Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Introduction
This aspect deals with BUSINESS ENGLISH WRITING SKILL. This skill is
important because it too demands the ability to CONVEY THOUGHTS,
IDEAS IN A MANNER that would appeal and create an impact. There would
be an element of conveying power be it speaking , writing, it SHOULD have
the power to CRACK A DEAL AND CLOSE THE DEAL on a positive note. This
would require the ability to COMPREHEND. This module deals with the
VITAL ELEMENT. Business ENGLISH TEACHER TRAINING is all about
learning the TECHNICALITIES OF WRITING skill. It has a certain pattern
and the trainer needs to IMKPART that knowledge in the mind of the
trainees. How to interpret the documents is a vital aspect. How to take
notes, how to address emails , understand the differences between fax and
letters all these aspects are not TRIVIAL and THEY ARE IMPORTANT
aspects to ponder. It’s important to have the KNOWLEDGE and IT’S MORE
THAN WHAT MEETS THE EYE. How to interpret the contract, memos the
participants need to have all the important information and hence the
TRAINER NEEDS to make the TRAINEES get ACQUAINTED WITH THE
NECESSARY SKIULL SET. The module has information on how to write a CV
and guide the learners in a manner that would help them to PROJECT
T5HEIR SKILL SET in a manner that it would generate results.
Business writing
1
more ease. Speaking is more natural. But writing, which involves
planning and organization, linking paragraphs and sentences together,
knowledge of spelling, punctuation, word order, word choice etc, is
more contrived; a skill that needs to be learnt and acquired.
Over the past few decades of research on to training, writing to second
language learners, a number of issues have appeared, some of which
remain controversial in spite of reams of data on second language
writing. Here is a brief look at some of the issues.
2
a. meet certain standards of prescribed English rhetorical
style,
b. reflect accurate grammar, and
c. be organized in conformity with what the audience would
consider to be conventional.
3
simply drown ourselves in a sea of revisions. Process is not the
end; it is the means to the end.
4
Therefore if ESL courses strive to be more content-based, theme-
based or task-based, trainees are more likely to be given the
opportunity to convey genuine information on topics of intrinsic
interest. But display writing is not totally unjustified. Writing to
display one’s knowledge is a fact of life in the classroom, and by
getting your trainees to perform well in display writing
exercises, they can learn skills that will help them to succeed in
further academic pursuits.
5
these terms, from reports, which in turn are different from
agendas. A genre like letters can be divided into sub-genres like
letters of persuasion, letters of enquiry, letters of confirmation,
and so on. Some trainers argue against a genre approach, saying
that the notion of genre is too vague to be of practical use to the
trainees. After all every letter is unique and has its own specific
characteristics. Others argue that the theory of genre is useful
for trainers and learners alike because it gives learners
something concrete to aim for.
Look at the following letter, and work out the best order for the
paragraphs.
Dear Ms Lee,
6
costs you mentioned. The trip actually took place after the 5
contract between JK Holgings and our client was signed. In
paragraph 4.2 it states that our agreement terminates when a
contract is signed between JK Holgings and the client.
Therefore we cannot reimburse expenses for any expenses
which occurred after the contract was signed.
In your letter you said that you felt unfairly treated for two
reasons. Firstly, you stated that JK Holgings refused to pay for a 2
market analysis presentation your company gave to a potential
client on our behalf. Secondly, you said that JK Holgings refused
to reimburse your company for travel and accommodation
expenses.
Yours sincerely,
7
Graham Thorpe
8
be remarkably different, even if the message is essentially
the same.
o Furthermore, international business documents need to be
kept as simple as possible if the audience is not as
proficient at English as the writer.
