Part of Speech Overview

In the English language, words can be considered as the smallest elements that have distinctive meanings. Based
on their use and functions, words are categorized into several types or parts of speech. This article will offer
definitions and examples for the 8 major parts of speech in English
grammar:  noun, pronoun, verb, adverb,adjective, conjunction, preposition, and interjection.

1. Noun
This part of a speech refers to words that are used to name persons, things, animals, places, ideas, or events.
Nouns are the simplest among the 8 parts of speech, which is why they are the first ones taught to students in
primary school.

Examples:

 Tom Hanks is very versatile.

 The italicized noun refers to a name of a person.
 Dogs can be extremely cute.
 In this example, the italicized word is considered a noun because it names an animal.
 It is my birthday.
 The word “birthday” is a noun which refers to an event.
There are different types of nouns namely:

 Proper– proper nouns always start with a capital letter and refers to specific names of persons, places, or
things.
 Examples: Volkswagen Beetle, Shakey’s Pizza, Game of Thrones
 Common– common nouns are the opposite of proper nouns. These are just generic names of persons,
things, or places.
 Examples: car, pizza parlor, TV series
 Concrete– this kind refers to nouns which you can perceive through your five senses.
 Examples: folder, sand, board
 Abstract- unlike concrete nouns, abstract nouns are those which you can’t perceive through your five
senses.
 Examples: happiness, grudge, bravery
 Count– it refers to anything that is countable, and has a singular and plural form.
 Examples:  kitten, video, ball
 Mass– this is the opposite of count nouns. Mass nouns are also called non-countable nouns, and they need
to have “counters” to quantify them.
 Examples of Counters: kilo, cup, meter
 Examples of Mass Nouns: rice, flour, garter
 Collective– refers to a group of persons, animals, or things.
 Example: faculty (group of teachers), class (group of students), pride (group of lions)
This great list of nouns can help you explore more nouns.
2. Pronoun
A pronoun is a part of a speech which functions as a replacement for a noun. Some examples of pronouns are: I, it,
he, she, mine, his, hers, we, they, theirs, and ours.
Sample Sentences:

 Janice is a very stubborn child. She just stared at me and when I told her to stop.
 The largest slice is mine.
 We are number one.
The italicized words in the sentences above are the pronouns in the sentence.

3.  Adjective
This part of  a speech is used to describe a noun or a pronoun. Adjectives can specify the quality, the size, and the
number of nouns or pronouns.

Use this link to get a list of adjectives.

Sample Sentences:

 The carvings are intricate.

 The italicized word describes the appearance of the noun “carvings.”
 I have two hamsters.
 The italicized word “two,” is an adjective which describes the number of the noun “hamsters.”
 Wow! That doughnut is huge!
 The italicized word is an adjective which describes the size of the noun “doughnut.”
4. Verb
This is the most important part of a speech, for without a verb, a sentence would not exist. Simply put, this is a word
that shows an action (physical or mental) or state of being of the subject in a sentence.

Examples of “State of Being Verbs” : am, is, was, are, and were

Sample Sentences:

 As usual, the Stormtroopers missed their shot.

 The italicized word expresses the action of the subject “Stormtroopers.”
 They are always prepared in emergencies.
 The verb “are” refers to the state of being of the pronoun “they,” which is the subject in the sentence.
5. Adverb
Just like adjectives, adverbs are also used to describe words, but the difference is that adverbs describe adjectives,
verbs, or another adverb.

The different types of adverbs are:

 Adverb of Manner– this refers to how something happens or how an action is done.
 Example: Annie danced gracefully.
 The word “gracefully” tells how Annie danced.
 Adverb of Time- this states “when” something happens or “when” it is done.
 Example: She came yesterday.
  The italicized word tells when she “came.”
 Adverb of Place– this tells something about “where” something happens or ”where” something is done.
 Example:  Of course, I looked everywhere!
 The adverb “everywhere” tells where I “looked.”
 Adverb of Degree– this states the intensity or the degree to which a specific thing happens or is done.
 Example: The child is very talented.
 The italicized adverb answers the question, “To what degree is the child talented?”
6. Preposition
This part of a speech basically refers to words that specify location or a location in time.

Examples of Prepositions: above, below, throughout, outside, before, near, and since

Sample Sentences:

 Micah is hiding under the bed.

 The italicized preposition introduces the prepositional phrase “under the bed,” and tells where Micah is
hiding.
 During the game, the audience never stopped cheering for their team.
 The italicized preposition introduces the prepositional phrase “during the game,” and tells when the audience
cheered.
7. Conjunction
The conjunction is a part of a speech which joins words, phrases, or clauses together.

Examples of Conjunctions:  and, yet, but, for, nor, or, and so

Sample Sentences:

 This cup of tea is delicious and very soothing.

 Kiyoko has to start all over again because she didn’t follow the professor’s instructions.
 Homer always wanted to join the play, but he didn’t have the guts to audition.
The italicized words in the sentences above are some examples of conjunctions.

8. Interjection
This part of a speech refers to words which express emotions. Since interjections are commonly used to convey
strong emotions, they are usually followed by an exclamation point.

Examples of Interjections:

Sample Sentences:

 Ouch! That must have hurt.

 Hurray, we won!
 Hey! I said enough!
The bold words attached to the main sentences above are some examples of interjections.

Final Thoughts
You must familiarize yourself with the different parts of speech discussed in this article because they are among the
most fundamental concepts that you will encounter throughout your study of grammar. An in-depth knowledge of this
topic will not only make you a better writer, but an effective communicator as well.

CLAUSES

A clause is a subject and a predicate working together.

Examples
I took the dog to the park.
The example has one subject, I, and one predicate, took. Since they are working together to form a comprehensible
sentence, this sentence has one clause.
I love learning, so I spend a lot of time reading.
This example has two predicates: love and spend. Since they are each working together with separate subjects, this
sentence has two clauses.

PHRASES

A phrase is a group of words related to the subject, predicate, or object. Phrases do not contain a subject and
a predicate, or we would call them clauses. Phrases provide additional information about subjects, predicates, and /
or objects, and understanding how they work is helpful to building an analyzing sentences.
Examples
After working late into the night, Jack fell asleep on his desk.
The emboldened portion of the sentence exemplifies the phrase. It provides additional information about our
subject, Jack, but the sentence does not require this information to be grammatically complete.
I left my keys inside of the Whole Foods, my favorite grocery store.
In this example sentence, the predicate is left and the subject is I. On the other side of the sentence we have a
phrase that provides additional information about the object of the sentence Whole Foods. Note that a phrase can
come at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.

VERB TENSES
The tense of a verb tells you when a person did something or when something existed or happened. In English,
there are three main tenses: the present, thepast, and the future.
 The present

The present tense (e.g. I am, she works, we swim, they believe) is also called the present simple or simple
present. It's mainly used in the following ways:
to describe things that are currently happening or that are currently or always the case (I love chocolate ice cream;
my parents are in New York this week; hehas fair hair and blue eyes; some birds eat worms and insects).
 to talk about something that exists or happens regularly (she goes out every Saturday night; it alwaysrains here in
winter; I start work at 7.30 a.m.).

 to refer to a future situation in certain cases and in some subordinate clauses (the bus arrives in London at 6 p.m.;
I'll make us some coffee when we get home).

 Find out how to form the present simple tense.

 THE PAST

The past tense (e.g. I was, he talked, we had, they worked) is also called the past simple or simple past. As its
description implies, it’s used to talk about things or situations which happened in the past, that is, before the present
time of speaking. Its main uses are as follows:

to refer to an event or situation which happened once and is now finished (I met Lisa yesterday; we ate a huge
breakfast this morning; they walked ten miles that day; you told me that before).

 to describe a situation that lasted for a longer time in the past but is now finished (he went to college for four years;
my  family lived in Oxford in the 1980s;  I loved her for ages but never told her).

 to talk about an event that happened regularly or repeatedly but is now over (she called for help over and over
again; we ate out every night last week; Iphoned him three times today).

 Find out how to form the past simple tense.

THE FUTURE

The future tense (e.g. I shall [or will] go; he will talk; we shall[or will] have; they will work) is used to refer to things
that haven’t yet happened at the present time of speaking, but which are due, expected, or likely to occur in the
future.  Here are the main situations in which the future is used:
to give or ask for information about the future (youwill be in California tomorrow; how long will the journeytake?;
OK,  I’ll write that report on Thursday).

 to talk about things that we think are likely or possible to happen in the future, but which aren’t completely certain (I
think she’ll retire soon; he won’t [will not]stay married to her for long; you’ll never lose weight, you like food too
much).

 to refer to conditional situations, namely things that will or may happen if something else occurs (if it’s hot I’ll
go swimming later; you’ll get stressed out if you work all the time).
 to make promises or threats, or to state decisions at the time of speaking (Fine, I’ll call you soon; Are you going
into town? We’ll give you a lift; I’ll never speak to you again).

 The future tense is formed with will (or shall) and the infinitive of the verb without ‘to’. Learn more about when to
use will or shall.

