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In business transactions, it is common forbusinessmen to write business letters that convey bad news.. Aims of the study The study aims at - Studying the ways to convey bad news in Engli

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

The event that Vietnam joined WTO this year is so meaningful Vietnam hadbeen waiting for this for a long time before it was officially a member of thisorganization This event will help our country to develop more quickly and it helpsVietnam to catch up with the speed of economic development of other countries Italso eases the international business transactions, which are becoming more importantthan ever before International business transactions are an effective way ofcommunication as they enable the communication of every country in the world Theinternational business communication is very important Lockers (1992:14) states:

“Good communication is worth every minute it takes and every penny it costs”.

Business communication can be taken in the form of face-to-face meetings or ofwritten communication known as business correspondence Business correspondencetakes a very large share in business communication as business associates who desiretransactions quickly are in different distance places and are unable to frequently travel

a long way for every single business discussion

Every businessman would like their business to run smoothly without anytroubles as company closed down, orders are refused or complaints are made.However, it is too perfect business In business transactions, it is common forbusinessmen to write business letters that convey bad news Bad news certainlydispleases readers and may cause destruction in relationship between businesspartners Therefore, knowing how to write a good letter conveying bad news isessential for the survival of a business

With the hope of finding out how English writers write bad-news letters, thewriter does hope that her findings will be very useful for everyone who cares aboutbad-new business English letters

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at

- Studying the ways to convey bad news in English business correspondence;

- Finding out some strategies in conveying bad news in English businesscorrespondence;

- Studying the way to convey bad news in some kinds of letters: letter ofrejecting a complaint, turning down a credit and refusing an order to help theteaching and the learning of commerce English…

- Finding out how to create goodwill in conveying bad news in English businesscorrespondence

- Giving some implications in writing a good bad-news letter

Research Questions:

1 How do English writers convey bad news in English business correspondence?

2 Which strategy is preferred in conveying bad news in business letters?

3 How do they write to create goodwill in their bad-news letters?

3 Methods of the study

This thesis uses the methods of description, analysis, and statistics in linguisticstudy

A number of materials on applied linguistics, notably on speech acts andpoliteness strategies are studied to build up a theoretical background for my thesis.Data used in this thesis are mainly collected from textbooks and authentic Englishwritten by native English speakers The writer also uses a plenty of business letters in

the book Oxford Handbook of Commercial Correspondence published by Oxford

University Press in 2003, written by A Ashley

4 Scope of the study

This thesis focuses on how to convey bad news in English businesscorrespondence only It describes common goodwill techniques in writing Englishbusiness letters

Three kinds of bad-news business letters are analyzed are:

- Letters of refusing a complaint

- Letters of turning down a credit

- Letters of refusing an order

From the writer’s point of view, these kinds of letters are the most likely to causeFace Threatening Act (FTA) to readers who may have negative attitude towards themessages sent However, during everyday business transactions, bad-news messages

are always available in the three kinds of letter What is more, time and referenceconstraints are also the barrier for the extension in the scope of the study For thereasons above, the writer only focuses on the above-mentioned matters in herresearch.

5 Design of the study

Part A is an introduction presenting the rationale of the study, the aims, the scope, themethod and the design of the study

Part B consists of 3 chapters:

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of this work Firstly, the notion

of, and the background of speech acts are provided The emphasis will be ondimensions and types of speech acts, face and politeness and the act of breaking badnews

Chapter 2 is the study which deals with how to convey bad news in Englishbusiness correspondence Some strategies are employed in direct and indirectapproaches and some findings are given out

Chapter 3 provides implications to write bad-news letters

Part C is the conclusion, the summaries of the whole thesis

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1.Speech Acts and the act of breaking bad news

Speech Act theory was originally initiated by the Oxford philosopher, J L.Austin in 1930s and was expounded in a series of lectures which he gave at Hardvard

in 1955 In his book How to do things with words, Austin argues that when we use

languages, we are performing certain acts Traditionally, philosophers have todistinguish between actions and speaking; on the basis that speaking about something

is quite different from doing it For example, a woman says, “ It is very hot in here”.She doesn’t want to inform that it is hot but want the listener to open the window orturn on the fan

