A Lot of, Lots of, a Lot

The above phrases sound almost alike, don't they? However there are some differences in how to use them. Think NOUNs (name words.) One would say "I need a lot of apples." or one could say "I need lots of apples." Lots of, and a lot of describe nouns. However if you use it with a VERB (generally an action word) one would say, "He ran a lot." You would not say he ran lots of, or he ran a lot of.

Remember, these phrases are mainly used in informal English . "Lots of" is probably the most informal of the three expressions. As a writer, I might use a lot, or a lot of, but I would seldom use lots of, particularly in an academic paper. It is better English to use "many" or "a great deal" in my opinion, but in some cases "a lot of" flows better and sounds less formal. To say I need a great deal of bread may seem too grand. I need a lot of bread rolls more easily off the tongue. In English it all depends to whom one is speaking. Sometimes we are more formal than others. Sue…

Business letters: Making adjustments

Replying Positively to Requests for Adjustment

Guidelines and Alternate Phrases:

Focus on the positive resolution of the problem.

Disarm the reader by admitting a cause for complaint, rather than glossing over the problem.

Explain briefly and positively how the mistake occurred:

Although we take great pride in our thorough methods for safe packing, someone apparently let this package slip by without the usual precaution.

Computers and people do make mistakes–both goofed this time.

I simply did not relay all the details to that department. Please accept my apology for that oversight.

Sound eager, not begrudging, to make the adjustment and regain the customer's goodwill.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

You are right about our error. We are happy to...

We are very embarrassed. You must think we have to work really hard to mess up things so badly! We are doubly chagrined because you are a special customer, and we highly value your business. Please bear with us; we will get the order right this time and will do our best to improve our service to you.

When any company serves as many customers as we do, there will inevitably be errors from time to time. Nevertheless, even one is distressing, particularly when that customer is as good as you have been.

Thank you for pointing out the error before it caused us even more problems.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to correct the situation to your satisfaction.

Make an adjustment appropriate to the error. That is, don't apologize profusely for a minor problem. Such effusiveness sounds insincere. Likewise, don't gloss over serious errors; show appropriate concern and make amends.

Mention any safeguards you've taken to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Reestablish rapport with the customer. Assume all is well again.

Sample Letter 1:


Dear Ms. Smith:

We are pleased to tell you that we have rescinded our proposed changes to the mileage requirements for travel awards valid for use to and from Singapore. We have listened to our customers and are not too big to admit we have made a mistake. As a result, we can still offer the four first-class tickets you wanted to claim for your frequent-flyer mileage.

At the time you were denied those tickets, we had just recently made the decision to change our policy and had not received any feedback from customers. Consequently, we are happy you wrote again and gave us an opportunity to provide the extra tickets due you under the old terms.

I know the delay in getting your tickets must have created some anxiety on your part about your planned family vacation, and we are sorry for the misunderstanding.

Please do have a nice, enjoyable vacation with these tickets. Thank you for choosing our airline for all your travel needs.

Cordially,
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Sample Letter 2:

Dear Ms. White:

We are pleased to inform you that the proper credits have been made to your corporate telephone account. Due to a clerical error, you were billed for services rendered to a similar number. Your next bill will reflect a credit of $412.50.

We regret the inconvenience and thank you for promptly bringing the matter to our attention. If you have any additional billing questions, please call our accounts receivable office at (800) 555-5555.

Sincerely,
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Sample Letter 3:

Dear Dr. Jones:

Thank you for telling us about the inferior service you received from our employee, Jeanie Wilson. We regret she does not meet the high standards of Kleaning Wizards, Inc.

You are a valued customer. As such, we are going to credit your account next month for $212.00 which equals eight hours cleaning.

Please call our customer service department if you have any other problems. Thank you for your continued patronage.

Sincerely,
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Sample Letter 4:

Dear Mrs. Johnson:

We appreciate the letter concerning your February account. The confusion is due to the recent changes in our rates and billing policy.

Our new policy became effective last January; however, due to an error on our part, you did not receive notice of these changes. We apologize for this error and are enclosing a pamphlet explaining the new policy. These changes affect delivery services to rural areas, for packages under one pound, and monthly rates for daily pick-ups.

Since we failed to let you know about these changes, we will adjust your bill to reflect our original policy. The new rates will become effective for your company beginning next month.

Sincerely,
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Sample Letter 5:

Dear Mr. Brock:

Thank you for sending us the list of discounted books offered by our competitor, TNT Book Distributors. As we have promised our customers, we will not be undersold; therefore, a refund check for $54. 87 from your last purchase is enclosed.

Thank you for allowing us to continue to give our customers quality books at discount prices.

