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BUSINESS ENGLISH
A Practice Book
by
ROSE BUHLIG
Tilden High School, Chicago
D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers
Boston New York Chicago
Copyright, 1914,
By D. C. Heath & Co.
2FI
PREFACE
THE author of this book and the writer of this preface have never met.
Their respective fields of labor are a thousand miles apart. Yet such is
the force of ideas that many of their thoughts and sympathies are
common.
Business English! The very name is an anomaly. From a literary point of
view there is no such thing. English is English whether it be used to
express the creations of our imagination, our aesthetic appreciations,
or our daily wants. There is no magical combination of words, phrases,
and sentences that is peculiar and distinctive to business transactions.
Business English as used in these pages means effective communication,
both oral and written. The author's aim throughout has been to teach the
art of using words in such a way as to make people think and act. To do
this she has applied the principles of literary composition to the
highly complex and ever increasing problems of our business life. She
realizes that business is vital, and that the problems of commerce are
not to be met and handled with dead forms and stereotyped expressions of
legal blanks.
To use our language effectively it is necessary to have an understanding
of its elements. Thus the author has very wisely devoted much space to
word-study and English grammar. This is a field commonly neglected in
books on the subject. The people engaged in business are, on the whole,
woefully weak in the grammar of our language. It is believed that the
treatment herein will be a great aid in correcting this deficiency. If
we have ideas, we must express them in words, and our words should be so
chosen and arranged as not to offend, but to please and interest. This
result can be secured by a systematic study of Part I.
Part II deals with oral and written composition. Here the author has
arranged her subjects in such a way as to give the whole a cumulative
effect. The method throughout is inductive, and sufficient examples are
always given to warrant the conclusions drawn. Most textbooks on
Business English neglect the subject of oral English. This book regards
the spoken word as important as the written word.
If there be any one feature in this textbook more to be commended than
another, it is the exposition in Part III. The situations arising in
many different kinds of business are here analyzed. The author believes
that the way to become a good business correspondent is, first, to learn
what the situation demands and, second, to practice meeting the demands.
We must know before we write. Given a knowledge of the subject, we must
have much practice in expressing ourselves in such a way as to make our
composition effective. The author meets this need by supplying many and
varied exercises for practice. These exercises are live, practical, and
up-to-date. The problems to be solved are real, not imaginary. Thus the
power to be gained in meeting these situations and solving these
problems will prove a real asset to those who contemplate a business
career. It is confidently hoped that both teachers and pupils will find
in this work material which will help them to prepare themselves to meet
the many problems and demands of our growing commercial needs.
DANIEL B. DUNCAN
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
_January, 1914._
CONTENTS
PART I--WORD STUDY AND GRAMMAR
CHAPTER PAGE
I INTERESTING WORDS 1
II PRONUNCIATION 7
III SPELLING RULES 18
IV WORD ANALYSIS 29
V THE SENTENCE AND ITS ELEMENTS 41
VI THE NOUN AND THE PRONOUN 57
VII THE ADJECTIVE AND THE ADVERB 75
VIII THE VERB 83
IX THE PREPOSITION AND THE CONJUNCTION 116
PART II--COMPOSITION: ORAL AND WRITTEN
X ORAL ENGLISH 127
XI CHOOSING SUBJECTS 146
XII PUNCTUATION 158
XIII THE CLEAR SENTENCE 199
XIV THE PARAGRAPH 215
XV BUSINESS LETTERS 229
PART III--COMPOSITION: BUSINESS PRACTICE
XVI MANUFACTURE 270
XVII DISTRIBUTION 282
XVIII ADVERTISING 308
XIX REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE 321
XX BANKING 332
XXI THE CORPORATION 353
INDEX 369
BUSINESS ENGLISH
PART I--WORD STUDY AND GRAMMAR
CHAPTER I
INTERESTING WORDS
BUSINESS English is the expression of our commercial life in English. It
is not synonymous with letter writing. To be sure, business letters are
important, but they form only a part of one of the two large divisions
into which the subject naturally falls.
First, there is _oral expression_, important because so many of our
business transactions are conducted personally. Thousands of salesmen
daily move from place to place over the entire country, earning their
salaries by talking convincingly of the goods that they have to sell. A
still greater number of clerks, salesmen, managers, and officials orally
transact business in our shops, stores, offices, and banks. Complaints
are adjusted; difficulties are disentangled; and affairs of magnitude
are consummated in personal interviews, the matter under discussion
often being thought too important to be entrusted to correspondence. In
every business oral English is essential.
Second, there is _written expression_. This takes account of the writing
of advertisements, circulars, booklets, and prospectuses, as well as of
letters. And in the preparation of these oral English is fundamental. It
precedes and practically includes the written expression. For example,
we say colloquially that a good advertisement "talks." We mean that the
writer has so fully realized the buyer's point of view that the words of
the advertisement seem to speak directly to the reader, arousing his
interest or perhaps answering his objection. Oral English is
fundamental, too, in the writing of letters, for most letters are
dictated and not written. The correspondent dictates them to his
stenographer or to a recording machine in the same tone, probably, that
he would use if the customer were sitting before him.
But in taking this point of view, we should not minimize the importance
of written business English. In a way, it is more difficult to write
well than it is to talk well. In talking we are not troubled with the
problems of correct spelling, proper punctuation, and good paragraphing.
We may even repeat somewhat, if only we are persuasive. But in writing
we are confronted with the necessity of putting the best thoughts into
the clearest, most concise language, at the same time obeying all the
rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The business man must be
sure of these details in order to know that his letters and advertising
matter are correct. The stenographer, especially, must be thoroughly
familiar with them, so that she may correctly transcribe what has been
dictated.
