1. 1
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova
Institute of International Relations of Moldova
Department of Foreign Languages
English Philology Chair
Master’s Degree Paper
Pragmatic and Stylistic Aspect of Business Correspondence.
Ways of Translation from British/American into Russian
Author:
gr. 2MLS-1
Lazarev Stanislav
Scientific Adviser:
Singhirei Valentina
Ph.D., Associate Professor
Chisinau, 2016

2. 2
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION…………………………….……………………………………3
CHAPTER I. STYLE AND PECULIARITIES OF WRITING……………………6
I.1. Notion of Style and Functional Styles Characteristics ………………….....…..6
I.2. Peculiarities of Business Document Style ………………………..…...…..….14
I.3. Types of Business Letters ………………….………………………………....23
CHAPTER II. PRAGMATIC AND STYLISTIC ASPECT OF BUSINESS
CORRESPONDENCE……………………………………………………………33
II.1. Notion of Pragmatics ………………...……...................................................33
II.2. Cooperative Principle as One of Fundamental Principles of Discourse …....34
II.3. Grice's Maxims in Discourse ………………………………………………..38
II.4. Stylistic Means and Devices in Business Correspondence…………………. 40
CHAPTER III. WAYS OF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE TRANSLATION
FROM BRITISH/AMERICAN INTO RUSSIAN…………………………….….49
III.1. Peculiarities of Business Document Style……………………………….…49
III.2. Comparative Analysis of British/American and Russian Business Letter
Style……………………………………………………………………………….55
III.3. Ways of Business CorrespondenceTranslation from British/American into
Russian……………………………………………………………………………64
CONCLUSION……..…………………………………………………….……..129
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….………132
APPENDIXES…………………………………………………………………...139

3. 3
INTRODUCTION
A dynamic business environment requires information and ideas to be expressed
in a clear and comprehensible way. The person who has this skill is a vital part of
any business organization. This means that a solid command of the English
language continues to be a highly marketable skill in today’s workplace. This skill
in not only something valuable and marketable, but also attainable. What is the
style in language? How is it produced? How can it be recognized and described? It
is a general feature of language. All these questions we are going to discuss in our
Master Thesis, which is entitled “PRAGMATIC AND STYLISTIC ASPECT OF
BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE. WAYS OF TRANSLATION FROM
BRITISH/AMERICAN INTO RUSSIAN”. It will be given the notion of style and
how it might be defined with the reference to language use in particular. This
statement will be supported by analysis of two texts, identifying particular verb
feature and the possible effects they might arise to.
Our Master Thesis consists of Introduction, Three Chapters, Conclusion,
Bibliography and Appendix.
In the first chapter, we are going to study the individual style of English
Business Correspondence which is a problem for people and which should be
analyzed. We will try to prove that individual style is a unique combination of
language units, expressive means and stylistic device peculiar to a given writer,
which makes that writer’s work or even utterances easily recognizable. But in
order to do this, first of all, we should analyze it and follow how it should be
applied. Some of these observations are dressed up as epigrams or sentences
maxims as: “ Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely
emotion or thoughts or as a system of emotions or thoughts or as a system of
emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author” [5, p.62].
The norm therefore should be regard as the invariant of the phonemic,
morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns circulating in language at a
given period of time.

4. 4
In the last part of this chapter we are going to discuss about the language of
Official Documents. We will try to follow some general knowledge about this
concept and how style is used in the Official Documents. To all these ideas
there will be added some examples of Official Documents which will be
analyzed and explained in details. The over-all code of the Official style falls
into a system of subcodes each of them being characterized by its own
terminological nomenclature, its compositional arrangements.
In our second chapter we are going to study the pragmatic and stylistic aspects
of the business correspondence. In order to get a workable definition of the
norm in connection with the issue of individual style, it will be necessary to go
a little bit deeper into the concept. In this chapter of our Master Thesis we are
going to analyze the style of Official Documents, the peculiarities of the
language of Law and Scientific paper and its translation. The language of Law
has to be used with such precision that it makes the exact intention of the Law
to be clear. “What is the function of a Scientific paper?” Many books on writing
stress that scientific style must be simple, clear and concise. We shall look first
at the factors which underpin advice on effective style, and then in detail at the
ways in which the language code can be handled to achieve the aim of
comfortable, readable writing. We intend to offer both reasons and examples to
support our advice.
The third chapter of this Master Thesis is a practical one. The aim of this
investigation is to enlarge our knowledge from some points of view which will
be very important for our future profession, as translators and namely: types of
translation, analysis, paraphrasing and some others, Like other styles of
language, the style of Official Documents has a definite communicative aim
and accordingly, has its own system of interrelated language and stylistic mean.
In this chapter we will analyze and try to give our own translation of some
Business Documents such as: Contracts and Letters in order to follow the
difference between the usage of Stylistic Devices and other means in writing
Business Documents. We are going to investigate the Styles and terms which

5. 5
are most often used in English and Romanian Correspondence. We will try to
find all the stylistic devices even in the Business Papers the language is a
concrete one and there are not so many stylistic devices. But in general this is
an interesting and very original topic and let’s try to understand it together.
So, taking into consideration all these facts we put the following objectives for
our investigation: to give the general knowledge of style and Stylistics; how the
style of the business contracts might be defined with the reference to the language
use in particular; to follow the translation peculiarities of business documents; and
to make the analysis of business contracts’ translation comparing English and
Romanian variants of contracts.
According to this, our goals are the following:
- to prove that the style of business contracts is an unique one;
- to demonstrate that writer’s work under the certain contract must be easily
recognizable for every part of the contract;
- to prove that business contracts’ language should be applied with all the
peculiarities of its purposes.
So, our main task is to look, firstly, at the factors which underpin advice on
effective style, and then in detail to follow the ways in which the language
code can be handled to achieve the aim of comfortable, readable writing. We
intend to offer both reason and example to support our advice.
The novelty of our research is to prove that like other styles of the language,
the style of Official Documents and namely, the Style of Business contracts,
has a definite communicative aim and accordingly, has its own system of
interrelated language and stylistic means. The aim of this type of
communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking.
In this style, the words are used in their logical dictionary meaning. There is no
room for contextual meanings or for any kind of simultaneous realization of
two meanings. The words with emotive meanings are not to be found in the
style of Business contracts either.

6. 6
CHAPTER I. STYLE AND PECULIARITIES OF WRITING
I.1. Notion of Style and Functional Styles Characteristics
Stylistics is concerned with the study of style in language. But what is style in
language? How is it produced? How can it be recognized and described? Is it a
general feature of language?
The term style is one which we use so commonly in our everyday conversation and
writing that it seems unproblematic it occurs so naturally and frequently that we
are inclined to take it for granted without enquiring just what we might mean by it.
Thus, we regularly use it with reference to the shape or design of something (for
example, 'the elegant style of a house'), and when talking about the way in which
something is done or presented (for example, 'I don't like his style of
management'). Similarly, when describing someone's manner of writing, speaking,
or performing, we may say "She writes in a vigorous style' or 'She started off in
fine style'. We also talk about particular styles of architecture, painting, dress, and
furniture when describing the distinctive manner of an artist, a school, or a period.
And, finally, when we say that people or places have 'style' , we are expressing the
opinion that they have fashionable elegance, smartness, or a superior manner (for
example, 'They live in grand style' or 'Here one can eat in style') . Along the same
lines, style in language can be defined as distinctive linguistic expression [1, p.82].
But, as with other manifestations of style, we need to consider what makes an
expression distinctive, why it has been devised, and what effect it has. So stylistics,
the study of style, can be defined as the analysis of distinctive expression
inlanguage and the description of its purpose and effect. To see how this definition
works out in practice , let us look at how different genres, or types, of text
containing specific features of style create particular effects. Life on Mars-war of
the words [1, p.83].
This is a headline from 'The Friday Review' section of The Independent of 21
August 1998 . Headline writers use a wide range of devices to create a very

7. 7
specific style, which is sometimes called 'headlinese' . They relate to and at the
same time capture the reader's attention. They are usually in a larger and bolder
typeface than that of the articles they introduce. As a result of the size of the print
and the restricted space available in the layout of the page, ellipsis (which means
that some words have been missed out) is very often a feature of the language of
headlines. 'The life on Mars debate remains a war of words'. It will be noticed that
the headline as it stands contains no verb: this is replaced by the dash. this
headline, the strong stresses on the nouns 'life', 'Mars', 'war', and 'words' are equally
divided over the two phrases (hence the balance between them), while the initial
sounds of 'war' and 'words' alliterate. Apart from being pleasant to our ears and
sense of rhythm, such sound effects add to the attention-drawing aspect and
memorability of the headline [2,p.92].
Finally, the phrase 'war of the words' is an excellent illustration of intertextuality,
i.e. an allusion to another text and, at the same time, an appeal to the reader's
awareness of that text. In our headline the intertextual allusion is, as it were,
heralded by the first phrase 'Life on Mars'. This may kindle the reader's secret fear
of Martians invading the world, which in turn accounts for the popular appeal of
H.G. Wells's famous science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, published in
1898, to which the second phrase 'war of the words' obviously alludes.
Stylistically, intertextuality appears to have the effect of giving the reader the
pleasurable sense of satisfaction at having spotted the allusion, and it may often
intensify the overall significance of a text [2, p.89]. Style is indeed a distinctive
way of using language for some purpose and to some effect. It has also
demonstrated that in order to achieve his or her purpose and effect, the writer has
chosen the fragmentary text "Life on Mars-war of the words' in preference to a
fully-fledged sentence like 'The life on Mars debate remains a war of words'. So in
making a stylistic analysis we are not so much focused on every form and structure
in a text, as on those which stand out in it. Such conspicuous elements hold a
promise of stylistic relevance and thereby rose the reader's interest or emotions. In
stylistics this psychological effect is called foregrounding, a term which has been