 CONTINUOUS AND PERFECT TENSES 

There are two further types of tense: the continuous and the perfect. These tenses are sometimes referred to
asaspects rather than tenses. The term aspect is used in grammar to talk about the form of a verb that shows, for
example, whether the action happens once or repeatedly, is completed or still continuing.
 CONTINUOUS

These tenses (also called progressive tenses) are used to talk about actions that continue for a period of time.
They are formed with the relevant tense of the auxiliary verb  to be and the present participle of the main verb. There
are three main continuous tenses:
the present continuous (I am working)
 the past continuous (I was working)

 the future continuous (I will be working)

 PERFECT
Perfect tenses are typically used to talk about actions that are completed by the present or a particular point in the
past or future. They are formed with the relevant tense of the auxiliary verb to have and the past participle of the
main verb. There are three main perfect tenses:
the present perfect (I have worked)
 the past perfect (I had worked)

 the future perfect (I will have worked)

 PERFECT CONTINUOUS

There is a final set of tenses which combine features of the perfect and continuous tenses. They are formed and
used as follows:

the present perfect continuous (I have been working): used to talk about how long something has continued up till
now (I have been working there for a week)
 
the past perfect continuous (I had been working): used to talk about something which continued up to a particular
moment in the past but is now completed (I had been working there for a week before I resigned)
 the future perfect continuous (I will have been working): used to talk about something which is expected to end by
a particular time in the future (By December, I will have been working there for 6 months)

Modal Verbs

Modal and Modal Phrases (Semi-Modals)

A modal is a type of auxiliary (helping) verb that is used to express: ability, possibility, permission or obligation. Modal
phrases (or semi-modals) are used to express the same things as modals, but are a combination of auxiliary verbs and
the preposition to. The modals and semi-modals in English are:

1. Can/could/be able to
2. May/might
3. Shall/should
4. Must/have to
5. Will/would

Can, Could, Be Able To

Can, could and be able to are used to express a variety of ideas in English:

Ability/Lack of Ability

Present and Future:

can/can’t + base form of the verb

1. Tom can write poetry very well.

2. I can help you with that next week.
3. Lisa can’t speak French.
am / is / are / will be + able to + base form of the verb
am not/ isn’t / aren’t/ won’t be + able to + base form of the verb

1. Mike is able to solve complicated math equations

2. The support team will be able to help you in about ten minutes.
3. I won’t be able to visit you next summer.

Past:

could / couldn’t + base form of the verb

1. When I was a child I could climb trees.

was / were + able to + base form of the verb
wasn’t / weren’t + able to + base form of the verb
hasn’t / haven’t + been able to + base form of the verb
 1. I wasn’t able to visit her in the hospital.
2. He hasn’t been able to get in touch with the client yet.
Note: Can and could do not take an infinitive (to verb) and do not take the future auxiliary will.

 Incorrect: I can to help you this afternoon.

 Correct: I can help you this afternoon.
 Correct: I will (I’ll) be able to help you this afternoon.

Possibility / Impossibility

can / can’t + base form of the verb

1. You can catch that train at 10:43.

2. He can’t see you right now. He’s in surgery.
could + base form of the verb

1. I could fly via Amsterdam if I leave the day before.

Ask Permission / Give Permission

Can + Subject + base form of the verb (informal)

1. Can you lend me ten dollars?

Can + base form of the verb (informal)

1. You can borrow my car.

Could + subject + base form of the verb (polite)

1. Could I have your number?
2. Could I talk to your supervisor please?

Make a suggestion – To make a suggestion use:

Could + base form of the verb (informal)

1. You could take the tour of the castle tomorrow.

Exercises: Can, Could, Be able to

Fill in the correct form of can, could or be able to as in the examples.

1. Ben could not help his little brother with his homework yesterday.

2. Can I call you later tonight?

1. _______ Tony run long distances when he was a boy?

2. ______ you please call a tow truck for me? My car broke down. (polite)
3. The students _______ to buy their textbooks today. The bookstore is all out of them.
4. ______ you teach me how to fix my computer? You’re so good at it.
5. ______ you ______ reach the customer if you call him at 4:00 his time?
Answers:

1. Could
2. Could
3. aren’t able
4. Can
5. Will/be able to

May, Might
Formal Permission / Formal Prohibition

may / may not + base form of the verb

1. You may start your exam now.

2. You may not wear sandals to work.

Polite Request

May + subject + base form of the verb

1. May I help you?

Possibility / Negative Possibility

may/ might + base form of the verb

1. We may go out dinner tonight. Do you want to join us?

2. Our company might get the order if the client agrees to the price.
may not / might not + base form of the verb

1. Adam and Sue may not buy that house. It’s very expensive.

2. They might not buy a house at all.

To Make a Suggestion (when there is no better alternative)

may as well / might as well + base form of the verb

1. You may as well come inside. John will be home soon.

2. We might as well take Friday off. There’s no work to be done anyway.

Polite Suggestion

might + base form of the verb

1. You might like to try the salmon fillet. It’s our special today.

Exercises: May / Might
Fill in the correct form of may or might as in the example.

1. May I sit here?

1. They ______ finish the project on time. The main engineer is ill.
2. You _____ want to stop by the museum gift shop on your way out.
3. _____ I have your autograph?
4. He _______ visit the Louvre. He’s in Paris anyway.
5. You ______ park your car here. It’s reserved for guests of the hotel only.
Answers:

1. might not
2. might
3. May
4. may as well
5. may not

Shall, Should, Ought to

To Offer of Assistance or Polite Suggestion (When you are quite sure of a positive answer)

Shall + subject + base form of the verb

1. Shall we go for a walk?
Note: Shall is only used with I or we. It is used instead of will only in formal English.

To Offer of Assistance or Polite Suggestion (When you are not sure of a positive answer)

Should + subject + base form of the verb

1. Should I call a doctor?

A Prediction or Expectation that Something Will Happen

should/shouldn’t + base form of the verb

1. The proposal should be finished on time.

2. I shouldn’t be late. The train usually arrives on time.

To Give Advice

should / ought to + base form of the verb

1. You should check that document before you send it out.

2. You ought to have your car serviced before the winter.
To Give Advice (about something you think wrong or unacceptable)

shouldn’t + base form of the verb

1. James shouldn’t teach him words like those.

Exercises: Should, Shouldn’t, Ought To

Fill in should, shouldn’t or ought in the following sentences as in the example.

1. He shouldn’t encourage such bad behavior.

1. You _____ get your teeth cleaned at least once a year.

2. The house ______ be ready to move into by next month. It’s almost finished.
3. Ron ________ to improve his attitude. If he doesn’t, he might get fired.
4. ________ I get your jacket? It’s cold in here.
5. You ________ put your feet on the table. It’s not polite.
Answers:

1. should
2. should
3. ought
4. shall
5. shouldn’t

Must, Have to, Need to, Don’t have to, Needn’t

Necessity or Requirement

Present and Future:

must / have to / need to + base form of the verb

1. You must have a passport to cross the border.

2. Elisabeth has to apply for her visa by March 10th.
3. I need to drop by his room to pick up a book.

Past:

had to / needed to + base form of the verb

1. I had to work late last night.

2. I needed to drink a few cups of coffee in order to stay awake.
Note: have to and need to are often used in the same context, but many times, need to is used to express something that
is less urgent, something in which you have a choice.
Almost 100% Certain

must + base form of the verb

1. Thomas has lived in Paris for years. His French must be very good.

To Persuade

must / have to + base form of the verb

1. You must try this wine. It’s excellent.

2. You have to visit us while you’re in town.

Prohibited or Forbidden

must not / mustn’t + base form of the verb

1. You must not drive over the speed limit.

2. You mustn’t leave medicines where children can get to them.

Lack of Necessity

don’t /doesn’t /didn’t + have to + base form of the verb

1. You don’t have to park the car. The hotel valet will do it for you.
2. Tim doesn’t have to go to school today. It’s a holiday.
3. You didn’t have to shout. Everyone could hear you.
needn’t + base form of the verb

1. You needn’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.

Exercises: Must, Have to, Need to, Don’t Have to, Needn’t
Fill in the blanks with one of these modals:
must, must not, have to, has to, don’t have to, doesn’t have to, needn’t as in the examples.
There may be more than one correct answer.

1. Shira doesn’t have to drive to the airport. She’s going by taxi.

2. You must speak politely to the customers.

1. You ______ tell Anna about the party tomorrow night. It’s a surprise! (must not, need to, doesn’t have to)
2. Tina _______ register for her classes on Monday, otherwise she won’t get a place in them. (doesn’t have to,
mustn’t, has to)
3. You ________ send that fax. I’ve already sent it. (must, will have to, don’t have to)
4. A dog ______ get special training in order to be a guide dog. (must, need to, don’t have to)
5. Jeremy _______ get up early tomorrow. His class was cancelled. (mustn’t, doesn’t have to, don’t need to)
Answers:

1. must not
2. has to
3. don’t have to
4. must
5. doesn’t have to

Modals: Will / Would

will / won’t + base form of the verb

1. John will pick you up at 7:00am.

2. Beth won’t be happy with the results of the exam.

Polite Request or Statement

Will / Would + base form of the verb

1. Will you please take the trash out?

2. Would you mind if I sat here?
3. I’d (I would) like to sign up for your workshop.

Habitual Past Action

Would/Wouldn’t + base form of the verb

1. When I was a child, I would spend hours playing with my train set.

2. Peter wouldn’t eat broccoli when he was a kid. He loves it now.

Exercises: will, would

Fill in the blanks with one of the following words: will, won’t, would, wouldn’t.

1. Will you please help me lift this box?

1. I ______ like to order the onion soup please.

2. The manager _______ be pleased to hear that a customer slipped on the wet floor.
3. _______ it be okay if I slept here tonight?
4. When Igor lived in Russia, he ________ call his mother as often as he does now.
5. I can assure you sir, the order ______ be shipped out tonight.
Answers:

1. would
2. won’t
3. would
4. wouldn’t
5. will

Exercises – All Modals

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the following modals:
can, could, be able to, may, might, shall, should, must, have to, don’t have to, need to
– You may have to make the modals negative according to the context of the sentence.
– There may be more than one possibility.

1. He has to take his car to be serviced. The brakes are squeaking.

2. Would you please save me a seat at the dinner event.

1. If you are sick, you ________ go to work. You’ll infect everyone there.
2. Drivers _______ stop at red lights.
3. You _______ finish the proposal today. You can finish it tomorrow.
4. She ______ hear much better with her new hearing aids.
5. ______ I order us a bottle of wine?
6. Sam ______ pick his daughter up from school. She’s taking the bus home.
7. You _____________ smoke here. It’s a smoke-free building.
8. You ________ eat so many sweets. They are bad for you.
9. _________ you mind walking a little faster? We’re going to be late.
10. I’m sorry. I _______ help you. I don’t know how to do it.
Answers:

1. shouldn’t
2. must
3. don’t have to
4. can
5. shall
6. needn’t
7. mustn’t
8. shouldn’t
9. would
10. can’t

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

 the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
 the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
 the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Use of Passive
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is
performing the action.

Example: My bike was stolen.

In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it.

Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:

Example: A mistake was made.

In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a
mistake.).

Form of Passive
Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs)

Example: A letter was written.

