UNIT 4.

WRITTEN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.

WRITTEN BUSINESS DOCUMENTS.

1. The Seven C's of written communication.

When writing a letter, a series of elements, known as the 7 C's of

communication, provides a checklist for making sure your message is well
constructed and clear.

EXERCISE 1. Match the C words with their corresponding definition.

1 CLEAR a Your message is brief and to the point. You give the
information in few words without this affecting the
other C qualities.

2 CONCISE b Your information is accurate. Provide the reader with

the specific dates or figures he/she may need.

3 CONCRETE c The message contains all the information the reader

needs. The reader will not need to contact you again
for more details.

4 CORRECT d Avoid messages that could be misinterpreted.

Minimise the number of ideas in each
sentence/paragraph to help the reader get the point of
the message.

5 COHERENT e You use a style that reflects the relationship you have
with the reader. You grammar and spelling are
correct.

6 COMPLETE f The message is respectful and considerate. You don’t

use expressions that can annoy the reader and you
don’t make discriminatory comments.

7 COURTEOUS g The message is logical and is properly distributed into

paragraphs. The contents are related to the topic and
the tone of the text is similar all the way through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=206&v=dCkRW5_ZlNI

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Mary Frank is senior clerk at GiftStar, a company that imports corporate gifts from all
over the world. Their shipping company in South Africa is International Freight Ltd,
where Luke Steward have been corresponding on a regular basis for the past 10
years.
Ms. Frank has asked her new junior assistant, Mr. Skip, to write a draft of an e-mail
she wants to spend to Mr. Steward. Unfortunately he wrote the following e-mail and
sent it on behalf of Mary Frank.

EXERCISE 2. Read the body of this e-mail. Did the assistant apply the 7 C
principles of communication? Justify your answer.

From: Charles Skip [email protected]

To: Lukecito [email protected]

Subject: Hello

Hello Luke,
I’m very sory for the problems with previous order. By the way, have you received
our next order? Fortunnately the handling service you offerd as a compensation
for the problems we had with the difficult order worked great and everything
went smoothly. Jonh, that is my boss, (I think you don’t know him yet, he is
new!!) was very worried but now he is happy and you should be too!!! He said we
could send you a present. We were thinking about some corporate jackets, with
the name of your company on them or do you prefer a photo of your king?
What colour and sizes do you need? Most of being black people, we thought you
would prefer bright colours.

EXERCISE 3. Rewrite the e-mail in exercise 2. Use the following expressions to

help you order your information into a paragraphs. Make sure you know what
they mean first.

Before I say goodbye I want to:

- ask you if…
First of all In relation to Regarding
- let you know that...

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EXERCISE 4. READING. Now that you have rewritten the e-mail listen to the
conversation between Ms. Frank and her junior assistant, Mr. Skip, and answer
the questions below (audio in the moodle).

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1. Ms. Frank points out several mistakes made by Mr. Skip. What are they?.

2. Did you identify any mistakes that Mr. Skip and Ms. Frank didn't mention in
their conversation? (A typo is the abbreviation of typographical error, which is
due to mechanical failure or slip of the finger, while typing).

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 2. Abbreviations in Business Letters.

Abbreviations can be created by using the initial parts of name, which are then read
as a word. This is the case of acronyms such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization), which is pronounced /neito/. Abbreviations can also be created by
taking the first letter of some words. This is the case of the BBC, pronounced /bii, bii,
cii/. This is a case of initialism. There is a tendency among English speakers to call
all these words abbreviations and not to distinguish one from the other.

In commercial letters there are some very common abbreviations you need to
learn.

EXERCISE 5. Can you match the abbreviations with their meaning?

a asap 1 carbon copy

b cc 2 per procurationem

c enc 3 postScript

d pp 4 respondez s'il vous plait

e ps 5 as soon as possible

f pto 6 enclosure

g RSVP 7 please turn over

How to pronounce these abbreviations. All the abbreviations in exercise 5 are

pronounced letter by letter. In case of ASAP, most people pronounce the individual
letters A-S-A-P but some prefer to say this abbreviation as one word: /eisap/.

EXERCISE 6. Can you match the abbreviations above with their meaning?

1. You use this abbreviation if you include other material/documents in the

letter._

2. This Latin phrase means that you are signing the letter on somebody else’s
behalf.

3. This means a copy or copies of the letter are sent to other

people.

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 4. If you want to make sure that the reader knows that the letter continues on the
other side of the page, you can use this abbreviation.
.

5. “Please, reply” is abbreviated in French as .

3. Business letters.

Business letters are writing as a means of communication between two companies

or between a company and individuals such as a customer, a provider or a supplier.
Business letters require formal language and follow certain format rules.

3.1. Letters or Emails?

How many letters have you writing in the Last 5 years?

