Comparative analysis of english formal and informal correspondence

The English language, in practice, has quite many varieties, each of whichbelongs to a particular geographical area or to a particular kind of situation.The English used in the United St

Part A Introduction

I Rationale of the study

To use a language properly, we not only have to know the grammaticalstructures of the language and their meanings but also have to know whatforms of language are appropriate for given situations

The English language, in practice, has quite many varieties, each of whichbelongs to a particular geographical area or to a particular kind of situation.The English used in the United States, in some way, is different from thatused in Great Britain, the English used in formal written style is somehowdifferent from that used in informal situations Due to the cultural nature ofEnglish, one must take many factors into consideration when communicatingwith his or her counterparts For instance, the way we talk to our intimatefriends is quite different from the way we do to our superiors or someone we

do not know well Failing to use language appropriately in different situationsmay lead to comunication breakdowns In order for the performance of adiscourse to be realized as intended, it must be said or written “ by the rightperson, in the right place, at the right time, in the right manner” ( Jackson &Stockwell, cited in Tran Ba Tien, 2004:15)

In everyday life, correspondence plays a very important role in establishingand maintaining good relationships, and getting things done However,correspondence does not follow the same conventions but varies considerablydepending on the role and relationship between the participants The style offormal letters would not be the same as the informal ones It is, therefore,necessary for English users to have good understanding of this distinction sothat their communicative intention will be realized as they expect All thesefactors are the driving force that inspires me to investigate this area

II Aims of the study

*To distinguish the differences between informal and formal correspondence

*To help learners understand more about kinds of correspondence

*To use English in appropriate ways to write correspondence

*To try to offer some suggestions and some possible types of exercises to improve the leaming of writing correspondence

III Methods of the study

* Statistic method

* Contrastive and comparative method

* Analysis and systematic method

 Obtaining advice from experts

IV Scope of the study

 Due to the time limitation, we only focus on English formal and

informal correspondence

V Design of the study

Part A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of for choosing the subject

2 Aims of the study

3 Methods of the study

4 Scope of the study

5 Design of the study

Part B DEVELOPMENT

Chapter I: The theoretical background

Chapter II : English correspondence and its properties

Chapter III : Some suggestion for implication

Part C CONCLUSION References

only be obtained if they are considered “in their full textual, social and

psychological context” (Cook -1990) Although different theorists have their own definition of discourse, it is generally refered to as “the language in use for communication ”

1.1 Discourse and text

A distinction should be made between Discourse and Text Crystal (1992: 72)

distinguishes that “text” should be reserved only for writing and “discourse” for

speech According to Cook (1989 : 158), “text” is a stretch of language

interpreted formally without context whereas “discourse” is “stretches of

language peceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive (ibidi) ” Halliday andHasan (1976 : 1), however, use these two notions interchangeably They use

“text” to actually refer to “discourse” for they say “a text is unit of language in use” and “it may be spoken or written, prose or verse, dialogue or monologue”

Brown and Yule (1983 : 6) point out that texts are the presentation of discourse and verbal record of a communicative act

1.2 Spoken and written discourse.

Both spoken and written discourses are different modes of expressing linguistic meaning Besides their similarities in some aspects, they still have some

differences

Spoken discourse is often considered to be less planned or orderly, more open to intervention by the receiver while written one is well- structured and the

possibilities for subordinate are very limited

The traditional distinction is based on the difference on production and reception

We use our mouths and ears for spoken discourse and our hands and eyes for witten one

Brown and Yule (1983:13 ) point out that spoken and written discourse serve various functions The first is used for the establishment and maintenance of human relationships (interactional use) and the second for the working out of andtransference of information (transactional use ).

