Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

This kind of succession is called a _series_. Each new member gives a new idea, the comma being used to help the reader to separate one from the next with ease. Notice that the comma is used between the last two members before the coördinate conjunction as well as between the other members. 2 Dear Sir:[1] You can make no mistake in buying BCL Power Co. bonds now the company supplies power to mines and towns of Colorado Utah and Idaho it furnishes electric light and power to Ophir Ouray Ames Pandora and other towns in Colorado in Utah it supplies light to Mescal Eureka Provo Logan and Bingham it also furnishes power for the street railway systems of Salt Lake City Farmington and Ogden. The bonds offer such good security good interest and ready convertibility that we expect our allotment to be heavily oversubscribed will you therefore send us your order before Monday. Yours truly, 3 Imagine the scene: a little hollow in the prairie forming a perfect amphitheater the yellow grass and wild oats grazed short a herd of horses staring from the slope I myself standing in the middle like a ring-master in a circus and this wonderful horse performing at his own free will. He trotted powerfully he galloped gracefully he thundered at full speed he lifted forelegs to welcome he flung out hind legs to repel he leaped as if springing over bayonets he pranced and curvetted as if he were the pretty plaything of a girl and finally he trotted up and snuffed about me--just out of reach. 4 Dear Madam:[4] Our Style Book shows you the best of the season's styles for ladies misses and children it contains illustrations of the latest kinds of long coats of skirts in the most fashionable cuts and materials of hats that are new and particularly becoming and of dresses with the newest sleeves and collars we are especially sure that you will like our waists they are artistic in design stylish in cut and excellent in workmanship they are selected from the leading fashion centers are the creations of the best costumers and always have individuality twenty years of selling goods by mail have given us experience skill and knowledge that make it certain we can please you. The enclosed coupon is good for fifty cents on a five dollar order one dollar and twenty-five cents on a ten dollar order and two dollars on an order for fifteen dollars or more this offer expires September 30. Yours truly, 5 Increased wages shorter hours and perhaps lower efficiency for the hours worked have done more to raise the cost of living than almost anything else this higher cost of production we see on the farm in the factory in transportation in merchandising and even in domestic service we cannot double the cost of excavating brick-laying plumbing and decorating and expect not to double the rents that we must pay the cost of building has increased as the demands of laborers increased as their hours of work decreased and as their wages advanced the materials that go into a building the transportation of that material the labor of assembling it and the labor of fashioning it into a building have all advanced in price. Moreover, high living has a great deal to do with the high cost of living because it has made most of us think that we must have more conveniences more luxuries more clothes and more amusements than our fathers had with a return to the thrift of our fathers with a return to their desire for work we shall no longer feel the grip of the high cost of living there is a real danger to our nation in our extravagance in our indifference to cost in our sweep toward ease and idleness and in our growing antipathy for work. =Exercise 175= Write five sentences illustrating series of words; five illustrating series of phrases; and five illustrating series of clauses. =Exercise 176= Write the following from dictation: 1 THE GOVERNMENT'S LAUNDRY Some of the paper money in circulation is so dirty that one feels the need of gloves in handling it, and the suspicion that it is germ laden might well be verified. It has often been said that money spreads contagious diseases, nor can such a statement be questioned when one remembers that money goes into every kind of home and is handled by many infected persons. The government has long felt that something should be done to lessen this means of spreading disease, and a machine has finally been invented that will wash and iron the dirtiest bills until they look almost as fresh as new ones. The entire cost of operating the device is hardly fifty cents for each thousand bills, but it is estimated that it will save the government as much as a million dollars a year. 2 LUCK AND LABOR Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up; labor with keen eyes and strong will turns something up. Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman would bring him news of a fortune; labor turns out at six o'clock and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines; labor whistles. Luck relies on chance; labor on character.--_Cobden._ The selections given above illustrate the compound sentence. Notice the thought expressed in these sentences. There is usually an idea of balance or contrast, and the two halves of the sentence express the two halves of the idea. The two members are usually distinct enough to require a comma before the conjunction. If the conjunction is omitted, a semicolon must separate the two members, as in the second selection above. =Rule 3.--The comma is used before the coördinate conjunction in a compound sentence. If the conjunction is omitted, a semicolon must be used.