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Lesson 5

This document discusses the key characteristics of effective business English and business letters. It defines business English as the type of English used for business transactions and buying/selling activities. It then outlines 8 characteristics (Cs) that make for a good business letter: clarity, courtesy, cheerfulness, consideration, character, conciseness, correctness, and concreteness. Each characteristic is then defined and examples are provided to illustrate how to apply each one to improve a business letter. The overall summary is that these 8Cs provide a framework for writing business letters and communications that are clear, polite, thoughtful, concise, accurate, and persuasive.

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56 views

Lesson 5

This document discusses the key characteristics of effective business English and business letters. It defines business English as the type of English used for business transactions and buying/selling activities. It then outlines 8 characteristics (Cs) that make for a good business letter: clarity, courtesy, cheerfulness, consideration, character, conciseness, correctness, and concreteness. Each characteristic is then defined and examples are provided to illustrate how to apply each one to improve a business letter. The overall summary is that these 8Cs provide a framework for writing business letters and communications that are clear, polite, thoughtful, concise, accurate, and persuasive.

Uploaded by

ere chan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 26

THE NATURE

OF BUSINESS ENGLISH
Business English

- a kind of English used in conducting business or in buying and selling


activities (Baraceros, 2000)

• informative
• affective
• adaptive
• derivative
BUSINESS LETTER
&
ITS CHARACTERISTICS
Consider These
• A letter is a written message sent to an individual or a group of people
(Greene & Ripley, 1998)

• Business Letter - a written message used to transact business which


cannot be conveniently conversed (Vicente et.al, 2004)
- the most widely or commonly used from of external written
communication
- seeks to explain, to sell, to introduce, to apologize, to invite, to
refuse, to promise, to complain, and to organize
Consider These

“However despite its uncertainly in meaning, it is easier to


give judgment on it. You can easily determine whether it is a
good or bad letter or it has been written well or poorly. The
yardstick you can use in judging the quality of the letter is
the 8C’s or eight characteristics of a business letter, namely
clearness, courtesy, cheerfulness, consideration, character,
conciseness, correctness, and concreteness. To be effective,
every letter regardless of its purpose must have all these
qualities.”
Clarity
• What is the main idea of the letter?
• Does the letter clearly convey the message?
• Best ways to ensure CLARITY: the use of precise, concrete, familiar
words, and the construction of effective sentences and paragraphs are
the best ways of achieving
some ways of achieving clarity or clearness

1.Think first before you write.

Before writing the first sentence of your letter, decide and organize your
thoughts about the focus, the reason, and the beginning of your letter.

For example, you may ask yourself these questions:

• Why am I writing this?


• How will I begin my letter?
• What will I stress or emphasize in my letter?
2. Express yourself in simple and familiar words.

Basically, the purpose of your letter is to inform. However your work cannot achieve this if it
is loaded with “high-falutIn,” highsounding, or complex words. Examples:

Long and complicated Familiar or Common


Admonition warning
modification change
Ameliorate improve
Edifice building
Conflagration fire
edifice building
Indisposed ill
Inadvertency error

• Avoid using verbal dead words, horse-and-buggy, and jargon expression. Verbal dead words are words
that have no significance or necessary place in the sentence.
Dead word Clear
affixed his signature sign
basic essentials essentials
at this point in time now
meet together meet
like for example like
plan in advance plan
attached here with attached
• Horse-and buggy words are old expressions used by people riding in
a carriage drawn by horses during the period of Queen Victoria.
Horse-and-Buggy Modern
I deem I think
With your kind permission May I
Advise tell
your kind favor Your letter
Favor us with a reply Please, reply
• Jargons are words used by a certain set of people with
common interest or in the same profession. Those not in this
kind of group don’t find these technical words easy to
understand. Words commonly used by lawyers, physicians,
engineers, or businessmen are meaningful only to these set of
professionals. Ordinary persons in our society can hardly
understand these technical terms.
Examples:
• agriculture- drafting, fertilizer, organic, plantation, harvesting, swine
production, dry & wet seasons.
• accounting- return on investment, assets and liabilities, amortization,
balance sheet, debtor, inventory, rebate.
• hotel & restaurant- chef, housekeeping, tourists, ingredients, menu,
condiments. electrical engineering- wires, cables, schematic diagram,
multi-tester, connection power interruption, generator, AC DC,
transformer
3. Maintain short sentences and paragraphs

* readers can easily get the main point of a letter if the sentence or
the paragraph use just the words necessary to express the main idea
*Long and winding sentences or paragraphs will confuse the reader
in getting the core of the letter
• 4. Express yourself in the active voice than in passive voice to put
more life in your letter.
Examples:
Poor: The cocktail was prepared by me.
Better: I prepared the cocktail.

Poor: This restaurant is managed by an excellent restaurateur.