Most of you probably think that the letters belong to the past. As you will see when
you listen to the audio, this is not entirely true.

EXERCISE 7. READING (with audio). Listen to the words of Mr. Wilkinson an

expert on business writing, and as where the equations below. Don't forget to
read the language help before listening to Mr. Wilkinson's talk.

1. What is the subject of mr. Wilkinson's talk?

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 2. What are the two items that business mail include?

3. What is ‘snail mail ?

4. Why can a company save money if they use e-mail as a means of

communication?

5. What to inconveniences of e-mails. Mr. Wilkinson mention?

6. Mr. Wilkinson says: in case of a dispute, a court of justice may not

consider an e-mail notification as a written warning. Does this mean that
an email does not carry legal weight? Justify your answer.

3.2 The Contents of a Business Letter.

Formal letters should contain most of the elements listed below.

EXERCISE 8. Can you write them in their corresponding blank space?

inside address /
date sender's address greeting
receivers address

complimentary for the attention

body of the letter letterhead
closes of

1.

If you write a personal letter (i.e. a cover letter for your CV), the return
address can be written both on the top right-hand corner or on the top of left corner,
on top of the recipient’s address. If you letter is a business letter your company will
have their address printed on their stationery.
2.

This information is very important because it can help establish priority. Write it
under your address and leave at least one line’s space. You can write it on the right
or on the left. Write the month as a word, not a number.

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 3.

This should be written on the left, starting below yours. The first line should contain
the addressee’s name. If you know it, write it on the first line preceded by a courtesy
title (Mr., Ms.,) If you don't know the identity of the person, but know his/her position
in the company you can write it (i.e. The Sales Manager). Alternatively you can write
the department name or only the company name if that is the only information you
have. Remember that the last line should be the country preceded by the town or city
and post code.

4.

An alternative to writing the recipient's name before his/her address is to use this line
before the greeting. This is a synonym of “to the attention of”. Note that the
abbreviation of these sentences is also generally used: FAO: or ATTN: These
abbreviations are more widely used than the full sentence.

5.

This section is also called salutation. You may start the section with the word the
word “Dear”.

6.

The length will vary according to the type of letter letter (i.e. letter of enquiry,
complaint, cover letter for a CV…). Information should be distributed into
paragraphs with a line space between them.

7.

Insert this below the last line of a letter. Capitalise the first word and conclude with a
comma.

8.
Print your name so that the reader can easily see who you are. If the addressee
doesn't know if you are male or female, write your title in brackets after your name.

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EXERCISE 9.Can you identify the parts of this letter?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

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EXERCISE 11. Answer these questions about Luke Steward’s letter in exercise
9.

1. Do Mr. Steward and Ms. Frank how each other? Justify your answer.

2. What are the two aims of this letter?

4. Vocabulary.

EXERCISE 12. Work individually. Your teacher will tell you how many minutes
you have to write down as many answers as you can.

1. What C’s are missing in the following: clear, concise, correct, coherent, and
courteous?

2. If your message is brief and you give the information in few words, your
written text is

3. If your message is logical and it is properly distributed into paragraphs, if the

contents are related to the topic and the tone of the text is similar all the way
through, your texts is

4. What is a typo?

5. When you read a copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors, you
are_

6. The salutation in a letter is also called the

7. The should be written on the left, starting

below yours.

8. If you don't know the name of the recipient you can address him/her
as_

9. If you address the letter to the company, the appropriate greeting is:

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 10. When you address a person you have not contacted before, you can use
these complimentary closes .

5. Comprender y redactar un email.

Bob Turner, de la agencia de contratación Top Recruits, con sede en Londres, se

pone en contacto con Jane Harper, una hispano-británica de 33 años, actualmente
jefa de producción en Techplus, S.A., una empresa madrileña de comercio
electrónico. Jane había contactado con la agencia hace unas semanas en una feria
de muestras.

@
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject:Job spec
Date: Mon,24Feb2014 10:10:31

Attachments: JobSpec.doc

Dear Jane,

Good news! We have a position you may be interested in (job

spec attached). Are you coming to London in the next few days?
If so, please let me know asap. We will make all the
arrangements for your accommodation.

Kind Regards,

Bob Turner

@
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Jop spec
Date: Tue, 25 Feb2014 16:10:00

Attachments: CVFeb2014.doc

Dear Bob,

Thank you very much for your email. The position sounds very
interesting. I can come next Tuesday, to discuss it further. If you agree.
I’ll go ahead and book my flight in the meantime, if you could tell me
what we are going to discuss and how long it will take, that would be
very helpful.