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

 the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
 the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
 the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Examples of Passive 

Tense Subject Verb Object

writes a letter.
Simple Present Active: Rita

Passive: A letter is written by Rita.

Simple Past Active: Rita wrote a letter.

Passive: A letter was written by Rita.

Present Perfect Active: Rita has written a letter.

Passive: A letter has been written by Rita.

Future I Active: Rita will write a letter.

Passive: A letter will be written by Rita.

Hilfsverben Active: Rita can write a letter.

Passive: A letter can be written by Rita.

Examples of Passive 

Tense Subject Verb Object

is writing a letter.
Present Progressive Active: Rita

Passive: A letter is being written by Rita.

Past Progressive Active: Rita was writing a letter.

Passive: A letter was being written by Rita.

Past Perfect Active: Rita had written a letter.

Passive: A letter had been written by Rita.

Future II Active: Rita will have written a letter.

Passive: A letter will have been written by Rita.

Conditional I Active: Rita would write a letter.

Passive: A letter would be written by Rita.

Conditional II Active: Rita would have written a letter.

Passive: A letter would have been written by Rita.

Passive Sentences with Two Objects 

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the
subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put
the focus on.

  Subject Verb Object 1 Object 2

 wrote a letter to me.
Active: Rita

Passive: A letter was written to me by Rita.

Passive: I was written a letter by Rita.

As you can see in the examples, adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. That’s why it is usually dropped.

Personal and Impersonal Passive

Personal Passive simply means that the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence.
So every verb that needs an object (transitive verb) can form a personal passive.

Example: They build houses. – Houses are built.

Verbs without an object (intransitive verb) normally cannot form a personal passive sentence (as there is no object
that can become the subject of the passive sentence). If you want to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you
need an impersonal construction – therefore this passive is called Impersonal Passive.

Example: he says – it is said

Impersonal Passive is not as common in English as in some other languages (e.g. German, Latin). In
English, Impersonal Passive is only possible with verbs of perception (e. g. say, think, know).

Example: They say that women live longer than men. – It is said that women live longer than men.

Although Impersonal Passive is possible here, Personal Passive is more common.

Example: They say that women live longer than men. – Women are said to live longer than men.

The subject of the subordinate clause (women) goes to the beginning of the sentence; the verb of perception is put
into passive voice. The rest of the sentence is added using an infinitive construction with 'to' (certain auxiliary verbs
and that are dropped).

Sometimes the term Personal Passive is used in English lessons if the indirect object of an active sentence is to
become the subject of the passive sentence.

Direct and Indirect Speech Rules

  Here we are providing you detailed rules of Direct & Indirect Speech which will be so helpful for Upcoming
SSC Exams .
Direct and Indirect Speech Rules  
There are two ways of reporting the words spoken by a person. We can reproduce the words exactly
spoken or we can express in our own words the substance of what he said. The first of there method is
called Direct speech or Direct Narration. The second is called Indirect Speech or Indirect Narration.
Example:
Direct Speech:  Sandy said to his father, “I need more money”.
Indirect Speech : Sandy told his father that he needed more money.

 The exact words of the speaker which are put within inverted commas are called the  Reported
Speech.
 The verb that introduces the Reported speech is called Reporting Verb. In the above example “said”
is the reporting verb and “I need more money” is the reported speech.

The following points should be observed about these two modes of narration.

 The Direct speech is always enclosed within inverted commas and it always begins with a capital
letter. It is separated from the Reporting verb by a comma.
  In the Indirect Speech, no inverted commas are used and no comma is used to separate the
Reporting Verb from the Reported Speech.

 
TENSE CHANGE - IN - INDIRECT SPEECH

 Present simple tense into Past simple

  Present Continuous tense into Past continuous
 Present Perfect tense into Pas perfect
 Present Perfect Continuous into Past perfect continuous
 Past simple into Past Perfect
 Past Continuous into Past Perfect Continuous
 Past Perfect into Past Perfect
 Future simple, will into would
 Future Continuous, will be into would be
 Future Perfect, will have into would have

 Universal truth or a habitual fact

a) If the Reported Speech expresses a universal truth or a habitual fact, its tense remains  unchanged.
Examples: 

 The teacher said, “The earth revolves round the sun”.

 The teacher said that the earth revolves round the sun.

b) When the Reported Speech contains a time clause and both the main verb and the verb in
the time clause are the simple past, these verbs are left unchanged.
Example: 

 He said, “The boy stuck to his post till his father ordered him to leave”.
 He said that the boy stuck to his post till his father ordered him to leave.

However, if the main verb is in the simple past while the verb in the time clause as in past  continuous, it is
usual to change the main verb to past perfect and leave the verb in the time  clause unchanged:
Example: 

 He said, “Asif slipped when he was trying to board a bus”.

 He said that Asif had slipped when he was trying to board a bus.  
RULES FOR THE CHANGE OF PRONOUNS:
(a) First Person:
Pronouns of the first person are changed into pronouns of the same person as the person
of the subject of the Reporting Verb:
Example: 
(i) I said, “I have done my home work”.
I said the I had done my home work.
(ii) You said, “I have done my home work”.
You said that you had done your home work.
(iii) He said, “I have done my home work”.
He said that he had done his home work.
(b) Second Person:
Pronouns of the second person are changed into pronouns of the same person as that of
the object of the Reporting Verb:
Example: 

 The teacher said to me, “You have not done your work well”.
 The teacher told me that I had not done my work well.

 (c) Third Person:
Pronouns of the third person generally remain unchanged:
Example: 

 I said to you, “He should not be trusted”.

 I told you that he should not be trusted.

When there are two or more third person pronouns in the Indirect Speech, the name of the  person referred
to by each may be written in brackets against each of them to avoid  confusion:
Example: 

 The servant said to his master,“I have told you the truth and I can do no more”.
 The servant told his master that he had told him (master) the truth and he (servant) could do no
more

One has to be little careful while changing the Personal Pronoun “we”. “we” can be retained as “we” or
changed to “you” or “they” depending upon the relationship of the speaker, the person(s) addressed and the
person reporting the speech:
Example: 
(i) He said to me, “We should have tried harder”.
He told me that we should have tried harder.
(ii) He said to you, “We should have tried harder”.
He told you that you should have tried harder.
Conversion of Interrogative Sentences
While changing the interrogative sentences into Indirect Speech, the following rules  should be
observed:

 Change the Reporting Verb into ask, enquire, demand, wonder, want to know, etc.
 Change the Interrogative form into the Assertive form and remove the sign of  Interrogative
 No conjunction is used when the sentence begins with question words like who, whose,
 whom, what, which, when, why, where, how, etc.
  Tenses, pronouns and words denoting nearness are changed according to the rules.

Example: 
(i) She said to me, “What can I do for you, dear?”
She asked me affectionately what she could do for me.
(ii) The old man said to his son, “What harm have I done to you?”
The old man asked his son what harm he had done to him.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

NOTE: We will use the standard of underlining subjects once and verbs twice.

Being able to find the right subject and verb will help you correct errors of subject-verb agreement.

Basic Rule. A singular subject (she, Bill, car) takes a singular verb (is, goes, shines), whereas a plural subject takes
a plural verb.

Example: The list of items is/are on the desk.

If you know that list is the subject, then you will choose isfor the verb.

Rule 1. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The
word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes.

Hasty writers, speakers, readers, and listeners might miss the all-too-common mistake in the following sentence:

Incorrect: A bouquet of yellow roses lend color and fragrance to the room.

Correct: A bouquet of yellow roses lends . . . (bouquet lends, not roses lend)

Rule 2. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, orneither/nor require a singular verb.

Examples:
My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.
Neither Juan nor Carmen is available.
Either Kiana or Casey is helping today with stage decorations.

Rule 3. The verb in an or, either/or, or neither/nor sentence agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it.

Examples:
Neither the plates nor the serving bowl goes on that shelf.
Neither the serving bowl nor the plates go on that shelf.
This rule can lead to bumps in the road. For example, if I is one of two (or more) subjects, it could lead to this odd
sentence:

Awkward: Neither she, my friends, nor I am going to the festival.

If possible, it's best to reword such grammatically correct but awkward sentences.

Better:
Neither she, I, nor my friends are going to the festival.
OR
She, my friends, and I are not going to the festival.

Rule 4. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.

Example: A car and a bike are my means of transportation.

But note these exceptions:

Exceptions:
Breaking and entering is against the law.
The bed and breakfast was charming.

In those sentences, breaking and entering and bed and breakfast are compound nouns.

Rule 5a. Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by such words as along with, as well as, besides,
not, etc. These words and phrases are not part of the subject. Ignore them and use a singular verb when the subject
is singular.

Examples:
The politician, along with the newsmen, is expectedshortly.
Excitement, as well as nervousness, is the cause of her shaking.

Rule 5b. Parentheses are not part of the subject.

Example: Joe (and his trusty mutt) was always welcome.

If this seems awkward, try rewriting the sentence.

Rule 6. In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb.
 Examples:
There are four hurdles to jump.
There is a high hurdle to jump.
Here are the keys.

NOTE: The word there's, a contraction of there is, leads to bad habits in informal sentences like There's a lot of
people here today, because it's easier to say "there's" than "there are." Take care never to usethere's with a plural
subject.

Rule 7. Use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when considered as a unit.

Examples:
Three miles is too far to walk.
Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense.
Ten dollars is a high price to pay.
BUT
Ten dollars (i.e., dollar bills) were scattered on the floor.

Rule 8. With words that indicate portions—e.g., a lot, a majority, some, all—Rule 1 given earlier in this section is
reversed, and we are guided by the noun after of. If the noun after of is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural,
use a plural verb.

Examples:
A lot of the pie has disappeared.
A lot of the pies have disappeared.
A third of the city is unemployed.
A third of the people are unemployed.
All of the pie is gone.
All of the pies are gone.
Some of the pie is missing.
Some of the pies are missing.

NOTE: In recent years, the SAT testing service has considered none to be strictly singular. However, according
to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage: "Clearly none has been both singular and plural since Old
English and still is. The notion that it is singular only is a myth of unknown origin that appears to have arisen in the
19th century. If in context it seems like a singular to you, use a singular verb; if it seems like a plural, use a plural
verb. Both are acceptable beyond serious criticism." When none is clearly intended to mean "not one," it is followed
by a singular verb.
Rule 9. With collective nouns such as group, jury, family,audience, population, the verb might be singular or plural,
depending on the writer's intent.