8. 8
borrowed from the visual arts. Such foregrounded elements often include a distinct
patterning or parallelism in a text's typography, sounds, word-choices, grammar, or
sentence structures. Other potential style markers are repetitions of some linguistic
element, and deviations from the rules of language in general or from the style you
expect in a particular text type or context [2, p.63]. The concept of style crucially
involves choice: it rests on the fundamental assumption that different choices will
produce different styles and thereby different effects. If, for instance, the choices of
the headline writer had yielded the variant 'Life on Mars is still in dispute', the
stylistic impact on the reader would almost certainly have been much less striking.
Something else our analysis of the headline has revealed is that style does not arise
out of a vacuum but its production, purpose, and effect are deeply embedded in the
particular context in which both the writer and the reader of the headline play their
distinctive roles. At this point, we should distinguish between two types of context:
linguistic and nonlinguistic context [3, p.92]. Linguistic refers to the surrounding
feature inside a text, like the typography, sounds, phrases and sentences which are
relevant to the interpretation of other such linguistic elements. The non-linguistic
context is a much more complex since it may include any number of text-external
features influencing the language and style of a text. In the case of the life-on Mars
headline, for instance, we may be pretty sure that its writer was, consciously or not,
influenced by a wide variety of contextual factors such as the type of newspaper
he or she was working for. If one thing has become obvious from this long, but still
incomplete list of non-linguistic contextual factors, it is the fact that conscious or
unconscious choices of expression which create a particular style are always
motivated, inspired or induced by contextual circumstances in which both writers
and readers (or speakers and listeners in the case of spoken texts) are in various
ways involved [3, p.102].
Stylistics, sometimes called linguo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics.
It has now been more or less definitely outlined. It deals mainly with two
interdependent tasks: a) the investigation of the inventory of special language
media which by their ontological features secure the desirable effect of the

9. 9
utterance and b) certain types of texts (discourse) which due to the choice and
arrangement of language means are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the
communication. The inventory of special language media can be analysed and their
ontological features revealed if presented in a system in which the co-relation
between the media becomes evident. The types of texts can be analysed if their
linguistic components are presented, in their interaction, thus revealing the
unbreakable unity and transparency of constructions of a given type. The types of
texts that are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication are
called functional styles of language (FS): the special media of language which
secure the desirable effect of the utterance are called stylistic devices (S D) and
expressive Means( E M). The firs field of investigation, i.e. SDs and EMs,
necessarily touches upon general language problems as the aesthetic function of
language, synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea, emotional
coloring in language, the interrelation between language and thought, the
individual manner of an author in making use of language and a number of other
issues [3, p. 56]. The second field, i.e. functional styles, cannot avoid discussion of
such most general linguistic issues as oral and written varieties of language, the
notion of the literary (standard) language, the constituents of texts larger than the
sentence, the generative aspect of literary texts, and some others. The branching of
stylistics in language science was indirectly the result of long-established tendency
of grammarians to confine their investigations to sentences, clauses and word-
combinations which are “well-formed”, to use a dubious term, neglecting anything
that did not fall under the recognized and received standards. The generative
grammars, which appeared as a reaction against descriptive linguistics, have
confirmed that the task of any grammar is to limit the scope of investigation of
language data to sentences which are considered well-formed. But language studies
cannot avoid subjecting to observation any language data whatever, so where
grammar refuses to tread stylistics steps in. Stylistic has acquired its own status
with its own status with its own inventory of tools, with its own object of
investigation and with its own methods of research [4, p.63].

10. 10
The stylistics of a highly developed language like English or Russian has
brought into the science of language a separate body of media, thus widening the
range of observation of phenomena in language. The significance of this branch of
linguistics can hardly be over-estimated [4, p.82].
A great number of monographs, textbooks, articles, and dissertation papers are
now at the disposal of a scholar in stylistics. The stream of information grows
larger every month. In order to ascertain the borders of stylistics it is necessary to
go at some length into the question of what is style. The word style is derived from
the Latin word ‘stilus’ which meant a short stick sharp at one end and flat at the
other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets. Now the word ‘style’ is used
in so many senses that it has become a breeding ground for ambiguity. The word is
applied to the teaching of how to write a composition; it is also used to reveal the
correspondence between thought and expression; it frequently denotes an
individual manner of making use of language; it sometimes refers to more general,
abstract notions this inevitably becoming vague and obscure, as, for example,
“Style is the man himself” (Buffon), “Style is depth” (Darbyshire); “Style is
derivation” (Enkvist); “Style is choice”, and the like [4, p.90].
All these ideas directly pr indirectly bear on issues in stylistics. Some of them
become very useful by revealing the springs which make our utterances emphatic,
effective and goal-directed. Some of these observations are dressed up as epigrams
or maxims like the ones quoted above. Here are some more of them:
“Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or
thoughts, or a system of emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author”. (J.
Middleton Murry).
“… a true idiosyncrasy of style is the result of an author’s success in compelling
language to conform to his mode of experience.” (J. Middleton Murry)
“Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation.” (Enkvist).
“Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language.” (L. Bloomfield),

11. 11
“ Style is essentially a citational process, a body of formulae, a memory, a cultural
and not an expressive inheritance.” (Roland Barthes).
Some linguists consider that the word style and the subject of linguistics is
confined to the study of the effects of the message, i.e. its impact on the reader.
Thus Michael Riffaterre writes that “ Stylistics will be a linguistics of the effects of
the message, of the output of the act of communication, of its attention-compelling
function” [5, p. 83]. This point of view has clearly been reached under the
influence of recent developments in the general theory of information. Language,
being one of the means of communication or, to be exact, the most important
means of communication, is regarded in the above quotation from a pragmatic
point of view. Stylistics in that case is regarded as a language science which deals
with the results of the act of communication.
Stylistics must take into consideration the “output of the act of communication”.
But stylistics must also investigate the ontological, i.e. natural, inherent, and
functional peculiarities of the means of communication which may ensure the
effect sought [5, p.93].
The most frequent definition of style is one expressed by Seymour Chatman:
“Style is a product of individual choice and patterns of choices among linguistic
possibilities”. This definition indirectly deals with the idiosyncrasies peculiar to a
given writer. Somehow it fails to embrace such phenomena in text structure where
the ‘ individual’ is reduced to the minimum or even done away with entirely
(giving preferences to non-individualistic forms in using language means).
However, this definition is acceptable when applied to the ways men-of-letters use
language when they seek to make it conform to their immediate aims and purport.
Various types of selection can be found: complete exclusion of an optional
element, obligatory inclusion of a specific variant without complete elimination of
competing features”[6, p.73]. Style is regarded as something that belongs
exclusively to the plane of expression and not to the plane of content. This opinion
predominantly deals with the correspondence between the intention of the writer

12. 12
whoever he may be – a man of letters, the writer of a diplomatic document, an
article in a newspaper. The evaluation is also based on whether the choice of
language means conforms with the most general pattern of the given type of text- a
novel, a poem, a letter, a document, an article, and so on [3, p.81].
It follows then that the term “style”, being ambiguous, needs a restricting
adjective to denote what particular aspect of style we intend to deal with. It is
suggested here that the term individual style should be applied to that sphere of
linguistic and literary science which deals with the peculiarities of a writer’s
individual manner of using language means to achieve the effect he desires.
The speech of an individual which is characterized by peculiarities typical of that
particular individual is called an idiolect. The idiolect should be distinguished from
what we call individual style [7, p. 74]. But a writer with a genuine style will as
much as possible avoid those language peculiarities which point to his breeding
and education in order to leave room for that deliberate choice of language means
which will secure the effect sought. It can be recognized by the specific and
peculiar combination of language media and stylistic devices which in their
interaction present a certain system. This system derives its origin from the
creative spirit, and elusive though it may seem, it can nevertheless be uncertained.
Naturally, the individual style of a writer will never be entirely independent of the
literary norms and canons of the given period. Alexander Blok said that the style of
a writer is so closely connected with the content of his soul, that the experienced
eye can see the soul through his style, and by studying the form penetrated to the
depth of the content [4, p.62].
The individual style of an author is frequently identified with the general, generic
term ‘style’. But as has already been pointed out, style is a much broader notion.
The individual style of an author is only one of the applications of the general term
‘style’. In order to compel the language to serve his purpose, the writer draws on
its potential resources in a way different from what we see in ordinary speech. This
peculiarity in the manner of using language means in poetry and emotive prose has

13. 13
given rise to the notion of Style as Deviance. The idea has a long history. In the
1920 there arose a trend which was named formalism in literature and which has
crucial relevance to present-day endeavors to analyze the role of form in
embodying matter. Several literary critics representative of this school as well as a
number of writers maintained the idea that language sometimes imposes
intolerable constrains of freedom of thought [9, p.52]. The essential property,
indeed, merit of a truly genuine individual style is its conformity to the established
norms of the language system in their idiosyncratic variations. This uniqueness of
the individual style is not easy to observe. It is due not only to the peculiar choice
of words, sentence-structure and stylistic devices, but also to the incomparable
manner these elements are combined.
One of the essential properties of a truly individual style is its permanence. It
has great power of endurance. It is easily recognized and never loses its aesthetic
value. The form into which the ideas are wrought assumes a greater significance
and therefore arrests our attention. The language of a truly individual style
becomes de-automatized. It may be said that the form, i.e. the language means
themselves, generate meaning. The idea of individual style brings up the problem
of the correspondence between thought and expression. Many great minds have
made valuable observations on the interrelation between these concepts [1, p.83].
The genuine character of the individual style of an author is not necessarily
manifest from the tricky or elaborate expressions he uses. In every individual style
we can find both the general and the particular. The greater the author is, the more
genuine his style will be.
The individuality of a writer is shown not only in the choice of lexical, syntactical
and stylistic means but also in their treatment. It is really remarkable how a
talented writer can make us feel the way he wants us to feel. This co-experience is
built up so subtly that the reader remains unaware of the process. It is still stronger
when the aesthetic function begins to manifest itself clearly and unequivocally
through a gradual increase in intensity, in the foregrounding of certain features,

14. 14
repetitions of certain syntactical patterns and in the broken rhythm of the author’s
mode of narrating events, facts and situations [8, p. 63].
What we here call individual style, therefore, is a unique combination of
language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer,
which makes that writer’s works or even utterances easily recognizable. Hence,
individual style may be likened to a proper name. it has nominal character. The
analogy is, of course, conventional, but it helps to understand the uniqueness of the
writer’s idiosyncrasy. Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the
contemporary language and also of earlier periods in its development. Individual
styles allow certain justifiable deviations from the rigorous norms. This, needless
to say, presupposes a perfect knowledge of the invariants of the norms [7, p.93].
Individual style requires to be studied in a course of stylistics in so far as it makes
use of the potentialities of the language means, whatever the character of these
potentialities may be. But it goes without saying that each author’s style should be
analyzed separately, which is naturally impossible in a book on general stylistics.
I.2. Peculiarities of Business Document Style
We have defined the object of lingo-stylistics as the study of the nature, functions
and structure of SD and EM, on the one hand , and the study of the functional
style, on the other hand.
A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which
serves a definite aim in communication. A functional style is thus to be regarded as
the product of a certain concrete task set by the message. Functional style appear
mainly in the literary standard of a language [4, p.71]. The literary standard of the
English language , like that of any other developed language, is not so homogenous
as it may seem. In fact the standard English literary language is the course of its
development has fallen into several subsystems each of which has acquired its own
peculiarities which are typical of the given functional style. The members of the

15. 15
language community, especially those who are sufficiently trained and responsive
to language variations, recognize these styles as independent wholes. What we here
call functional style are also called Registers or Discourses [8, p.94].
In the English literary standard we distinguish the following major functional
styles:
1.The language of belles-letters
2.The language of publicistic literature.
3.The language of newspapers.
4.The language of scientific prose.
5.The language of official documents.
As has already been mentioned, functional styles are the product of the
development of the written variety of language. Each functional style may be
characterized by a number of distinctive features, leading or subordinate, constant
or changing, obligatory or optional. Most of the functional styles, however, are
perceived as independent wholes due to a peculiar combination and interrelation of
features common to all with the leading ones of each functional style. Each
functional style is subdivided into a number of sub styles. These represent varieties
of the abstract invariant. Each variety has basic feature common to all the varieties
of the given functional style and peculiar features typical of this variety alone. Still
a sub style can, in some cases, deviate so far from the invariant that in its extreme
it may even break away [7, p.101].
We clearly perceive the following sub styles of the given above
The belles-letters Functional Style has the following sub styles:
a .the language style of poetry,
b. the language style of emotive prose,
c. the language style of drama.
The publicistic Functional Style comprises the following sub styles:

16. 16
a. the language style of oratory;
b. the language style of essays;
c. the language style of feature articles in newspapers and journals.
The Newspaper Functional Style falls into:
a. the language style of brief news items and communiqués;
b. the language style of newspaper headings;
c. the language style of notice and advertisements.
The Scientific Prose Functional Style also has three divisions:
a. the language style of humanitarian science;
b. the language style of “exact” science;
c. the language style of popular science prose.
The Official Documents Functional Style can be divided into four varieties: a. the
language style of diplomatic documents;
b. the language style of business documents;
c. the language style of legal documents;
d. the language style of military documents.
The classification of Functional Styles is not a simple matter and any discussion of
it is bound to reflect more than one angle of vision. Thus, for example, some
stylistics consider that newspaper articles should be classed under the functional
style of newspaper language, not under the language of publicistic literature.
Others insist on including the language of every-day-life discourse into the system
of functional styles. Prof. Budagov singles out only two main functional styles: the
language of science and that of emotive literature. When analysing concrete texts,
we discover that the boundaries between them sometimes become less and less
discernible [7, p. 94]. Thus, for instance, the signs of difference are sometimes
almost imperceptible between poetry and emotive prose; between newspaper
functional style and publicistic functional style; between a popular scientific article

17. 17
and a scientific treatise; between an essay and a scientific article. But the extremes
are apparent from the ways language units are used both structurally and
semantically. Language serves a variety of needs and all these needs have given
birth to the principles on which our classification is based and which in their turn
suppose the choice and combination of language means.
The Notion of the Norm
The treatment of the selected elements brings up the problem of the norm. The
notion of the norm mainly refers to the literary language and always supposes a
recognized or received standard. At the same time it likewise supposes vacillations
of the received standard [12, p. 69].
In order to get a workable definition of the norm, it will be necessary to go a little
bit deeper into the concept.
We shall begin with the following statement made by Academician L. V.
Shcherba: "Very often when speaking of norms people forget about stylistic norms
(emphasis added) which are no less, if not more, important than all others." [16,
p.92]
This pronouncement clearly indicates that there is no universally accepted norm of
the standard literary language, that there are different norms and that there exist
special kinds of norm which are called stylistic norms. Indeed, it has long been
acknowledged that the norms of the spoken and the written varieties of language
differ in more than one respect. Likewise it is perfectly apparent that the norms of
emotive prose and those of official language are heterogeneous. Even within what
is called the belles-lettres style of language we can observe different norms
between, for instance, poetry and drama [8, p. 104].
This point of view is not, however, to be taken literally. The fact that there are
different norms for various types and styles of language does not exclude the
possibility and even the necessity of arriving at some abstract notion of norm as an
invariant, which should embrace all variants with their most typical properties.
Each style of language will have its own invariant and variants, yet all styles will

18. 18
have their own invariant, that of the written variety of language. Both oral
(colloquial) and written (literary) varieties can also be integrated into an invariant
of the standard (received) language.
The norm is regarded by some linguists as "a regulator which controls a set of
variants, the borders of variations and also admissible and inadmissible variants."
Here are some other definitions. "The norm is an assemblage (a set) of stable (i.e.
regularly used) means objectively existing in the language and systematically
used." "A certain conventionally singled out assemblage of realizations of
language means recognized by the language community as a model." "There is, of
course, no such thing as the norm to be found in actual usages. It is a concept
which must be expressed by means of a formula, and it is a concept which is left of
uses of language when all stylistic qualities have been taken away from them [7,
p.99]. The last of the definitions elaborated the idea of the norm as something
stripped of its stylistic qualities. This is not accidental. Many linguists hold the
view that anything which can be' labeled stylistic is already a deviation from the
established norm. They forget that regular deviations from the norm gradually
establish themselves as variants of the norm; the more so because, as has been
stated, 'deviations' of a genuinely stylistic character are not deviations but typified
and fore grounded natural phenomena of language usage though sometimes carried
to the extreme [7, p.84].
So, finally, we can arrive at the conclusion that the norm presupposes the oneness
of the multifarious. There is a conscious attitude to what is well-formed against
what is ill-formed. Well-formedness may be represented in a great number of
concrete sentences allowing a considerable range of acceptability.
The norm, therefore, should be regarded as the invariant of the phonemic,
morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns circulating in language-in-action at
a given period of time. Variants of these patterns may sometimes diverge from the
invariant but they never exceed the limits set by the invariant lest it should become
unrecognizable or misleading. The development of any literary language shows

19. 19
that the variants will always centre around the axis of the invariant forms. The
variants, as the term itself suggests, will never detach themselves from the
invariant to such a degree as to claim entire independence. Yet, nevertheless, there
is a tendency to estimate the value of individual style by the degree it violates the
norms of the language. The problem of variants of the norm, or deviations from the
norm of the literary language, has received widespread attention among linguists
and is central to some of the major current controversies. It is the inadequacy of the
of the concept 'norm that causes the controversy [5, p.99]. At every period in the
development of a literary language there must be a tangible norm which first of all
marks the difference between literary and non-literary language. Then there must
be a clear-cut distinction between the invariant of the norm (as an abstraction) and
its variants (in concrete texts). As will be seen later almost every functional style of
language is marked by a specific use of language means, thus establishing its own
norms which, however, are subordinated to the norm-invariant and which do not
violate the general notion of the literary norm [5, p.112].
One of the most characteristic and essential properties of the norm is its
flexibility. A too rigorous adherence to the norm brands the writer's language as
pedantic, no matter whether it is a question of speech or writing. But on the other
hand, neglect of the norm will always be regarded with suspicion as being an
attempt to violate the established signals of the language code which safeguard and
accelerate the process of communication. At the same time, a free handling of the
norms may be regarded as a permissible application of the flexibility of the norm.
It must be acknowledged that to draw a line of demarcation between facts that
illustrate the flexibility of the norm and those which show its violation is not so
easy. The extremes are apparent, but border cases are blurred. Thus "footsteps on
the sand of war" (E. E. Cummings) or "below a time" are clearly violations of the
accepted norms of word-building or word-combinations.
But "silent thunder", "the ors and ifs" and the like may from one point of view be
regarded as a practical application of the principle of flexibility of the norm and

