Business English Part 60

=Exercise 178=

When an adverbial clause or a participial adjective phrase is put at the beginning of a sentence to secure emphasis, it is called an _initial_ clause or participial phrase. A comma separates it from the independent clause to help the reader to see where the subordinate idea ends and where the main idea begins. Rewrite the following from dictation, noticing the punctuation of initial elements:

If a city is to be kept in good condition, every citizen must pay his share of the expense. If the dreadful epidemics are to be exterminated, there must be a good board of health to see that everything is kept sanitary. When the health officers do their work well, the health of the city improves. In order that the decrees of the health department and of the courts may be enforced, there must be a good police department. Besides having these advantages, cities need good streets and good schools. Because all of these good things cost a great deal of money, high taxes must be levied to pay for them.

=Rule 4.--An initial clause or participial phrase must be set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma.=

=Exercise 179=

Punctuate the following:

1

Although cotton seed used to be considered worse than rubbish there now come from it every year millions of dollars in profit. Formerly if it was not hauled away to rot it was usually dumped into a neighboring stream and there it did much harm even if we had the s.p.a.ce it would be impossible to explain all the products now made from the seed paper and an excellent meal for cattle may be made from the hulls but the most important products are made from the kernels besides making meal for cattle they are readily converted into crude oil according to the degree of refining that it receives this oil may appear as oil for miner's lamps lard compounds or salad oils as an ill.u.s.tration of the way in which modern manufacturers utilize former waste products the cotton seed is supreme.

2

When you sell your old clothes to the ragman do you know that they come back to you as writing paper because the metal b.u.t.tons buckles and hooks that are often left on the garments cannot be converted into paper they used to be a source of annoyance to the papermaker although the cloth sorters tried to remove them before the garments went into the pulp vats some were overlooked if any found their way into the pulp they tore holes in the paper and often damaged the rollers in order that such danger may be avoided the pulp is now pa.s.sed through a series of magnetized rakes as the rakes are pa.s.sed to and fro every bit of metal clings to them when a quant.i.ty of such bits of iron is collected it is sent to the foundry to return to us in many new forms.

3

Dear Sir:

Investigating your complaint of the fifth instant we found that the furniture which you ordered on the tenth of last month left our factory on the fifteenth if all had gone well you would have received the articles on or about the twentieth as you surmised the delay in the arrival of the goods is due to a mistake on the part of the railroad company although the goods were properly billed to you they were allowed to go on to Columbus if you do not receive them within ten days' time let us hear from you again.

Yours truly,

4

Dear Sir:

Complying with your request of the 10th inst. I am sending you particulars of the property which I wish to sell as I told you when I was in your office last week the price at which I am holding the building is $20,000 if the buyer prefers not to a.s.sume the mortgage of $10,000 I think I can get the mortgagee to agree to accept present payment for the note that he holds against me unless the buyer agrees to pay the unpaid taxes for last year and the a.s.sessments levied for improvements already made I shall not consider a sale.

After all preliminary arrangements are made if you will prepare a contract of sale and forward it to me I will have the abstract brought down to date and secured by a guaranty policy.

Since I presume that the prospective purchaser has examined the property and is satisfied to pay the price for it in its present condition I would suggest that you do nothing more toward securing bids for rebuilding the porches.

Yours very truly,

=Exercise 180=

Write five sentences containing initial participial phrases.

Write five sentences containing initial adverbial clauses.

=Exercise 181=

The comma is used to separate the month from the year, the city from the county or state, the company from the place in which it is operated, or the like; as,

In December, 1912, I wrote to you from Seattle, Was.h.i.+ngton.

This use of the comma indicates that words have been omitted, the sentence above really meaning,

In December of the year 1912 I wrote to you from Seattle in the state of Was.h.i.+ngton.

The same use is shown in such sentences as,

Of the three stenographers Mary received fifteen dollars a week; Ellen, twelve; Susan, ten.

=Rule 5.--The comma is used to indicate the omission of words.=

Supply the necessary commas in the following:

1. The bonds will be taken over on or before October 1 1934.

2. On January 1 1913 the company had outstanding $4,000,000 of stock of the par value of one dollar a share.

3. The offices are at Salt Lake City Utah.

4. The transaction was officially conducted between the Power Bond & Share Co. New York and the Pacific Power Co. Tacoma Was.h.i.+ngton.

5. A late announcement of the Census Bureau tells us that the center of population of the United States is four and one-quarter miles south of Unionville Monroe County Indiana.

6. Many mechanical devices in common use may be traced to the patterns furnished by nature. Thus the hog suggests the plow; the b.u.t.terfly the ordinary hinge; the toadstool the umbrella; the duck the s.h.i.+p; the fungus growth on trees the bracket.

7. The per capita saving in the banks of the United States in 1820 was twelve cents; in 1830 fifty-four cents; in 1840 eighty-two cents; in 1850 $1.87; in 1860 $4.75; in 1870 $14.26; in 1880 $16.33; in 1890 $24.75; in 1900 $31.78; in 1910 $45.05; and it is still increasing.

8. The population in 1820 was 10,000,000 and in 1910 90,000,000.

9. Mexico draws about 55% of her imports from the United States; Nicaragua about 50%; the other Central American states from 35 to 75%; Venezuela 31%; Cuba 52%.

10. In one decade Germany's exports to Latin-America have shown an increase of 222%; those of the United Kingdom an increase of 115%; and those of the United States an increase of 130%.

Write five sentences ill.u.s.trating Rule 5.

=Exercise 182--Explanatory Expressions=

There are a number of expressions--words, phrases, and clauses--which are inserted into the sentence for clearness or emphasis. They add a bit of explanation but are not absolutely necessary. In other words, they might be omitted, and the sentence would still be clear. These may be of various kinds but are all similar in use. They should be set off by commas so that the reader will easily see that they are subordinate to the main idea of the sentence.

A. The _appositive_ is a word or a group of words inserted lo explain the noun that it follows. (See Exercise 80.)

Explain the use of the commas in the following sentences:

1. William E. Curtis, _one of the world's ablest newspaper correspondents_, in his will expressed the hope that his grandson would continue his life-work, _a recital of the good that men had done and not of the crimes they had committed_.