Those kinds of actions via utterances for the purpose of communicating arecalled “speech acts” In English, they are commonly given such specific labels asapologizing, complaining, requesting, inviting, informing, complimenting orpromising etc

Breaking bad news is a kind of speech act When speakers break bad news,they are performing an act, that is the act of informing bad news Bad news is a kind ofnews that makes hearers sad, unhappy or bad Nobody welcomes bad news And thusthe act of breaking bad news is an act to say something that disappoints hearers andmakes hearers displeased, disappointed and depressed For this reason, speech actstheory will help the writer a lot in her study

1.1.1 Dimensions of speech acts

Speech acts are defined by Hymes (1972) as the acts we perform when we speak –such as agreeing, complaining, requesting, apologizing, promising, approving,informing and so on Austin believes that a single speech act actually contains threeseparate but related acts: locutionary acts, illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts

- Locutionary act: When making an utterance, a speaker performs a locutionaryact, an act of saying something, with a sense and reference It is simply the act ofproducing a linguistically well-formed, and thus, meaningful expression Forexample: When making an utterance of breaking bad news, a speaker performs a

locutionary act, an act of breaking bad news This utterance used in breaking badnews is meaningful because it informs bad news.

- Illocutionary act: The illocutionary act is the function of the utterance that thespeaker has in mind, the communicative purpose intended or achieved by theutterance For example: When a speaker performs an act of breaking bad news, thespeaker thinks that the news informed is bad and the communicative purpose intended

is achieved as the speaker breaks bad news in his/her utterance

- Perlocutionary act: the perlocutionary act refers to the hearer’s recognition ofthe illocutionary act As a consequence, the hearer may feel amused, annoyed,displeased, surprised, or pleased For example: In uttering an act of breaking badnews, the speaker thinks that the hearer may feel annoyed or displeased when beinginformed the news

Speech acts tend to concentrate largely on illocutions, locutions and perlocutionscoming before and after the illocutionary act, although important, are of less centralinterest When Austin first began his study of speech acts, he attempted first of all todistinguish between a class of utterances which he called “performative” and thosewhich he termed “constatives” Performatives are a special group of utterances of thesaying of which actually perform the action named by the verb

For example:

- act of marriage: I hereby claim that you are husband and wife

- act of naming a ship: I name this ship the Saucy Sue

- act of closing a meeting: I declare this meeting closed

- act of wager: I bet you a winner

- act of apology: I apologize

- act of informing: I hereby inform you that

etc

However, the act of breaking bad new tends to highly threaten the hearer’s faceand thus it is less likely to appear in performatives to avoid an FTA in uttering thesentence

1.1.2 Types of speech acts

Speech acts can be classified according to how they affect the social interactionbetween the speakers and the hearers The most basic categorization (Searle, 1969)consists of five different types of speech acts:

1 Declaratives : are those kinds of speech acts that change the world in theirutterance For example, the priest claims: “I hereby claim that you are husband andwife” This claim will change the state of the two single people to married ones

2 Representatives : are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speakerbelieves to be the case A representative can be either true or false as the speakerasserts, says, concludes, describes, etc For example, “the Earth is round” when sayingthe utterance, the speaker believes that the Earth is round

3 Directives : are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to get someone else

to do something such as commands, orders, requests, and suggestions For example,

“Wash clothes!, the speaker wants the listener to wash clothes

4 Expressives : are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels.They express psychological state and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes,dislikes, joy or sorrow For example: “I am lonely”, the speaker feels lonely

5 Commissives : are those kinds of speech acts that commit the speaker to dosomething such as promises, threats, etc For example “I will give it to youtomorrow” is considered to be a promise The speakers intend to do what is said

To sum up, speech acts are the acts we perform when we speak The speech acttheory helps to interpret the function of language in communicating, which plays anindispensable role in interaction

In studying the categorization by Searle, I find myself that the act of breaking

bad news belongs to representatives because when the speaker informs the bad news,

s/he believes that the news informed is true That is why it may cause an FTA Ininforming the bad news, the speaker has to do the thing that s/he knows will threatenthe hearer’s face and certainly s/he does not want to do so The hearer, moreover, doesnot want to receive the bad news and s/he may have the negative reaction to the newsinformed If the speaker is not careful about word-choice as well as way to present thebad news, a break in business relationship is unavoidable (see chapter 2)

Another way of classifying speech act, according to Searle 1969:60) is based

on the structure and the use of word And according to him, speech act can be dividedinto two opposite ways of informing something: Direct and indirect speech acts

Direct speech acts and indirect speech acts are distinguished from each other.