20. 20
from another -as a violation of the semantic and morphological norms of the
English language. Variants interacting with the rigorous rules of usage may reveal
the potentialities of the language for enrichment to a degree which no artificial
coinage will ever be able to reach. This can be explained by the fact that semantic
changes and particularly syntactical ones are rather slow in process and they reject
any sudden imposition of innovations on the code already in action. There is a
constant process of gradual change taking place in the forms of language and their
meaning at any given period in the development of the language. It is therefore
most important to master the received standard of the given period in the language
in order to comprehend the correspondence of this or that form to the recognized
norm of the period [6, p.99].
Some people think that one has to possess what is called a "feeling for the
language" in order to be able to understand the norm of the language and its
possible variants. But this feeling is deeply rooted in the unconscious knowledge of
the laws according to which a language functions, and even in its history, which
explains much concerning the direction it has progressed. When the feeling of the
norm, which grows with the knowledge of the laws of the language, is instilled in
the mind, one begins to appreciate the beauty of justifiable fluctuations.
While dealing with various conceptions of the term 'style', we must also mention
a commonly accepted connotation of style as embellishment of language. This
understanding of style is upheld in some of the scientific papers on literary
criticism. Language and style as embellishment are regarded as separate bodies.
According to this idea language can easily dispense with style, because style here
is likened to the trimming on a dress [3, p.107]. Moreover, style as embellishment
of language is viewed as something that hinders understanding. It is, as it were,
alien to language and therefore needs to be excluded from the observations of
language scholars. That is why almost all contemporary books on grammar and
general linguistics avoid problems of style or, at most, touch upon them in passing.

21. 21
The notion of style as embellishment presupposes the use of bare language forms
deprived of any stylistic devices, of any expressive means deliberately employed.
The notion of style as embellishment of language as embellishment of language
is completely erroneous. No matter how style is treated, it is the product of a
writer's deliberate intention to frame his ideas in such a manner as will add
something important, something indispensable in order to secure an adequate
realization of his ideas. To call style embellishment . is the same thing as to strip it
of its very essence, that is, to render unnecessary those elements which secure the
manifold application of the language units [8, p.63].
A very popular notion of style among teachers of language is that style is
technique of expression. In this sense style is generally defined as the ability to
write clearly, correctly and in a manner calculated to interest the reader. Though
the last requirement is not among the indispensables, it is still found in many
practical manuals of style, most of which can be lumped together under the title
"Composition and Style". This is a purely utilitarian point of view of the issue in
question. If this were true, style could be taught. Style in this sense of expression
studies the normalized forms of the language. The teaching process aims at lucidity
of expression. It sets up a number of rules as to how to speak and write well and
generally discards all kinds of deviations as being violations of the norm. The
norm in these works is treated as something self-sustained and, to a very great
extent, inflexible [8, p.111].
It is important to note that what we call the practical approach to the problem of
style should by no means be regarded as something erroneous. The ability to write
clearly and emphatically can and should be taught. This is the domain of grammar,
which today rules out the laws and means of composition. The notion of style
cannot be reduced to the merely practical aims cannot be worked out. Moreover,
stylistics as a branch of linguistics demands investigation into the nature of such
language means as add aesthetic value to the utterance.

22. 22
The term 'style' is widely used in literature to signify literary genre. Thus, we
speak of classical style or the style of classicism, realistic style, the style of
romanticism and so on. The use of the word 'style' has sometimes been carried to
unreasonable lengths, thus blurring the terminological aspect of the word. It is
applied to various kinds of literary works: the fable, novel, ballad, story, etc. The
term is also used to denote the way the plot is dealt with, the arrangement of the
parts of literary composition to form the whole, the place and the role of the author
in describing and depicting events [9, p.52].
Now let us pass to discussion of an issue the importance of which has to be kept
clearly in mind throughout the study of stylistics, that is the dichotomy of language
and speech or, to phrase the issue differently, language-as-a-system and language-
in-action. On the surface it seems that language-in-action takes the signs of
language-as-a-system and arranges them to convey the intended message. But the
fact is that the signs of the latter undergo such transformations in the former that
sometimes they assume a new quality imposing new significations on the signs of
the language code.
Language-as-a-system may figuratively be depicted as an exploiter of language-
in-action. All rules and patterns of language which are collected and classified in
works on grammar, phonetics, lexicology and stylistics first appear in language-in-
action, whence they are generalized and framed as rules and patterns of language-
as-a-system [6, p.73].
It is important here to call attention to the process of formation of scientific
notions. Whenever we notice a phenomenon that can be singled out from a mass of
language facts we give it a name, thus abstracting the properties of the
phenomenon. The phenomena then being collected and classified are hallowed into
the ranks of the units of language-as-a-system. It must be pointed out that most
observations of the nature and functioning of language units have been made on
material presented by the written variety of language. It is due to the fixation of

23. 23
speech in writing that scholars of language began to disintegrate the continuous
flow of speech and subject the functioning of its components to analysis.
So it is with stylistic devices. Being born in speech they gradually become
recognized as certain patternized structures: phonetic, morphological, lexical,
phraseological and syntactical, and duly taken away from their mother, Speech,
and made independent members of the family, Language.
The same concerns the issue of functional styles of language. Once they have
been recognized as independent, more or less closed subsystems of the standard
literary language, they should be regarded not as styles of speech but as styles of
language, as much as the can be patterned as to the kinds of interrelation between
the component parts in each of the styles. Moreover, these functional styles have
been subjected to various classifications, which fact shows that the phenomena
now belong to the domain of language-as-a-system [5, p.99].
Alertness to the fact of language-in-action should be inherent, but it can be
developed to a degree necessary for an aesthetic evaluation of the works of men-
of-letters.
I.3. Types of Business Letters
There is one more style of language within the field of standard literary English
which has become singled out, and that is the style of official documents, or
“officialese”, as it is sometimes called. As has already been pointed out, this
functional style is not homogenous and is represented by the following sub styles
or variants:
1. The language of business documents,
2.The language of legal documents,
3. That of diplomacy,
4. That of military documents.

24. 24
Like other styles of language, this style has a definite communicative aim and,
accordingly, has its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The
main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two
parties in an undertaking [11, p.73]. These parties may be: the state and the citizen,
or citizen and citizen; a society and its members; two or more enterprises or
bodies; two or more governments; a person in authority and a subordinate, etc.
The aim of communication in this style of language is to reach an agreement
between two contracting parties. Even protest against violations of statutes,
contracts, regulations, etc, can also be regarded as a form by which normal
cooperation is sought on the basis of previously attained concordance.
The most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the
peculiarities of the style. The most striking, though not the most essential feature,
is a special system of clichés, terms and set expressions by which each sub style
can easily be recognized, for example: “ I beg to inform you, I beg to move, I
second the motion, provisional agenda, the above-mentioned, hereinafter named,
on behalf of, private advisory, Dear Sir, We remain, your obedient servant”.
In fact, each of the subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms, phrases
and expressions which differ from the corresponding terms, phrases and
expressions of other variants of this style. Thus in finance we find terms like extra
revenue, taxable capacities, liability to profit tax. Terms and phrases like high
contracting parties, to ratify an agreement, memorandum,pact, Charge d’affaires,
protectorate, extra- territorial status, plenipotentiary will immediately brand the
utterance as diplomatic. In legal language, examples are: to deal with a case;
summary procedure; a body of judges; as laid down in.
Likewise, other varieties of official language have their special nomenclature,
which is conspicuous in the text and therefore easily discernible as belonging to the
official language style [7, p. 83]. Beside the special nomenclature characteristic of
each variety of the style, there is a feature common to all these varieties- the use of
abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions, for example:

25. 25
M.P.(Member of Parliament), Gvt (government), H.M.S. (His Majesty’s
Steamship), $ (dollar), Ltd (Limited).
There are so many of them that there are special agendas in dictionaries to decode
them. This characteristic feature was used by Dickens in his “Posthumous Paper of
the Pickwick Club; for instance,
P.V.P., M.P.C. (Perpetual Vice-President, Member Pickwick Club); G.C.M.P.C. (
General Chairman, Member Pickwick Club).
Abbreviations are particularly abundant in military documents. Here they are used
not only as conventional symbols but as signs of the military code, which is
supposed to be known only to the initiated. Examples are:
D.A.O. (Divisional Ammunition Officer); adv. (advance); atk (attack); obj.
(object); A/T (anti-tank); ATAS (Air Transport Auxiliary Service).
Another feature of the style is the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning.
Just as in the other matter-of-fact styles, and in contrast intrinsically to the belles-
letters style, there is no room for contextual meanings or for any kind of
simultaneous realization of two meanings. In military documents sometimes
metaphorical names are given to mountains, rivers, hills or villages, but these
metaphors are perceived as code signs and have no aesthetic value, as in:
“2. 102 d. Inf. Div. continues atk 26 Feb. 45 to captive objs Spruce Peach and
Cherry and prepares to take over objs Plum and Apple after capture by CCB, 5th
armed Div.”
Words with emotive meaning are not to be found in the style of official
documents either. Even in the style of scientific prose some words may be found
which reveal the attitude of the writer, his individual evaluation of the facts and
events of the issue. But no such words are to be found in official documents style,
except those which are used in business letters as conventional phrases of greeting
or close, as Dear Sir, your faithfully. As in all other functional styles, the
distinctive properties appear as a system. We cannot single out a style by its
vocabulary only, recognizable though it always is. The syntactical patter of the

