Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

and re-testing them until he can apply them to his company's needs. Write four sentences illustrating Rule 10. =Exercise 188= Punctuate the following letters, supplying a heading and an introduction for each: 1 Dear Madam: We wish to acknowledge your letter of recent date assuring you that we thank you for the opportunity you have given us of opening a monthly charge account in your name. We shall spare no effort to make every transaction as satisfactory as possible hoping thus to merit a liberal share of your patronage. Our bills are rendered on the first of each month being payable between that date and the fifteenth. Yours very truly, 2 Dear Mr. Warner: In reply to your inquiry I am sending the following information assuring you that I am glad to be of service to you. The Lancaster Company has apparently abandoned its plan of erecting a new building this year difficulties having arisen it is said in their securing a suitable location. About two years ago the firm purchased a site on the corner of Harrison and Second streets but they sold it again last year taking advantage of a decided rise in real estate values. It is understood we believe that the company will build in the near future even now having two or three possible sites under consideration. Sincerely yours, 3 Dear Sir: We offer you the benefits and privileges of our Special Charge Account whereby purchases may be paid for in weekly or monthly installments. You will find this a most convenient arrangement because it permits you to have a charge account without the usual hardship of payment at a fixed time. Moreover a Special Charge Account costs you nothing since our prices are the same whether you pay cash or have purchases charged. Please fill out the enclosed application blank mailing it to us to-day. You will no doubt enjoy reading the enclosed booklet as it gives much interesting information on fashion tendencies. The illustrations too are unusually attractive although they hardly do justice to the beautiful garments that we sell. Yours truly, =Exercise 189= Study the punctuation in the following selections from _The Wall Street Journal_; then write them from dictation: 1 TROUBLE IN INTRODUCING STEEL "Strange as it now seems," said one of Carnegie's "young men," now the vice-president of a large and prosperous corporation in New York, "in the early days of the steel industry we had the greatest difficulty in the world in weaning the old manufacturers away from the use of wrought iron, though they admitted the superiority of steel. They would look at it, test it, and agree that it seemed to possess all the desirable qualities claimed for it, but it was more or less untried by time, and they preferred to stick to the old wrought iron, with which they were familiar. "I remember one old chap with whom I had wrestled long, but in vain, coming into my office and picking up a long, soft steel rivet, which had been bent double and hammered flat. "'How many did you break in making this?' he asked, picking it up and examining it curiously. "'That's the first one we hammered over, and, what is more to the point, we can do it with all steel of that type,' I replied. "The polite incredulity in his face stirred my professional pride, and I said, 'If I let you go to the mills, pick out a dozen of those rivets just as they come from the rolls, and hammer them with your own hands, will you use that steel hereafter, if it comes up to the test?' "He said he would, and the rest was easy, for it is much easier not to break than to break that kind of steel. Before long the old man came back with perspiration dripping from the end of his nose but with the light of conviction shining in his eye. The firm had a new customer." 2 CONSERVATION Leslie M. Shaw, former Secretary of the Treasury, was in New York, attending a meeting of a board of which he is a member. Something was said about the present-day discussion of money power, and Shaw said that it reminded him of a speech he had made in Seattle in the campaign of 1896. "I was speaking to a filled hall and had almost finished," said Shaw, "when a long-whiskered man arose about the middle of the hall and held up his hand, saying he wanted to ask a question. "'Go ahead,' I said. "'How, then, Mr. Speaker, do you explain the unequal distribution of wealth?' was his question. "When I answered him with, 'In the same way that I explain the unequal distribution of whiskers,' bedlam broke loose. "As soon as I could get quiet restored, I said: 'Now don't think I returned the answer I did to make fun of your whiskers. You will observe that I have no whiskers, as I dissipate them by shaving them off. Nature gives me abundance of whiskers, and, if I conserved them as you do, I also should be abundantly supplied. Now, it is the same way with money. The man who conserves his money has more than his share, as with whiskers; while the man who dissipates his money is without his allotment.'" =Exercise 190--The Semicolon (;)= The semicolon is used between the propositions of a compound sentence when no coördinate conjunction is used. (See Exercise 176, 2.) It is not work that kills men; it is worry. It is important not to overdo this use of the semicolon. Do not use it unless the two principal clauses of the sentence taken together easily form one idea. Especial care must be taken not to confuse coördinate conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. The following are conjunctive adverbs: _then_, _therefore_, _consequently_, _moreover_, _however_, _so_, _also_, _besides_, _thus_, _still_, _otherwise_, _accordingly_. When they are used to join principal clauses, they should be preceded by a coördinate conjunction or a semicolon; as, Fruit was plentiful, and therefore the price was low. Fruit was plentiful; therefore the price was low. When there is a series of phrases or clauses, each of which is long and contains commas within itself, the sentence becomes clearer if the members of the series are separated by semicolons instead of by commas; as, You know how prolific the American mind has been in invention; how much civilization has been advanced by the steamboat, the cotton-gin, the sewing-machine, the reaping-machine, the typewriter, the electric light, the telephone, the phonograph. Write the following from dictation: 1 No man can deny that the lines of endeavor have more and more narrowed and stiffened; no one who knows anything about the development of industry in this country can fail to have observed that the larger kinds of credit are more and more difficult to obtain, unless you obtain them upon the terms of uniting your efforts with those who already control the industries of the country; and nobody can fail to observe that any man who tries to set himself up in competition with any process of manufacture which has been taken under the control of large combinations of capital will presently find himself either squeezed out or obliged to sell and allow himself to be absorbed.--Woodrow Wilson: _The New Freedom._ 2 If the total amount of savings deposited in the savings banks were equally divided among the population of the country, the amount apportioned to each person in 1820 would have been twelve cents; in 1830, fifty-four cents; in 1840, eighty-two cents; in 1850, $1.87; in 1860, $4.75; in 1870, $14.26; in 1880, $16.33; in 1890, $24.75; in 1900, $31.78; in 1910, $45.05, and it is steadily increasing. Remember the fact that the population had increased from 10,000,000 in 1820 to over 90,000,000 in 1910; the "rainy day" money, therefore, assumes gigantic proportions. 3 In Germany, says _The Scientific American_, wood is too expensive to be burned, and it is made into artificial silk worth two dollars a pound and bristles worth four dollars a pound; into paper, yarn, twine, carpet, canvas, and cloth. Parquet flooring is made from sawdust; the materials may be bought by the pound and then mixed, so that the householder can lay his own hardwood floors according to his individual taste and ingenuity. 4 The country gentlemen and country clergymen had fully expected that the policy of these ministers would be directly opposed to that which had been almost constantly followed by William; that the landed interest would be favored at the expense of trade; that no addition would be made to the funded debt; that the privileges conceded to Dissenters by the late king would be curtailed, if not withdrawn; that the war with France, if there must be such a war, would, on our part, be almost entirely naval; and that the government would avoid close connections with foreign powers and, above all, with Holland.--_Macaulay._ =Exercise 191--The Colon (:)= The colon is always used to indicate that something of importance follows, usually an enumeration or a list of some kind, or a quotation of several sentences or paragraphs; as,