Business English is much the same as any other English. It consists in
expression by means of words, sentences, and paragraphs. Moreover, they
are much the same kind of words, sentences, and paragraphs that appear
in any book that is written in what is commonly called the literary
style. In a business letter the words are largely those of every day
use, and but few are technical. It is the manner in which the words are
put together, the idea back of the sentence, that makes the only
difference.
We shall begin the study of business English with a study of words, for
in all expression, whether oral or written, a knowledge of words, of
their meaning and suggestive power, is fundamental. On the choice of
words depends not only the correctness but also the effectiveness of
expression--the courtesy of a letter, the appeal of an advertisement,
the persuasiveness of a salesman's talk. A mastery of words cannot be
gained at once. Every time one speaks, he must consider what words will
best convey his idea. In this chapter only the barest beginning of such
study can be made. The exercises show the value of the subject.
The study of words is interesting because words themselves are
interesting. Sometimes the interest consists in the story of the
derivation. As an example, consider the word _italic_. Many words in
this book are written in italic to draw attention to them. Literally the
word means "relating to Italy or its people." It is now applied to a
kind of type in which the letters slope toward the right. The type was
called italic because it was dedicated to the states of Italy by the
inventor, Manutius, about the year 1500. An unabridged dictionary will
tell all about the word.
The word _salary_ tells a curious story. It is derived from a Latin
word, _salarium_, meaning "salt money." It was the name of the money
that was given to the Roman soldiers for salt, which was a part of their
pay. Finally, instead of signifying only the salt money, it came to mean
the total pay.
Practically all of this information a good dictionary gives. In other
words, a dictionary is a story book containing not one, but hundreds of
thousands of stories. Whenever possible it tells what language a word
came from, how it got its different meanings, and how those meanings
have changed in the course of time. For it is natural that words should
change just as styles change, names of ancient things being lost and
names for new things being made. As the objects themselves have gone out
of use, their names have also gone. When a word has gone entirely out of
use, it is marked _obsolete_ in the dictionary. On the other hand, new
inventions must be named. Thus new words are constantly being added to
the language and the dictionary because they are needed.
There is a large class of words that we shall not have time to
consider. They are called _technical_. Every profession, business, or
trade has its distinctive words. The technical words that a printer
would use are entirely different from those which a dentist, a
bookkeeper, or a lawyer would use. You will learn the technical terms of
your business most thoroughly after you enter it and see the use for
such terms.
None of the words, therefore, that you will be asked to search out in
the dictionary are, strictly speaking, technical. It is evident that it
will do you no good to search out the words in the dictionary, unless
you learn them--unless you use them correctly in speaking and writing.
There is pleasure in thus employing new material, as everybody knows.
Use your eyes and ears. When you hear a new word, or read one, focus the
mind upon it for a moment until you can retain a mental picture of its
spelling and of its pronunciation. Then as soon as possible look it up
in the dictionary to fix its spelling, pronunciation, and definition. Do
this regularly, and you will have reason to be proud of your vocabulary.
An excellent way to increase the number of words that you know is to
read the right kind of books. The careful study of the words used in the
speeches and addresses of noted men is good practice. The conditions
that called forth the speech were probably important, and the speech
itself interesting, or it would not be preserved. When a man has an
interesting or important message to give, he usually gives it in clear,
exact, simple language. Therefore the vocabulary that he uses is worth
copying. As for stories, there is a kind that furnishes a wealth of
material that modern authors are constantly using or referring to, and
this is found in stories of the Bible, stories of Greek and Northern
gods and goddesses, stories of the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, the _Æneid_,
stories of chivalry--all old stories. Every one should know them well,
because they are the basis of many allusions in which a single word
oftentimes suggests a whole story. The meaning of the word _herculean_,
for instance, is missed if you do not know the story of Hercules and
know that he was famous for his strength.
=Exercise 1=
_Atlas_ is an interesting word. Originally it was the name of a Greek
god, who carried the world on his shoulders. Then it is supposed that in
the sixteenth century the famous geographer Mercator prefixed his
collection of maps with the picture of Atlas supporting the world. Thus
a collection of maps in a volume came to be called an _atlas_. Consult
an unabridged dictionary for the origin of each of the following:
rival fortune cereal boycott
dollar finance china derrick
bankrupt milliner java mercury
cash pullman cashmere colossal
mint grocer macadam turbine
=Exercise 2=
The days of the week and the months of the year are interesting in their
derivation. Monday, for example, represents the day sacred to the Moon
as a deity. Explain the origin of each of the following:
Sunday Saturday May October
Tuesday January June November
Wednesday February July December
Thursday March August
Friday April September
=Exercise 3=
Look up the derivation of the following:
cancel bead ambition hospital
pecuniary paper influence pavilion
cheat book virtue mackintosh
speculation bayonet peevish chapel
phaëton tawdry disaster omnibus
=Exercise 4=
Explain the origin of each of the following:
curfew tulip turquoise good-bye
pompadour aster amethyst dismal
hyacinth dunce tantalize titanic
dandelion humor umbrella volcano
dahlia villain sandwich tangle
begonia echo lunatic babble
=Exercise 5=
Name the image that each of the following suggests to you:
howl sputter rasping munch
skim prance clatter trickle
squeal click wheeze shuffle
moan thud trudge bulge
squeak patter chuckle gobble
squawk spatter toddling swish
=Exercise 6=
Bring to class a list of words which, because they are the names of
modern inventions, have come into the language in modern time.
=Exercise 7=
How many words can you name which might be called the technical terms of
school life, words which always carry with them a suggestion of the
school room? Bring in a list of twenty such words.
=Exercise 8=
How many words can you name which are used only in the business world?
Bring in a list of twenty such words.
=Exercise 9=
How many words can you name which apply particularly to money and the
payment or non-payment of money? Bring in a list of twenty or more such
words.