Examples:
All of my family has arrived OR have arrived.
Most of the jury is here OR are here.
A third of the population was not in favor OR were not in favor of the bill.

NOTE: Anyone who uses a plural verb with a collective noun must take care to be accurate—and also consistent. It
must not be done carelessly. The following is the sort of flawed sentence one sees and hears a lot these days:

The staff is deciding how they want to vote.

Careful speakers and writers would avoid assigning the singular isand the plural they to staff in the same sentence.

Consistent: The staff are deciding how they want to vote.

Rewriting such sentences is recommended whenever possible. The preceding sentence would read even better as:

The staff members are deciding how they want to vote.

Rule 10. The word were replaces was in sentences that express a wish or are contrary to fact:

Example: If Joe were here, you'd be sorry.

Shouldn't Joe be followed by was, not were, given that Joe is singular? But Joe isn't actually here, so we say were,
not was. The sentence demonstrates the subjunctive mood, which is used to express things that are hypothetical,
wishful, imaginary, or factually contradictory. The subjunctive mood pairs singular subjects with what we usually
think of as plural verbs.

Examples:
I wish it were Friday.
She requested that he raise his hand.

In the first example, a wishful statement, not a fact, is being expressed; therefore, were, which we usually think of as
a plural verb, is used with the singular it. (Technically, it is the singular subject of the object clause in the subjunctive
mood: it were Friday.)

Normally, he raise would sound terrible to us. However, in the second example, where a request is being expressed,
 the subjunctive mood is correct.

Note: The subjunctive mood is losing ground in spoken English but should still be used in formal speech and writing.

MODIFIERS

In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure. A modifier is so called
because it is said to modify (change the meaning of) another element in the structure, on which it is dependent.
Typically the modifier can be removed without affecting the grammar of the sentence

What Are Modifiers? How to Use Them Correctly

GRAMMARLY  · 

 Basics

What Are Modifiers?

A working definition for the word “modify” is to change or to alter something. This definition is the same when
considering the purpose of modifiers within a sentence.

A modifier changes, clarifies, qualifies, or limits a particular word in a sentence in order to add emphasis,
explanation, or detail. Modifiers tend to be descriptive words, such as adjectives and adverbs. Modifier phrases,
such as adjective clauses and adverbial phrases, also exist and tend to describe adjectives and adverbs.

To illustrate the power of modifiers, consider the following simple sentence:

Sarah was a sure fit for junior prom queen.

Now consider the same sentence with multiple modifiers added:

The blonde girl named Sarah, who was a foreign exchange student from England, quickly climbed the ladder of
popularity during her junior year, smiling her way through cheerleading and an ASB presidency term she inched
near the top and was a sure fit as junior prom queen.

The additional details in the sentence, by way of modifiers, engage the reader and hold their attention.

Like most writing techniques, modifiers can be brilliant when used correctly and effectively. On the other hand, if
a modifier is used incorrectly, the meaning of the sentence can become blurred or distorted. This is true
with dangling modifiers and other problematic modifiers.

Misplaced Modifiers
One of the most common problems is where to place them. Specifically, modifiers can cause confusion or
unintentional humor in a sentence when they are placed too far from the noun they are modifying. For example,
consider the following sentence:

They bought a car for my sister they call Pumpkin.

In this sentence, Pumpkin is the car’s name, not the sister’s, but this isn’t clear. This confusion and unintentional
humor is the result of a misplaced modifier. To correct this error, move the modifier closer to the noun it modifies:

They bought a car they call Pumpkin for my sister.

 Limiting Modifiers Limiting modifiers such as only and always enforce restrictions on the subject, noun, or
pronoun they immediately precede. The following is a list of other common limiting modifiers:

 Just

 Almost

 Hardly

 At first

 Simply

If a limiting modifier does not precede the subject or noun, the meaning of an entire sentence can change. Notice
the difference in the following sentences:

Only Jessica wants pizza.

This sentence implies that Jessica is the only person who wants pizza.

Jessica wants pizza only.

On the other hand, the sentence above indicates that Jessica wants pizza and nothing else.

The best way to ensure that a limited modifier is used right in a sentence is to consider the meaning that is to be
conveyed and ensure the subject or noun associated with that meaning is placed as close as possible to the
limited modifier.

PRONOUN ANTECEDENT
The word “antecedent” means something that precedes something else. In language, it is the word that
a pronoun refers back to. Since the pronounreplaces the noun, it has to agree in number. So, if theantecedent, or
word that comes before, is singular, then the pronoun that takes its place must also be singular.

The pronoun his refers back to President Lincoln. President Lincoln is theANTECEDENT for the pronoun his.

The pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number. Rule: A singular pronoun must replace a singular noun; a
plural pronounmust replace a plural noun.

Transcript of PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT

PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT What makes the sentence wrong? If anybody wants to succeed in
corporate life, they have to know the rules of the game. If people want to succeed in corporate life, 
they have to know the rules of the game. Solutions: If anybody wants to succeed in corporate life,
he or she has to know the rules of the game. DIRECTION: Select the correct sentence.
A. One of the students must give their oral report tomorrow.
B. One of the students must give his oral report tomorrow.
Here are nine pronoun-antecedent agreement rules.  These rules are related to the rules found in subject-verb
agreement Usage - Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement 7.  Plural form subjects with a singular meaning take a singular
referent.  (news, measles, mumps, physics, etc) 5.  Collective Nouns (group, jury, crowd, team, etc.) may be singular
or plural, depending on meaning 3.  Compound subjects joined by and always take a plural referent.
   Example:
                         Jewelry is uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular referent pronoun Some indefinite
pronouns that are modified by a prepositional phrase may be either singular or plural.  
          
EITHER SINGULAR OR PLURAL: some, any, none, all, most Plural indefinite pronoun antecedents require plural
referents.
         PLURAL: several, few, both, many 
2.  Indefinite pronouns as antecedents
Singular indefinite pronoun antecedents take singular pronoun         In this sentence, the pronoun his is called the
REFERENT because it "refers back."
It refers back to President Lincoln, the ANTECEDENT.  An antecedent is a word for which a pronoun stands.  (ante
= "before“) 8.  Every or Many a before a noun or a series of nouns requires a singular referent. If my sisters or Carol
arrives, ask them to wait. 4.  With compound subjects joined by or/nor, use a plural personal pronoun. 1.  A phrase
or clause between the subject and verb does not change the number of the antecedent. Rule : A singular pronoun
must replace a singular noun; a plural pronoun must replace a plural noun. A pronoun is a word used to stand for (or
take the place of) a noun.
A word can refer to an earlier noun or pronoun in the sentence.

        Example: 6.  Titles of single entities. (books, organizations, countries, etc.) take a singular referent. Jewels are
countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun Jewels are countable; therefore, the sentence has a
plural referent pronoun. Marbles are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun Sugar is
uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular referent pronoun. A number of is plural. The number of is
singular. 9.  The number of vs A number of before a subject: A. Everybody was hoping to have his lottery number
picked.
B. Everybody was hoping to have their lottery number picked.

A. If anyone doesn't like the music I'm playing, they can go somewhere else. 
B. If anyone doesn't like the music I'm playing, he or she can go somewhere else. 
B. DIRECTION: Underline the correct pronoun in the parenthesis.

1. Each member of the committee must submit (their, his) response in writing. 
2. Neither of the girls knew that (her, their) teacher had seen the police report. 
3. Either of the boys may take (his, their) seat in the front of the room. 
4. Every passenger was required to show (his or her, their) ticket.
5. Neither of the boys has done (his, their) homework.
6. A person who is terminally ill has the right to have (his or her, their) wishes regarding life-support respected
7. Any student who wishes to be excused should raise (his or her, their) hand. 8. Nowadays, when a student
graduates from college, (he or she, they) has a better chance of getting a good job than a person with only a high
school diploma does.
9. Neither India nor Pakistan is willing to abandon (their, its) nuclear weapons program
10. All students Have to watch (his or her, 
their) language.

Basic Principle: A pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the text (its antecedent) and must agree in
number — singular/plural — with the thing to which it refers.

The indefinite pronouns anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one,

and nobody are always singular. This is sometimes perplexing to writers who feel
that everyone and everybody (especially) are referring to more than one person. The same is true
of either and neither, which are always singular even though they seem to be referring to two things.

The need for pronoun-antecedent agreement can create gender problems. If one were to write, for instance,
"A student must see his counselor before the end of the semester," when there are female students about,
nothing but grief will follow. One can pluralize, in this situation, to avoid the problem:

 Students must see their counselor before the end of the semester.
Or, one could say
 A student must see his or her counselor. . . .

Too many his's and her's eventually become annoying, however, and the reader becomes more aware of the writer
trying to be conscious of good form than he or she is of the matter at hand.

Trying to conform to the above rule (#2) can lead to a great deal of nonsense. It is widely regarded as being
correct (or correct enough), at the beginning of the twenty-first century, to say

 Somebody has left their bag on the floor.

but many people would object its being written that way because somebody is singular and their is plural. There is a
great deal to be said, however, for using the word their as the gender-non-specific, singular pronoun. In fact, it's
been said already, and you can read all about it at the The University of Texas, where a web-site has been
dedicated to the use of their in this way in the writings of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and other literary
greats. At least it's nice to know you're not alone! Another site dedicated to the "gender-free pronoun" is at Gender-
Neutral Pronoun Frequently Asked Questions.

Remember that when we compound a pronoun with something else, we don't want to change its form.
Following this rule carefully often creates something that "doesn't sound good." You would write, "This
money is for me," so when someone else becomes involved, don't write, "This money is for Fred and I." Try
these:

 This money is for him and me.

 This arrangement is between Fred and him.

Those are both good sentences.

One of the most frequently asked questions about grammar is about choosing between the various forms of
the pronoun who: who, whose, whom, whoever, whomever. The number (singular or plural) of the pronoun
(and its accompanying verbs) is determined by what the pronoun refers to; it can refer to a singular person
or a group of people:

 The person who hit my car should have to pay to fix the damages.

