But if "for immediate shipment" were the idea to be emphasized, this phrase should be placed in a more emphatic position—at the end.
Emphasis is of great importance in business letters. If it is to be secured, a sentence must be so con structed that the important ideas will be readily ap parent to the reader. Emphasis lends force to the main points. It is the mechanical substitute for the variation in sharpness and stress of tone used by the salesman in his selling talk, altho the speaker, as well as the writer, can make use of arrangement in secur ing proper emphasis. Emphasis is also gained by employing repetition and by giving a considerable amount of space to the important ideas, as well as by mechanical display, the use of underscoring, capital letters, italics, red ink, and so on.
10. Paragraph structure is of less importance in business correspondence than sentence structure. The business correspondent does not follow literary usage so closely in constructing his paragraph as he does in constructing his sentence. Yet he can learn much from rhetorical treatments of this subject. Paragraphs are complete units of com position. They serve to separate independent thoughts that have been sufficiently developed tc) stand alone. The indented first line or the double spacing that indicates the beginning of a new para graph warns the reader that a change of thought is at band. It also gives him a resting place, and an opportunity to comprehend the completed thought. Paragraphs divide the body of a letter into its logical parts for the reader's convenience.
The principles of unity, coherence, and emphasis apply also in good paragraph structure, but are fre quently set aside in the composition of the busi ness letter. Yet it is well for a business correspond ent to know what constitutes good paragraph struc ture, the various methods of construction, the impor tance of keeping to one definite subject in each para graph, the art of arranging and connecting sentences within the paragraph so that they are closely con nected (coherence) and are therefore easy for the reader to follow, and the arrangement by which em phasis is properly distributed. A knowledge of all these aspects of paragraph structure is of practical value.
The tendency in modern business correspondence is in the direction of literary standards of construction.
Paragraphs in business letters are comparatively short however, yet each should be unified and should stand alone as representing a complete thought. It is often advisable to make a paragraph of a single short sentence for the sake of emphasis. Short paragraphs make the letter attractive and easy to read, but paragraphs in business letters are not made short primarily for this purpose. The business letter goes directly to the point, is concise, deals in plain facts, and therefore lends itself better than lit erary composition to comparatively short paragraphs. There is, however, no essential difference between good paragraphs in English literature and good para graphs in business letters.
11. Grammar and rhetoric are specialized subjects. —There are many important principles of good sen tence and paragraph structure in addition to those mentioned in this and preceding sections. Facility in the art of constructing sentences which clearly con vey the writer's meaning, and which make the im pression desired, is increased if the writer makes a thoro study of the rhetorical principles of good sen tence structure.
Grammar and rhetoric are highly specialized sub j ects ; therefore, as in the case of the more technical aspects of credits and collections, any extensive treatment of the rules of grammar and rhetoric would be outside the range of the subject of this volume, which is written with the assumption that the reader knows how to write a correct letter. Yet cor rectness, broadly speaking, is a matter of degree. The more nearly correct a letter is from the stand point of grammar and rhetoric, the better its chance for success, other things being equal. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, has been to arouse interest in a study of grammar and rhetoric. When studied with the end in view of gaining a sharper tool with which to carve out more effective letters, grammar and rhetoric are not dry subjects, especially as they are treated in modern books on business English.
The author's intention has been to point out some of the more important habits of thought and practice of many expert correspondents in plying their art, for effective letter-writing is a process of thinking. Back of good writing for business purposes is good think ing, always—thinking from the reader's point of view.