EXERCISE 2

STUDYING SENTENCES IN BUSINESS LETTERS

A. Of course every sentence in a business letter should be perfectly clear. Rather short, direct sentences are best, with only matter-of-fact details. There is no need of going to the extreme of brevity, leaving out some elements of sentences, as many writers do. They seem to think that such a hasty, discourteous, and sometimes even obscure way of writing is proper in a business letter. On the contrary, it is bad form. Tell what element is omitted from each of the following sentences, and supply it. In one instance both subject element and linking element are missing, yet these groups of words are written as sentences!

1. Yours of the eighth received.1
2. Have just received your letter.
3. Will attend to the matter at once.

4. Must have it at once.

5. Send by express.

6. Your order noted.

7. Money order inclosed for one dollar.

8. Understand you offer a bicycle at a bargain.

9. Your advertisement in the News noted.

10. Received your letter of June tenth. (What two words are omitted?)

B. In one kind of sentence the subject element is correctly omitted, since it is always easily understood. Such a sentence is," Please send a copy of Kipling's 'Jungle Book' to Miss Mary Lyons, Lawrence, Texas." Another example is, "Send it by express." Do you know what such a sentence is called? A sentence that tells is called a

1 Spell and pronounce eighth, fifth, twelfth, sixth, ninth.

declarative sentence; a declarative sentence that tells someone to do something is an imperative sentence. Since it is always addressed to someone, the subject element you is easily understood and need not be expressed. (In oldfashioned prose or in poetry, where the subject element is sometimes found, it usually comes after the verb; as, Bear ye one another's burdens.") The fifth sentence above is therefore correct except that the object is omitted.

Some of the sentences below are interrogative, some declarative; the latter include some imperative sentences. It is a little harder to find the subject and predicate and linking elements in a question than in a statement; very often the linking element comes first; sometimes the predicate element precedes the verb and the subject element follows it. Think carefully what each sentence means and then point out its elements. If puzzled by an interrogative sentence, try putting it in declarative form.

1. Send the goods by express at once.

2. Have the goods been shipped?

3. Please mail my copy of The Independent to the address below.

4. Will you be kind enough to give special attention to this order?

5. What price did you offer in your last letter?

6. Whom do you recommend?

7. Whom have you sent into this territory before?

8. Who is he?

9. Your advertisement interested me.

10. What is a good kind of duplicating machine? (Think carefully.)

11. Whom do you send usually?

12. Do you manufacture a better grade?

13. I ordered a camera from you three weeks ago.

14. I have heard nothing from you.

15. Have you not received my order of September 12? 16. I inclose a money order for two dollars and forty cents.

C. Classify the verbs in the sentences above as linking or predicate, transitive or intransitive, and point out the pronouns.

EXERCISE 3

UNDERSTANDING SENTENCES: FINDING PREDICATE ELEMENTS OF THREE KINDS

If the predicate element is found in the verb, you have learned that this word is called a predicate verb. If the predicate element is a pronoun, this is called a predicate pronoun; if the predicate element is a noun, this is called a predicate noun. Make a definition for predicate noun and predicate pronoun. Since the predicate element may take several forms, these three are not the only ones you will find, but the majority of predicate elements are of these three kinds of words.

Point out the predicate verbs, predicate nouns, and predicate pronouns in the sentences below. Note that the predicate element always refers to the same person or thing as the subject element. What six pronoun forms have you found used as predicate elements? What others do you find here? What kind of verb will a predicate noun or a predicate pronoun always follow?

1. Who is he?

2. We ordered a flag of the best wool bunting.

3. Send a flag of each size on approval.

4. This is not the flag we ordered.

5. What is your understanding of the matter? (Think carefully.)