Padded Letter

Spiralling into control

Dear Mr Jones, I am writing this letter to thank you for your recent communication with this office, and I apologise for the delay in my reply. I would like to confirm that we have now received your credit card payment and we will be despatching the multi-pack of High Flyer Spiral Notepads you have ordered within the next day. I trust that you will find these goods satisfactory in every way, but should you wish to exchange them, you may do so within three weeks of receipt of the order. I am very pleased to enclose herewith* a discount voucher for your next purchase with us, and if you wish to use it for an online transaction, please enter the Voucher Code during the checkout process. During the month of December, all our Christmas Season goods carry an extra 5% discount for returning customers (which you can use in conjunction with the Voucher) and I hope that this will be of interest to you for your Christmas requirements. If you would like to receive our regular newsletter by post or email, which contains special offers and money-off coupons, you can sign up for this on our website. Just go to the My Account page and click on the Newsletter link. There is also a feedback form which you may wish to visit and tell us how we are doing. I trust that you will find the order satisfactory and hope that you will shop with us again in the near future. If I can be of any further assistance*, please do not hesitate to contact me, when I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Yours sincerely*, John Smith, Customer Services Department.

* Omission phrase "enclose (herew)ith"  "further (assi)stance"  "yours si(n)cerely"

Dear Mr Smith, Thank you so much for your recent letter which I received yesterday morning. I was delighted with the information and the content, as I am learning to write shorthand really fast, and your letter is absolutely full of useful phrases and words commonly used in business correspondence. If I practise these regularly, I am sure I can increase my speed quite rapidly. This will be all the easier, as I am now using your excellent High Flyer pads for all my shorthand work and my pen is fairly flying across the pages. The paper is smoother and better quality than other similar-priced pads that I have used, which means I can write on the back as well, and the pages turn very easily without getting caught in the spirals or getting stuck together along the top edge. It is also a big advantage that the margins are printed in, and this is definitely a welcome time saver.

Not suitable for
speed-eating practice

I shall no doubt be ordering more quite soon, as I am planning to do extra practising in the run-up to Christmas and I think that my current supply of pads will probably be used up fairly quickly. It is likely that there will be the occasional lapses in my study time when all the good Christmas films are on and we are eating the sweets and chocolates. However I will certainly have one of your excellent pads on my lap and will make an attempt to write down some of the dialogue*, especially in the less interesting bits when we are waiting for the exciting action to start. Thank you once again* for your speedy service and I look forward to purchasing again from your company in the next few weeks*. Yours sincerely, Robert Jones. (583 words)

* The similar but less common word "duologue" is written with a downward L, to help differentiate it.

* Omission phrases "o(n)ce again"  "next few wee(k)s" - this is slightly faster than the alternative version "next few (w)eeks" which is written with a joined U diphthong and K+s.

High Flyer notepads is a fictional brand name