To sum up, the main difterence between them is seen from the fact that spoken discourse is changeable and written is permanent

1.3 Discourse context

1.3.1 The context of situation

Context of situation or context, in D.A, is an essential factor for interpreting the

discourse “A context can support a range of meaning” (Hymes, quoted in Brown and Yule,1983) David Nunan (1983;7) states that “context refers to situation giving rise to the discourse and within which the discourse is embedded” According to him, context should be divided into two types :

linguistic and non- linguistic The former surrounds on accompanies the piece ofdiscourse under analysis The latter includes the type of communicative event,the topic, the purpose of the event, the setting, the participants and therelationships, between them and the background knowledge and assumptionsunderlying the communicative event

Following Hymes’ view, Brown and Yule (1983) have also specified the features

on the context similar to Nunans’

1.3.2 Context versus co- text.

Context is obviously different from co-text David Nunan points out that co-text

is the linguistic element and the non-linguistic one is the context According toBrown and Yule (1983); any sentenece other than the first in a fragment ofdiscourse will have the whole of its interpration forcibly constrained by theproceeding text “and” the words occur on discourse are constrained by their co-text Lets examine the following example :

Australians are proud of their egalitarian society and boast about it They are right : their society is more egalitarian than any other and this is a trait to be proud of But when informality is a cult, you have to learn how to be informal

(From Longman advanced English (1986-1987: 20 )

The word “informal” indeed posseses some different meanings Each meaning is

detemined by its context, therefore, it is constrained by co-text The readers may find its lexical content in a dictionany and how its interpretation changes when it

is embedded within the co-text The initial setting of the co-text determines the extent of the context within which the hearer will understand what is said next Co-text, a linguistic element helping to clarify the internal meaning of language,

is the actual text surrounding a particular sentence as stated by Brown and Yule

(1983: 49) “ the more context there is , the more secure the interpretation is” To

J R Firth, a context of situation for linguistic work brings into relation the

following categories:

A-The relevant features of participants : persons, personalities including their verbal and non -verbal action

B-The relevant objects

C-The effect of the verbal action

They are seen to be external to the text, so considered to be non –linguistic.However, it is possible to reconstruct at least some part of the physical contextand to arrive at some interpretation of the text Communications do not merelydepend on the context for their interpretation, they change that context(Isard,1975)

In summary, context involves non-linguistic elements and co-text the linguisticones

2 Cohesion and coherence

2.1 Cohesion versus coherence

Viewing from some points, the concept of cohesion is closely connected withdiscourse It is considered as the grammatical and lexical relationships betweenthe different elements of a text in Richard et al’s view This relationship may bebetween different sentences on between difterent parts of a sentence Forinstance,

Betweeen different sentences:

I saw your ad in the paper about a good, well-paid job taking foreigners around Britain, and I am quite interested I went to the normal sort of schools and got most of the o level I took plus a few CSEs, that was in 1978 or 1979 “ ”

Since school, I ve been around quite a bit I had about two years in a school ’

near Bristol looking after their social and sports programme and have spent a few summers showing tourists round England, which I quite liked I presume that that experience could be useful in some way in some place (Longman

Advanced English,1986-1987: 61 )

Between different parts of sentence:

Because my introduction was too short, I had to rewrite it.

A-Clare loves potatoes

B-She was born in Ireland

(Guido Telemans, 1998-1999)

Although the response seems unrelated to the former sentence, it becomes

coherent if A already knows the sterotype ethnic association between being Irish and loving potatoes

Cohesion is only a guide to coherence and coherene is something created by the readers in the act of reading the text Those are the essential elements that make the text or discourse coherent and different from random ones In summary, cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexical relationships between the differentelements of a text whereas coherence refers to the relationships linking the

meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentences in a text Coherence is embodied by a system of cohesive devices and cohesion, is maily used to

embody coherence

2.2 Cohesive devices

Coherence of discourse is associated with cohesion expressed by cohesivedevices Halliday and Hasan (1976) provide a comprehensive description andanalysis of these cohesive devices They stated that there are five different majortypes of cohesion, namely reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction andlexical cohesion

2.2.1 Reference

Michael Mc Carthy (1991) points out that reference items in English include

pronouns, demonstratives, the article and items like “such a” Halliday and

Hasan (1976) identified two kinds of reference : exophora and endophora

However, we only mention to the one used within a text : endophara Endophora can function in two ways : anaphoric and cataphoric Anaphoric reference can be confirmed by looking back in the text

E.g Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again

(Halliday and Hasan,1976)

The pronoun “he” refers back to the previously mention name ”Doctor Forster”.The pronoun “they” refers back to the previously mention name

“Doctor Foster”.

