English for personal assistants - part 27 potx

130 Writing CVs with impact, covering letters, and letters of reference Sample personal reference 111 Winston Road London SE11 4PP Dr Mark Coolie Save the Children 100 Piccadilly London W1 7SB November 30, 20XX Dear Dr Coolie I have known Johanna Carsten for 10 years in both a business and social capacity. We have, in fact, worked together for the past 3 years on a voluntary basis raising funds to establish a daycare centre for disadvantaged children. I have found her to be utterly reliable, dependable, and fully committed to improving the quality of life for these children. Moreover, she has been acting as an unpaid bookkeeper for the charity and has, at all times, been completely trustworthy and conscientious in handling our funds. I would, therefore, recommend her heartily as a valuable addition to the Board of your organisation. Yours sincerely Marsha Green 15 Conference invitations and requests for abstracts , cards for various occasions Organising a conference When inviting speakers or delegates to a conference you’re organising, you need to make sure the person gets all the information they require. You may put this information on your Website and/or you may directly mail or email particular individuals. ᭿ Task 1 Brainstorm the information needed by speakers or delegates. ᭤ Letter of invitation ᭤ General information ᭤ ᭤ ᭤ ᭤ Registration ᭤ ᭤ ᭤ ᭤ Engaging speakers Organisers can recruit speakers either by invitation or by a call for papers. In either case, action should be taken well ahead of the planned event: a lead-in time of one year should normally be thought of as a minimum. Call for papers and abstracts ᭿ Task 2 Complete the Call for Papers and Abstracts template with words from the box. 132 Conference invitations and requests for abstracts accompanied / acknowledge / contribute / including / cover / likely / presented / queries / submit / underway Call for Papers Planning for the 20XX ABC Technical Conference is already (1) and again we are seeking ideas, speakers and sponsors. We invite speakers on all types of XXX development to (2) The programme will (3) a variety of subjects, including XXX. Any topic (4) to be of interest to Linnel developers and enthusiasts will be considered. The topics (5) in recent years have included: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . More information about previous events can be found at: (list Websites). Abstracts Abstracts for the conference should be (6) by a short biography and, ideally, should be about 250-500 words long. Final papers should normally last about 45 minutes, (7) 10 minutes for questions and answers. If you need more time for your presentation, please tell us when you (8) your abstract. Abstracts should be submitted to the conference organisers electronically through this form (Web link). We shall (9) all submissions. Significant Dates Closing date for abstracts 29 March 20XX Accepted authors notified by 18 April 20XX Final papers due by 17 June 20XX Particular (10) should be sent either to (office address), or to the 20XX programme committee (email address) Letter of invitation to a conference speaker ᭿ Task 3 The first paragraph of the letter of invitation below is in the correct place. However, the subsequent paragraphs have been jumbled up. Put them into the correct order by writing the numbers2–8next to the appropriate paragraph. NB. There are two paragraphs after the closing salutation. Organising a conference 133 Dear ***, I am writing to you in my capacity as Program Committee Co-Chair for the 18th Annual Computational Linguistics Conference, to be held in Hong Kong, October 1–8, 20XX. As you may know, the ACL conference is the premier international conference of note in the field of computational linguistics and natural language processing. I am writing to ask whether you would be willing to present a talk at the conference as an invited speaker. Invited talks will be one hour long, including a 10 minute question & answer session. I will be away for an extended period and will not be able to read my email on a regular basis during this time. So please cc Professor Ida Grenville, an area chair and member of the ACL-20XX program committee, in your response. She has kindly agreed to coordinate the invited speaker sessions during my absence. PS If you accept our invitation to give an invited talk at the conference, you can choose to write a paper up to 8 pages long that will be included in the conference proceedings. Along with the paper hard copy, we request you provide a PDF file for inclusion in the CD-ROM version of the proceedings. If you choose to write a paper, please provide the hard copy and PDF file by August 1st. Please visit the conference Webpage (http://www.cs.ust.hk/acl20XX) and click on “Instructions for Authors” for specific details on the formatting and submission of the camera-ready papers. Regardless of whether you choose to provide a paper for the proceedings, we request you to provide us a title and an abstract (up to 200 words) by August 1st, 20XX. We have not yet established on which day your talk would be scheduled; should you accept this invitation, there is some flexibility we can use to accommodate your own scheduling preferences (although it would be on one of the main conference session days, Tuesday October 3 through Friday October 6). I do very much hope that you will be able to accept this invitation. In appreciation of your agreement to provide an invited talk, ACL would provide the cost of an economy class airfare from your home institution to the conference, hotel accommodation during the conference, and free registration to the conference. Yours sincerely *** Writing cards – useful phrases for various occasions It often falls to the PA to buy the card and the present or flowers for someone’s leaving do, retirement party or stay in hospital. So you rush around, consult colleagues, check on how much ‘spending power’ you’ve got, and go out and make the agonising choice. And running through the back of your mind, you’re wondering whether they will just love this gift or will they think ‘What is it?’ or ‘Why on earth would I want one of those?’. But then you’ve got to write the card. Isn’t it strange how words can just fail you at that moment? Fear not. Help is at hand. Get well cards So, you’re almost ready to send out that get-well flower delivery but you’re stuck for words as to what to write on the card. It’s OK; we’re not all the creative type. In addition, a get-well card can be a difficult thing to write. The important thing is that the card and its message should fit the person. ᭿ Task 4 Match the get-well card messages below to these two types of people. Choose two messages for each person. People A. a young bubbly woman, in a junior position at work, who broke her leg on a skiing holiday B. a man in his 60s who is reserved, and in quite a high position at work, who is at home but suffering from whiplash after a car accident Get well messages 1. Wishing you a speedy recovery. 2. We miss you at the office! Get well soon. 3. Our thoughts are with you, hope you feel better soon. 4. Hope these brighten your room and cheer you up. Here are some other phrases that you could use or adapt to fit the situation: ᭤ We need you at the office. Come back soon. ᭤ I hope you’re back on your feet soon. ᭤ Sending you all the healing thoughts in the world. ᭤ Sending you sunshine and cheer! ᭤ I hope this brightens your day! 134 Conference invitations and requests for abstracts . click on “Instructions for Authors” for specific details on the formatting and submission of the camera-ready papers. Regardless of whether you choose to provide a paper for the proceedings, we request. person gets all the information they require. You may put this information on your Website and/or you may directly mail or email particular individuals. ᭿ Task 1 Brainstorm the information needed. ahead of the planned event: a lead-in time of one year should normally be thought of as a minimum. Call for papers and abstracts ᭿ Task 2 Complete the Call for Papers and Abstracts template with