The format of piece of correspondence is the way it is organized and arranged. There formats for business correspondence: block, semi block, and indented.
The format includes how the letter is typed and where the margins are. A margin is the blank space around a letter. There are four margins in a letter: top, bottom, left, and right.
The format and the width of the margins will depend on your office stationary and office style:
Block: This letter is written in block style. Everything begins at the left margin. This is called flush left.
Semi block: this letter is written in semi block style. Everything, except for the date and the complimentary close and signature.
Indented: This letter is written in indented style. Every paragraph is indented.
The date of a letter is the date the letter is written. The date is below the return address. Always spell out the month in the date at the beginning of a business letter. It is also better to spell out the month in dates in the body of the letter. In correspondence between countries that use different styles, dates can be confusing when only numbers are used.
U.S. style month/day/year
January 12, 2005
Non U.S. style day/month/year
12 January 2005
This inside address contains the following addressee information:
Title, First Name, Last Name: Mr. Bill Rubin
Job Title: Vice President of Operations
Company Name: Garnet Educational Services
Street Address: 1525 Dexter Avenue, Suite 200
City, State ZIP Code: Seattle, Washington 98109
In the United States, the house or building number comes before the street name. In some countries, the number comes after the street name. In addition, when there is no state or province, include the country after the city.
Ms. Jan Hoisus
Manager, Public Relations Department
European Discs, Ltd.
1015 DH Amsterdam
1. Modal auxiliaries are used to add special meanings to the main verb, eg to indicate futurity, ability, permission, possibility…
- I write. (main verb without any auxiliary verb)
- I shall write. (modal used to refer to the future)
- I can write. (modal used to express the ability to write)
- You may write. (modal used to express the permission to write)
- He could have written. (modal used to express the possibility of having written)
2. Unlike primary auxiliaries, modal auxiliaries do not have –s, -ing or –ed forms. Adverbs such as tomorrow, every day and yesterday are often added to indicate the time of the action:
- He could try again tomorrow. (not: coulds)
- He could be trying now. (not: coulding)
- He could have tried yesterday. (not coulded)
They only exception is dare which takes-d at the end to make past reference:
· He dared not do it
It should also be noted that dared as an auxiliary verb is rarely used. So, instead of the above sentence, many people will say: He did not dare to do it.
3. Need and dare
Need and dare are the only two modals that can be used as main verbs.
- He needs some advice.
- She dares to say these things.