26. 26
style is as significant as the vocabulary, though not perhaps so immediately
apparent. Perhaps the most noticeable of all syntactical features are the
compositional patters of the variants of this style [13, p.79]. Thus, business letters
have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the heading giving the address of
the writer, the date, the name of the addressee and his address. Here is a sample of
a business letter:
Smith and Sons
Main street 25
Manchester
9th February, 1977
Mr. John Smith
29 Cranbourn St
London
Dear Sir,
We beg to inform you that by order and for account of Mr. Julian of Leeds, we
have taken the liberty of drawing upon you for $25 at three months’ date to the
order of Mr. Sharp. We gladly take this opportunity of placing our services at your
disposal, and shall be pleased if you frequently make use of them
Respectfully yours,
Smith and Sons
By Jane Crawford
There is every reason to believe that many of the emotional words and phrases in
present-day commercial correspondence which are not merely conventional

27. 27
symbols of polite address, did retain their emotive meaning at earlier stages in the
development of this variety of official language.
Here is an interesting sample of business letter dates June 5, 1655:
Mr. G. Dury to Secretary Tharloe,
Right Honorable,
The Commissary of Sweden, Mr. Bormel, doth most humbly intreat your honour to
be pleased to procure him , his audience from his highness as soon as conveniently
it may be. He desires, that the same be without much ceremony, and be way of
private audience. I humbly subscribe myself.
Your Honour’s most humble and obedient servant
G. Dury
June, 5, 1655.
Such words and word-combinations as “most humbly,” “intreat”, “I humbly
subscribe”, “most humble and obedient servant”, and the like are too insistently
repeated not produce the desire impression of humbleness so necessary for one
who asks for a favour. Almost every official document has its own compositional
design. Pacts and statutes, orders and minutes, notes and memoranda- all have
more or less definite forms, and it will not be an exaggeration to state that the form
of the document is itself informative, as it tells something about the matter dealt
with (a letter, an agreement, an order, etc).
In this respect we shall quote the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations
which clearly illustrates the most peculiar form of the arrangement of an official
document of agreement.

28. 28
CHAPTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
“WE the PEOPLES of the United Nations Determined
To Save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our
lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and TO REAFFIRM faith in
fundamental rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal
rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and TO ESTABLISH
conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties
and other sources of international law can be maintained, and TO PROMOTE
social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
And For These Ends
TO PRACTICE tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good
neighbors, and TO UNITE our strength to maintain international peace and
security, and TO ENSURE, by the acceptance of principles and the institutions of
methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and TO
EMPLOY international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social
advancement of all peoples,
Have Resolved to Combine Our Efforts to Accomplish These Aims. [11, p.62]
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in
the City of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full power found to be in good
and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do
hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.”
As is seen, all the reasons which led to the decision of setting up an international
organization are expressed in one sentence with parallel infinitive object clauses.
Each infinitive object clause is framed as a separate paragraph thus enabling the
reader to attach importance to each of the items mentioned. The separate sentences
shaped as clauses are naturally divided not by full stops but either by commas or
by semicolons.

29. 29
It is also an established custom to divide separate utterances by numbers,
maintaining, however, the principle of dependence of all the statements on the
main part of the utterance. Thus, in chapter I of the U. N. Charter the purposes and
principles of the charter are given in a number of predicatives, all expressed in
infinitive constructions and numbered:
Purposes and Principles
The purpose of the United Nations are:
1. TO MAINTAIN international peace and security, and to that end: to take
effective collective measures for the prevention and removal to threats to the
peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,
and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of
justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or
situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.
2.TO DEVELOP friendly relations among based on respect for the principle of
equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate
measures to strengthen universal peace.
3.TO ACHIEVE international cooperation on solving international problems of an
economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character and in promoting and
encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without
distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4.TO BE A BENTER for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of
these common ends.”
Here is another sample of an official document maintaining the same principles:
United Nations Economic
Distr. Limited
And Social Council R/TAC/L. 89/Rev.2
29 Nov. 1955
Original: English

30. 30
The Technical Assistance Committee,
RECALLING THAT according to Economic and Social Council resolution 542
(XVII) the preparation and review of the Expanded Programme and all other
necessary steps should be carried out in a way that TAC ought to be in a position to
approve the over-all programme and authorize allocation to participating
organization by 30 November at the latest, CONSIDERING THAT a realistic
programme such as the Expanded Programme cannot be planned and formulated
without prior knowledge of the financial resources available for its
implementation, Considering that TAC, with the assistance of such ad hoc
subcommittees as it may find necessary to establish, will normally need about one
week to carry out the task referred to in the resolution mentioned above, bearing in
mind the necessary consultations with the representatives of the participating
organizations,
1.ASKS the Secretary- General to seek to arrange each year that the Pledging
Conference should be convened as early as possible taking due account of all
factors involved;
2. DECIDES that the Secretary-General should in future work on the assumption
that in carrying out the functions of approving the programme and authorizing
allocations as required by Economic and Social Council resolution 542(XVIII), the
TAC will usually need to meet for one week;
3. REQUESTS further the Secretary- General to transmit this resolutions to all
States Members and non-members of the United Nations which participate in the
Expanded Programme.”
In no other style of language will such an agreement of utterance be found. In fact,
the whole document is one sentence from the point of view of its formal syntactical
structure. The subject of the sentence “ The Technical Assistance Committee” is
followed by a number of participial constructions- Recalling-, considering-,
considering- is cut off by a comma from them and from the homogenous
predicates- “Asks”, “Decides”. “ Requests”. Every predicate structure is numbered

31. 31
and begins with a capital letter just as the participial constructions. This
structurally illogical way of combining different ideas has its sense. In the text just
quoted the reason for such a structural pattern probably lies in the intention to
show the equality of the items and similar dependence of the participial
constructions on the predicate constructions.
“ In English,” writes H. Whitehall, “… a significant judgment may depend on the
exact relations between words… The language of the law is written not so much to
be understood as not to be misunderstood”.
As is seen from the different examples above, the over-all cede of the official style
falls into a system of sub codes, each characterized by its own terminological
nomenclature, its own compositional form, its own variety of syntactical
arrangements. But the integrating features of all these sub codes, emanating from
the general aim of agreement between parties, remain the following:
1. Conventionality of expression
2. Absence of any emotiveness;
3. The encoded character of language symbols (including abbreviations).

32. 32
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Ashley, O. An Oxford Hall. New York: Publishers, 2005. 230p.
2. Darragh, G. Business Idioms. New York: Publishers, 2009. 312p.
3. Dyukanova, N. English for Secretary. Moscow: High School, 2011. 340p.
4. Izrailevich, A. Business Correspondence. Moscow: High School, 2001.
483p.
5. Kosareva, T. Delovaya perepiska. Moscow: High School, 2008. 361p.
6. Nazarov, V. Kurs yuridiceskogo perevoda. Moscow: High School, 2006.
427p.
7. Brown, P. & Levinson, S. Politeness: Some universals in language use.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.370p.
8. Samuelyan, N. Nastolinaia kniga secretarea referenta. Moscow: High
School, 2006. 482p.
9. Slepovich, V. Business English. Moscow: High School, 2003. 358p.
10. Levinson, L. Business Correspondence: A Guide to Everyday Writing.
London: Oxford, 2002. 367p.
11. Grice, P. The Philosophy of Language. London: Oxford, 2009, 481p.
12. Samover, L.A. & Porter, R.E. Intercultural communication: A reader. USA:
Wadsworth Publisher, 2000. 469 p.
13.Tran, Q. G. The Nature of Pragmatic and Discourse Transfer in Compliment
Responses in Cross-Cultural Interaction. Oxford: The Linguistics Journal,
2007.347p.
14.Watson, C. The state of Stylistics. Amsterdam: New York Press, 2010.
628p.
15.Wolfson, N. Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspectives. TESOL. Boston:
Quarterly, 2003.537p.
16. Barkhudarov, L. The Theory of Regular Correspondences. Moscow:
International Institute, 1975. 362p.