Sincerely,
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Sample Letter 6:

Dear Ms. Murphy:

Thank you for your recent purchase of Deluxe office chairs. We regret you had to return two of the chairs.

There is a defect in the adjustment rods of the model you purchased. As a result, all chairs with this feature are being recalled.

Two new chairs are being shipped to you, and a twenty-five dollar store certificate towards your next purchase is also on its way to you. We appreciate your letting us know about the problem.

Sincerely,
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Sample Letter 7:
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Wendel:

As you have requested, Golden Star Insurance will cancel your policy, effective March 3, 1997. We regret we can no longer serve you and your family.

The coverage premium has been pro-rated for this billing period. You will receive a refund of $142. 76.

We have enjoyed doing business with you. Please let us know if we can assist you in the future.

Sincerely,

Dear Sue

Dear Sue,

I am so sorry because I haven’t written until now. I am in exams. I had 1 exam (NDT none … test) in 2 last Tuesday and I had 3 exams last week so I am very busy in these weeks. I promise to write letters. It’s time we had many letters.

I enjoyed your post about Black English when we read it in our class.

In all of world people have many dialects. I feel the difference dialects when I see a film in which there are blacks. Blacks speak very fast and usually I cannot understand what they say but, I saw a news reader that was a black woman. She spoke very very well and I could understand some of what she read.

Faranak's writing

Dear Sue,
Thank you very much for good story about computer and I agree with you, world can't be divided to 0 and 1 because nothings aren't absolute and it's good.

We read your writing in our class a lot. They are very useful and we learn a lot of things from them.
This week we read your article about different dialects. It was very interesting and thank you for your good writings.
We have different dialects in Iran,too. My mother is originally from Semnan(A city in the East of Iran), I think Semnanis people have a very difficult dialect. I hear it a lot but, I can't understand it and my mother just understands, She can't speak.

We started a new book to read. It's name is Interchange. I want to know your idea about it.
Thanks, take care, Faranak.

The Great Gatsby

Sue mentioned a number of books in her beautiful post Genuine Piece. Here's a summary of the Great Gatsby:

Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area populated by the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to have established social connections and who are prone to garish displays of wealth. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night.

Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island home to the established upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening for dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, an erstwhile classmate of Nick’s at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a vulgar, gaudy party in the apartment that Tom keeps for the affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose.

As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an English accent, has a remarkable smile, and calls everyone “old sport.” Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later learns more about his mysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion. Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy, but he is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she knows that he still loves her. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindled, they begin an affair.

After a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife’s relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans’ house, Gatsby stares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom realizes Gatsby is in love with her. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to him. He forces the group to drive into New York City, where he confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom asserts that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand, and he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal—his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him.

When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes, however, they discover that Gatsby’s car has struck and killed Myrtle, Tom’s lover. They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car when it struck Myrtle, but that Gatsby intends to take the blame. The next day, Tom tells Myrtle’s husband, George, that Gatsby was the driver of the car. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that the driver of the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. He then fatally shoots himself.

Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects that just as Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby’s power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,” Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby’s dream and the American dream—is over.

A Genuine Piece

"The hand-writing of your letter is so miserable, that I am not sure I have made it out. If I have it seems to me you are the same old sixpence you used to be, rather rusty,but a genuine piece."

Snip from a letter Ellery wrote Henry Thoreau, March 5, 1845.

Past, present or future, would you wish to be other than “A genuine piece?” Could we have a higher wish for the world than to wish for a world full of souls who are what they appear to be? The American Soul, if it is left to its honest ability to be valid, is the soul of a simple, hard scrabble, realistic sort who is mistrustful of smooth talk, flowery speeches and fantasy tales. This, of course, is an ideal.

America’s youthful literature prior to The Wizard of Oz, showed little inclination to dwell on the fantastic. Our history displays a pretty hard scrabble people. England is the land of Arthur, Nadia and Lord of the Rings. America is Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, the Bobbsey Twins and, most revealing of all, the Horatio Alger stories of a poor boy who makes good.

Main Street, The Old Man and the Sea, and the Great Gatsby are fantastic only in their desire to find men better than we might think they are and are coupled with the dream that if one does one's duty and lives a clean life, nothing is impossible. All are written as a desire to show men at their peak moments, which might end as a success or failure, but rather what counts is the effort put into the achievement.

Man, as in Ahab and his Whale (Moby Dick), is not always perfect in American literature, but he is dedicated, he is focused and he is a realist. He knows that going after the whale may kill him, and the task itself might make no sense to others, but sail he does, search he does and go to his final task ready and willing – he does.