= =Exercise 177= Separate the following into compound sentences and punctuate: 1 Sawdust as a fire extinguisher sounds absurd but recent experiments in Boston have proved it to be successful in quenching fires in tanks of oil and other inflammable liquids the Boston experiments were conducted with tanks of burning varnish but the same principles seem to apply to tanks of burning oil the floating sawdust forms a blanket that shuts off the air from the flames and the lack of oxygen causes the fire to die out the experiments were tried with both wet and dry sawdust and the dry material seemed to extinguish the fire as quickly as the wet. 2 Select the kind of business that suits your natural inclination and temperament some men are naturally mechanics others have a strong aversion to machinery because they do not understand it some men are imaginative others are purely practical some prefer active work others like sedentary employment all should select those occupations that suit them best. 3 Certain Western railroads have long felt the need of a new material for sleepers and they have been experimenting for some time past with cocobolo or Japanese oak the wood is so hard that it is almost impossible to drive spikes into it and screwed spikes in bored holes are used these sleepers will cost a trifle more than those made from American oak but they are expected to last twenty-five or thirty years the reason for experimenting with foreign woods is that native oak is becoming scarce and it is deemed wise to search in time for a substitute. 4 Dear Sir: We wrote you on the third but as yet no word has come of your decision in regard to the investment you were considering at 475 Second Avenue let us have your order and we shall at once prepare the contract of sale the building is an especially attractive offering at $9,500 and we feel sure that you will find the return from it unusually large. Yours very truly, =Exercise 178= When an adverbial clause or a participial adjective phrase is put at the beginning of a sentence to secure emphasis, it is called an _initial_ clause or participial phrase. A comma separates it from the independent clause to help the reader to see where the subordinate idea ends and where the main idea begins. Rewrite the following from dictation, noticing the punctuation of initial elements: If a city is to be kept in good condition, every citizen must pay his share of the expense. If the dreadful epidemics are to be exterminated, there must be a good board of health to see that everything is kept sanitary. When the health officers do their work well, the health of the city improves. In order that the decrees of the health department and of the courts may be enforced, there must be a good police department. Besides having these advantages, cities need good streets and good schools. Because all of these good things cost a great deal of money, high taxes must be levied to pay for them. =Rule 4.--An initial clause or participial phrase must be set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma.= =Exercise 179= Punctuate the following: 1 Although cotton seed used to be considered worse than rubbish there now come from it every year millions of dollars in profit. Formerly if it was not hauled away to rot it was usually dumped into a neighboring stream and there it did much harm even if we had the space it would be impossible to explain all the products now made from the seed paper and an excellent meal for cattle may be made from the hulls but the most important products are made from the kernels besides making meal for cattle they are readily converted into crude oil according to the degree of refining that it receives this oil may appear as oil for miner's lamps lard compounds or salad oils as an illustration of the way in which modern manufacturers utilize former waste products the cotton seed is supreme. 2 When you sell your old clothes to the ragman do you know that they come back to you as writing paper because the metal buttons buckles and hooks that are often left on the garments cannot be converted into paper they used to be a source of annoyance to the papermaker although the cloth sorters tried to remove them before the garments went into the pulp vats some were overlooked if any found their way into the pulp they tore holes in the paper and often damaged the rollers in order that such danger may be avoided the pulp is now passed through a series of magnetized rakes as the rakes are passed to and fro every bit of metal clings to them when a quantity of such bits of iron is collected it is sent to the foundry to return to us in many new forms. 3 Dear Sir: Investigating your complaint of the fifth instant we found that the furniture which you ordered on the tenth of last month left our factory on the fifteenth if all had gone well you would have received the articles on or about the twentieth as you surmised the delay in the arrival of the goods is due to a mistake on the part of the railroad company although the goods were properly billed to you they were allowed to go on to Columbus if you do not receive them within ten days' time let us hear from you again. Yours truly, 4 Dear Sir: Complying with your request of the 10th inst. I am sending you particulars of the property which I wish to sell as I told you when I was in your office last week the price at which I am holding the building is $20,000 if the buyer prefers not to assume the mortgage of $10,000 I think I can get the mortgagee to agree to accept present payment for the note that he holds against me unless the buyer agrees to pay the unpaid taxes for last year and the assessments levied for improvements already made I shall not consider a sale. After all preliminary arrangements are made if you will prepare a contract of sale and forward it to me I will have the abstract brought down to date and secured by a guaranty policy. Since I presume that the prospective purchaser has examined the property and is satisfied to pay the price for it in its present condition I would suggest that you do nothing more toward securing bids for rebuilding the porches. Yours very truly, =Exercise 180= Write five sentences containing initial participial phrases. Write five sentences containing initial adverbial clauses. =Exercise 181= The comma is used to separate the month from the year, the city from the county or state, the company from the place in which it is operated, or the like; as, In December, 1912, I wrote to you from Seattle, Washington. This use of the comma indicates that words have been omitted, the sentence above really meaning, In December of the year 1912 I wrote to you from Seattle in the state of Washington. The same use is shown in such sentences as, Of the three stenographers Mary received fifteen dollars a week; Ellen, twelve; Susan, ten. =Rule 5.--The comma is used to indicate the omission of words.= Supply the necessary commas in the following: