Summary
English Summary
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Business English summary, second year of Karel de Grote University.
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Professional writingBusiness English
Professional writing
Evaluation criteria:
1. Primary criteria
- The message had to be clear and complete through … writing
- Concise: as brief as possible without impacting effectiveness
- Accurate: explicitly & implicitly, what is writing is what is or should be meant
- Coherent: sentences & paragraphs follow logically
- Reader-oriented: creates good-will, adopts you-perspective, respects cultural and business
conventions, positive-engaging tone
- The message projects a professional and competent image
2. Secondary criteria
- Spelling & grammar (correctness & complexity)
- Respects conventions (salutation, close, layout)
Basic principles
Reach your goal
What’s your goal? / What do you need?
E-mail writing is often your first point of contact in business and can make or break a project, an idea, an
opportunity…
Starting & finishing your email
Formal or informal
Elements that can make your message more informal are:
- Salutations and closings: Hello Juan instead of Dear Mr. Rodriguez; no closing at all instead of Sincerely
- Omitting pronouns: No problem instead of It is not a problem; Looking forward … instead of I am looking
forward
- Informal vocabulary and expressions: Thanks instead of I really appreciate; Phone me instead of Please
contact me; Is it okay? instead of Is it convenient?
Starting
Miss for unmarried women, used for girls under 18
Mrs for married woman, used with the married name
Mrs.
Ms unspecified marital status (used the most)
Ms.
Mr for all men, married or not
Mr.
comma after the opening phrase
NEVER: Dear, Mister, Madam, Dear Madame, Dear Mister, Dear Mrs. Joanna Brown
Finishing
Professional email closings
Sincerely, Regards, Yours truly and Yours sincerely
most used & appropriate in all circumstances
Best/kind regards, Cordially, Best wishes, With appreciation
closings that are slightly more personal
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,Professional writing
Semi-professional email closings
- Cheers
- Many thanks
- Warmly
- Mothing – just your name
comma after the closing phrase
Mechanics
Grammar, punctuation and spelling
Subject line
- The words you choose for your email subject lines can have a big impact on whether or not the hard work
you’ve put into your email will pay off.
- Readers scan the subject line in order to decide whether to open, forward, file, or trash a message. Your
message is by far not the only one in your recipient's mailbox. That is why it is important to craft subject
lines that are compelling enough to get people to open your email.
- As a rule, subject lines should be brief yet descriptive and specific. Provide the recipient a reason to open
your email, avoiding vague as well as overlong subject descriptions.
One topic per email
- Each separate subject is a separate email
- Avoid knitting non-related or loosely related topics together
- If your points are not very substantial, include them in 1 mail by numbering or using bullet points
Structure
How can we make the email clearer? General readability
- Your message needs to be clear from the first read
- Use a logical structure that’s clear
- No mistakes (spelling, grammar…)
You’re writing the email because you need something (reach a goal), whether it is information, an action,
documents, change of behavior, persuasion, good will…
You'd better compose the email in such a way that you get what you want as quickly and accurately as possible.
The best way to do that is to make it as easy as possible for your reader to find out what you want, how you
want it and when you want it.
You can do this using 3 techniques:
1. Reader’s point of view
- What is it that the reader expects and what is it that I’m trying to achieve?
- For standard types of business transactions, it is very straightforward
- Who’s your reader?
- Think about your reader and his motives & interests
- Most common expectations:
o Get to the point quickly
o Keep it simple or at least no more complex than necessary
2. Get to the point quickly
- Ask yourself: If your reader had time to read one sentence, which one would you want that to be?
this will be in the first paragraph
- Writing hierarchy:
o Important
o Supporting details
o General info
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, Professional writing
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