Passage 1
A good business letter is one that gets results. The best way to get results is to develop a letter that, in its appearance, style and content, conveys information efficiently. To perform this function, a business letter should be concise, clear and courteous.
The business letter must be concise: don’t waste words. Little introduction or preliminary chat is necessary. Get to the point, make the point, and leave it. It is safe to assume that your letter is being read by a very busy person with all kinds of papers to deal with. Re-read and revise your message until the words and sentences you have used are precise. This takes time, but is a necessary part of a good business letter. A short business letter that makes its point quickly has much more impact on a reader than a long-winded, rambling exercise in creative writing. This does not mean that there is no place for style and even, on occasion, humour in the business letter. While it conveys a message in its contents, the letter also provides the reader with an impression of you, its author: the medium is part of the message.
The business letter must be clear. You should have a very firm idea of what you want to say, and you should let the reader know it. Use the structure of the letter—the paragraphs, topic sentences, introduction and conclusion—to guide the reader point by point from your thesis, through your reasoning, to your conclusion. Paragraph often, to break up the page and to lend an air of organisation to the letter. Use an accepted business-letter format. Re-read what you have written from the point of view of someone who is seeing it for the first time, and be sure that all explanations are adequate, all information provided (including reference numbers, dates, and other identification). A clear message, clearly delivered, is the essence of business communication.
The business letter must be courteous. Sarcasm and insults are ineffective and can often work against you. If you are sure you are right, point that out as politely as possible, explain why you are right, and outline what the reader is expected to do about it. Another form of courtesy is taking care in your writing and typing of the business letter. Grammatical and spelling errors (even if you call them typing errors) tell a reader that you don’t think enough of him or can lower the reader’s opinion of your personality faster than anything you say, no matter how idiotic. There are excuses for ignorance; there are no excuses for sloppiness.
The business letter is your custom-made representative. It speaks for you and is a permanent record of your message. It can pay big dividends on the time you invest in giving it a concise message, a clear structure, and a courteous tone.
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Passage 2
Good decoration reflects the personality of the people who live in the home. It should, first of all, be distinctive, just as each person is distinctive. A home should have unity
not only within each room but also throughout the house. Rooms should, to some degree, harmonize with each other. The colour and styling of each room, particularly, should fit into the colour and styling of the rooms which run out of it.
Attractive home furnishings set the stage for pleasant living. If they are an expression of yourself, you will have a feeling of satisfaction every time you enter your home, and friends will share your enjoyment.
However, furnishings and surroundings expressive of just the right note of restfulness, gay informality, or elegant simplicity are not often assembled by accident. Even enthusiasm alone is not enough. For most home decorators, it takes poring over plans, trying colour schemes, finding ingenious ways to make the best of what you have, and shopping around to search out just the right purchases at prices you can afford to pay. But there is keen pleasure in striving for the perfect result, and great satisfaction in achieving it.
A successful house and successful rooms will depend upon the proper relationship of each element in it to the others and to the whole. Therefore, in selecting each piece it is well to consider the background, the usage, the draperies, the floor covering, the upholstering materials, the woods, shapes, colour scheme, and the “feeling” you prefer for the room.
Work and plan to enjoy your house. Limit the expenditures of time, effort and money to the extent of your abilities, so that just running the house doesn’t dominate your life. Elegance and delicate things may be a drain you can afford only in a limited way. If you can’t afford outside help, select a house and furnishings that require less care. Plan your activities so that tumult and upset are limited to a few rooms—an activity room or a bedroom, or a comer of the dining room.
You’ll get more pleasure out of a house if you have a hobby connected with it—collecting glass or antiques, gardening or indoor flower growing ceramics, art, cooking, decorating, flower arrangements, etc. And you’ll get more satisfaction and a great deal of help from studying household activities.
You can select a pleasing combination of colours from a wallpaper, a fabric, an oriental mg, a flower or scene, or even a picture in a magazine. If you don’t already have the furniture or mgs, it is a good idea to make up a colour scheme in this way. Let one colour predominate. Limit a colour scheme to two or three colours, with white or gray tones.
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Passage 3
Good decoration reflects the personality of the people who live in the home. It should, first of all, be distinctive, just as each person is distinctive. A home should have unity
not only within each room but also throughout the house. Rooms should, to some degree, harmonize with each other. The colour and styling of each room, particularly, should fit into the colour and styling of the rooms which run out of it.
Attractive home furnishings set the stage for pleasant living. If they are an expression of yourself, you will have a feeling of satisfaction every time you enter your home, and friends will share your enjoyment.
However, furnishings and surroundings expressive of just the right note of restfulness, gay informality, or elegant simplicity are not often assembled by accident. Even enthusiasm alone is not enough. For most home decorators, it takes poring over plans, trying colour schemes, finding ingenious ways to make the best of what you have, and shopping around to search out just the right purchases at prices you can afford to pay. But there is keen pleasure in striving for the perfect result, and great satisfaction in achieving it.
A successful house and successful rooms will depend upon the proper relationship of each element in it to the others and to the whole. Therefore, in selecting each piece it is well to consider the background, the usage, the draperies, the floor covering, the upholstering materials, the woods, shapes, colour scheme, and the “feeling” you prefer for the room.
Work and plan to enjoy your house. Limit the expenditures of time, effort and money to the extent of your abilities, so that just running the house doesn’t dominate your life. Elegance and delicate things may be a drain you can afford only in a limited way. If you can’t afford outside help, select a house and furnishings that require less care. Plan your activities so that tumult and upset are limited to a few rooms—an activity room or a bedroom, or a comer of the dining room.
You’ll get more pleasure out of a house if you have a hobby connected with it—collecting glass or antiques, gardening or indoor flower growing ceramics, art, cooking, decorating, flower arrangements, etc. And you’ll get more satisfaction and a great deal of help from studying household activities.
You can select a pleasing combination of colours from a wallpaper, a fabric, an oriental mg, a flower or scene, or even a picture in a magazine. If you don’t already have the furniture or mgs, it is a good idea to make up a colour scheme in this way. Let one colour predominate. Limit a colour scheme to two or three colours, with white or gray tones.
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