I agree that the term, cool, is inappropriate for a formal letter, research paper or even a magazine review if the audience is known to be experts themselves in the subject. To say a film is cool is reductive and might get a few of your readers rolling their eyes. Ironically, I believe that to be cool one ought to avoid using that expression; it's becoming overused, but that's my personal opinion.
The OP ought to consider how people from the 40s, 50s, 60s and possibly early 70s would have expressed the same concept. (Now someone will tell me that "cool" meaning impressive, admirable, inimitable, and wow was first used in 1800s or thereabouts.) 1
When I was living in London as a child, cool usually meant mildly cold or indifferent, wicked was associated with witches and criminals, and sick meant vomit. We did use bad though, when we meant "very good".
However, much depends on who your readers are. If I had to describe a new car or a hi-tech gadget, and compliment it on its design or features I might very well opt for "a cool design" and "cool features". But if I wanted to be more specific, (or original) I'd choose from one of these adjectives instead: (in no order of preference)
- sleek; streamlined; sexy; seductive; stylish; dynamic; innovative; astounding; impressive; breathtaking; elegant; smart; intelligent; unique etc.
For a film/movie review you would probably need a different list, unless you were commenting on the camera shots then many of those suggested above would fit. A "cool" movie could also be described as being:
- extremely popular; trendy; has a large following; modern; exciting; thrilling; exhilarating; inspiring; etc.
Actually, I'm beginning to realize just how versatile "cool" is...
1.) "Would you mind and do something?"
2.) "Would you mind and provide the phone number connected on the account?"
3.) "Would you mind and tell us what you've tried."
According to my ear, there's nothing wrong with those types of expressions. (I'm an AmE speaker, and I've traveled to or lived in most corners of the USA.)
Actually, in my personal opinion, I'd consider those versions to be more polite than these alternatives:
"Would you mind doing something?"
"Would you mind providing the phone number connected on the account?"
"Would you mind telling us what you've tried."
as those last three versions have the speaker sorta already assuming that the other person won't mind hearing a request from him, and the speaker is rushing a request at the other person. (Though others might disagree.)
As for the OP's #1, #2 and #3 examples, I've heard these kinds of phrases spoken often by AmE speakers, and I'm pretty sure I've used them myself. E.g. "Would you mind and do something for me?"
I'd consider these kinds of expressions to be at least of an informal style of standard English. The coordinator "and" has many uses, e.g. "Be sure and lock up", "We always try and do our best". (There might be some related info in the 2002 reference grammar CGEL.)
Best Answer
When about seems rare (with the "approximately when" meaning). I did find one example in the British National Corpus from an oral history interview (formatting and punctuation added):
I don't recall hearing when about often (eastern USA) but I am certain I've heard when abouts. I can't find evidence of this in any corpus I searched, but keep in mind that most of the spoken language samples available, for example, in COCA, are from news broadcasts. If your intent is to accurately represent colloquial speech, when abouts or whenabouts may be appropriate. It seems to be common enough in various dialects that people have questions about it, and there are plenty of search results (it seems common in forums). When abouts is also used by people on Twitter, usually in questions:
When abouts would not be common where formal register is required. I probably wouldn't even use it in an email; I'd replace it with one of the more commonly written expressions pointed out by @Rachel or @drɱ65 δ. However, I wouldn't be surprised if, walking down the hall, my boss were to ask me, When abouts do you think you could do that?