Indirectness is defined as “those cases in which one illocutionary act is performedindirectly by the way of “performing another” (Searle 1969, p60) In direct speechacts the speaker says what s/he means, while in indirect speech acts the speaker meansmore than what s/he says (Searle 1980, p.8), for example speakers perform oneillocutionary act implicitly by way of performing illocutionary act explicitly Forexample, instead of telling a student that s/he is late for the lecture, the teacher mayask a question “What is the time now?” That is the indirect act and the direct act is toask what time is

Concerning why indirectness is used, Yule (1996, p.56) writes “indirect speechacts are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct speech act”

1.1.3 Breaking bad news

Life is not always comfortable and enjoyable and it can be disappointing attimes Problems like systems break down, mistakes are made, deadlines go unmet,complaints and credit are turned down, orders are refused are not rare In this case, thespeaker has to inform these problems – known as breaking bad news to the hearer It

is not always easy to be the deliverer of ‘bad news’ to your colleagues, yourcustomers, or to anyone else for that matter The act of breaking bad news is known as

a speech act as it informs bad news to hearers, i.e., it is the act of informing

For example: when the writer says: “we can not offer credit facilities of any kind at present owing to inflation” In saying this sentence, the writer believes that

s/he cannot offer credit facilities

Searle (1976, p.44) argues that each type of illocutionary act requires certainconditions for the successful and felicitous performance of that act and these he callsfelicity conditions Searle identifies four different kinds of felicity conditions:propositional content conditions or rules, preparatory conditions or rules, sincerityconditions or rule and essential conditions These conditions relate, on the other hand,

to the belief and attitudes of the speaker and the hearer, and, on the other hand, to thebelief and attitudes of linguistic device for communication.

The act of breaking bad news should meet the requirement of Searle’s felicityconditions, if the speaker wants to have a successful and felicitous performance For

me, the act of breaking bad news should satisfy the four conditions belows:

1 General condition: it focuses on the background knowledge of the Speaker

and the Hearer That is who the speaker and the hearer are How they are related toeach other and in what aspect They can communicate with the full understanding ofthe information sent or not

2 Content condition: In the act of breaking bad news, the message sent is

bad-news message The speaker is responsible for informing the hearer of the bad-news andthe hearer has not been informed the news yet or the speaker believes that the hearerhas not been informed the news

3 Sincerity condition: This condition concerns about the sincerity of the

speaker when informing the news The speaker means what s/he say and the hearerbelieves in what the speaker says

4 Essential condition: In the act of breaking bad news, the speaker has to or is

responsible to inform the news to the hearer The speaker believes that the hearershould be informed the news

These four conditions are of vital importance when breaking bad news The act of breaking bad news is mainly to inform the news that is bad, unhappy to thehearer The hearer is considered not to have been informed the bad news yet (In thecase that the speaker knows that the hearer has the information but still say out thebad news, this is out of the question of this thesis because it is not the act ofinforming)

1.2 Face and Politeness

1.2.1 Face and face-want

In everyday social interaction, to be respected and recognized, people try to keep

their public self-image, which is called face.

In interaction, “the positive image or impression of oneself that one shows or

intends to show to the other participants is called face” (Richard, J et all 1985:102.

Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistic)

Face want:

Within everyday social interaction, people generally behave as if their publicself-image, or their face wants, will be respected By doing that way, people canmaintain their face It’s their face-work

Hudson defined that face-work is “the way in which a person maintains his face”, which is carried out by presenting a consistent image to other people, so that one can gain or lose face by “improving or spoiling” this image Hudson stated that

through what one says or how to say it, the speaker presents a personal image forothers to evaluate

If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual’sexpectations regarding self-image, it is described as a face-threatening act (FTA)

Alternatively, given a possibility that some actions might be as a threat toanother’s face, the speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat This iscalled a face saving act (FSA)

Besides, it should be noted that some certain speech acts flatter face such ascompliment, thanks or offer This is called a face-flattering act (FFA)

Both an FTA or FFA might be the cause of the risk of losing face To avoidthis risk, either an FSA should be used or greater attention should be paid to thedifferent use of routine and speech acts in different cultural communities

Deriving from the theory of Goffman, Brown and Levinson (1987:61ff) we canhave two related aspects of face

+ Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, right to distraction – i.e., to freedom of action and freedom of imposition

non-+ Positive face: the positive consistent self-image or “personality” (cruciallyincluding the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed byinteraction

Face-work, therefore, proves to play an important part in making aconversation work either negatively or positively When the face is kept, therelationship is maintained without much difficulty

When we write business letters, conveying bad news can potentially cause theloss of the reader’s face Therefore, breaking bad news can be considered as an FTA.

It risk to threaten news receiver’s face Also, when we turn down a complaint, a credit

or an order, we may disappoint receivers, break the reader’s face and cause seriousmisunderstanding between business partners if the bad news is not written out in away they save the reader’s face This may cause the risk of breaking the businessrelationship Thus, in order to avoid this risk, politeness strategies is effectively used

to maintain face, and thus, to maintain a business relationship between the reader andthe writer

1.2.2 Politeness

In order to maintain each other’s face, the interlocutors have to take intoaccount the consideration of politeness

Politeness is defined in Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary as

“things you say or do simply because it is social correct to do or say them, rather than because you mean them sincerely” What should be discussed, then, is in what

standard people can judge something they (or others) do or say means politeness, orrather, in what view something is socially correct This issue should be consideredunder each other culture for judging things

In accordance with two kinds of faces in Brown and Levinson’s view: negativeand positive faces, politeness is divided into two types: negative and positivepoliteness Positive politeness, according to Brown and Levinson, is concerned withthe actions people take to maintain their face and that of the other people they areinteracting with Positive face has to do with presenting a good image of oneself andsecuring the approval of others Positive politeness consists of acts, which aredesigned to preserve or restore the Hearer’s positive face, by stressing the Speaker’ssympathy with a social closeness to the Hearer One linguistic way of doing thiswould be to link the Speaker and Hearer together by using the pronoun forms: we/usand our

Negative politeness is the effort not to be coercive against imposition onothers, in other words, not to poke one’s nose into other’s privacy Negativepoliteness consists of acts which are designed to preserve or restore the Hearer’s

negative face, by expressing the speaker’s reluctance to impose his or her wants onthe Hearer One way of doing this would be to say something like: “I don’t like tobother you but .” The tendency to use negative politeness forms, emphasizingHearer’s right to freedom seen as deference strategy However, it should be noted thatneither negative nor positive politeness is thoroughly good or bad This depends much

on culture, i.e this culture is more or less in favor of the former or the latter viewpoint

of politeness as people in that country consider it to be good or bad to show concernfor or interest in each other’s business

1.2.3 Strategies

When organizing a letter, the writer needs to choose one appropriate approach.Below are two basic approaches (described by Bowee et all: 2001:74)

1.2.3.1 Direct approach (Straight forward)

Writers state the main ideas first and then the evidence follows This strategy isreally useful when the receivers will be pleased, eager, interested or even neutralwhen reading the letter

The direct approach can save time for both the writer and the reader It consists

of the three following steps

Step 1: The opening: Begin with the objective Either a specific question or a

general request for information can be employed to state the information Earlypresentation of the objective will catch the reader’s attention better

Step 2: The body: Give the details If the reader needs information to answer

the question, the writer needs to include all explanation needed When more than onequestion are included in the message, they should be numbered and listed logicallywith the first important question appearing first, followed by questions of descendingimportance

