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stage of the discussion.
Therefore ...
Similarly ...
As a result ...
Ending your document. The following indicate that this is the last paragraph, and that
you are bringing your document to a neat close.
Finally ...
To summarise ....
Below is a letter without any linking devices. Can you see how disjointed it looks?
SUNNYSIDE GARDEN CENTRE
Oak Tree Cross, Towerbridge Road, King s Beech, KB5 6CD
Tel. 01678 901234
27 March 20XX
Dear Customer
Spring is on its way, and with it the chance to get out and enjoy your garden. Whether you
have a large allotment or just a patio, now is the time to start sowing and planting so as to
get the most out of it later in the year.
Your garden will certainly need digging, composting and fertilising in preparation for the growing
season.
Why not come down to Sunnyside Garden Centre? We have plants and seeds galore, from fruit
trees to phlox seeds and from artichokes to amaryllis, together with every conceivable medium
to grow them in. And if you aren t sure of the best varieties for your needs, you only have to
ask. Many of our staff are experts in various fields.
We can give you a complete service, whatever your needs. We have sprays to control pests and
diseases you didn t even know existed, a complete range of organic products and the widest
selection of tools in the area.
Any new product we stock is tested by our staff before we sell it, so that we can personally
recommend everything on our shelves.
We pride ourselves on being able to satisfy even the most demanding of customers. Our motto
is Try harder and we do. Our staff are friendly and helpful, but never pushy.
We haven t forgotten the children. We have just opened a new section devoted entirely to
swings, slides, climbing frames and other equipment to make your garden fun to be in,
whatever your age.
Do pay us a visit. We look forward to seeing you soon.
Yours sincerely
Jack Kemp
Managing Director
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A Guide to Good Business Communication
Now look at the same letter, but with linking devices added, and see how much more
smoothly it flows.
SUNNYSIDE GARDEN CENTRE
Oak Tree Cross, Towerbridge Road, King s Beech, KB5 6CD
Tel. 01678 901234
27 March 20XX
Dear Customer
Spring is on its way, and with it the chance to get out and enjoy your garden. Whether you
have a large allotment or just a patio, now is the time to start sowing and planting so as to
get the most out of it later in the year.
It is not only sowing and planting you should be thinking of. Your garden will certainly need
digging, composting and fertilising in preparation for the growing season.
So why not come down to Sunnyside Garden Centre? We have plants and seeds galore, from
fruit trees to phlox seeds and from artichokes to amaryllis, together with every conceivable
medium to grow them in. And if you aren t sure of the best varieties for your needs, you only
have to ask. Many of our staff are experts in various fields.
What this means is that we can give you a complete service, whatever your needs. We have
sprays to control pests and diseases you didn t even know existed, a complete range of organic
products and the widest selection of tools in the area.
We have equipment for every job, from motor mowers to simple trowels. Any new product we
stock is tested by our staff before we sell it, so that we can personally recommend everything
on our shelves.
What is more, we pride ourselves on being able to satisfy even the most demanding of
customers. Our motto is Try harder and we do. Our staff are friendly and helpful, but
never pushy.
Finally, we haven t forgotten the children. We have just opened a new section devoted entirely
to swings, slides, climbing frames and other equipment to make your garden fun to be in,
whatever your age.
So do pay us a visit. We look forward to seeing you soon.
Yours sincerely
Jack Kemp
Managing Director
The devices used are:
It is not only sowing and planting ... repetition, combined with the expression not
only to indicate that the writer is going to expand on this subject.
So why not come down ...? to indicate that he is going on to the next stage.
68
Constructing sentences and paragraphs
What this means is ... to indicate that he is going to explain further.
We have equipment ... repetition of the idea from the last sentence of the previous
paragraph.
Finally, we haven t forgotten ... to indicate that he is reaching his conclusion.
EXERCISE 13
Write a letter promoting your organisation, and highlight your topic sentences and your linking
devices. If you do not work for an organisation, write about an imaginary company.
How Sentences and Paragraphs Affect
the Way You Speak
The preparation necessary for a conversation, verbal report or presentation will be
different from that for a written document, for three reasons:
Spoken business English does not have to be quite as formal and grammatical.
You are unlikely to plan exactly what you are going to say, down to the last word, so at
least some of your sentence composition will be done as you speak.
It is easier to get away with the occasional non-sentence in spoken English.
Nevertheless, even in spoken English, it is necessary to take some care over your sentence
and paragraph construction if you want to make yourself quite clear to your audience.
Sentences
It is easier to get away with using awkward or incorrect sentences in spoken English than
poor paragraph construction. Let us look, for example, at one of the examples of a non-
sentence above: There is only one problem. The cost. As we saw, the cost is not a
sentence, because it does not have a predicate. The correct construction should have
been, There is only one problem: the cost. However, when speaking, the difference
between the length of pause required after a colon and that required after a full stop is so
small that when speaking it will not be noticed (for more on the pauses indicated by
punctuation marks, see Chapter 8).
However, some awkward sentences could cause problems, even when spoken. Let us
look at another example quoted in the section on sentences above: I enclose your latest
statement, I would like to point out that there is an amount of £135 outstanding. As we
saw, this is wrong because there are two ideas, but they are only separated by a comma.
And this could sound wrong, even when spoken, because a comma calls for a shorter
pause than a semicolon or some kind of connecting word, so your sentence could sound
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A Guide to Good Business Communication
as though the ideas are running into each other, making it difficult for the audience to dif-
ferentiate them. And since you should be aiming to make your audience s job easier, it is
best to avoid this kind of problem by sticking to the rules governing sentences with more
than one idea.
Having too many subsidiary clauses or phrases before the subject is actually likely to
confuse listeners even more than readers. Here again is the example of this problem we
looked at earlier: When I came to the end of my familiarisation exercise, having spent
eight weeks looking in great detail at the way we operate at all levels, during which time I
visited all our branches and spoke to most of our staff at all grades, I felt that I knew the
company intimately. At least if such a sentence is written down, the readers can, with
some difficulty, work out what is meant. However, when spoken, the listeners do not
have the luxury of being able to go over it again if they are confused the first time, they
will remain confused. It is also possible for the speaker to become so bogged down in
subsidiary clauses that they themselves become confused as to what the main point is!
Because of the relative informality of spoken English, hanging participles and sentences
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