The demonstrative “this”in the following example can replace the whole sentence

“he wins in the election”

A : He wins in the election

B : I can not believe this

Cataphoric reference can be identified by looking forward in the text It can also

be expressed in three different items : pronouns, demonstratives and comparison

as of anaphonric Some examples can be effective illustration for this:

They pressed round him in ragged fashion to take their money, Andy, Dave, Phil, Stephen, Bob.

(Graham Snift, the Sweet shop owner, Penguin Books Limited,1983:13 )

It is clear that “they” refers forward “Andy,Dave,Phil,Stephen, Bob”

Cataphoric demonstrative can be seen in:

This is the most famous singer, Elvis Presley.

2.2.2 Ellipsis

Ellipsis is the omission of elements required by the grammar which the speaker/writer assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not be raised There are three types of ellipsis: nominal,verbal and clausal

E.g * Nominal: Nelly liked the green tiles, myself I preferred the blue (tiles) *Verbal: Do you usually go out at night? No,I do not (usually go out at night)

* Clausal: He said he would take early retirement as soon as he could and

he has (taken early retirement)

2.2.3 Substitution

Substitution is similar to ellipsis, in that, in English, it operates either as nominal,verbal or clausal level

*Nominal: She chose the roast duck; I chose the same

*Verbal: Did Mary take that letter? She might have done

*Clausal: Do you need a lift? If so, wait for me;If not, I will see you there

2.2.4 Conjunction

A conjunction does not set off a search backward or forward for its referent, but

it does presuppose a textual sequence, and its signals a relationship between segments of the discourse There are four main kinds of conjunctions: additive, adversative, causal and temporal

*Additive: signals the presentation of additional information like and, in

addition, similarly E.g She is intelligent.and she is very reliable

*Adversative : but, however, yet The information in the second sentence of

the text moderates or qualifies the information in the first

E.g: I have lived here ten years but I have never heard of that pub

*Causal: because, consequently, hence The relationship here is one of cause

and consequence

E.g: He was insensitive to the groups need Consequently there’ was a lot of bad feeling

*Temporal: the events in the text are relate on terms of timing of their

occurence such as : first, then, next, secondly, finally

E.g: I got up then made my breakfast.

2.2.5 Lexicalties.

When two words in a text are semantically related in some way, lexical

cohesion occurs According to Halliday and Hasans’ view, there are two major categories of lexical ties: reiteration and collocation

a-Reiteration

Reiteration involves repetition, synonym (and near synonym), super ordinate and general word

b-Repetition

I would like to commend your organization for the important contribution it makes to our community, and I wish you and the other board members

contimed success.

c-Synonym

Nike invites people to call in It has encouraged thousand of potential consumers to reach for the telephone.

d-Superordinate and hymponym

People can dial up and listen to celebrities talking to each other Famous athletes were employed to celebrities to record the messages

In this example “people” is superodinate, “athletes” is hympony

has been overwhelmingly discussed Lakkoff regards politeness as a system “

of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interactionby minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange”

( cited in Tran Ba Tien: 27) Yule specifically lists the characteristics of

politeness, including being tacful, generous, modest and sympathetic toward“

others (” 1997: 60) Brown and Levison (1987) see politeness as a

strategy/stategies used by a speaker to obtain a variety of objectives such as promoting or maintaining hamonious relation

3.2 Politeness strategies

Geoge Yule (1996) identifies two kinds of politeness strategies : solidaritystrategy and deference strategy This classification is similar to Brown andLevison’s (1987) division: positive politeness and negative politeness,respectively The tendency to use positive politeness forms, emphasizingcloseness between speaker and hearer, can be seen as a solidarity strategy Thismay be the principal operating strategy among a whole group or it may be anopion used by an individual speaker or a particular occasion Linguistically,such a strategy will include personal information, use of nickname, sometimeseven abusive terms (particularly among males), and shared dialect or slang

expressions Frequently, a solidarity strategy will be marked via inclusive terms

such as “we” and “let s’ ”, as in the party invitation in this following example:

- Come on, let s go to the party Everyone will be there We ll’ ’ have fun.