Yes, we are a gristly sort, even though in past years we have somewhat covered our crusty attitudes with a veneer of continental charm. But let us admit, that when the fleet comes in, it’s all for one and one for all – with the understanding that it is important in that "all", a goodly number must remain "rusty, but genuine pieces." The only question is, can America remain 'rusty, but genuine' in a contemporary world steeped in nuance, deception and self-interest? Or, another question: Is there any other way for us to approach a modern world?

A silly question

Sue,

To what region in the US did Humphrey Bogart's accent belong? He has a nasal accent. Is this type of accent common in many areas in America?

Ali

The question of preference and class

Sue,

Thank you so much for your lesson on accents in British and American English. I am sure that all the other students are as curious as me to know which accent is more acceptable or considered best in the US. In Iran, Persian, the way people from Tehran speak, is considered standard and high class. Tehranies are notorious for their making fun of all the other accents that are spoken in other Iranian cities. People who seek higher positions in the society and their jobs usually try to ease their accents. The situation is much better today, but I believe it still exists.

Does a similar situation exist in America? We rarely hear a radio or TV announcer speak with a Texan accent. Does Washington as your capital city impose any pressure because it is politically important or New York because it is the capital of the US economy? Is it true that English in the northern parts of the US is cosidered standard? Noam Chomsky says that if someone from Mars looked at us he would say, "They all speak the same language -- only with a lot of accents." That's the way English appears to us: All the huge diversity that exists in all the English speaking countries in the world boils down to just one thing: you just speak English -- except that unlike Chomsky's little green man from Mars, we are not able to distinguish a single accent.

Ali

The Devil's in the Dialect

Dialect is “the use of vocabulary that is characteristic of a particular group.” In England High English is spoken by the queen and aristocrats, and Cockney is spoken by the majority of low to middle class urban English. If you’ve seen the movie, “My Fair Lady” you will see Professor Higgins trying to teach Eliza, a flower girl, to speak “proper” English. However, go to Scotland, Ireland or Wales and you will wonder if you are speaking English or some other language.

America is no different. People from the South speak with a decided slow, mellow accent. They might say, “Yall (you all) come right on over he-ar (here), you hear?” Someone from New York would probably say, “Com’un over.” Short and to the point.

Black English is in a class by itself and it has a long and varied history. African slaves came from many different tribes in Africa and, as a consequence, had many different languages when they were brought to America. A dialect developed for this reason and also for another very important reason: Blacks could talk among themselves and whites might not know what they were saying. Many of the black spirituals (religious songs) were actually in code telling other blacks where to go to escape. They even developed a special dance called The Cake Walk which white slave owners loved to watch, not knowing it was the blacks way of making fun of white manners.

Even today, many well educated blacks speak perfect American English while at work, but with their own people they will go back to the Black Dialect. In some cases the difference is in the use of the word “Be”. In regular English one would say, I am coming or I came, or I will come. In Black English it becomes I be comin’, or I comed, or I be comin’. Present, past and future all get lumped together! This is true for those of you learning English, too. The way you use English verbs is important to learn for business English.

In America, some of us recognize a difference in dialect as only that – a difference, and yet dialect has been used to make fun of people and to teach prejudice and hatred in our country. It took me a long while to get over the prejudice in my family. For example, this song was sung to me, a white child, when I was very little:


Honeychile, stay in yo own backyard,
Don mind what dem white childs do,
What do you tink they’s gwina give
A black little coon like you.

Translation:

Honeychild, stay in your own backyard,
Don’t mind what those white children do,
What do you think they’re going to give
A black little coon (bad name for a black) like you.


Most Americans have grown up on the racial issue, but there is still some prejudice against blacks among some groups. People don’t like to admit it now, but it is there under the surface for a certain percentage of Americans. Obama is often criticized for no other reason but that it really upsets some people that the President of the United States is black. Honeychile’ get over it! We be multicultural!!

May Day

Mr. T. In answer to your question about Flower Day. I don't recall exactly what I wrote about this, but May lst is called May Day and it goes back many many years at a time when, in England and America, Spring was welcomed and celebrated. Some customs from this day include the ritual of leaving flowers or plants on the doorstep of your friends. Often this is done anonymously and the receiver has no idea who left the gift. Another tradition is the Maypole. It isn't done very often now, but ribbons were tied to the top of a pole and girls would dance around it, weaving the ribbons in and out to make a pattern on the pole. Garlands of flowers were often used as crowns for their hair. I remember making small cornocopias to hold a few flowers and giving them to a friend and tying clover blossoms together to make a necklace to wear on May Day.

Also, the last Monday in May is our Memorial Day. It is a day when we remember those who have died, in battle and in our families. We take flowers to their graves and ceremonies are held to remember those who have gone before us. So, May is a Flower month. I remember my great grandmother taking flowers to the grave of her husband on Memorial Day.