33. 33
CHAPTER II. PRAGMATIC AND STYLISTIC ASPECT OF BUSINESS
CORRESPONDENCE
II.1. Notion of Pragmatics
Pragmatics is a system way of explaining language used in context. It explains the
aspects of meaning which can't be found in the plain sense of word or structures, as
explained by semantics. Pragmatics studies the factors that guide our choice of
language in social interaction and the effect of our choice on others. Pragmatic
theories are just that of hypotheses about how we process language. They are not
specific to any particular language use. The assumption is that these are the ground
rules we use in interpreting all discourse [1, p.111]. Speaking would be pointless
unless we assumed that our interlocutor was being co-operative; Grice’s maxims
suggest some of the ways in which that co-operationis carried out. Nevertheless,
some fictions may seem to be in operative. For me, at least, Finnegans Wake falls
into that category. Whether in the longer term scholars will conclude that Sperber
and Wilson are right to argue that only relevance is taken into account in
processing discourse is uncertain. In purely practical terms, the Grice an maxims
are very useful in reminding us of what we are doing when we process language
or creating a text ourselves. All these theories can assist our interpretive e orts, and
guide our reading. They may even an explanation of why we react in particular
ways to texts. If we feel that our confidence is misplaced, perhaps because of a
seemingly irrelevant statement or description or apparently with the violation of a
maxim, the theories explain why we have this reaction [1, p.193]. Moving to more
linguistic approaches, context is crucial to all utterance interpretation. As a
preliminary to interpreting any discourse, it is helpful to know who produced it and
the circumstances surrounding its production. What is required is a definition of
context that seems to possess psychological verisimilitude that is, it may reflect
how real people react to discourse. It needs to be sensitive to the whole range of
experience and knowledge we bring to any discourse. In that respect Werth, and
Sperber and Wilson, are superior to the discourse analytical tradition who see it as

34. 34
a combination of the preceding discourse and the physical situation of the
participants. Sperber and Wilson definition includes anything in our encyclopaedic
knowledge that may help us to access explicatures and implicatures. Werth goes
well beyond this, in that he believes that an adequate definition of context will
include encyclopaedic knowledge, and our relations with other participants in the
discourse. His view of context is that it is text driven: that is, the discourse
recipient activates all those elements required for its interpretation: their retrieval
from our encyclopaedic memory, and memory of the preceding discourse, and any
other factors we consider relevant to interpretation. He also takes into account our
view of the speaker/writer in social and sociolinguistic terms. That would include,
in a literary text, our assessment of the reliability or otherwise of the narrator, our
memory of other texts by the same author (to the extent that we can recall these),
and their social situation [1, p. 201]. This approach, while clearly of great interest
to the analysis of ordinary language, seems to me to have less to contribute to our
understanding of literary discourse than other theories considered here. The
classification of all the speech acts in a novel is usually a rather arid exercise.
However, in one crucial respect speech act theory is extremely helpful in drawing
attention to the significance of malformed speech acts: these can be a most useful
way of pinning down the nature of unreliable narrators in particular. The use of
representative speech acts by a first-person narrator commenting on the motivation,
opinions or thoughts of another character is an obvious example.
II.2. Cooperative Principle as One of Fundamental Principles of
Discourse
The omnipresent dichotomy of oral /verbal and written communication leaves
much room for interpreting linguistic means inherited in both genres of human
self-expression. Both of them may be further subdivided along the lines of their
coexistence in the form of contextual and subtextual unities retaining all the

35. 35
peculiarities of the primary form. A public speech when comprehended at the times
of delivery is often perceived as an artistic textual phenomenon of varying degree
of coherence and abundant in semantic connotations predetermined by its character
and destination. The same speech perceived in the course of time in its textual
{written } form may reveal a considerable degree of vagueness to a new {non
target}auditorium and may need a huge apparatus of references clarifying the
subtleties and allusion of the primary message, that is the structure of its semantic
conations [2, p.101].
Whereas verbal business communication acts emerging in the course of negotiation
leave space for a certain ambiguity of statement to be précised in the course of the
talks, the minutes of the same negotiations may be regarded as a text i.e. a written
communication act of pronounced cohesion which ,however, lacks the semantic
straightforwardness and coherence of business written communication act
conceived as such from the very beginning. An economics- related text as a written
communication act in its turn is characterized by a great degree of coherence
enhanced by the semantic potential of pronounced terminology stratum inherent in
any specialized text [2, p.126].
However, any such communication act is targeted at both a professional and a
marginal auditorium , the latter being in need of a certain degree of simplification
achieved by using descriptive means such as, for example, the famous “invisible
hand “by A. Smith, which tends to enhance the role of subtext in a given
specialized text.
On the other hand , a wide range of linguistic means resorted to by outstanding
orators in no case exclude a moderate usage of conventional terminology. Thus,
the well –known phrase uttered by M.L .King Jr, ”In a sense…..we have come here
to cash a check”{“I Have a Dream”, August 28,1963, Washington D. C. },
contains the widely –used term “to cash a check” only as a metaphor, i.e. a stylistic
sub textual element , and needs a paragraph of explanations while in a specialized
text its semantic connotation would be quite unambiguous.

36. 36
A business correspondence item as a written communication act is subject to
strict drafting rules as to its form, while its content usually does not extend beyond
a definitive framework of business – related realities. Hence, B.C documents may
be regarded as highly coherent written communication acts allowing no vague
connotation, whose semantic structure is expanded and précised by abundant usage
of considerable terminology stratum [3, p.137].
The degree of coherence may insignificantly vary depending on the form and
content of these messages, however, their pronounced business character allow
almost no deviation from the established written practice, and thus not too wide a
range of possible semantic connotation , to say nothing of any subtext.
That is why BC documents may be regarded as highly formalized speciality texts
reflecting an ancient sphere of human activity- trade- which allow no vague
semantic connotation in the force of their social function. A considerable degree of
formalization of both form and content of BC items makes it possible to operate
within a wide range of conventional clichés of definite semantic potential that are
easily recognized by the target auditorium in the process of BC exchange. In order
to facilitate the latter, a wide variety of BC textbooks, guidebooks, deskbooks ,etc,
have been published in the world , each containing new details, notations, clichés
and phrases, which attests to the fact that , as any other act of communication, BC
is subject to change and development.
With the evolvement of new linguistic norms of verbal communication , these
are sure to gradually penetrate into the sphere of specialized written
communication and occupy their semantic niche, as in the case of terminology
associated with new social and technical phenomena, and first adopted as
colloquialisms and jargonisms {e.g “telex”, “fax”, “e-mail”, a number of
abbreviation, computer- related terms, etc} among native speakers of given
language, to further acquire an internationally adopted character , and provoking
no misinterpretation by the parties involved in the exchange of BC
communications all over the world.

37. 37
Thus, the correlation of verbal- written communication acts has produced a certain
“democratization” of the latter easily traced with contemporary BC, but to no
detriment of semantic and physical properties{e. g target auditorium, document
length, “genre” or lay – out} of a conventional BC item. In any case, regardless of
the time and stylistic peculiarities of its drafting, no BC message would need an
apparatus of references to explain the structure of its semantic connotation to a
subsequent reader [3, p.142].
“Local Government was one dull. But looming for ratepayers this spring are rate
of an average of 25 per cent , outside London and above 60 per cent, within it.
These follow last year’s stratospheric increase. Alas, if rapacious demands of this
kind can emerge from them, what goes on in Britain’s town halls cannot be so
tedious, chaotic, frightening, scandalous , yet; dull, no …”{The Daily Telegraph}.
The above quoted examples from English newspaper editorials abound in
emotionally colored vocabulary units. Along with neutral and literary {common
and special} vocabulary one can find words with emotive coloring: top, most,
giant, screams of agony, scandalous, frightening, rapacious , alas; colloquial
vocabulary units: to sack , fat, instances of linguistic imagery: this golden
handshake, stratospheric increases, etc. all these lexical means are highly emotive
and thoroughly evaluative. Emotional coloring in editorial articles in achieved with
the help of various stylistic devices, both lexical and syntactical, the use of which
is largely traditional. Editorials abound in trite stylistic means, especially
metaphors and epithets, e.g. international climate, a price explosion, a price spiral,
a spectacular sight, an outrageous act, brutal rule, an astounding statement , crazy
policies.
Most trite stylistic means commonly used in the newspaper have become clichés.
But genuine stylistic means are also sometimes used, which helps the writer of the
editorial to bring his idea home to the reader through the association that genuine
imagery arouses. Practically any stylistic device may be found in editorial writing,
and when aptly used, such device prove to be a powerful means of appraisal, of

38. 38
expressing a personal attitude to the matter in hand, of exercising the necessary
emotional effect on the reader.
Note the following example:
“That this huge slice of industry should become a battleground in which public
cash is used as a whip with to lash workers is a scandal… Yet it is the workers who
are being served up as the lambs for sacrifice, and it is public money that is used to
stoke the fire of the sacrificial pyre”{Morning Star}. The stylistic effect of these
sustained similes is essentially satirical,. A similar effect is frequently achieved by
the use of metaphor , irony, the breaking up of the set expressions , the stylistic use
of word building, by using allusion, etc. two types of allusions can be distinguished
in newspaper article writing: a. allusions to political and other facts of the day
which are indispensable and have no stylistic value, and b. historical, literary and
biblical allusion which are often used to create a specific stylistic effect, largely-
satirical. The emotional force of expression in the editorial is often enhance by the
use of various syntactical stylistic devices. Some editorials abound in parallel
constructions, various type of repetition , rhetorical questions and other syntactical
stylistic means. However , although all editorials , as a specific genre of newspaper
writing, have common distinguishing features, the editorials in different papers
vary in degree of emotional coloring and stylistic originality of expression. While
these qualities are typical enough of the “popular” newspapers {those with large
circulation}, such as the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail, so-called “quality
papers”, as The Times and The Guardian, make rather a sparing use of the
expressive and stylistic means of the language [4, p.101].
II.3. Grice's Maxims in Discourse
Grice’s co-operative principle and the associated maxims are very useful, despite
their primary association with spoken language, for the interpretation of written
texts. Grice has identified the likely way in which we approach any discourse: with
the assumption (strengthened in relevance theory) that we are intending successful