Step 3: The closing: Writers restate the information and ask the reader to

respond by a specific time They also need to express their goodwill and appreciation.The direct approach is perfect for a letter of request or a letter of conveying badnews, as it is very clear and easy to read and draw out what is informed It is alsotimesaving as the information is presented in such a way that is very brief andobvious The reader likes this approach more because it is easy to get into the point

1.2.3.2 Indirect approach (Roundabout)

For the kinds of letters using indirect approach, we often state the evidencefirst and followed by main ideas

There are normally four steps in presenting a letter in an indirect approach:

* Begin with a buffer A buffer is a neutral or positive statement that is closely

related to the point of the message A good buffer expresses writers’ appreciation forbeing thought of, assures the reader of their attention to the request, compliments thereader, or indicates their understanding of the reader’s needs

* Give evidence: Effective reasoning convinces the audience that the decision

is justified, fair and logical The more positive points should be stated first, then theless positive ones The writer should also make sure to provide enough details for thereader to understand the reasons

* State objectives When the refusal is a logical outcome of the reasons that

come before it, the audience is psychologically prepared to receive it There are someways to de-emphasize the bad news: putting the refusal in the same paragraph as thereason, stating it implicitly, using as few words as possible for the bad news,subordinating the bad news in a complex or compound sentence, burying the badnews in the middle of a paragraph, and giving alternatives whenever possible

* End with a positive close A refusal letter should end with a positive,

forwarding-looking statement that is helpful and friendly To keep it positive, thewriter should not refer to, repeat or apologize for the bad news and refrain fromexpressing any doubt that the reasons will be accepted

The indirect approach is lengthy and it takes a lot of time However, it helpsthe writer not to state the problem straight away They have to go roundabout beforepresenting the situation as they are in fear of making the readers displeased andreaders may lose their face with the news receive In other words, the indirectapproach can help the writer to delay negative news It allows the reader to prepare forthe unhappy news and that is why it is preferable in bad-news letters

1.3.Conveying bad news in business correspondence

1.3.1 Criteria of business correspondence

In written communication, how something is said is almost as important aswhat is said Nevertheless, many writers tend to focus only on the ‘what’ of theirdocuments In fact, how something is said contributes much to the success of thebusiness When the recipient understands the message, and more importantly, acceptsthe message, especially in conveying bad-news message, the letter is consideredeffective The below seven “Cs” describe the effectiveness of the letter.

1 Clarity: Clarity depends on the use of words In general, the writer shoulduse simple everyday language and avoid technical terms when appropriate to makesure the reader understands the message Clarity also means organizing the letter sothat each paragraph deals with one main idea, and presenting the ideas in a logicalorder

2 Conciseness: Conciseness means saying all that need to be said and nomore A concise letter should eliminate all unnecessary words In business, fewpeople have time to read irrelevant details For this reason, it seems that short lettersare remembered better than long one

3 Completeness It is important that all the information needed must beincluded in the letter so that the reader has enough information to evaluate themessage and act on it

4 Correctness: Data, statements mentioned must be accurate Correctness alsorefers to the explicit identification of assumption and opinion There should be noerror in punctuation, grammar, word order, structure, spelling and document format

5 Courtesy: This means that we should be polite in expressing opinion andideas We should respect readers If not, the readers should be hurt A courteousmessage takes the reader’s feelings and point of view into consideration and offershelp where necessary

6 Confidence A confident message shows the writer as a decisive, positivebusinessperson It also shows that the writer assumes the reader is decisive, positive –

a person capable of overcoming obstacles A confident message eliminates theimplication of doubt in conveying its message

7 Conversational tone: The language used in the letter should be warm andnatural, it is easier to win reader’s feeling and sympathy At this tone, the message isthoroughly understood

(Extracted from Pham Thi Huong Giang-LVNNA.0161:25)

