Passage 2: Note Making and Summarizing | Class 11 English Grammar PDF Download

Read the following passage carefully:

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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Q.1. Make notes on the passage using recognisable abbreviations in any suitable format. Give a title to the passage.

Title: Writing a Business Letter
Notes:
1. Features of a gd. busns letter
(a) conveys info efficiently to get results
(b) is concise
(c) is clear
(d) is courteous
2. How to write a gd. busns. letter
(a) Making letter concise
(i) Intro shd be brief
(ii) make your pt in precise words and sent’s
(iii) short letr more effective
(iv) style is imp.—may ocasnly have hum’r
3. Achieving clarity
(a) Have a clear idea of what you wish to say
(b) structr the letter—intro & conclsn.
(c) use accepted format; para, topic, sent’s
(d) check facts, expl’ns, refs.
4. Being courteous
(a) Expln. your pt. politely—avoid sarcasm/insults.
(b) careful wrtg & typg.
(c) gram. & spel’g errors to be avoided
5. Importance of busns. letr
(a) a representative
(b) permanent rec. message.

Q.2. Make a summary of the passage.

Summary:
A good business letter is that lends you positive and quality results. To get such results, a business letter should be effective in appearance, style and content. Apart from this a letter should be concise, clear and courteous. The business letter should be to the point as the message can be clear to the reader with an impression of you. The structure of letter should have topic sentence, introduction, paragraphs to conclusion. Reread the points you have written to avoid sarcasm and insults that can work against your motive. Further more grammar and spelling errors need to be avoided.