A message to a distinguished man

Question

The man is a professor in a famous university of the US, and I am not sure whether I've called him properly. My message is as below:

Your Distinguished Mister,

I'm a reader from China. Six months ago, I read your article in Natural Science Journal about (headline of the article omitted). Your brilliant research achievement impressed me, and now I would like to know the latest development of your research. Would you mind me tell me some information about the latest development?

Thanks in anticipation,

Jobb

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Please edit it.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Yipes! No, Jobb--

Prof. A. B. Smith
[Institution]
[Institution address]

'Dear Prof. Smith,

I am a researcher in China. Six months ago, I read your article in Natural Science Journal entitled (headline of the article omitted). Your research achievements impressed me very much, and I am extremely interested in the latest developments in your work. Would it be possible for you to tell me a little about your continuing research, or advise me of where further information might be available?

Thank you very much for your time and trouble.

Sincerely yours,

Jobb
[Title, Affiliation]
[Contact information]

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Jobb

You might put it like this:

Dear Professor X

I'm a reader from China. Six months ago, I read your article in Natural Science Journal about (headline of the article omitted). Your brilliant research impressed me very much, and now I would be interested to learn about the latest developments. Would you mind telling me something about how your research has progressed?

Thank you in anticipation,

Jobb

No doubt others will post other suggestions!

MrP

MrPedantic · Answer

Just seen Mister M's version, Jobb. His is better than mine!

MrP

Jobb · Answer

But if you've not expressed your opinion, Out of politeness, I would put a euphemism for this, telling you that I prefer MM's version, which is really professional!

PS. Only moderators can use those format functions, and a member like me would be so limited to use them?

MrPedantic · Answer

Outright deceit in these matters is always preferable to euphemism, Jobb, e.g.

'MrP, your advice has relieved me of the terrible burden of choosing between the two versions, each of which has much to recommend it. If you had not intervened, I would still be in a state of distressing indecision. But I shall now accept your verdict and — not without a certain regret — plump for Mister M's. ¡Adios!'

(I'm not quite sure what happened to that exclamation mark. Most odd.)

Format functions — of course you can use them, Jobb!

For this demonstration, I'm going to use curly brackets {}, as otherwise the typing will turn into the formatting it's meant to describe. Replace the curly brackets with angle brackets <>, and you'll find the formatting works:

{b}text in bold{/b}
{i}text in italics{/i}
{quote}blue quote box{/quote}
{hr} line across the page

{MrP}

Jobb · Answer

I've begun to develop a sense to smell out such kind of things.

Thanks.

MrPedantic · Answer

There are other kinds of formatting too - if you see formatting you like, click on the poster's name. That will take you to a page with their last few posts. If you then look for the post with the formatting, and search for the tell-tale angle brackets, you'll see how it's done.

By the way, if anyone asks who taught you 'outright deceit' in English, make sure you say it was Mister M.

MrP

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