In short, these seven criteria are so important in written business communicationthat it should be taken carefully when writing business letters It becomes moremeaningful in conveying bad news – an FTA The seven criteria: clarity, conciseness,completeness, correctness, courtesy, confidence and conversational tone, if effectivelyused, will create goodwill in the readers and construct better climate that will lead thecustomer back to the organization for future business However, how to have theseven criteria in a bad-news letter is not easy In normal forms of businesscorrespondence, the content of the letters are often stated directly as it is very clearand brief Whereas, letter of conveying bad news is likely to cause an FTA, it is thetendency for writers to write the letters in a less direct way In other words, letters ofbreaking bad news seem to be written in more indirect way and it is difficult to state amatter indirectly but clearly and briefly As a result, this study is carried out to findout how native English writers write letter of breaking bad news and if these lettersmeet the seven criteria mentioned above or not

1.3.2 Roles and purposes of conveying bad news in business correspondence

Communication is simply a method of sending a message from one person orgroup of persons to another It is vitally important to a business because it involves allthe persons and organizations connected with the business - employees, customers,shareholders, suppliers, creditors, debtors - and a whole range of people outside -journalists, television reporters, tax authorities, local government and nationalgovernment officials, indeed, any person or organization throughout the world withwhich the business has any contact Good communication will ensure that all thesepersons and organizations understand the message sent They will also be more likely

to respond favourably to the message if it appears to be reasonable and fair to both thereceiver and the business Bad communication will have exactly the opposite effect.People will be confused by the message and less likely to do what the business wants

That is why good communication is so essential It is not only what you say (or write), but how you say it is important Your message should be easy to understand and take

account of the receivers' own attitudes and feelings

Most enterprises do their business really successfully as they know how tocommunicate with their clients They communicate in face-to-face discussions, ininformal groups, in meetings They may also make phone calls They write e-mails,memos and report However, one of the most popular and efficient ways to send theirideas to their clients is through business letters.

It is no doubt that business letters is more formal than any other ways ofcommunication Moreover, they are more convenient for the reader to store the dateand complex information and the information is processed in a more accurate way.They also enable the writer the present their idea in the most effective way, especially

in a very sensitive situation such as conveying bad news As a result, the newsinformed is better understood

In short, business letters is a principal means of correspondence with threemajor purposes: to transmit a message, to persuade the reader to act and creategoodwill

1.3.3 Different kinds of bad news in business correspondence

Business correspondence is various in kinds When we order the goods, youwrite letter of order or when you apply a job, you write a letter of application.Similarly, we have letters of offering a job, letter of complaint or sales letter…Ideally, everything runs smoothly in the operation of an organization – no mistakes,

no problems, no defects and no misunderstanding However, even in the managed organizations, dissatisfactions are bound to occur When a product or servicedoes not meet customer’s expectation, the customers are disappointed and usuallycomplaint These letters complain about wrong merchandise, slow service, invoice, orstatement that contain errors, or even discourteous treatment at the hands ofemployees are expressed

best-Thus, many kinds of business letters include bad news in them For example, somebad-news related letters are:

1 Letters of refusing a request

2 Letters of turning down a claim

3 Letters of refusing to complete an order

4 Letters of turning down a credit

5 Letter of providing constructive criticism

6 Letter of refusing a complaint

7.Letter of refusing a job offer

etc

However, within many kinds of bad-news letters mentioned above, I find thatorder-related letters, credit-related letters and customer service-related letters are thethree kinds that tend to cause the most FTA to the reader They are also theunavoidable bad-news-related messages during business transactions For this reason,

my writing focuses on three kinds of bad-news letter only They are letters of refusing

a complaint, letters of turning down a credit and letters of refusing an order only

1.3.3.1 Letters of refusing a complaint

During business transactions, customers often make their complaints whenthere are anything they dissatisfy with the merchandise (as delivery is late, the good isnot in the best condition, the item they receive is not the item they order ), theservice, or billing errors, etc To make a formal complaint, they often write letters.The letter are called letter of complaints These letters show that customers are notsatisfied and request receivers to do something for them Receiving complaints iscertainly not pleased at all but complaints can help readers to make adjustment inorder to develop their company or firm

However, not all complaints are justified as they may misunderstand thesituation In this case, receivers can write a reply to refuse the complaints Letters ofrefusing a complaint disappoints the reader and it may cause an FTA as the readermay lose their face when their request is not answered Let’s have a look at the twofollowing examples:

Eg1 We have closely compared the articles you returned with our sample and can see no difference between them Therefore, in this case we are not willing either to substitute the articles or to offer a credit.