39. 39
communication, that we are being essentially co-operative on some level. We
therefore assume bona fides in our interlocutors. As we have seen, some of the
maxims are of less obvious usefulness in reading fictional discourse. When I am
reading a newspaper, I can decide fairly readily whether or not I am satisfied with
the quantity of information. It is not at all clear how the maxim of quantity applies
to other kinds of writing [5, p.73]. The maxim of quality is not obviously
significant when it comes to fiction. It is, after all, fiction. It is of course applicable
in character-to-character interactions. It is also relevant to our interpretation of
first-person narrators.The maxim of manner is also problematic. Almost anything
could be expressed in another way; this maxim has nothing to do with the veracity
of the utterance, and everything to do with its expression, which is entirely under
the control of the speaker or writer. This maxim is therefore very useful in
assessing literary texts. How something is expressed can indicate the attitude of the
speaker or writer; The maxim of relevance is also very problematic: relevant to
what or whom? In a literary text, or indeed any written text, we assume that all
textual elements are relevant otherwise an editor would have queried them. The
relevance account of echoic discourse makes a major contribution by a model for
the interpretation of irony and other forms of echoic language, including the whole
range of varieties of indirect discourse. Not only is this an elegant analytical tool, it
explains how it is that we can interpret something ironically or not. It explains how
it is that we can miss ironies, particularly if the ironist is echoing a thought we may
sympathise with. (In this respect it is similar to account of symbol, which, as we
saw, he regards as an option open to the reader when interpreting a text.) And, by
showing that it is part of everyday language use. The echoic account of irony
seems to cover all the manifestations of the phenomenon, holding on to the crucial
element of distancing, with varying degrees of disapprobation. The relevance view
is not committed to the view of irony found in, for example, Leech, which holds
that irony must be totally condemnatory [5, p.81].

40. 40
II.4. Stylistic Means and Devices in Business Correspondence
The word “style” is usually associated with literary writing. We are conscious that
offer to discuss style will remind many of our readers of school poetry lessons; but
to have style in the sense we use in this chapter does not mean to be “florid” or
“ornate”; it is to adapt the language code to particular ends. Language can be used
for a variety of purposes; it can, among other things, announce or warn{notice},
instruct{operating instructions}, persuade{advertising}, and inform {reports and
articles}. What is efficient in writing can be measured only in relation to the
purpose of the writing. If the purpose is to give pleasure, then attractiveness
becomes one of the criteria of the efficient manipulation of the code; but the
purpose is to warm or to instruct, then notices like “Keep off the grass” are
admirable. We are concerned in this chapter solely with effective style for the
communication of information; what is efficient for this context is what is clearest
and quickest. Style for functional writing should be unobtrusive, an invisible
medium, like a window pane through which the information can be clearly seen.
Effective style will contain a variety of structures and usages, and will not ban any
feature of the language code [6, p.83]. Many books on writing stress that scientific
style must be simple, clear and concise. Indeed our readers, most of whom must
have heard such advice at some time, might be forgiven for thinking that there was
nothing else to say. We intend to offer both reason and example to support our
advice. We shall look first at the factors which underpin advice on effective style,
and then in detail at the ways in which the language code can be handled to
achieve the aim of comfortable, readable writing. Much research has been done to
discover what it is that makes some pieces of writing more difficult to read than
others. It is everyone’s experience that some writing –for instance a Harold
Robbins novel – is so easy to read it can be difficult to put down. But some writing
is so difficult to read that as we push ourselves through it we develop a headache
[6, p.98]. Too many textbooks and scientific papers falls into the second category.
There are also, of course, types of writing which fall between these two extremes.
Each of us would like his or her writing to be readable; but how should we go

41. 41
about ensuring this? The first stage in acquiring an effective and readable style is
to understand the factors which contribute to unreadable writing. In analyzing the
factors which affect readability, we can distinguish three components: writer, text
and readers. First the writer, principally by careful selection of material, by
organization, signposting and variation of emphasis, affects the readability of the
text. If the writer’s choices accurately reflect the interest, needs and prior
knowledge of the readers, the text is more likely to be readable. Second, the text
itself affects readability. Both the language {structures and vocabulary} and the
physical appearance {layout, headings, white space} contribute to the efficiency of
the communication. Third, the readers motivation and attitudes contribute to their
responses to the text. For example, someone with a bet on the Derby finds the
racing results highly readable, though they are hardly a model of prose for report
writing. Most scientific and technical writing is read because reading it is part of
job [7, p.109].
Readability research shows that long sentences make texts more difficult for
readers to absorb. Almost all readers experience this, although they may not
identify its cause. Many readers are so generous that they attribute their growing
discomfort to lack of concentration or ability. They may also think that a difficult
subject, rather than a difficult style makes their task so unpalatable. But the effect
of sentence length on readability is indisputable. Try to read this sentence:
“The coil pump supplies eluent phase at column pressure to the injection valve by
way of a cut off valve activated by either a power failure or by a digital output
from the computer, the digital output operating a relay switching the electrical
supply to the valve, which has two solvent passages and is arranged such that the
eluent phase can flow through one whilst the sample passes through the other,
injection being achieved by switching the slide valve by a pneumatic controller
operated by means of a signal switch from the timer unit of the Cecil sample
charger”.

42. 42
We doubt if many readers can grasp this without reading it through more than
once. Yet it is not the technical content that is the source of difficulty, and only the
word ‘eluent’ is likely to be unfamiliar to the most technical audiences. Long
sentences are difficult because of the way in which we read. After reading a
paragraph of text, we do not remember every word, but retain ideas, facts and
images. Long sentences, such as the example we just used, overfill the short-term
memory and the information is lost [8, p.123]. Observe what readers do when a
sentence is too long. Most go back to the beginning, and start to re-read; but they
usually do not re-read the hole sentence. They simply refresh their memory of the
opening part of the sentence. If readers are in a hurry, they will not spare time to go
back to the beginning of every long sentence; they take a guess at the meaning,
and carry on. Many writers feel that long sentences are inevitable if complex
interaction have to be expressed. This is a mistake . any subject can be broken up
into longer or shorter items of information at will, and the determining factor is
how much the reader can comfortably absorb, not how much information is
“logically” joined together. All the information on complex subject is logically
connected, and could therefore in theory be expressed in one sentence. Sentence
length and structure are important influences on readability. Because readers
cannot retain large numbers of words at once, sentences must be manageable; but
what is manageable depends on the complexity and density of the information and
the reader’s familiarity with it [9, p.141].
The second factor that affects readability is the use of long and unfamiliar words.
We must define what we mean by long words. Some words with many syllables
are quite familiar- for instance ‘electricity’. It is the unfamiliarity of a word in
combination with its length which makes it less easy to read. Linguists have made
words lists which list the frequency with which words occur. Writing which uses
long, unfamiliar words is more difficult to read: ’This work has involved the
acquisition of skills and techniques required when working with….” Words like
‘involve’. ‘acquisition’ and ‘ required’ are longer than are needed to do the job.

43. 43
The writer could have written more readably: ”In this work we have learned new
ways of working with…..”.
Many unusual words are chosen by writers for the air of intellectuality they give to
the writing. Yet such words are often awkward and distracting:
“……with adequate ancillary labor to assist….{…with enough extra labor to
help…},
“The precise mechanism responsible for this antagonism cannot be elucidated…”
Readers are usually not impressed by such words. These words are not
objectionable because readers cannot understand them. Even if most readers
eventually understand, areas of uncertainty will remain; and virtually all readers
find reading texts which contain such words more difficult. Such words are rarely
used in everyday language and they should remain so where no other words will
convey the exact meaning, then they have a place, but where familiar, everyday
words are available to do the same job, the everyday words should be used.
Long words often confuse readers. The precise meaning of each word may not be
clear. The words may be high order generalizations which have no single concrete
meaning, but cover a large number of related activities. Thus ‘assay’ can mean to
measure, estimate, weigh, analyze, try the purity of, or to attempt. Long words are
also used in the hope of impressing readers [10, p.93].
The advice to avoid long and unfamiliar words is not a ban on jargon. Jargon is a
short and convenient way to name new ideas and concepts. The phrase “update”
seems to us an excellent and brief way to say ‘ to revise and edit so as to bring up
to date’. New ideas or new objects need names, and a new name is better than a
long string of old ones. But technical words are often used not for these reasons,
but to create a spurious impressiveness:” Each task is assigned a maximum period
of time, or time quantum, for which it may run”. The word ‘quantum’ adds nothing
to the content , and disturbs the readers’ trust in the writer’s good intentions.
Jargons words are sometimes added entirely unnecessarily:’….the dilution follow
sequentially down the series….’, where the word ‘series’ makes the word

