Page 264 - Jamaica Post Office Guide 1977

264 POST OFFICE GUIDE

Telegrams—(Overseas), conid.

Groups of initials in common use may be combined in a group without the
stops and arc counted as five letters to the word. If, how.vcr, the sender desires
that the letters should be transmitted as isolated letters each letter is counted as
one word.
In all telegrams, words comprising the name and address of the sender, if to be
transmitted separat ly from the text, arc counted at the tatc of fifteen I tters to
the word, but an arbitary expression which is not a registered address is counted
at the rate of five letters to the word. Telegrams without Text are not admitted.

PLAIN LANGUAGE
Definition
Plain language is that which presents an intelligible meaning, each word and
each expression having the meaning normally assigned to it in the language to
which it belongs.
Plain language telegrams may be drawn up in most languages but they must be
written in letters of the English alphabet.

Counting
Each plain language word up to 15 letters ranks as one chargeabl: word, any
letters in excess of 15 I cing charged at the rate of 15 letters to the word. Excep­
tionally, however, the following ere counted at 15 letters to a word if written
without break:

Ordinary compound words;
Names of towns, provinces, countries and so on;
Family names and names of ships;
Designations of aircraft, railway trains and so on;
Only applicable in address as one word;
Whole numbers, fractions, decimals or fractional numbers written in words.
The following n ry also be included in a plain language telegram but are
charged at the rate of five characters to the word, any excess (where permitted)
being charged at the same rate:
A single check word or check number not exceeding five letters or five figures
placed at the beginning of the text;
Groups of letter and figures forming ordinal numbers, such as 17th;
Commercial e pressions or commercial marks;
Groups of letters, of figures or of signs provided they have no secret mean­
ing.
(Oblique strokes, decimal points, and stops used in the formation of such
groups are counted as figures).
Except in the case of groups of figures, signs of punctuations arc transmitted
only at the special request of the sender and they arc then charged for as separate
words. However, an oblique stroke in the number of a house, for example, 301 A,
30BIS, is not counted for the purpose of charging. If compound words, joined by
a hyphen or separated by an apostrophe, appear in a standard dictionary, they
arc normally charged and transmitted as a single word (that is, with hyphens or
apostrophes deleted). If they do not appear in a standard dictionary, they are
treated as separate words.

Every isolated letter and figure is charge) for as a word, but groups of initials in
common u e such as HMS, RAF, BOAC, YMCA, PAA, are counted as five
letters to a word if stops are omitted.