Eg2 Our factory has now inspected the unit you returned last week, and they inform

us that the circuits were overloaded We can repair the machine, but it will be necessary to charge you as in correct use of the unit is not covered by our guarantee.

The examples show that letters of refusing a complaint threaten the reader’sface as it is worth considering how to write in a way that it saves the reader face (Seechapter 2 for details)

1.3.3.2 Letters of turning down a credit

In everyday business transactions, it is not always so perfect that the supplierdelivers the merchandise and the buyer will make a payment immediately either incash, by credit card or by cheque It is frequently that the buyer will pay the suppliersometimes later, maybe thirty, sixty or ninety days after the delivery In this case, thebuyer has a credit

The purpose of a letter of credit is to ask for a loan or an extension for apayment from the supplier In many cases, the supplier will accept the credit.However, in many other cases, the supplier will have to turn down a credit They have

to write a letter turning down a credit and surely this letter will convey bad news tobuyer

In addition, an international trading transaction begins when a buyer and aseller sign a contract that records all the elements of the transaction The buyer and theseller may have contacted each other through the bank In this case, a letter of creditissued by the bank can be extremely useful However, the bank does not always issue

a letter of credit as it may have the ‘credit risk’ In this case, the bank denies a creditand send a letter back explaining the situation There may be various reasons for this

It might be uneconomical to offer credit facilities, the bank may not trust its customersbecause the customers has a bad reputation for settling accounts Whatever the reason,the reply must be worded carefully so as not to offend the customer

Consider the examples belows:

Eg1 Thank you for your letter of 9 November in which you asked to be put on open account terms Unfortunately, we never allow credit facilities to customers until they have traded with us for over a year We are very sorry that we cannot be more helpful

at present.

Eg2 We regret that we are unable to offer open account terms to customers as our products are competitively priced, and with small profit margins it is uneconomical to allow credit facilities.

Eg3 We are sorry that we cannot offer credit facilities of any kind at present owing to inflation However, if the situation improves, we may be able to reconsider your request.

Eg4 We have considered your request for quarterly settlements, but feel that with our competitive pricing policy, which leaves only small profit margins, it would be uneconomical to allow credit on your present purchases However, if you can offer the usual references and increase your purchases by at least 50%, we would be willing to consider the situation.

The act of turning down a credit is clearly known as an FTA, reader may losehis/her face as their credit is refused Letters, which turn down a credit, are thus letterconveying bad news How English business correspondence writers present the badnews to avoid losing reader’s face? The findings will be presented in chapter 2 of mystudy

1.3.3.3 Letters of refusing an order

Orders are defined as letters of inquiry about the category of the merchandise,the quantity ordered and the date of delivery Letters of order prove that the goods iswelcome by customers and therefore the business has achievement and progress inmanufacturing as well as in creating its own image As a result, all businesses would

be glad if they receive many orders

Nevertheless, it is not rare when a company refuses an order There will be anumber of reasons for the refusal of the order The well-known reasons may be thatthe firm stops producing the merchandise, the delivery is delayed or the goods ordered

is in scarcity No matter the reason, the supplier ought to write a letter refusing theorder Like this:

Eg1.I am writing to tell you that unfortunately there will be a three-week delay in delivery This is due to a fire at our Greenford works, which destroyed most of the machinery Your order has been transferred to our Slough factory and will be processed there as soon as possible I apologize for this delay, which is due to circumstances beyond our control.

Eg2 We regret to inform you that there will be a delay in getting your consignment to you This is due to the cut in supplies from Gara, where, as you may aware, civil war

broke out last week We have contacted a possible supplier in Lagos and he will let us know if he can help us If you wish to cancel your order, please let us know as soon as possible However, I think you will find most manufacturers are experiencing the same difficulties at present.

