I have regularly come across this language in official correspondence and I wonder if this is actually a right usage. It is difficult to find a reason to tell my colleagues who use this phrase that it is better to leave the "kind" out.  Old habits die hard and so they continue using it. Can someone please give me an opinion on this.

Perhaps you could give us an example of the usage, so we can suggest a word that would fit the context better.

Certainly from your post, it would seem to be rather a strange use of the word "kind".

Azh

Perhaps your colleagues are leaving out the "of"... i.e., this kind of information.

Or maybe they have picked this up from the phrase "kindly inform"...

I agree with Azh that an example would help us figure out what they are trying to say.

-Tim

Thanks for your input. An example of usage in official correspondence would be..

"This letter is forwarded for your kind information and further directives".

In fact, if you seach for a string "for your kind information" on google, there are countless examples of this.

[quote author=jacob link=board=grammar;num=1147169341;start=0#3 date=05/11/06 at 13:19:11]Thanks for your input. An example of usage in official correspondence would be..

"This letter is forwarded for your kind information and further directives".

In fact, if you seach for a string "for your kind information" on google, there are countless examples of this.

And yet "for your kind information " is meaningless (it sounds like it’s a word for word translation from an smallish African country) and smacks of a 419 scam.

p

These empty words remind me of when I was working for a megacompany. The Swedish translations should be at least 30% shorter than the USAmerican originals.

One short example of how we managed, for still more effect using German:

Original: And now please press button A.

German: A drücken.

I would certainly hope that this is not an example from formal documentation for something.  While this is acceptable (if not desirable) language for supporting the customer via e-mail, in formal documentation it is quite unprofessional, in my opinion.

As regards the original phrase in question, I still believe it is related to the phrase "kindly inform".

-Tim

[quote author=Tim link=board=grammar;num=1147169341;start=0#6 date=05/14/06 at 23:35:19]I would certainly hope that this is not an example from formal documentation for something.

I’m quite certain that I could find "Please press the ‘A’ key". That’s why we had to cut down on size. But my favourite from those days is "Where available, you can get 24 hours service."