 The people who have been standing in line the longest should get in first.

It might be useful to compare the forms of who to the forms of the pronouns he and they. Their forms are similar:

Subject  Possessive  Object 

 
Form Form Form

Singular he his him

 who whose whom

they their them

Plural
who whose whom

To choose correctly among the forms of who, re-phrase the sentence so you choose between he and him. If
you want him, write whom; if you want he, write who.

 Who do you think is responsible? (Do you think he is responsible?)

 Whom shall we ask to the party? (Shall we ask him to the party?)
 Give the box to whomever you please. (Give the box to him.)
 Give the box to whoever seems to want it most. (He seems to want it most. [And then the clause
"whoever seems to want it most" is the object of the preposition "to."])
 Whoever shows up first will win the prize. (He shows up first.)

The number of people who use "whom" and "who" wrongly is appalling. The problem is a difficult one and it is
complicated by the importance of tone, or taste. Take the common expression, "Whom are you, anyways?" That is
of course, strictly speaking, correct — and yet how formal, how stilted! The usage to be preferred in ordinary speech
and writing is "Who are you, anyways?" "Whom" should be used in the nominative case only when a note of dignity
or austerity is desired. For example, if a writer is dealing with a meeting of, say, the British Cabinet, it would be
better to have the Premier greet a new arrival, such as an under-secretary, with a "Whom are you, anyways?" rather
than a "Who are you, anyways?" — always granted that the Premier is sincerely unaware of the man's identity. To
address a person one knows by a "Whom are you?" is a mark either of incredible lapse of memory or inexcusable
arrogance. "How are you?" is a much kindlier salutation. 

James Thurber
Ladies' and Gentlemen's Guide to Modern English Usage

The only problem most writers have with whose is confusing it with who's, which looks like a possessive but is
really the contraction for who is. In the same way that we should not confuse his with he's (the contraction for he
is or he has), we should not confuse whose with who's.

 Who's that walking down the street?

 Whose coat is this?
 I don't care whose paper this is. It's brilliant!

Whose can be used to refer to inanimate objects as well as to people (although there is a kind of folk belief that it
should refer only to humans and other mammals): "I remember reading a book — whose title I can't recall right now
— about a boy and a basenji."

PUNCTUATION

Punctuation marks are essential when you are writing. They show the reader where sentences start and finish and if
they are used properly they make your writing easy to understand. This section gives practical guidance on how to
use commas, semicolons, and other types of punctuation correctly, so that your writing will always be clear
and effective. There are also sections which offer advice on using punctuation when writing direct speech, lists, or
abbreviations.
 You may find some aspects of punctuation harder to grasp than others (for example, when to use a semicolon or a
colon). Clicking on each heading will take you to a page with more details and full information.
PUNCTUATION JUNGLE

The Seven C’s of Effective Business Communication

The message is said to be effective when the receiver understands the same meaning that the sender was intended
to convey. For any communication in business, in order to be effective, it must have seven qualities. These seven
attributes are called seven C’s of effective business communication. (All these attribute starts with the alphabet
‘C’ so are called 7 C’s)

Seven C’s of Effective Business Communication

1. Correctness
2. Clarity
3. Conciseness
4. Completeness
5. Consideration
6. Concreteness
7. Courtesy

8. Correctness

At the time of encoding, if the encoder has comprehensive knowledge about the decoder of message, it makes the
communication an ease. The encoder should know the status, knowledge and educational background of the
decoder. Correctness means:

1. Use the right level of language

2. Correct use of grammar, spelling and punctuation
3. Accuracy in stating facts and figures

Correctness in message helps in building confidence.

9. Clarity

Clarity demands the use of simple language and easy sentence structure in composing the message. When
there is clarity in presenting ideas, it’s easy for the receiver/decoder to grasp the meaning being conveyed by the
sender/encoder.

Clarity makes comprehension easier.

 10. Conciseness

A concise message saves time of both the sender and the receiver.Conciseness, in a business message, can be
achieved by avoiding wordy expressions and repetition. Using brief and to the point sentences, including relevant
material makes the message concise. Achieving conciseness does not mean to loose completeness of message.

Conciseness saves time.

11. Completeness

By completeness means the message must bear all the necessary information to bring the response you desire.
The sender should answer all the questions and with facts and figures. and when desirable, go for extra details.

Completeness brings the desired response .

12. Consideration

Consideration demands to put oneself in the place of receiver while composing a message. It refers to the use
of You attitude, emphases positive pleasant facts, visualizing reader’s problems, desires, emotions and his
response.

Consideration means understanding of human nature.

13. Concreteness

Being definite, vivid and specific rather than vague, obscure and general leads to concreteness of the message.
Facts and figures being presented in the message should be specif.

Concreteness reinforces confidence.

14. Courtesy

In business, almost everything starts and ends in courtesy. Courtesy means not only thinking about receiver but
also valuing his feelings. Much can be achieved by using polite words and gestures, being appreciative,
thoughtful, tactful, and showing respect to the receiver. Courtesy builds goodwill.

Courtesy strengthen relations.

WRITING GOOD-NEWS AND NEUTRAL MESSAGES

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
LO1 Properly assess the reader's likely reaction to your message.
LO2 Describe the general plan for direct order messages.
LO3 Write clear, well-structured routine requests for information.
LO4 Write direct, orderly, and friendly favorable responses.
LO5 Compose adjustment grants that regain any lost confidence.
LO6 Write order acknowledgments and other thank-you messages that build goodwill.
LO7 Write direct claims that objectively and courteously explain the facts.
LO8 Write clear and effective operational communications.

BAD NEWS MESSAGES IN BUSINESS WRITING

In business writing, a bad-news message is a letter, memo, or email that conveys negative or unpleasant

information—information that is likely to disappoint, upset, or even anger a reader. Also called an indirect
message or a negative message.

Bad-news messages include rejections (in response to job applications, promotion requests, and the like), negative
evaluations, and announcements of policy changes that don't benefit the reader.

A bad-news message conventionally begins with a neutral or positive bufferstatement before introducing the
negative or unpleasant information. This approach is called the indirect plan.

EXAMPLES AND OBSERVATIONS

"It is much, much worse to receive bad news through the written word than by somebody simply telling you, and I’m
sure you understand why. When somebody simply tells you bad news, you hear it once, and that’s the end of it. But
when bad news is written down, whether in a letter or a newspaper or on your arm in felt tip pen, each time you read
it, you feel as if you are receiving the bad news again and again." (Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You
Can't Avoid. HarperCollins, 2007)

SAMPLE BAD-NEWS MESSAGE: REJECTION OF A GRANT APPLICATION

On behalf of the members of the Research & Scholarship Committee, thank you for submitting an application for this
year's Research & Scholarship grants competition.

I’m sorry to report that your grant proposal was among those that were not approved for funding in the spring. With
the reduction in grant funds caused by budget cuts and the record number of applications, I’m afraid that many
worthwhile proposals could not be supported.

Although you did not receive a grant this year, I trust that you will continue to pursue both internal and external
funding opportunities.

THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH OF A BAD-NEWS MESSAGE

"The introductory paragraph in the bad-news message should accomplish the following objectives: (1) provide a
buffer to cushion the bad news that will follow, (2) let the receiver know what the message is about without stating
the obvious, and (3) serve as a transition into the discussion of reasons without revealing the bad news or leading
the receiver to expect good news. If these objectives can be accomplished in one sentence, that sentence can be
the first paragraph." (Carol M. Lehman and Debbie D Dufrene, Business Communication, 15th ed. Thomson, 2008)

BODY PARAGRAPH(S) IN A BAD-NEWS MESSAGE

"Deliver the bad news in the body of the message. State it clearly and concisely, and explain the reasons briefly and
unemotionally. Avoid apologies; they weaken your explanation or position. Try to embed the bad news in a
supporting, not thetopical, sentence of a paragraph. Furthermore, try to embed it in a subordinate clause of a
sentence. The purpose is not to conceal the bad news, but to soften its impact." (Stuart Carl Smith and Philip K.
Piele, School Leadership: Handbook for Excellence in Student Learning. Corwin Press, 2006)

THE CLOSING OF A BAD-NEWS MESSAGE

"The closing of a message containing negative news should be courteous and helpful.

The purpose of the closing is to maintain or rebuild good will. . . .

"The closing should have a sincere tone. Avoid overused closings such as If you have any questions, please don't
hesitate to call. . . .

"Offer the receiver another option. . . . Presenting another option shifts the emphasis from the negative news to a
positive solution." (Thomas L. Means,Business Communications, 2nd ed. South-Western Educational, 2009)

EXAMPLES OF BAD NEWS MEMOS

 
SET 1
 
1)  The following example is problematic for several reasons. First, the bad news is mentioned right away, in the
subject line and in the first sentence. Upon reading this news, the reader might be shocked, will probably be
angry, and may not read the rest of the memo. To prepare the reader and to try to get the reader to
understand the reasoning, the writer should place a buffer and the reasons before the news. Second, this
memo lacks you-attitude and is written from the writer's own viewpoint. Notice that the word "I" is used 8
times. This tone may cause the reader to conclude that the writer doesn't care about him or her. Throughout
the memo, the writer needs to be more concerned about the reader's reactions and opinions.
 
To: 
From: 
Subject: Travel Request Denial
Date: 6 June 1990

I regret to inform you that your request for travel funds to travel to the Syllabus Conference in Santa Clara,
California, has been denied. The university has limited funds available for travel this year and although I know you
really want to go, I can't afford to give you the $1500 you requested (which by the way is a lot to request at this late
date at the current time of this request.
I hope you understand our position because we really want our faculty to be happy. Even though I can't pay for this
trip, I encourage you to apply again for future travel money because I hope to receive more money budgeted for
travel the next fiscal year of 2000/2001.

Thank you again for your request. I always strive to help faculty fund their travels.
 
 
2) The following example  is much more effective. The writer does a good job of using a common ground statement
and placing the reasons before the bad news. In addition, the memo is written with you-attitude. By providing
alternatives and offering to help, the writer shows concern for the reader, who consequently will probably react more
favorably towards the news and the writer.
 