Better: An excellent restaurateur managed this restaurant.
Conciseness
• The meaningfulness of a letter depends greatly on the relationships of
words in the letter
• Employing too many words to show structural relationship that
determine meaning formation delays thinking and decision making
• A concise message is complete without being wordy. It saves time,
effort, and space on the part of the writer
• Time is gold is a favorite line of businessmen, thus, conciseness is very
much needed in the busy world of buyers and sellers
• eliminate wordy expressions, avoid unnecessary repetitions, and include
only relevant matter.
Wordy Concise
as a general rule generally
at an early date soon
except in a very few instances usually
in some cases sometimes
in the event that if I beg to differ I disagree
in the near future soon
on a personal basis personally
until such time as until
Consideration
• The You-viewpoint -looking at the situation from the standpoint of the reader, is what consideration means
• makes one adopts an attitude of mind that focuses on the reader’s abilities, interests, likes, and dislikes—
an approach that emphasizes the You as it deemphasizes the I and We
• highlighted in the letter are those about the reader—the benefits and the advantage the reader can get by
entering into a business transaction
• thoughtful consideration serving as the foundation of goodwill
• the means of influencing people is also called empathy, human touch, and understanding of human nature

Examples:
We know we delivered our products to you last week. (poor)
You have received the product delivery last week. (better)

We are happy to have your order to Avon Products, which we are sending today by 2GO. (poor)
You will receive your order from Avon Products today thru 2GO. Thank you. (better)
Courtesy
• an attitude of the mind that cultivates goodwill and friendliness (Just like consideration)
• requires the use of polite expressions, such as please, thank you, kindly, would you, and
could you, that that show the writer’s sincerity, tactfulness, thoughtfulness, gratefulness,
and respect towards the reader.
Example:
Since you cannot offer me a permanent instructor position, I decided to accept a
teaching job at Holy Family Academy. So, you can now give the position of
Administrative Aide II you are offering me to other applicants. (poor)
Thank you so much for believing in me that I could be efficient in the
Administrative Aide II position. I really appreciate your good offer. Regrettably, I
feel that I will be more effective in the teaching position; hence, I accepted the offer
of another school. (better)
Concreteness
• The only way by which you can create a clear and convincing picture of what you are selling
through a letter is the use of descriptive or mental pictures about the product
• Through words, the reader can form images - rich imagination results from rich sensory
experiences and words that create beautiful images; those that appeal to the reader’s senses
• General, vague, and abstract terms that exist only in the mind do not activate the senses
• Use concrete, vivid, specific, and other image-building words (to produce an alive, active,
and real letter capable of eliciting instant decisions from the reader)
Examples:
There is an increase in the enrolment this academic year. (poor)
There is a 19% increase in the enrolment this academic year. (better)

I sent the letter to the Human Resource Director. (poor)


I sent the letter to Dr. Norma B. Muyot, the Human Resource Director. (better)
Cheerfulness
• “Smile and the whole world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.”
• “If you have a lively disposition in life, you will have more friends; a
dim outlook in life will drive people away from you. Generally, nobody
would like to live with a person preoccupied with ugly thoughts about
the world.”
• A letter loaded with negative expressions will not elicit favorable
responses from the reader
• Its easier to motivate the reader to act on the message of the letter if
the words are capable of cheering up and showing willingness to serve
Cheerfulness
• Polite, courteous, and friendly words, instead of tactless, offensive,
and blunt expressions are the right words to give quality of
cheerfulness to a business letter
• Among the positive words to which people react favorably are benefit,
cordial, happy, generous, loyal, pleasure, thanks, and thoughtful
• Words with negative connotations that often arouse unfavorable
reactions include blame, complaint, failed, negligence, regret, trouble,
unfair, and many others
Examples:
It is impossible to open an account for you today. (poor)
You may open an account tomorrow. (better)

Please don’t fail to respond to my letter of complaint. (poor)


Your response to my letter of complaint is anticipated. (better)
Correctness

• refers to the right level of the language—formal or informal—the


accuracy of the figures, facts, grammar, spelling, punctuation mark,
and the layout of the letter
Character
• What makes a person special or interesting?
* The answer is his unique or distinct personality or individuality.
Comparing the business letter to an individual, you can find the former
interesting, if such letter uses words and introduces ideas that are
natural, original, fresh, rather than expressions that are worn-out,
cliché, stereotyped, and plain imitations.

• A letter written through the writer’s own style of expressions, not by


his act of borrowing, reflects the writer’s strength and confidence.
Examples:
Attached herewith is the sales inventory of the Front Office for this
month. (poor)
Attached is the sales inventory of the Front Office Department for the
Month of September. (better)

According to our records you received the right invoice. (poor)


The records show you received a correct statement of account. (better)
✓ Remember These

• Business Letter is defined as a written message used to transact


business which cannot be conveniently conversed
• Clearness, courtesy, cheerfulness, consideration, character,
conciseness, correctness, and concreteness are the characteristics (8
C’s) of a business letter

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