Purpose – The practical intent of the letter is of key importance.
o Acceptability in the business world is rarely judged by
grammatical niceties, but by its utility. Therefore the trivial
grammatical or structural mistakes in a letter do not
matter much in the reality. Business people are more likely
to read an email and say, ‘Great, we’ve got the contract’,
rather than, ‘This email is unacceptable – it’s full of
mistakes’. From a business perspective, therefore it’s not
really worth spending much time behind grammatical and
structural perfections. Some companies have a policy
about the quality of their email, preferring sped and
efficiency to linguistic accuracy (particularly with internal
emails). From a feedback perspective, red-inking every
mistake on a practice letter may have the effect of
destroying a learner’s confidence – exactly the opposite of
what trainers are trying to do. However, some documents
like contracts & minutes are required to be very precise.
o The intensity of accuracy is also determined by the
purpose of the document.
o It also depends on the training context. A trainer working
with pre-experienced university learners who are
preparing for a written business studies exam may have to
take a very different approach from that of the in-company
trainer who has to deal with the everyday practicalities of
business.
o Another considerable point is the degree of vagueness of
the language in the document. Sometimes writing has to be
very precise; it is no good giving the wrong amount of
money in a price quotation, for example, or supplying
incorrect delivery dates. But sometimes sentences like, ‘It
looks like we should be finished by the end of June’, can be
far more flexible if something goes wrong. Writers do not
always wish to commit themselves in writing.
Response: Writing evolves with a specific desire for response.
The anger or stress emanating from a letter of complaint would
make it far more direct and impolite, compared to the one
written with a separate objective and mindset. For an effective
9
piece of document, it is necessary for the learners to think from
the readers’ perspective and ask, “How would I respond if I had
received this document?”
oPaired crosswords
o Connecting the email.
Ways to adapt and use authentic documents:
o Gap-fill (remove words which learners could guess from
the context, or which they need to focus on, or which form
part of useful lexical phrases).
o Mixed or jumbled text (or phrases).
o Divide a number of sentences into two parts, and then ask
learners to find the matching sentences halves
o On a letter, write a few notes on what sort of response is
required (e.g. ‘Tell them we can’t deliver before June 6’, or
‘inform them that the quality wasn’t good enough’, and so
on). Learners write a follow up letter.
o Change style from formal to informal.
o Edit text to find or correct errors.
o Summarize.
o Comprehension questions.
o Put all the verbs into infinitive form and ask learners to
correct.
Ask learner to give an oral report on the contents (with or
without notes).
10
Note-taking
11
Trainees make notes when listening to recordings of meetings, then
write either minutes or follow up memos.
Language any
Time 40 minutes
Preparation
Find a recording of a meeting (in a course book) which you think will
be of interest to your trainees.
Procedure
Correspondence
12
Correspondence includes writing letters, emails, mobile phone text
messages and faxes. It is normally interactive, expecting a reply. This is
different from other documents like contracts, reports, or minutes,
which are statements that do not require a written reply. It is
important to note that different forms of correspondence are not
necessarily separate genres, merely modes of delivery. Letters can be
faxed, or sent by email. However it is probably true to say that some
emails share characteristics traditionally associated with spoken
conversation. Likewise, faxes can vary; sometimes they consist of
formal letters or forms, perhaps with scribbled notes on them as a
method of reply, at other times they may take the form of a memo.
o Scribbled notes
o Informal emails
o Formal legal contracts
o Multitude of different types of letters and commercial
documents dealing with issues such as enquiries, offers, orders,
acknowledgements, delivery, payment, delays , complaints,
credit, job applications, insurance, making arrangements and so
on.
Setting the right tone in a letter or even an email is often difficult for
many native speakers, and learners. This is hardly surprising when
13
topics could include such tricky issues as late payment, defective
goods, contract interpretations, announcing redundancies, and so on.
One way to work on this language is to do consciousness-raising
activities where the learners are given the chance to focus on specific
aspects of language use in authentic documents.
Method -
You will be interested to know that I recently met with Kavin Lee, who
informed me that you are now acting as agents on behalf of his
company. You will no doubt already be aware that he is very satisfied
with your efforts.
However, this is clearly a breach of our agreement, which was that you
would act as our exclusive excusive agents until January 2007. I
therefore require your written assurance that your business
relationship with Kavin Lee will cease forthwith, and that you will
honor our agreement in future.
If you are unable to comply with this reasonable request, then I feel I
have no option but to terminate our agreement in accordance with
Clause 13b.
