stage-fright," 404-406 States, abbreviations for names of, 26; caution against using on en- velopes of business letters, 295 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 155 Subordination of unimportant ideas in a sentence, 181-183 Sub-titles as an aid to clearness in articles and reports, 270 Such, 152 Suggestion, importance of, 374, 413 Summey, George, 39 Supplement to Readers' Guide, 245 Suspicion, 152 Swift, Jonathan, 381 S5nion3m[is, value of studying, 137 Talking in pubHc, 369-415 Technical terms, 166; use of ital- ics or quotes to indicate, 75 Technical vocabulary, value of, 140 Tenses, sequence of, 113-116 Than, case of pronouns after, 94 That (as adverb), 152 Then not a coordinating conjunc- tion, 177 There, number of verb in sentences introduced by, 100 Therefore not a coordinating con- junction, 177; punctuation be- fore, in compound sentences, 54 Tired (of, with), 123 Titles, military, academic, etc., ab- breviations for, 26; of books and articles, capitalization of, 33; punctuation of, 74 Topical outUne, 258 Topic sentence, 215-216; in busi- ness writing, 216 Transition in paragraphs, 222-223; between paragraphs, 268-269 Transpire, 152 Trite expressions, 150-151 Unity in the sentence, 172-183; destroyed through inclusion of too little in the sentence, 174- 175; through inclusion of too much in the sentence, 176- 180; through improper subordi- nation, 181-183; in the para- graph, 214-220, 231; in articles and reports, 274 Useless phrases in business letters, w 341 "Use no unnecessary words," 386 262 INDEX Verbosity in speaking, 385 Verbs, agreement with subject in number and person, 96; number when subject is a collective noun, 97; after expressions introduced by together mth, as well as, etc., 98; in sentences intro- duced by it or there, 100; with compound subject, 101; after ea^h, either, everybody, nei- ther, none, etc., 102; participial and gerund forms of, 103-107; shall and will, etc., 108-112; sequence of tenses, 113-116; principal parts, 117 Vividness as an aid to emphasis, 199 Vocabulary, ideal of a good, 130- 140; shortcomings of the aver- age, 141-152; methods of enlarg- ing, 153-158, 392; adaptation of, to subject and reader, 159-169; for speaking, 390-392 Voice, suggestions concerning the use of, 407-409 Wait for (not on), 123, Want in, 134 Weights and measures, abbrevia- tions for, 26 Wherefore not a coordinating con- junction, 177 Which, to be avoided as an adjec- tive, 124 While, misuse of, 120 Who and whom., confusion of, 92- 93 Without (as conjunction), 152 Woolley, E. C, quoted, 17 Wordiness, illustrations of, 168 Word punctuation, 64-76 Words, present, reputable, and national use of, 132-135 Writing as an aid to thinking, 377 "You-attitude," the, 324-335 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN TmS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. ociijm^Mi IJO AH PC P T. LD 21-100m-12,'43 (8796s) YB 69145