To: 
From:
Subject: Travel Request
Date: 6 June 1990

Thank you for your interest in new, emerging online technologies. The travel committee reviewed your request to
attend the Syllabus Conference in Santa Clara, California in July.

The university increased its travel budget this year by $5,000. However, with the increase in requests we’ve received
and because we are close to the end of a fiscal year, we have used all our travel funds for the year. As much as we
would like to fund your request, we just do not have the money to do so. Remember, though, that if you have
departmental funds available, you may use those. You may also want to check to see if any divisional monies are
still available.

I do hope you will be able to attend the conference. Please contact me if you need help finding another source of
funding.
 
 
 SET 2
 
1) The following example is problematic for several reasons. First, the memo lacks important information, such as
how much the assistantship will be, when the deadline for accepting is, and who to contact for further information.
Second, and probably most important, although the memo is informing the reader of good news, it lacks you-attitude
and positive emphasis. The writer uses first person (I, we, our, etc.) more than second person (you, your), and when
second person is used in this context, it is often in a negative context. After reading the first part of the introductory
paragraph, for example, the reader is probably expecting rejection. Even within the memo, the writer focuses on the
negative, as evident by such statements as "If you don't do well..." and "...you probably don't have enough
information..." Further, the final paragraph lacks a goodwill ending.
 
 
 
To: Jane Doe
From:
Subject:
Date:

We have finally reviewed your application for graduate study at Colorado State University. Due to the large number
of applicants this year, competition was very tough, but luckily, we have recommended you for acceptance.

Also, to keep our students happy, we were fortunate enough to be able to offer a teaching assistantship, whereby
you would work 20 hours a week. This assistantship also comes with a non-resident tuition waiver for the first year. If
you don't do well, though, we cannot give you another assistantship.

It occurred to us that you probably don't have enough information to make a sound decision. The enclosed flyer
provides a detailed description of our Cognitive Psychology Program, including the program of study, degree
requirements, mentorship program, faculty research interests, and laboratory facilities.
Since other qualified students are on a waiting list for admissions, please notify me in writing of your decision to
accept or reject admission as soon as possible.
 
 
 
2) The following is much more effective. The writer maintains positive emphasis throughout the memo, starting with
the good news and concluding with a goodwill ending. Further, the memo contains the important information the
student needs. In case the reader needs further information, though, the writer also includes the phone number to
call. The reader will most likely react more favorably towards the news and the writer of this memo, as compared to
the previous one.
 
 
To: Jane Doe
From:
Subject:
Date:
 

Thank you for your interest in graduate study at Colorado State University. You have been admitted to our Cognitive
Psychology Program beginning with the fall semester of 2000.

The Psychology Department will provide full financial support, including 20 hours a week as a teaching assistant.
This assistantship carries a stipend of $1045 per month, as well as a non-resident tuition waiver. As long as
satisfactory academic progress is made, this assistantship will continue throughout your graduate career at CSU.
The enclosed brochure provides a detailed description of the Cognitive Psychology Program, including the program
of study, degree requirements, mentorship program, faculty research interests, and laboratory facilities.

We hope you will join us this Fall. Your undergraduate record, interests, and experience indicate that you will gain
much new and exciting knowledge at CSU. Please notify me in writing of your decision to accept or reject this offer,
prior to April 15. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 555.555.5555.

PERSUASIVE MESSAGE 
Definition. In the workplace, apersuasive message occurs when a person attempts to convince an individual or
group to take certain specific actions. The two types of persuasive messages in the workplace are sales and
marketing, which are utilized to achieve organizational objectives.

Persuasive Messages in Business Communication

Business professionals believe that powerful messages and marketing campaigns can sway decisions. Yet effective
communicators understand the real persuasion happens through a complex combination of listening, speaking and
tweaking a message over the course of repeated conversations. By learning how to communicate effectively,
professionals can develop the ability to build powerful partnerships within their own organizations while earning the trust of
their customers.

Function

Television and online advertising may represent a company’s most public expression of persuasive messages, but a
complex marketing campaign must include much more interaction with audiences to achieve real effectiveness. Professor
Asha Kaul writes that effective business communication happens when parties enter a long-term cycle that alternates
between speaking and listening. When advertising shouts, customers rarely close deals or switch brands. However, when
communications include clear evidence of a dynamic feedback loop, audiences gain assurance that a speaker
understands their needs.

Considerations
 According to Kaul, many business communication tools have become so focused on broadcasting a consistent message
that managers lose sight of their real objective: to persuade audiences into taking a specific action. Even though
professional marketers might be clear about wanting their prospects to close a deal, Kaul suggests that breaking down the
steps necessary to reach that outcome can help build a series of more persuasive arguments based on customer
feedback.

Features

For messages to truly become persuasive, professionals must learn to listen to their audiences, confirm that they heard
feedback accurately and reflect that feedback in the next wave of communication. If the stakes are relatively low, like
maintaining a brand image for existing customers, marketers may not have to communicate very much. But to get a
customer to switch brands or to try a new solution to a problem, professionals must take a longer view to the challenge of
persuasion. Mixing the message across multiple media has become commonplace, with mass advertising campaigns
supported by online messages and personal interactions with company representatives.

Misconceptions

When professionals fail to listen to customer feedback, “groupthink” can seize a team’s momentum. Interrupting the
feedback cycle or neglecting to give customer reactions a sounding board can create a culture where teams no longer
innovate their messages or their offerings based on customer needs. Marketing teams may believe that changing the
message may yield better results. Unless those changes truly reflect the needs expressed by prospects during the
feedback phase of the communication cycle, professional communication will fail to persuade those prospects into taking
action.

Effects

Thanks to online media and database technology, professional marketers can more closely monitor the effects of the
feedback cycle on their campaigns. Politicians and direct marketers often take the fullest advantage of consumer polls
and online indexes to determine whether adjustments to their messages have taken hold among target audiences.
Counting sales or votes makes it easy to track next actions, but longer-term change may be tougher to measure.
Focusing on short milestones allows communicators to guide their audience through a manageable and measurable
series of smaller changes.

COMPREHENSION
Although word recognition, decoding, and fluency are building blocks of effectivereading, the ability to
comprehend text is the ultimate goal of reading instruction. Comprehension is a prerequisite for acquiring content
knowledge and expressing ideas and opinions through discussion and writing.

Reading is often thought of as a hierarchy of skills, from processing of individual letters and their associated sounds
to word recognition to text-processing competencies. Skilled comprehension requires fluid articulation of all these
processes, beginning with the sounding out and recognition of individual words to the understanding of sentences in
paragraphs as part of much longer texts. There is instruction at all of these levels that can be carried out so as to
increase student understanding of what is read.

Based on research, a strong case can be made for doing the following in order to improve reading comprehension in
students:
 Teach decoding skills
 Teach vocabulary
 Word knowledge
Encourage students to build world knowledge through reading and to relate what they know to what they read
(e.g., by asking "Why?" questions about factual knowledge in text).
 Active comprehension strategies
Teach students to use a repertoire of active comprehension strategies, including prediction, analyzing stories with
respect to story grammar elements, question asking, image construction, and summarizing.
 Monitoring
Encourage students to monitor their comprehension, noting explicitly whether decoded words make sense and
whether the text itself makes sense. When problems are detected, students should know that they need to
reprocess (e.g., by attempting to sound out problematic words again or rereading).
Such instruction must be long term, for there is much to teach and much for young readers to practice. Even so,
there is little doubt that instruction that develops these interrelated skills should improve comprehension.

Decoding
Perhaps it is a truism, but students cannot understand texts if they cannot read the words. Before they can read the
words, they have to be aware of the letters and the sounds represented by letters so that sounding out and blending
of sounds can occur to pronounce words (see, e.g., Nicholson, 1991). Once pronounced, the good reader notices
whether the word as recognized makes sense in the sentence and the text context being read and, if it does not,
takes another look at the word to check if it might have been misread (e.g., Gough, 1983, 1984). Of course, reading
educators have paid enormous attention to the development of children's word-recognition skills because they
recognize that such skills are critical to the development of skilled comprehenders.

As part of such work, LaBerge and Samuels (1974) made a fundamental discovery. Being able to sound out a word
does not guarantee that the word will be understood as the child reads. When children are first learning to sound out
words, it requires real mental effort. The more effort required, the less consciousness left over for other cognitive
operations, including comprehension of the words being sounded out. Thus, LaBerge and Samuels' analyses made
clear that it was critical for children to develop fluency in word recognition. Fluent (i.e., automatic) word recognition
consumes little cognitive capacity, freeing up the child's cognitive capacity for understanding what is read. Anyone
who has ever taught elementary children and witnessed round-robin reading can recall students who could sound
out a story with great effort but at the end had no idea of what had been read.

Tan and Nicholson (1997) carried out a study that emphasized the importance of word-recognition instruction to the
point of fluency. In their study, struggling primary-level readers were taught 10 new words, with instruction either
emphasizing word recognition to the point of fluency (they practiced reading the individual words until they could
recognize them automatically) or understanding of the words (instruction involving mostly student-teacher
discussions about word meanings). Following the instruction, the students read a passage containing the words and
answered comprehension questions about it. The students who had learned to recognize the words to the point of
automaticity answered more comprehension questions than did students who experienced instruction emphasizing
individual word meanings. Consistent with other analyses (e.g., Breznitz, 1997a, 1997b), Tan and Nicholson's
outcome made obvious that development of fluent word-recognition skills can make an important difference in
students' understanding of what they read.

Thus, a first recommendation to educators who want to improve students' comprehension skills is to teach them to
decode well. Explicit instruction in sounding out words, which has been so well validated as helping many children to
recognize words more certainly (e.g., Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998, online document), is a start in developing good
comprehenders – but it is just a start. Word-recognition skills must be developed to the point of fluency if
comprehension benefits are to be maximized.