Language any
Time 5 minutes
Procedure
Show trainees a copy of the e-mail. After asking them how they would
feel if they got this kind of e-mail –so as to help less confident users of
English to feel they are not alone when intimidated – ask the trainees
to find the message. Getting trainees who are not yet using e-mail to
locate the message should reassure them that they will be able to cope,
even if messages seem complicated at first sight!
15
16
BUSINESS ENGLISH THINK SPOT
17
diagrams; these simply need to be photocopied on to a sheet of A4
paper.
The format used for faxes varies widely but will mainly be dictated by
a company’s preference or the software used to generate the faxes.
There are certain practical considerations which affect some aspects of
the layout, e.g. the need to know how many pages are being sent and
the need to specify senders’ and receivers’ telephone numbers in case
of failed transmission.
The style of text in faxes is similar to that used in letters but can
sometimes be much more informal. This informality comes from the
speed – and consequent feeling of informality – of the technology. As
already mentioned the formulaic expressions (e.g. Many thanks for
you…of…) which are so common in letters are also used in faxes, so it
is essential that trainees become familiar with these.
Also draw trainees’ attention to the following points if they are
unfamiliar with faxes:
Addresses are not always written out in full in the same way in
faxes as in letters.
Each page of a fax will be clearly numbered.
Faxes sent through a normal fax machine will include a full
signature, not just initials.
Faxes sent though a modem will not include signatures because
of the difficulty of ‘getting then into’ the computer!
Handwritten faxes may also be acceptable in some lines of
business or in certain situations because faxes are primarily
used to transmit written messages quickly.
Impression are made when sending faxes, as with any other type
of business communication so care about details may be equally
important when sending faxes!
Language any
Time 10 minutes
18
Procedure
1. Write the words fax, letter and telex on the board or show
photos of each on OHTs. Ask trainees to consider the differences,
first in pairs and then as a class. Elicit or point out that:
o The price of a fax is dependent mostly on the number of A4
pages sent but that any amount of information can be
transmitted on any one sheet of A4. Make sure that
trainees are aware of how this differs from the cost of
sending a telex, where every character (i.e. letter, space or
number) costs money, so that abbreviations became
common.
o Since the ‘transmission’ of faxes is much faster than letters,
the language in faxes is often (but not always) more
informal.
2. Show trainees the sample fax and invite comments about the
layout. Make sure that they are aware of the other points about
faxes mentioned, especially the need to include telephone
numbers and number of pages on faxes in case of failed
transmission.
19
20
Memos - Old-fashioned paper memos, although still used in some
companies, have been phased out by many companies in favor of faster
and more convenient e-mail. However, written messages are still
frequently sent around within companies so ‘message-writing
practice’, which can be thought of as messages sent on paper or e-mail,
still need to be done by most Business English trainees. Even trainees
who think of e-mail messages as nothing more than written out
comments or spoken messages might do well to consider how the
quality of internal communications can and does affect relationship
and promotion prospect of individuals, not to mention the efficiency of
a company’s day to day business. Poorly written internal messages can
result in a great deal of lost time, confusion or bad feeling. The
procedures in this section will help your trainees to improve the
effectiveness of their writing.
What is a memo?
21
from other forms of written business communication which are sent to
clients and other parties not directly employed by the same company.
However, although less formal than some correspondence to clients,
memos are serious documents which are almost always carefully filed.
They are not like telephone messages or quick notes to colleagues
about lunch plans or tennis matches!
Every company may have its own in-house rules for writing memos and
the format may vary slightly but, generally speaking, the following are
some basic rules:
TASK 1 Can you think of some practical reasons for these basic
rules?
Answers:
22
They are only ever about one subject so that they are easy to file.
They need to be clear and concise because people are busy. If
they are not clear the message won’t get through and no action
will be taken.
They should not be longer than one page because people are
busy.
Names are kept brief because they are internal documents.
No addresses are included because everyone can easily find out
where individual employees work. (There will always be an
internal list giving this information.)
They do not have full greetings or closings because they’re
internal documents.
This is probably so as to make memos more comprehensible!
They are usually just initialed by the sender – not signed in full –
so as to save time.