(positive politeness)

-Hey, Buddy Got a minute? (positive politeness)

The tendency to use negative politeness forms, emphasizing the hearers’right tofreedom, can be seen as a deference strategy It can be the typical strategy of awhole group or just an option used on a particular occasion, a deference

strategy is involved in what is called formal politeness“ ” It is impersonal, as ifnothing is shared, and can include expressions that refer to neither the speaker

nor the hearer (for example, Customers may not smoke here, sir“ ”) thelanguage associated with a deference strategy emphasizes the speaker’s and thehearers’independence, marked via an absence of personal claims, compare thefollowing examples:

There s going to be a party, if you can make it.It will be fun’

An alternative version of the party invitation as in this following example:

- Come on, let s go to the party, everyone will be there we ll’ ’ have fun

(positive politeness)

According to Brown and Levison, the choice of appropriate polite forms in agiven communicative situation depends on the following factors: the socialdistance (D) of speaker and hearer, the relative power (P) between them , andthe absolute ranking (R) of imposition in the particular culture (1987: 74)

3.3 Social factors affecting the manipulation of politeness.

In order to make sense of what is said in an interaction, we have to look atvarious factors which relate to social distance and closeness Some of thisfactors are established prior to an interaction and hence are largely externalfactors They typically involve the relative status of the participants, based onsocial values tied to such things as age and power For example, speakers whosee themselves as lower status in English-speaking contexts tend to marksocial distance between themselves and higher status speakers by using addressforms that include a title and a last name, but not the first name (for example,Mrs Clinton, Mr Adams, Dr Dang) We take part in wide range of interactions(mostly with strangers) where the social distance determined by external factor

is dominant However, there are other factor, such as amount of imposition ordegree of friendliness, which are often negotiated during interaction These areinternal to the interaction and can result in the initial social distance changingand being marked as less, or more, during its course.

Both types of factors, external and internal, have an influence not only on what

we say, but also on how we are interpreted

Chapter II: English correspondence and its properties.

I Correspondence

1 Definition of correspondence.

According to English- English- Vietnamese dictionary coppied by Nguyen Sanh

Phuc(1999:436); correspondence is the letters a person sends or receives

A letter, according to www.http/google.com, is a written message addressed to a person or organization.In this paper, correspondence and letter are synonymouslyused

2 Formal and informal language.

2.1 Formal language.

Roy Kingsbury and Guy Wellman (1987) points out that formal language is the type of language we use publicly for some serious purpose, for example, in ofticial reports, business letters and regulations Formal language is usually in written form Exceptionally it is used in speeches, for example, in public

speeches

2.2 Informal language.

Informal language is the language of private conversations, of personal letters, etc It is the first type of language that a native-speaking child become familiar with Because it is general easier to understand than formal English Roy

Kingsbury and Guy Wellman (1987) also pointed out that it is often used

nowadays in public communication of a popular kind, for example,

advertisements and popular newspapers mainly employ a colloquial or informal style

3 Kinds of correspondence.

There are two main kinds of correspondence: formal and informal ones

3.1 Formal letters.Formal letters are used for serious purposes They help us get

customers, keep customers, communicate with employers, show our associates that they are appreciated When writing formal letters we want them to be

professional without being cold, comfortable and familiar without being cute Allthese factors help us to maintain a good business relationship We, therefore, have to follow certain rules of writing them Writing a formal letter is like going

to a wedding There are certain conventions that you should respect The

“formal address” of a letter is the layout, you may also be respected to use

certain fixed ‘’politeness’’ phrases If you do not respect these conventions, your

letter will certainly be taken less seriously and will possibly offend, upset or

confuse your correspondent The letter below illustrates the standard lay out:

3.2 Informal letter

The informal letter is used for exchanging information among friends, relatives

Due to the intimate relationship between the sender and the receiver, the

languege of an informal letter is quite different from that of the formal one.This

is the layout of an informal letter:

1 Open Door school of English

2 RuaBoa Mord 2181 1340140.Piracicaba

Estde Saopaulo Brazil

3 Tel (0921)22-3487

4 The manager

5 Boatrace International Bookshop 37

Morse Avenue Oxford 33 DP

6 Date

7 Dear Sir,(or Madam,)

8 On 24th June ordered 16 Copies of ‘In at a Deep End” by Vicki Hellert to be sent to

me at the above address

9 Two months later, these boos have not yet been receiving

10 I would be grateful if you could look in to this matter and ensure that the books reach me as soon as possible

7 Thanks very much for lending me your flat while you were away…

8 Anyway, thanks again for the loan the flat…

9 Love

10.Rache

II Correspondence s properties’

1 Register

1.1 Concept of register

Register or functional styles have been differently viewed R.A Hasan (1980)

states that the term “register” is widerly used in socio-linguistics to refer to

“varieries”according to “use”or in other words, register shows what you are

doing

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), ‘ the linguistic features which are ’

typically associated with a configuration of situational features with particular values of the field, mode and tenor- constitude a register’’ J R Galperin (1977) points out that “A functional style of language is a system of interrelated

language means which serves a definite aim of communication ”

The choice of vocabulary item in a sentence or an utterance is a manifestation ofregister A particular register often distinguishes itself from other register byhaving a number of distintive words, by using words or phrases in a particularway, and sometimes by special grammatical constructional as legal language,scientific and technical terms and so on Register can be seem as speech varietyused by a particular group of people, usually sharing the same occupation or thesame interests Galperin (1981) suggests five functional styles the languagebelles-lettres, the language of publicstic literature, the language of newspapers,the language of scientific prose, the language of official documents.Take the

following words and sentences for example: heart disease, cardiac disease.These two compounds are synonymous However, “heart disease” is everyday language, i,e the register is neutral while “cardiac disease” is a professional term.i.e the register is medical Similarly, I look forward to your reply“ ” and “

I am looking forward’ to hearing from you” are basically synonymous The

difference between them lies in the fact that the former is used in formal lettersbut the latter is used in informal ones

1.2 Parameters of register

Halliday, Mc Intosh and Strevens have proposed three parameters to describe the effect of situational context on the meaning of text as follows:

a Field.

According to Halliday, field is ‘’the total event, which the text is functioning, together with the purposive activity of the speaker or writer it , thus, includes the subject matter as one element in it’’ Field is concerned with the purpose and

subject matter of the communication The field of discourse refers to what is going on and what is being talked about

b.Mode

Mode refers to the medium of the language activity It’s the manifestation of the

language code being used ‘ Mode is the function of the text in the event, ’

including therefore both the channel taken by the language spoken or rhetorical mode, as narrative, didactic, persuasive, phatic communion and so on‘’ ’’

‘’(Halliday and Hasan, 1976)

Mode is concerned with the means by which communication takes place In otherwords, the mode of discourse refers to what part of the language is playing in a particular situation The two basic modes are spoken (monologue, conversation) and written (newspapers, reference books…)

Mode incorporates different combinations of these two modes

c.Tenor.

Tenor relays the relationship between the addresser and the addressee who are taking part in an exchange of meaning, who they are and what kind of

relationship they have to one another Personal tenor covers the degree of

formality, familiarity and technicality of linguistic exchanges It is concerned with the social roles of participants together with their status relationship and personalities On the other hand, functional tenor is concerned with determining the social function or role of utterance, ideational component In fact, these three variables have the overlap They help us define and identify registers Our

analysis of informal and formal correspondence produces the following results:

1.3 Use of vocabulary.

According to G.B Antrughiha et.al, informal words are traditionally divided in tothree types: colloquial, slang and dialect words

Formal words fall in to two main groups: words associated with professional

communication and learned words A great deal of English formal words are borrowed from Latin, French and Greek

E.g: commence (French/ formal) = start/begin (neutral)

inform ( formal) = tell ( neutral/ informal)

purchase ( formal) = buy (neutral)

It is obviously that formal letters have much more formal words than informal ones People rarely use informal words in writing formal letters

Eg: * Thank you for your letter of July 18 th I am honored to accept your

invitation to join your executive board I am well aware of the positive impact your organization has on this community, and I will do my best to contribute to your continuing efforts.