44. 44
‘sequentially’ redundant. Misused jargon, especially where it is derived from
everyday language, can often lead to thoughtlessly funny statements: ’To end a
terminal session, the user logs out…’. A terminal session is not the last big shoot-
out in a Western, but a period of work at a computer terminal.
Jargon, then , is an important resource; technical communication would be
cumbersome and inefficient without it. Wherever it is used without having a
specific and real function in the communication of the message, it reduces
readability, without offering any compensating gains.
Long, unfamiliar words are often highly abstract, and fail to communicate because
they embrace too many different meanings. Imprecise communication is made in
:’…. And no adverse interaction have been seen…’. The phrase ‘ adverse
interaction’ covers everything from a bar fight to a chemical explosion. A writer on
economics complains of:’ the regressive ness and anomalies caused by the export
duty and surcharge…’, but leaves reader with no clear picture of what these ‘
regressive ness and anomalies’ are in specific terms. Phrases as well as words often
chosen for their impressive sound and massive weight rather than for brevity and
clarity. We distinguish the use of unnecessary or repetitious words, and the use of
whole phrases where single words will do. Unnecessary words often repeat an
idea which is already expressed in another word, and thus waste space and blunt
the message [11, p.70].
Sometimes writers use several words for ideas can be expressed more clearly in
one: ’This is done by means of inserting a Fogarty 3f arterial embolectomy
catheter… resulting in exposure of the subendothelial layer, ‘ the phrase ‘by means
of’ and ‘ resulting in’ add nothing to the information in the sentence , but they do
add to its length. The more economical the encoding of the message in general, the
clearer the meaning.
A common feature of technical writing is ‘nominalization’. Many books on
technical style discuss it, but few name it, admittedly ‘nominalization’ is technical
word from linguistics, but it is not a difficult or confusing concept. Nominalization

45. 45
is the habit of turning verbs into nouns, or names. For examples, a simple
statement might be:’ the probe measured the internal diameter.’ But it is common
in scientific writing to think of ‘measurement’ as a concept, or activity, and to
construct a sentence round the noun’ measurement’, rather than to use the verb ‘
measure’. ‘ measurement of the internal diameter was performed by the probe’.
This is nominalization. The force which operate to encourage nominalization are
understandable. Dealing continually in concepts, scientific and technical writers
tends to isolate activities such as ‘ experimenting’, ‘measuring’, and ‘ analyzing’ as
abstract conceptual units in their minds. There are some cases where
nominalization is a useful resource, but these cases should be a minority. Where
writing continually nominalizes, it becomes tiring and flat: more effort is required
to disentangle the roundabout structures which result, the meaning is spread more
thinly , and the passive structures with meaningless general purpose verbs rob the
writing of its impact and energy. Once recognized, nominalization is easy to
correct. Whenever you see general- purpose verbs such as ‘ carry out’, ‘perform’,
‘undertake’, or ‘ conduct’ look for the word which names the action. Turning the
name of the activity back into a verb will undo the nominalization, and make the
sentence more direct and easier to read [12, p.63].
Passive structures reverse the most common order of a sentence. Instead of saying
‘ the analyzer tested the sample’ writers can say ‘ The sample was tested by the
analyzer’. The main purpose of this reversal is to provide emphasis, by bringing to
the head of the sentence the thing acted on, rather than the thing doing the action.
Such a simple grammatical device is clearly useful and unobjectionable.
‘The intensities were measured on a computer- controlled densitometer…’
‘The identification of the animals in the experiment is by cage cards…’
In such examples, the passive structure lengthens and elaborates the sentence
unnecessarily. Readers absorb active sentences more easily than passive ones,
because it is easier to focus on the agent of the action if is named first. Passive
structures should be used only where they have a specific encoding function,

46. 46
because otherwise they add unnecessarily to the complexity of a statement. The
common reason for using so many passive constructions is that they can be made
impersonal. The active construction ‘ we started the test’ , turned into the passive
construction ‘the test was started by us’ , can be transformed into an impersonal
structure by the simple deletion of the last part of the sentence’ the test was
started’.
During the last century, it became an accepted dogma of scientific writing that
there should be no references to the person doing the work, and this is now firmly
established in many writer’s minds. In fact , the reporting of science prior to the
nineteenth century frequency used personal structures. The organization you are
writing for may try to operate a ban on personal constructions; but there are
occasions where accurate reporting requires identification of the person who acted.
The alternatives to the simple personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’ are more obtrusive.
One major reason for using personal pronouns is, therefore, that the alternatives are
clumsier and more obtrusive [13, p.63]. A ban on personal references can therefore
be ambiguous. In science, the attribution of work to named workers is an integral
part of the system of reporting and publishing results. Thus the writer who
reported:
“From preliminary studies using the microscope, it was found that three ‘passes’
were required”, left it unclear whether the studies being described were his or her
own preliminary studies, or those of other workers. Ambiguity which makes the
source and history of the conclusion unclear, is bad; uncertainty about the claimed
status a hypothesis is often worse: ’it is not possible to state exact mode of
operation of the drug’. This leaves serious doubts in readers’ minds. They may
well translate this sentences, following familiar scientific idioms, as saying ‘ We
do not know how the drug works’.
Impersonal constructions are ambiguous therefore introduce a worrying
uncertainty. In commercial organizations, who made the decision may be
important. To allow the identification to go by default is to buy anonymity at a

47. 47
high price. The use of rigidly impersonal constructions in scientific and technical
documentation is gradually dying. Both civil service and armed services writing
now contain personal pronouns. If you belong to an organization which still bans
personal pronouns in its documents, or if you have been convinced that they are
inappropriate in scientific writing, we would ask you to rethink your reasons for
this belief. Readability research shows that writing containing personal pronouns
is, on the whole, easier to read [13, p. 91]. The circumlocutions, passive
constructions, and omissions required for impersonal writing absorb extra energy
in decoding the message. When writing, and especially when editing, we have to
take into consideration the following points: To avoid over long sentences and try
to use a vocabulary which is simple while still being exact. To avoid misuse of
jargon and thoughtlessly abstract words where concrete ones convey the exact
meaning. To think again about roundabout, wordy phrases, the over-use of passive
structures, and the temptation to use regular nominalization. Try also to use
personal pronouns where they are appropriate. Draft your documents, and then
read through, looking for the types of clumsiness; it is possible to acquire
considerable skill at seeing and correcting stylistic ineptitudes [14, p.63].

48. 48
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Brown, P. & Levinson, S. Politeness: Some universals in language use.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.370p.
2. Samuelyan, N. Nastolinaia kniga secretarea referenta. Moscow: High
School, 2006. 482p.
3. Slepovich, V. Business English. Moscow: High School, 2003. 358p.
4. Levinson, L. Business Correspondence: A Guide to Everyday Writing.
London: Oxford, 2002. 367p.
5. Grice, P. The Philosophy of Language. London: Oxford, 2009, 481p.
6. Samover, L.A. & Porter, R.E. Intercultural communication: A reader. USA:
Wadsworth Publisher, 2000. 469 p.
7. Tran, Q. G. The Nature of Pragmatic and Discourse Transfer in Compliment
Responses in Cross-Cultural Interaction. Oxford: The Linguistics Journal,
2007.347p.
8. Watson, C. The state of Stylistics. Amsterdam: New York Press, 2010.
628p.
9. Wolfson, N. Compliments in Cross-Cultural Perspectives. TESOL. Boston:
Quarterly, 2003.537p.
10. Shveitzer, A. The Theory of Translation. Moscow: High School, 1988.
234p.
11.Tran, Q. G. The Nature of Pragmatic and Discourse Transfer in Compliment
Responses in Cross-Cultural Interaction. Oxford: The Linguistics Journal,
2007.347p.
12.Tran, G. Q. Pragmatic and discourse transfer of combination of compliment
response strategies in second language learning and usage. Boston:Asian
EFL journal, 2008.439p.
13.Verdonk, P. Stylistics. London: Oxford University Press, 2002.243p.
14.Wales, K. A Dictionary of Stylistics. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited,
2001.427p.

49. 49
CHAPTER III. WAYS OF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE
TRANSLATION FROM BRITISH/AMERICAN INTO RUSSIAN
III.1. Peculiarities of Business Document Style
Like other official documents business letters also make part from this field. We
can distinguish different types of business letters:
- Inquire letter
- Reference letter
- Refusal letter
- Resignation letter
- Acceptance letter
- Acknowledgment letter
- Adjustment letter
- Application letter
- Complaint letter.
All these letters have their own characteristics which don’tbe mixed up.
A letter consists of a number of parts, each of which is essential to the letter, or
contributes in some way to its impact on the recipient.
We may list them as follows:
a. The heading
b. The inside name and address
c. The salutation
d. The subject heading
e. The opening paragraph
f. The bodyof the letter
g. The closing paragraph
h. The complimentary close
i. The signature block
l. Enclosures and copies.

50. 50
Date
The date line is used to indicate the date the letter was written. However, if the
letter is completed over a number of days, it is used the date when it was finished
in the date line. When writing to companies within the United States, it is used the
American date format. The United States-based convention for formatting a date
places the month before the day.
Example: June 11, 2015.
It is written out the month, day and year two inches from the top of the page.
Depending which format it is using for the letter, either left justify the date or
center it horizontally.
Sender’s Address
Including the address of the sender is optional. If it is chosen to include it, the
address is placed one line below the date. The sender’s name is not written or title,
as it is included in the letter’s closing. It is included only the street addresses city
and zip code. Another option is to include the sender’s address directly after the
closing signature.
The Heading
Contains the writer’s address and the date of the letter. The writer’s name is not
included and only a date is needed in heading.
The inside name and address
At the top a letter, below the references and the date, the secretary types the
,,inside name and address”. This is the name and address of the person to whom
the letter is to be sent: the addressee.
The inside address is the recipient’s address. It is always best to write to a
specific individual at the firm to which the author is writing. If he doesn’t have the
person’s name, it is done some research by calling the company or speaking with
employees from the company. It is included a personal title such as Ms., Mrs., Mr.,
or Dr. It is followed a woman’s preference in being addressed as Miss, Mrs., or
Ms. If there is a possibility that the person to whom the author is writing is a Dr. or
has some other title, then it is used that title. Usually, people will not mind being