Vocabulary
It is well established that good comprehenders tend to have good vocabularies (Anderson & Freebody, 1991; Nagy,
Anderson, & Herman, 1987). This correlation, however, does not mean that teaching vocabulary will increase
readers' comprehension, for that is a causal conclusion. As it turns out, however, when reading educators conducted
experiments in which vocabulary was either taught to students or not, comprehension improved as a function of
vocabulary instruction. Perhaps the most widely cited experiment of this type was carried out by Isabel Beck and her
associates, who taught Grade 4 children a corpus of 104 words over a 5-month period (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown,
1982). The children who received instruction outperformed noninstructed children on subsequent comprehension
tests. When all of the work of Beck's group and others is considered (see, e.g., Beck & McKeown, 1991; Durso &
Coggins, 1991), a good case can be made that when students are taught vocabulary in a thorough fashion, their
comprehension of what they read improves.

One counterargument to this advice to teach vocabulary is that children learn vocabulary incidentally – that is, they
learn the meanings of many words by experiencing those words in the actual world and in text worlds, without
explicit instruction (Stanovich, 1986; Sternberg, 1987). Even so, such incidental learning is filled with potential
pitfalls, for the meanings learned range from richly contextualized and more than adequate to incomplete to wrong
(Miller & Gildea, 1987). Just the other morning, I sat in a reading class as a teacher asked students to guess the
meanings of new words encountered in a story, based on text and picture clues. Many of the definitions offered by
the children were way off. Anyone who has ever taught young children knows that they benefit from explicit teaching
of vocabulary.

That children do develop knowledge of vocabulary through incidental contact with new words they read is one of the
many reasons to encourage students to read extensively. Whenever researchers have looked, they have found
vocabulary increases as a function of children's reading of text rich in new words (e.g., Dickinson & Smith, 1994;
Elley, 1989; Morrow, Pressley, Smith, & Smith, 1997; Pelligrini, Galda, Perlmutter, & Jones, 1994; Robbins & Ehri,
1994; Rosenhouse, Feitelson, Kita, & Goldstein, 1997).

World knowledge
Reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, with many demonstrations that readers who possess
rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading often understand the reading better than classmates with low prior
knowledge (Anderson & Pearson, 1984). That said, readers do not always relate their world knowledge to the
content of a text, even when they possess knowledge relevant to the information it presents. Often, they do not
make inferences based on prior knowledge unless the inferences are absolutely demanded to make sense of the
text (McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992).

The received wisdom in recent decades, largely based on the work of Richard C. Anderson, P. David Pearson, and
their colleagues at the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois in the 1970s, 1980s, and into the
early 1990s, was that reading comprehension can be enhanced by developing reader's prior knowledge. One way to
accomplish this is to encourage extensive reading of high-quality, information-rich texts by young readers (e.g.,
Stanovich & Cunningham, 1993).

Typically, however, when readers process text containing new factual information, they do not automatically relate
that information to their prior knowledge, even if they have a wealth of knowledge that could be related. In many
cases, more is needed for prior knowledge to be beneficial in reading comprehension. A large number of
experiments conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s demonstrated the power of "Why?" questions, or
"elaborative interrogation," to encourage readers to orient to their prior knowledge as they read (Pressley, Wood,
Woloshyn, Martin, King, & Menke, 1992). In these studies, readers were encouraged to ask themselves why the
facts being presented in text made sense. This encouragement consistently produced a huge effect on memory of
the texts, with the most compelling explanation emerging from analytical experiments being that the interrogation
oriented readers to prior knowledge that could explain the facts being encountered (see especially Martin &
Pressley, 1991). The lesson that emerged from these studies is that readers should be encouraged to relate what
they know to information-rich texts they are reading, with a potent mechanism for doing this being elaborative interrogation.

Active comprehension strategies

Good readers are extremely active as they read, as is apparent whenever excellent adult readers are asked to think
aloud as they go through text (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). Good readers are aware of why they are reading a text,
gain an overview of the text before reading, make predictions about the upcoming text, read selectively based on
their overview, associate ideas in text to what they already know, note whether their predictions and expectations
about text content are being met, revise their prior knowledge when compelling new ideas conflicting with prior
knowledge are encountered, figure out the meanings of unfamiliar vocabulary based on context clues, underline and
reread and make notes and paraphrase to remember important points, interpret the text, evaluate its quality, review
important points as they conclude reading, and think about how ideas encountered in the text might be used in the
future. Young and less skilled readers, in contrast, exhibit a lack of such activity (e.g., Cordón & Day, 1996).

Reading researchers have developed approaches to stimulating active reading by teaching readers to use
comprehension strategies. Of the many possible strategies, the following often produce improved memory and
comprehension of text in children: generating questions about ideas in text while reading; constructing mental
images representing ideas in text; summarizing; and analyzing stories read into story grammar components of
setting, characters, problems encountered by characters, attempts at solution, successful solution, and ending
(Pearson & Dole, 1987; Pearson & Fielding, 1991; Pressley, Johnson, Symons, McGoldrick, & Kurita, 1989).

Of course, excellent readers do not use such strategies one at a time, nor do they use them simply when under
strong instructional control – which was the situation in virtually all investigations of individual strategies. Hence,
researchers moved on to teaching students to use the individual strategies together, articulating them in a self-
regulated fashion (i.e., using them on their own, rather than only on cue from the teacher). In general, such
packages proved teachable, beginning with reciprocal teaching, the first such intervention (Palincsar & Brown,
1984), and continuing through more flexible approaches that began with extensive teacher explanation and
modeling of strategies, followed by teacher-scaffolded use of the strategies, and culminating in student self-
regulated use of the strategies during regular reading (e.g., Anderson, 1992; Brown, Pressley, Van Meter, &
Schuder, 1996; Duffy et al., 1987). The more recent, more flexible form of this instruction came to be known as
transactional strategies instruction (Pressley et al., 1992), with the body of research on this approach recently cited
by the National Reading Panel (2000) as exemplary work in comprehension instruction. When such instruction has
been successful, it has always been long term, occurring over a semester or school year at minimum, with
consistent and striking benefits.

The case is very strong that teaching elementary, middle school, and high school students to use a repertoire of
comprehension strategies increases their comprehension of text. Teachers should model and explain
comprehension strategies, have their students practice using such strategies with teacher support, and let students
know they are expected to continue using the strategies when reading on their own. Such teaching should occur
across every school day, for as long as required to get all readers using the strategies independently – which means
including it in reading instruction for years.

Monitoring
Good readers know when they need to exert more effort to make sense of a text. For example, they know when to
expend more decoding effort – they are aware when they have sounded out a word but that word does not really
make sense in the context (Isakson & Miller, 1976). When good readers have that feeling, they try rereading the
word in question. It makes sense to teach young readers to monitor their reading of words in this way (Baker &
Brown, 1984). Contemporary approaches to word-recognition instruction also include a monitoring approach, with
readers taught to pay attention to whether the decoding makes sense and to try decoding again when the word as
decoded is not in synchrony with other ideas in the text and pictures (e.g., Iversen & Tunmer, 1993).

Good readers are also aware of the occasions when they are confused, when text does not make sense (Baker &
Brown, 1984). A key component in transactional strategies instruction is monitoring. Even the first such package,
reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984), included the clarification strategy: When readers did not understand
a text, they were taught to seek clarification, often through rereading. To improve children's reading and
comprehension, it makes very good sense to teach them to monitor as they read, to ask themselves consistently, "Is
what I am reading making sense?" Children also need to be taught that they can do something about it when text
seems not to make sense: At a minimum, they can try sounding out a puzzling word again or rereading the part of a
text that seems confusing.

This technique is recommended by research

Reading comprehension instruction has been recommended as a practice with solid research evidence of effectiveness for individuals
with learning disabilities by the Council for Exceptional Children — the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) and the Division for
Research (DR). To learn more, please read A Focus on Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction.

References
 Excerpted with permission from Comprension Instruction: What Makes Sense Now, What Might Makes Sense Soon, originally
published by Reading Online.

Directions 
The questions in this group are based on the content of a passage. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to
each question. Answer all questions following the passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. 

Question 
Schools expect textbooks to be a valuable source of information for students. My research suggests, however, that
textbooks that address the place of Native Americans within the history of the United States distort history to suit a
particular cultural value system. In some textbooks, for example, settlers are pictured as more humane, complex, skillful,
and wise than Native Americans. In essence, textbooks stereotype and depreciate the numerous Native American
cultures while reinforcing the attitude that the European conquest of the New World denotes the superiority of European
cultures. Although textbooks evaluate Native American architecture, political systems, and homemaking, I contend that
they do it from an ethnocentric, European perspective without recognizing that other perspectives are possible. 

One argument against my contention asserts that, by nature, textbooks are culturally biased and that I am simply
underestimating children's ability to see through these biases. Some researchers even claim that by the time students are
in high school, they know they cannot take textbooks literally. Yet substantial evidence exists to the contrary. Two
researchers, for example, have conducted studies that suggest that children's attitudes about particular cultures are
strongly influenced by the textbooks used in schools. Given this, an ongoing, careful review of how school textbooks
depict Native Americans is certainly warranted.

Which of the following would most logically be the topic of the paragraph immediately following the passage?

 (A) specific ways to evaluate the biases of United States history textbooks 
 (B) the centrality of the teacher's role in United States history courses
 (C) nontraditional methods of teaching United States history
 (D) the contributions of European immigrants to the development of the United States
 (E) ways in which parents influence children's political attitudes 

Answer: (A)

BUSINESS LETTER
Part 1 Beginning the Letter

1. Know the format. Whatever the content of your letter, there are a few business standards to follow
regarding the way it looks. ...
2. Choose the right kind of paper. ...
3. Include information about your company. ...
4. Include the date. ...
5. Add the recipient's information. ...
6. Choose a salutation.

Block Form
 5 Hill Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53700
 March 15, 2005

Ms. Helen Jones

President
Jones, Jones & Jones
123 International Lane
Boston, Massachusetts 01234 

Dear Ms. Jones:

Ah, business letter format-there are block formats, and indented formats, and modified block formats . . . and who knows what others.
To simplify matters, we're demonstrating the block format on this page, one of the two most common formats. For authoritative advice
about all the variations, we highly recommend The Gregg Reference Manual, 9th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), a great reference
tool for workplace communications. There seems to be no consensus about such fine points as whether to skip a line after your return
address and before the date: some guidelines suggest that you do; others do not. Let's hope that your business letter succeeds no
matter which choice you make!