*Thank you again for this honor I look forward to meeting the other members of the board at the August meeting (formal letter)

Meanwhile, informal words are used very often in informal letters

Eg: When we last met, we talked about our gardens You told me you often grown roses in your garden, well I bought half a dozen rose plants last

November Four of these are growing well at present But I m ’ very worried about the other two These are the first roses I have ever grown I d very much ’

like to have your advice about them Will you come to se e them this weekend or next? (informal letter)

Analysing informal and formal letters, we find out these following differences among word styles:

this(used as

indef.article)

an/a some somebody

anybody

everybody

nobody

someoneanyone everyonenoone guy man

gentlement young man boy

kid child

youth

a number of

a great deal of too also

as well totally completely

entirely

thoroughly wholly utterly mom

dad (used as common

nouns)

mother fatherbut…

(to begin a sentence)

belongings possessions materials things

right now

right way

at once

immediately very

really

extremely

(Adverbs of enhancement)

highly quite

exceedinglyexcessivelykind of

sort of

pretty

(Adverbs of moderation)

somewhat rather

moderately

for the most part virtually

largely crazy insance

obligation, permission, doubt, wish, regret, desire, and temporal notions such as usuality”.

Modality is expressed in a number of ways: by modal verbs, tenses, mood,

particles.If modal verbs or other types of modality are left out or sustituted by non- modal semantic equipvalents, the utterance becomes more explicit and less tentative Let’s compare the following pair of sentences:

- I would be most grateful if you could forward the items to the above

address.

- Can you forward the items to the above address.

We can see that the first sentence uses the subjective mood with the two modal

verbs “would” and “ could” which sound tentative, while the second sentence employs the modal “ can” in the present and a direct question which is less polite

than the first

Modality is often found in both informal and formal correspondence such as

will, shall , could, would, should, may, might, can, must , mostly, shal l and will

It’s explaination is that they represent linguistic means to indicate future

predictions or to set up prohibition, obligation

Eg:* I m writing to say how sorry I was to hear about the death of your ’

grandfather He was such a wonderful man and I shall miss him a lot His

sudden death must be a shock to you and your family I remember having a long conversation with him only few days ago …( informal letter) (

*We are please to offer you employment XY2 company We feel that your skills and background will be a valuable asset to our team.

*Per our discussion, the position is Contracts Administrator in our Legal Department Your immediate supervisor will be Mary Smith, Department

Manager Your starting date will be Monday…((formal letter)

Can, could, may, might with the meaning ‘’permission’’ are also used in both

formal and informal letter:

Eg: * …I wonder if you d like to go and see a film or a play There is a new ’

Harrison film on at the Odeon Perhaps we could go for a meal or a drink

afterwards …( formal letter) (

*… I believe our system is as good as any competing product on the

market, but if we are to continue development, we should investigate whether we can (a) lower costs without reducing capabilities, or (b) offer enough extra bells and whistles to justify it s high price ’ (informal letter)

Would which expresses habits appear very often in formal and informal letters Eg: * I was delighted to get your letter this morning I have a very clear

memory of Richard He seems such a nice boy Congratulations I hope that you ll be happy together Unfortunately I won t be able to come to the wedding ’ ’

At my age I don t think I ’ would find the Journey easy All the same I d love to ’

give you a wedding present Will you write and tell me what you would like as a present? …(informal letter)

*…If you would like to take advantage of this new service, please give us a call

We look forward to serving you (formal letter)

It should be noted that the politeness marker “ please” is far more often found in

formal letters than in informal ones as in the folloing axamples

- if you have any questions, please give me a call ( formal)