Regards,
Jane

P.S.: Please find attached my current CV

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 @
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Job spec
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:30:18

I’m delighted to hear that you are considering the

position. Our meeting will involve a basic screening
procedure to check if your education, skills and
experience match the requirements of our client. We
will also give you more information about our client
company as well as a detailed job description. You will,
of course, have the opportunity to ask questions about
any aspects of the job.
We’ll see you on Tuesday 4th at 10. We normally
expect our applicants to arrive the night before. We’ll
manage to get through everything by late afternoon.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to come and pick you up
at the airport myself but my colleague, Henry Balfour,
is willing to meet you and take you to your hotel.
Please send me you flight details for the Monday, and
I’ll forward them to him.

If you have any further questions, please do not

hesitate to contactus. Otherwise, I look forward to
seeing you on Tuesday.

Best wishes
Bob
PS: You’ll easily spot Henry at the airport as he’s six
foot four inches tall!

@
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Re: Job spec
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 15:45:55

Great. That suits me perfectly. So I’m flying out

from Madrid. Madrid on Iberia flight 2345 which
gets in to Heathrow at 5.30 pm on Monday
afternoon. You can tell Hentry that I will be wearing
a dark green business suit.

Thanks again for everything.

JH

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Dear Jane Estimada Jane

job specification descripción del puesto

attached adjunto

let me know hagamelo saber

asap (as soon as possible) lo antes posible

kind regards le saluda atentamente

regards at

to be delighted to estar encantado de

skill habilidad destreza talento

applicant candidato

to forward something to someone reenviar algo a alguien

if you have any further questions si tiene cualquier otra duda

to look forward to doing something esperar hacer algo

best wishes saludos cordiales

To suit someone convenir a alguien, ir bien

to fly out from tomar un vuelo de

EXERCISE 13. Reading comprehension. Answer these questions:

1. Why does Bob contact Jane?

2. Who will book the flight?

3. What does Jane send with her first email?

4. What do Jane and Bob want to discuss at the meeting?

5. When is Jane expected to arrive?

6. When will the meeting end?

7. What will Jane be wearing when she arrives at the airport?

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 6. Useful phrases for writing an email

Further to our meeting... Tras nuestra reunión

FYI (For your information) Para su información

Here are the details as discussed Estos son los detalles de los que
hablamos

Herewith/Please find attached... En adjunto encontrará...

Re your comments... Como respuesta a sus comentarios...

As mentioned in the message Tal como menciono en el mensaje

below... siguiente...

I attach a link to... Adjunto un enlace a...

I have copied/CCed in my colleague, He puesto en copia a mi compañero,

who will be able to help you. quien podrá ayudarle.

I would be grateful if you could help. Le agradecería que me ayudara/si

pudiera ayudarme.

i’ll be back in touch with more news Me pondré en contacto con usted en
shorty. breve con más información.

Please click here to download the Haga clic aquí para descargar el
form. formulario.

Regarding the matter of... En cuanto a...

With regard to... Con respecto...

To register online, please follow this Para apuntarse en línea, haga clic en el
link. enlace siguiente.

Many thanks in advance for your Gracias de antemano por su

help/reply. ayuda/respuesta.

Please confirm receipt of this Confirme por favor la recepción de este

message mensaje.

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EXERCISE 14. Fill in the gaps. Write the words in the correct space.

attached - dear - download - forward - further - grateful - link - please - regard -

regards - register - send - wishes
@
…………….Jeremy,

I am writing with…………….…….. to a recent announcement I saw advertised on

your website. You mention that you are organising a Study Tour to China between 2
and 15 June. I would be very……………………….. if you could……………….. me
some more information about this trip. Could you………………………….. tell me if
the tour includes visits to manufacturers?

Thank you in advance.

I look……………………….. to hearing from you in the near future.

Best…………………

Jane Harper.

Jane,

I am delighted that you have shown an interest in our Study Tour project to China.
Please find…………………...…. the brochure on the trip which gives more details on
the day-to-day itinerary as well as some of the practicalities of the tour.

You will have to fill in an application form for the trip; to …….………………...online,
please follow this…………………….. (if you can’t see the page, please click here
to…………………..……… the application form and send it to me).

If you have any………………………….. questions, please do not hesitate to contact

me.

Kind………………

Jeremy Fisher

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EXERCISE 15. Write your own email.

Emma Fraser, una nueva clienta importante de Bellcam, llega a Londres dentro de
una semana para negociar un contrato de venta escríbele un email respetando las
consignas siguientes:

- Dirígete a ella.

- Dile que por desgracia no puedes ir al aeropuerto pero indica que tu

compañero Brian ir a buscarla y la llevará al hotel.

- Dile “adjunto encontrará una descripción del hotel”.

- Añade que le agradecerías que te enviará la información sobre su vuelo.

- Dile que la verás al día siguiente (the following day).

- Añade que no dude en ponerse en contacto contigo si quiere más

información.

- Dile que estás impaciente por verla.

- Termina el correo con “atentamente”.

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