23
b. They are only ever about one subject so that they are easy to file.
c. They need to be clear and concise because people are busy. If
they are not clear the message won’t get through and no action
will be taken.
d. They should not be longer than one page because people are
busy.
e. Names are kept brief because they’re internal documents.
f. No addresses are included because everyone can easily find out
where individual employees work ( There will always be an
internal list giving this information).
g. They do not have full greetings or closings because they’re
internal documents.
h. This is probably so as to make memos more comprehensible!
i. They are usually just initialed by the sender – not signed in full –
so as to save time.
b) the name(s) of anybody else who will receive a copy of the memo
d) the date
e) a deadline
24
Method – Memo notes
Trainees consider the conventions used for memos before using them
in an experimental memo.
Language any
Time 15 minutes
Procedure
Contracts
25
Contracts normally include some or all of the following elements:
Reports
26
are numerous examples on the Internet. Word-processing software
(such as MS Word) sometimes includes handy templates of documents
in report format.
Trainees must also take care to gear their message to their reader(s)
and differentiate clearly between fact and opinion. Obviously, the
consequence of suggesting something is fact, when it is merely opinion,
could be far-reaching and could cause bad feeling if found out!
Reports normally start off with a title, names of authors and addresses,
and a purpose statement giving the reason they were produced. The
body of the report is likely to include paragraphs on background,
methodology of the enquiry, results, discussion, conclusion and
recommendation. A report may also include appendices, a list of
references, and an index.
27
report, e.g. visit reports (written by sales people about visits made to
clients), personnel reports (which help Human Resource Managers to
keep track of employees’ performance and attitudes) and weekly or
monthly reports (which will provide an update on work done for
supervisors and other senior staff).
The language used in any report should be clear and succinct. No extra
phases are to be added for mere impression building and opinions
should not be disguised as fact. The key to success when writing
reports is to communicate messages clearly.
28
Then they tell each other about the problems and discuss
possible courses of action which might reinstate the
corporation’s positive public image. Finally they prepare reports
which present recommendations for course of action.
Language any
Time 20 minutes
Procedure
29
Note that much of what trainees suggest is likely to come from
their own experience – and this may even be very obvious! Don’t
point thus out because the whole point of making the problem
‘fictitious’ is to give trainees the feeling that they are not having
to expose their real-life problems. If trainees accuse each other,
remind them (jokingly) that the situations are fictitious, however
similar to reality they may seem; even if this is not true, your
light hearted reminder should take away some of tension among
trainees.
Variation
Use case studies from business books or video clips to establish
problems and elicit the main points from trainees before getting them
to plan a suitable outline for a report.
30
CVs
31
Here is a list of possible verbs to use on your CV. Write four
statements describing your achievements in the last year.
(like this: I designed a technical modification which enabled the
production line to increase its output by 12%.) created conducted
coordinated improved designed assisted provided addressed
established solved
Name of attendees
Apologies (from those absent)
Review of minutes of previous meetings
Summary of discussions
Record of proposals, decisions made and voting details
Action points and responsibilities
Details of next meeting
Agendas also come in many shapes and sizes, but may include all or
some of the following:
32
Objectives
Location
Start and end times
Breaks
Details of participants, including names of chair and person
responsible for minutes
Items to be discussed (with presenters’ name and time
allocated)
Details of any preparation required
Additional information or appendices
33
34
Writing for the internet
Presenting the class – A website can also be planned with the idea
presenting the class. Learners may take own photographs, produce
short written statements on their objective of learning English, likes
and dislikes about the classes, views on learning a foreign language.
The website design can also incorporate information like ‘Tips on how
to learn a language’, ‘The aim and syllabus of the ongoing course’,
‘Glossaries of new words and phrases’ learnt or examples of their
written work.
CONCLUSION
This book has catered all the vital aspects of BUSINESS ENGLISH
TEACHER TRAINING SKILLS that are important. It has aimed to gear
the learners in the direction that would make the participants
understand the relevancies, the backdrop of the communication
process to understand how each skill merges when it comes to
matching it with the requirements that are related to the BUSINESS
needs. The world of BUSINESS is ever-changing and this book is an
example of this. We hope that our learners are benefitted from this
book.
THANK YOU!!!
36