- If you have any questions, just phone me ( informal)

1.4.2 Use of active and passive voice

1.4.2.1 The active and the pasive voice

The difference between the active and the passive voice is that the later allows speakers and hearers to place at the begining of a clause a noun phrase that

would otherwise come after the verb To a certain extent, the active voice order agent- action- theme seems to most English speakers the more “natural” order ( Jacobs, 1995:159) However, as we shall see, in some certain situations, a passive clause may be stylistically superior to its active counterpart

1.4.4.2 Some discourse funtions of passive voice.

Jacobs (1995) holds that using the passive voice is one way to have the theme argument in subject position at the front of its clause If the rheme argument is also the sentence topic, then the subject slot is a good place for it The following sentence is from a transactional letter

All correspondence should be addressed to the manager of the hotel concerned.

The sentence is about correspondence and suggestions on whom to send it The

topic, “all correspondence”, is specified in the clause-innitial position,a good

place for a constituent representing old information to orient the reader If the agent was specified for this sentence, it would have to be in an adjunct phrase, a

by phrase

All correspondence should be addressed by the writer to the manager of the hotel concerned.

In reality, there is little point in specifying that a writer, in this case, the

addressee, writes the letter The information in the by phrase is therefore

redundant The agent is not mentioned in the original sentence because the readernaturally understands who wrote it

In some situations, the passive is used, not because the agent is unimportant, but

on the contrary, because the agent is new information that reader would need or want to know In English, new information typically follows old information The two most informationally prominent positions in a clause are the begining and the end While the clause- initial position makers old information prominent

in English, the clause- final position provides the prominence a writer might wantfor new information

In short, the passive can be used whenever it seems undersirable or unnecessary

to mention the agent This means that the occurence of the passive or the active ispartly determined by the larger context in which it is used

1.4.2.3 The use of the active and passive voice in correspondence.

you but I will not free until 6.30 p.m …(

However, sometimes, there is a good reason to use passive in informal letter

E.g: At last, I have arrived in Paris but it was a terrible trip The train was crowded and the ferry was delayed for two hours When we finally set of the weather was auful…(

Passive :The passive is used much more commonly in formal letters than

informal ones

Eg: *…I am enclosing a contract for your convenience please note that 25% of

the lecture and workshop fees are payable upon signing The remainder,

including transportation costs, can be paid at the conclusion of the workshop As soon as the contract is returned, I will have my travel agent booked the trip to take advantage of the lowest possible airfare …(

* We are pleased to inform you that your account has been changed to

preferred customer status As a preferred customer you will receive a 20% discount on all

regularly priced items In addition, your orders will be sent second-day air at no extra charge to you Your name has been added to our mailing list and you will

be receiving notices of special sales…

1.4.3 The use of relative clause

People use relative pronouns such as: which who, whose, where, that… to

connect two clauses together Those kinds of relative pronouns appear in both letter types However, relative clause are more often found in formal letters

* Formal letters :

- I am preparing a workshop for city planners, and I would like to hand out reprints of West cost codes impact East Coast Builders ‘’ ‘ Which appeared in ’

the July 17, 1997 issue of Industry magazine…(

- Are there any other costs (besides the carpet itself and an installation fee) that

we are likely to incur?

- I had the pleasuse of working with Mary at XYZ Enterprises in Dallas where she was the Admistrative Coordinator of the marketing division…(

- Obviously, both of these problems need to be solved before we can release the software Report back to me on what you need to do to fix the problems and long that will take.

Another typical feature of formal letters is that prepositions, if any, are normally placed before the relative pronoun

E.g Thank you for your letter of August 22 nd to Sir Bazil Haughty, for whom I

am replying.

* Informal letters:

Relative clauses sometimes appear in informal letters but simple sentences are more commonly found

*Thank you very much for your letter which arrived a few days ago

*Last Tuesday they took me to Buckingham palace where I saw the Changing of the

Guard and listened to band …

*When i went home last Thank you for the letter that I received night…(

1.4.4 Use of the first person singular