Section B : Composition
2 E-Mails and Text Messages
Composing NOTES
Letter writing on simple paper or on internet are messages and certain letter-
forms have been established by experience and customs as the most useful
forms learned and used by every letter-writer, for neglect of them is a sign of
ignorance and carelessness.
There are several different kinds of letters (such as friendly letters, business
letters etc.) each of which has its own particular form, but there are certain
matters of form which apply to all and these may be noted down.
In all kind of letters there are six points of form to be taken care of. These
are
(i) The heading consisting of (a) writer’s address and (b) the date. Check Your Progress
(ii) The courteous greetings or salutation. 33. What are the six
points of form in all
(iii) The communication or message – the body of letter. kind of letter to be
taken care of ? What
(iv) The subscription, or courteous leave-taking or conclusion. are they ?
(v) The signature
(vi) The superscription on the envelope (if sent by surface mail) 209
Communication Skills & (i) The Heading :
Personality Development
This inform the reader where you wrote the letter and when. The where
(which should be the writer’s full address/E-mail Id, gives the address to
NOTES which reader may apply : and the when is for reference, as it gives him
the date on which you wrote.
The position of the heading is the top right hand corner of the first page
- the address above and the date just below it. The heading and the date
may alternatively go on the left.
Example :
(i) Pragya Publications
E-38, Industrial Area,
Mathura - 281004
Date 14 June, 08
The date may be written in any of the following ways :
14th, June 2008 – 14-6-2008
14th June 2008 – 14.6.2008
June, 14, 2008 – 14/6/2008
To a British person 14.6.2008 means the fourteenth of June 2008.
But the Americans put the month before the day hence they would
write 6/14/2008
(ii) Salutation or Greeting :
The form of Greeting will depend upon the relation in which you stand to
the person to whom you are writing.
(a) To members of your family, for example, it will be My dear Mother,
Dear Uncle, Dear Father, My dear Hari, etc.
To friends, it will be :
Dear Shyam, Dear Sunita etc.
To business people, it will be :
Dear sir, Dear Sirs etc.
It may be noted here that the use of term Dear is purely formal and
is nothing more than a polite expression, the term does not necessarily
imply any special affection.
The position of the salutation is at the left hand of the first page, at
a lower level than the heading.
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(iii) The communication or body of the letter : Section B : Composition
This is the heart of the matter and the style in which it is written depends
upon the kind of letter you intend to write. The style of letter to an intimate
friend would differ than that of a purely business letter or an official com- NOTES
munication. But some common hints that apply to all letters are given
below :
(a) Divide your letter (unless it is short) into paragraphs to mark changs
of subject matter.
(b) Use simple and direct language and short sentences. You should know
that English is a language of short words. Fowler, one of the authori-
ties on the use of good English, quotes a passage from Milton’s “Paradise
lost” in which 52 out of 56 words have only one syllable. He also
quotes a passage from Tennyson's 'Idyll of the king' in which only
twelve out of 101 words have more than one syllable.
(c) Avoid unnecessary words.
Unnecessary words are words which add nothing to the meaning of
the sentence.
(d) Try to be complete.
It is a sign of bad planning when you have to add. Post scripts at the
end of a letter. Think out what you want to say before you begin to
write and put down your points in some logical order.
(e) Write neatly.
Remember, if you are not using a type-writer or computer and using
your pen only your writing should be neat, so that the person to whom
you are sending a message should easily read what you write and you
should not give him unnecessary trouble with bad Penmanship.
(f) Take care of your punctuation marks and put in commas and semi
colons and full stops in their proper places. The correct puncuation
may alter the whole meaning of a sentence.
Example :
A correspondent, was covering the press conference of a military
general. The general said that he had ordered his troops after the
victory not to kill the enemies and leave them. The correspondent
sent the following text of the news head line :
“Kill them, not leave them”. The correct version would be “kill
them not, leave them” the meaning of the first was quite contrary
to the meaning of the second. The first sentence means “kill all the
enemies and do not leave them alive” while the actual meaning as
deciphered from the correct punctuation is “Do not kill them (the
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enemies), leave them (let them live)”.
Communication Skills & (iv) The subscription or courteous leave taking
Personality Development
A letter must not end abruptly simply with the writer’s name/signature.
This would look rude. So certain forms of polite leave taking are pre-
scribed. Such as ........
NOTES
Yours sincerely, your sincere firend, yours faithfully etc.
(v) The singature or name of the writer must come below the subscrip-
tion. ‘Thus yours sincerely.
(R.K. Dhawan)
(vi) The address on the envelope (or post card) should be written neatly
such as
AIR MAIL
Postage
Stamp
Seagull Publications
I washington Square Village
Apt IU, New York, NY 10012
USA
An Example
121-c, sector 19
Rohini Delhi-110085
2nd January, 2008
Dear sir,
I shall be much obliged if you send me as soon as possible the books
which I ordered on 12th December 2007.
Yours faithfully
(D.R. Saxena)
Exercise
Write a short letter to :
1. A friend describing your favourite hobby.
2. A friend describing a foot-ball match.
3. A company asking for some information on the sports goods that they
have advertised.
4. Your sister explaining how you missed your exams.
5. A friend arranging for an excursion together.
6. A friend who is going abroad with his father and mother.
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