16. The style of official documents

All major FS styles, the style of official documents embraces thestyles (or substyles) of (1) diplomatic documents, (2) business documents, (3) legal documents, and (4) military documents.

The main aim of this type of communication is to reach an agreement and to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking.This most general aim of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style, such as their composition, the extensive use of special terminology and cliches, the use of abbreviations (particularly abundant in military documents).

The Style of Business Documents

Business documents are characterized by a high level of standardization. They are in fact combination of ready-made forms and stereotyped phrases. For example, there are certain accepted ways of beginning and ending a business letter.The usual way of address is Dear Sir, Dear Madam, or Dear Mr. Smith, Dear Mrs. Brown if the person addressed to is known. In correspondence with strangers, it is usual to change from Dear Sir - to Dear Mr. Smith - after the first one or two letters have been exchanged. Yours faithfully, Yours truly are the usual ending for all business letters. Yours sincerely is the usual ending for letters to acquaintances.

There are many standard formulas used:

-to confirm the receiving of a letter (document)- We have received your letter of... , We thank you for your letter dated ...

-to express request: Please, inform us ... ,We shall (should) be obliged if you ..., We shall (should) appreciate it if you...

-to refer to a letter: With reference to your letter of... , Referring to ... , We refer to... .

-to apologise ; We regret that... , Unfortunately, we ... , We beg to ... , We offer our sincere apologies for ...

All these formulas help to avoid ambiguity. At the same time they simplify and quicken business correspondence.

The Style of Military Documents

Military documents may be of different types – plans, estimates, summaries, surveys, evaluation, situation maps, and orders. The style of military documents has its own lexical, morphological and syntactical characteristics. Military documents are characterized by their clarity, brevity, precision, non-admittance of many interpretations. The main purpose of making them brief is to economise time necessary for their composition, handling of messages.

Military vocabulary includes terms, abbreviations, symbols, special military phraseology; a wide use of terminology, i.e. words used in one meaning only, helps to avoid ambiguity and misinterpretation.There are also many names - both personal and geographical. Abbreviations (e.g. Co. - company, SW - South-West, w/d - without, FA - Field Artillery, MP - military police)- 50-60% of the text. The use of terms (e.g. to attack, order, machine gun, tank, army), and special phraseological units (e.g. to hold a position, to provide protection).On the morphological level we can mention rare use of the possessive case, omission of articles, use of two moods only - imperative and indicative, two tenses — the Present Indicative and the Past Indicative.

Syntactically-military documents include mostly simple short sentences - nominal and verbal one-member. As a rule there are no exclamatory and negative sentences.