Corresponding to?

Question

Hi! everyone. Could you tell me whether the (Green coloured or orange coloured) instruction (for students) is correct?
Is the use of "corresponding to" correct in it?
One letter covering 3 topics-
Following letters(on the following 3 topics) can be attempted with the help of the letter below by replacing the underlined words with the words corresponding to the relevant topic or topic given(i-e the 3 topics following)
Following letters(on the following 3 topics) can be attempted with the help of the letter below by replacing the underlined words according to the topic given.(Which one is correct? the green one with "corresponding to" or the orange one with "according to" I actually want to use "corresponding to" so could you tell me how to use "corresponding to" in the sentence above?)
(As a side note-: I want to tell you that I am living in an underdeveloped country so don't be surprised by mistakenly considering the following topics in the context of a developed western country.)
1-To the District Health Officer informing him about the need for opening a dispensary in the area where you live.
2-To the Postmaster General for opening a branch of post office in your town.
3-To the Area Manager of a commercial bank requesting him to open a branch of bank
Actually the main idea is the format of the letter(below) that help the students to write letters on the above 3 topics as well by replacing some WORDS underlined in the letter below .
So the model letter is(with underlined words) thus-

Public Health
Engineering Sub office
Date-............
The executive engineer
Public health Engineering Department

Sir!
...............................................opening a ........... post office........................post office...............................
Yours faithfully,
XYZ.
My question is mainly about the above (green coloured) instruction(for students) and I want to ask whether it is correct?
And I really want to use"corresponding to" in that sentence.
Thanks in advance.

GPY · Accepted Answer

There are other problems with this. The start of the sentence seems a bit awkward and ungrammatical. "Letters on the following three topics can be attempted ..." would be better, but this is hardly an instruction. An instruction would be something like this:

Using the model letter below, write a letter on each of the following three topics.

I understand what you are saying about replacing the underlined words, but what about the dotted parts?.What do the students have to do with those? If I was a student I don't think I would understand.

Your model letter has some inconsistent capitalisation. The exclamation mark in "Sir!" seems inappropriate.

Silak12 · Answer

GPYwhat about the dotted parts?.What do the students have to do with those?

Thanks! for your time GPY.
Actually, it was inconvenient for me to write the whole model letter with careful attention to capitalization and other sensitive requirements of the letter like punctuation and got it down hastily(instead of actual words I dotted the lines) . I was much confused about the "corresponding to' part of that sentence. Could you tell me how can I use "corresponding to" there?
Or is the sentence with "according to" correct? And you are right about the exclamation mark, there should have been a comma after the word Sir,.

GPY · Answer

Considering just these two phrasings, then:

by replacing the underlined words with the words corresponding to the relevant topic or topic given
by replacing the underlined words according to the topic given

Both of these are intelligible without necessarily being the ideal way of expressing it. "with words corresponding to" seems better than "with the words corresponding to", unless you are giving an explicit list of replacement words. "the relevant topic or topic given" seems unnecessarily repetitious.

I would probably say:

by replacing the underlined words with words appropriate to the topic given.

Grammarfreak · Answer

silak12Following letters (on the following 3 topics) can be attempted with the help of the letter below by replacing the underlined words with the words corresponding to the relevant topic or topic given

Here is my initial reaction and my final after reading it over half a dozen times; confused; pondering on how it can be improved based on the existing construction and wording. I can figure out how to help you improve this passage because honestly the awkward wording would cause most the readers to repeat reading over the lines a couple of times trying to extract the core meaning( me included). I don't see how your students can follow this. To me, a specific instruction must be clear. I am not too sure about the meaning: " ....can be attempted with the help of the letter below by replacing the underlined words according to the topic given." as it suggests there is another alternative. I am pointing out these issues so that you realize the issues in your instruction

silak12Actually the main idea is the format of the letter(below) that help the students to write letters on the above 3 topics as well by replacing some WORDS underlined in the letter below .So the model letter is(with underlined words) thus-

What letter below , you mean this ?
The words (as you called them) are actually the names of organizations.

Public Health
Engineering Sub office
Date-............
The executive engineer
Public health Engineering Department

Sir!
...............................................opening a ........... post office........................post office...............................
Yours faithfully,
XYZ.

GPY · Answer

grammarfreakThe words (as you called them) are actually the names of organizations.

Names of organisations are also words.

Grammarfreak · Answer

GPY grammarfreakThe words (as you called them) are actually the names of organizations.Names of organisations are also words.

You are absolutely correct. But for readers, others are also words. For those reading it, tt would help to make the distinction as clear as possible. Do you not agree ?

GPY · Answer

grammarfreakYou are absolutely correct. But for readers, others are also words. For those reading it, tt would help to make the distinction as clear as possible. Do you not agree ?

For me, it seems clear enough that underlined words should be replaced wherever they appear.

I might have questions in my mind about to what extent the line-by-line layout of the header is expected to be exactly replicated.

Grammarfreak · Answer

GPYFor me, it seems clear enough that underlined words should be replaced wherever they appear.I might have questions in my mind about to what extent the line-by-line layout of the header is expected to be exactly replicated.

That's my point exactly. If someone native to the language such as you with the linguistic instinct to tell what looks correct or otherwise, even a slightest question in your mind can be a big obstacle for those who are trying to adapt English as a second language. I've lived in both environments for over a decade. When I tried to read or interpret written materials by people with ESL background, I usually have to exercise my foreigner instinct to get behind the words in the construction to extract the intended meaning. Sometimes, when sentences are awkwardly constructed, combined with wrong words, the meaning usually became obscure. That's how I felt about the "letter examples". That aside, part of my job for over 15 years was writing procedures and training material for the semiconductor industry. Instructions written with precision can be the difference between life and death in my line of work. In emergency situation, there is not time to read the instruction over and over again. In a less serious note, I read the OP sentences over and over and tried to syntactically connect the words to form a picture, I think I finally got it 15 minutes later. But in my mind, something simple like this shouldn't have taken anyone more than a minute to understand. That's the reason I had all those questions and comments.

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