When you use the block form to write a business letter, all the information is typed flush left, with one-inch margins all around. First
provide your own address, then skip a line and provide the date, then skip one more line and provide the inside address of the party to
whom the letter is addressed. If you are using letterhead that already provides your address, do not retype that information; just begin
with the date. For formal letters, avoid abbreviations where possible.

Skip another line before the salutation, which should be followed by a colon. Then write the body of your letter as illustrated here, with
no indentation at the beginnings of paragraphs. Skip lines between paragraphs.

After writing the body of the letter, type the closing, followed by a comma, leave 3 blank lines, then type your name and title (if
applicable), all flush left. Sign the letter in the blank space above your typed name. Now doesn't that look professional?

Sincerely,

John Doe
Administrative Assistant

Indented Form
5 Hill Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53700

15 March 2005

Ms. Helen Jones

President
Jones, Jones & Jones
123 International Lane
Boston, Massachusetts 01234

Dear Ms. Jones:

Ah, business letter format--there are block formats, and

indented formats, and modified block formats . . . and who
 knows what others. To simplify matters, we're demonstrating
the indented format on this page, one of the two most common
formats. For authoritative advice about all the variations,
we highly recommend The Gregg Reference Manual, 9th ed. (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), a great reference tool for workplace
communications. There seems to be no consensus about such
fine points as whether to skip a line after your return
address and before the date: some guidelines suggest that you
do; others do not. Let's hope that your business letter
succeeds no matter which choice you make!

If you are using the indented form, place your address at

the top, with the left edge of the address aligned with the
center of the page. Skip a line and type the date so that it
lines up underneath your address. Type the inside address and
salutation flush left; the salutation should be followed by a
colon. For formal letters, avoid abbreviations.

Indent the first line of each paragraph one-half inch.

Skip lines between paragraphs.

Instead of placing the closing and signature lines

flush left, type them in the center, even with the address
and date above, as illustrated here. Now doesn't that look
professional?

Sincerely,

John Doe

Writing An Effective Business Letter

E-mail may be the quick and convenient way to relay daily business messages, but the printed business letter is still the preferred way to
convey important information. A carefully crafted letter presented on attractive letterhead can be a powerful communication tool. To make sure
you are writing the most professional and effective letter possible, use the business letter format and template below and follow these basic
business letter-writing.

Select a professional letterhead design for your small business

Your business letter is a representation of your company, so you want it to look distinctive and immediately communicate "high quality." For a
convenient and economical alternative to using traditional preprinted letterhead, try using our contemporary letterhead and envelope design
templates. Simply create a letter within a predesigned color letterhead template and then print your entire piece quickly and beautifully on your
Phaser® color printer.
Use a standard business letter format and template

The most widely used format for business letters is "block style," where the text of the entire letter is justified left. The text is single spaced,
except for double spaces between paragraphs. Typically margins are about 1 inch (25.4 mm) on all sides of the document, which is the default
setting for most word-processing programs. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can turn to its built-in Letter Wizard for additional formatting
assistance (look on the Tools menu).

This business letter format illustrates the specific parts of a business letter:
 Business Letter Template Fields:

Date: Use month, day, year format,

e.g., March 3, 2012 or 3 March 2012
Sender's Address: It is a good idea
to include sender's email and url, if
available. Don't include this
information if it's already incorporated
into the letterhead design. This will
allow customers to find your small
business more quickly.
Inside Address: Use full name.
Mr./Ms. is optional
Salutation: Be sure to use a colon at
the end of the name, not a comma as
in personal letters
Body Text: State why you are writing.
Establish any connection/mutual
relationship up front. Outline the
solution, providing proof in the way of
examples and expert opinions. Group
related information into paragraphs
Closing "Call to Action": State what
the reader needs to do and what you
will do to follow up
Signature Block: Sign your letter in
blue or black ink
Enclosures: Use if you have an
enclosure
Carbon Copy: Use if you are sending
a copy to additional person(s)
Use a professional tone.

Save casual, chatty language for email - your printed business letter should be friendly but more professional. As Scott Ober suggests in his
book Contemporary Business Communication, "The business writer should strive for an overall tone that is confident, courteous, and sincere;
that uses emphasis and subordination appropriately; that contains nondiscriminatory language; that stresses the "you" attitude; and that is
written at an appropriate level of difficulty." That said, be sure to sound like yourself - you don't want your letter to read as if a machine wrote it.

Write clearly.

State your point early in your letter. To avoid any miscommunications, use straightforward, concise language. Skip the industry jargon and
instead choose lively, active words to hold your reader's attention.

Organize your information logically: Group related information into separate paragraphs. In a long, information-packed letter, consider
organizing information into sections with subheads. You may want to highlight key words to make them "pop" - this technique is possible with
most word-processing programs and your color multifunction printer.
Use Color To Emphasize Words In Text

It's easy to put a few words in color to draw attention to them. Just select the type and click the arrow to the right of the Font Colorbutton,
choose the color you want, then click the button. Or, try highlighting a few words in the text. Select the type you want to emphasize, then click
the Highlight button. Note: When highlighting parts of a document you intend to print, use a light color such as yellow, light green, or light
blue. If you wish to remove the highlighting, select the text and click the Highlight button again.
AutoText automates applying color (or any type style), which would ordinarily take numerous clicks or commands. Say you're creating a
report that compares your organization's performance against that of your competitor. Word can automatically color your company's name
every time it appears, making those entries easy to locate.
Be persuasive.

Establish a positive relationship with your reader right away. If you have a connection to the reader - you've met before or have a mutual
colleague, for example - mention it in your introductory paragraph. Whether you think your reader will agree with the point of your letter or not,
it is important to find common ground and build your case from there.

Understand your reader well enough to anticipate how he or she will react when reading your letter. Address his or her needs or wishes, or a
specific problem, and then outline your solution. Provide proof in the way of examples and/or expert opinions to back up your point. Make sure
to maintain a friendly tone.

Conclude your letter with a "call to action." State clearly what your reader needs to do or believe to achieve the desired solution and then state
what you, the writer, intend to do next to follow up.

Proofread your letter!

All your careful crafting and printing can't cover up spelling or punctuation errors, which leave a lasting negative impression.

Now that you've learned the secrets of writing an effective business letter, you're ready to start composing. Good luck!

For more tips for your small business, check out our Small Business Tips.

PUNCTUATION

COMMA:The comma (,) is used to show a separation of ideas or elements within the structure of a
sentence.
Additionally, it is used in letter writing after the salutation and closing. Separating elements within
sentences:
Suzi wanted the black , green , and blue shoes. Letter Salutations: Dear Uncle John , Separation of two
complete sentences: We went to the movies, and we went to the beach.

PERIOD: The period (.) is placed at the end of declarative sentences, statements thought to be
complete and after many abbreviations. As a sentence ender: Jane and Jack went to the market. After
an abbreviation:Her Mar. birthday came and went.

QUESTION MARK: Use a question mark (?) to indicate a direct question when placed at the end of a
sentence. When did Jane leave for the market?

EXCLAMATION POINT: The exclamation point/mark (!) is used when a person wants to express a
sudden outcry or add emphasis. Within dialogue: “Holy cow!” screamed Jane.
To emphasize a point: My mother-in-law’s rants make me furious!

SEMICOLON; The semicolon (;) is used to connect independent clauses. It shows a closer
relationship
between the clauses than a period would show. John was hurt ; he knew she only said it to upset him.

COLON : A colon (:) has two main uses: After a word introducing a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a
series. It is also often used after the salutation of a business letter. Within time expressions. Within time, it is used
to separate out the hour and minute:12:15 p.m.
DASH : An endash (–) is a symbol that is used in writing or printing to connect numbers or to
connect elements of a compound adjective, such as 1880 – 1945 or Princeton – New York trains.

THE EMDASH (—) looks like the endash but has more complicated grammatical use. The symbol
of is used to: • Indicate a break in thought or sentence structure
• Introduce a phrase added for emphasis, definition, or explanation
• Separate two clauses We only wanted to get two birds — but the clerk talked us into four pregnant
parakeets.

HYPHEN A hyphen (-) is used between the parts of a compound word or name or between the syllables of a
word, especially when divided at the end of a line of text. Examples of a hyphen in use include: Between a
compound name: Mrs.Smith – Reynolds Within a compound word back - to – back

PARENTHESES Parentheses ( () ) are curved notations used to contain further thoughts or

qualifying remarks. However, parentheses can be replaced by commas without changing the meaning
in most cases. John and Jane ( who were actually half brotherand sister ) both have red hair.

BRACKETS Brackets ([]) are the squared off notations used for technical explanations. YourDictionary uses
them when you look up word definitions. At the bottom of each definition
page, brackets surround a technical description of where the word originated.

BRACES Braces ({}) are used to contain two or more lines of text or listed items to show that
they are considered as a unit. They are not commonplace in most writing, but can be seen in
computer programming to show what should be contained within the same lines .

QUOTATIONS MARKS Quotations marks ( “” ) are a pair of punctuation marks used primarily to mark the
beginning and end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word. They are also used to indicate
meanings and to indicate the unusual or dubious status of a word.

Single quotation marks (‘) are used most frequently for quotes within quotes.

ELLIPSIS The ellipsis mark (. . .) is generally represented by three periods, although it is

occasionally demonstrated with three asterisks (***). Ellipses are used:
• In writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words.
• Within quotations to jump from one phrase to another, omitting unnecessary words that do not
interfere with the meaning.
• Students writing research papers or newspapers quoting parts of speeches will often employ
ellipses to avoid copying lengthy text that is not needed

APOSTROPHE An apostrophe (‘) is used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a
word, the
possessive case, or the plurals of lowercase letters. Examples of the apostrophe in use include:
Omission of letters from a word: An issue of nat’l importance.
Possesive case: Sara’s dog bites.
Plural for lowercase letters: Six people were told to mind their p’s and q’s.It should be noted that,
according to Purdue University, some teachers and editors enlarge the scope of the useof apostrophe,
and prefer their use on symbols (&’s), numbers (7’s) and capitalized letters (Q&A’s), even though they
are not necessary.