The letters of refusing an order, therefore, will convey bad news The act ofrefusing an order is called an FTA If the refusal letters are not paid enough attention,they may cause destruction in the business relationship That is the reason why thisstudy is carried out to find how the English business writers present bad-newsmessages in turning down an order (For illustration, see Chapter 2) The belows areexamples extracted from the letters collected in the study:

Eg1 We are sorry to say that we are completely out of stock of this item and it will be six weeks before we get our next delivery, but please contact us then.

Eg2 We no longer manufacturer this product as demand over the past few years has declined.

Eg3 Thank you for your order for heavy-duty industrial overalls Unfortunately we have run out of the strengthened demin style you asked for As you particularly specified this material, we will not offer a substitute, but will inform you immediately

we receive delivery of a new consignment This will be within the next two months Eg4: We received your order for ACN dynamos today, but regret that due to a strike

at the ACN factory we are unable to fulfill it at present We are aware that other models will not suit your requirements, but hope that the dispute will be settled soon and we will be able to supply you We will keep you informed of developments.

In an attempt of finding out how bad news is effectively written by nativeEnglish business writers and how bad-news messages are presented in order to gaingoodwill and to achieve the sympathy of the reader, the writer of this thesis do aresearch as presented in chapter 2 The writer wishes that her result would be more orless useful and helpful for business letters

CHAPTER TWO: CONVEYING BAD NEWS IN ENGLISH BUSINESS

CORRESPONDENCE

2.1 The study

In my study, I collect 60 letters that convey bad news Three kinds of lettersare taken into consideration They are: letters of refusing a complaint (25 letters),letters of turning down a credit (20 letters) and letters of rejecting an order (15 letters).All of these letters are written by native English writers Basing on these letters, Icome to some findings about the strategy preferred (direct or indirect strategy), thetone commonly used (negative or positive tone) and the tendency of using somewords

The data collected help me to come to a conclusion about how the Englishwriters write their business letters and which techniques they use to avoid an FTAwhen they have to write a letter which breaks bad news and give some explanation forthat

2.2 The Findings

2.2.1 Direct and indirect approach

In almost all of business correspondence, direct approach tends to be employed

to state the news However, my study shows that direct approach appears not to match

in letters of conveying bad news The data collected point out that only 4 letters(6.7%) (1 letter of refusing a complaint, 1 letter of turning down a credit and 2 letters

of refusing an order) use direct approach when presenting bad news Let’s considerthe following table:

Direct approach

Table 1: The use of direct approach and indirect approach in conveying bad news

in English business correspondence

As we can see, a great number of the letters studied is presented in an indirectway which is 13 out of 15 letters of refusing an order (86.7%), 19 out of 20 letters ofturning down a credit (95%) and 24 out of 25 letters of refusing a complaint (96%).

Letters of conveying bad news as mentioned in 1.2.2 is an FTA and if writersdon’t take enough care about them, they will threaten readers’ face And they will not

be welcomed or even they will be resisted by the readers; table 1 clearly shows thatindirect approach is highly used in English business correspondence

The percentage collected also proves that native English writers do not dare tostate the bad news too directly The reason may be that they do not want to lose thebusiness affairs with their clients and they seem very careful when stating the bad-news messages This helps the writer to come to a conclusion that direct approach isnot a good choice for writing bad-news letters

2.2.2 Organization of a letter of conveying bad news

As presented in 2.1 (see table 1 for clarity), if bad news is stated right away inthese kinds of letter, the reader may put a bad frame of mind and have a negativeattitude towards a message Structuring a bad-news message in an indirect order canhelp to create positive feelings and good will in the readers Let’s look at table 2:

Begin with a buffer

Not begin with a buffer Total

Table 2: The use of a buffer when beginning a letter that conveys bad news

Table 2 shows that among 60 letters collected, there are 47 letters beginningwith a buffer 19 letters of refusing a complaint (76%), 16 letters of turning down acredit (80%) and 12 letters of refusing an order (80%) The percentage can show that abuffer may be the most effective way to start writing letters, which convey bad news

It seems to me that writers of bad-news letters try their best to state the bad-newsmessages in the most neutral way, that is, presenting a buffer at the beginning of the