a study on difficulties in writing business correspondence for major english students of foreign languages faculty of academy of finance

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURESTable 1: Difficult items in writing business correspondence Figure 1: Difficulty levels of using grammar in writing business correspondence Figure 2: Difficult

MINISTRY OF FINANCE ACADEMY OF FINANCE

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

MINISTRY OF FINANCE ACADEMY OF FINANCE

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

Student: DAM HONG LOAN

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it hasnot been submitted anywhere for any award Where other sources of informationhave been used, they have been acknowledged

Author

My thanks also go to all lectures of Foreign Languages Faculty who taught

me many valuable lessons on English in general and writing skill in particular

I especially would like to express my grateful thanks to my respectedsupervisor – Mr Cao Xuan Thieu, Head of Foreign Languages Faculty, Academy

of Finance for his continuous guidance and support without which my projectwould not be completed

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FFL: Foreign Languages Faculty

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Difficult items in writing business correspondence

Figure 1: Difficulty levels of using grammar in writing business

correspondence

Figure 2: Difficulty levels of using Lexis in writing business letter

Figure 3: Difficulty levels of using Terminology in writing business letter Figure 4: Difficulty level of Setting expression and using words in writing

business letter

TABLE OF CONTENT

Acknowledgement

List of abbreviations

List of tables and figures

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Methods of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Structure of the study 3

6 Significance 3

CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Introduction 4

1.2 Background Knowledge of Business Correspondence 4

1.2.1 The meaning of Business Correspondence 5

1.2.2 The importance of Business Correspondence 5

1.2.3 Types of Business Letter 7

1.3 Essential Qualities of A Good Business Letter 11

1.3.1 Inner Qualities 12

1.3.2 Outer Qualites 13

1.4 Parts of A Business Letter 14

1.4.1 Heading 14

1.4.2 Date 14

1.4.3 Reference 14

1.4.5 Subject 15

1.4.6 Salutation 15

1.4.7 Body of the letter 15

1.4.8 Complementary close 16

1.4.9 Signature 16

1.4.10 Enclosures 17

1.4.11Copy Circulation 17

1.4.12 Post script 17

1.5 Summary 18

CHAPTER 2 – METHODS AND PROCEDURES 20

2.1 Introduction 20

2.2 The objective of the survey 20

2.3 Subjects 20

2.4 Methodology and Method of the survey 21

2.4.1 Methodology 21

2.4.2 Method 21

2.5 Procedures 21

2.6 Finding and Discussion 22

2.6.1 The findings 22

2.6.2 Some difficulties and common mistakes in using grammar in writing business letter 23

2.6.3 Power of Lexis and Terminology, Setting expression and using words in writing business letter 26

2.6.4 Mistakes and difficulties in Setting expression and using words in writing business letter 34

2.6.5 Difficulties in conveying the original writing styles 44

2.7 Summary 50

CHAPTER 3 - SUGGESTIONS 51

3.1 Suggestions 51

3.1.1Limitations 51

3.1.2 Solutions 51

3.2 Suggestions for further study 56

CONCLUSION 58

REFERENCES 60

APPENDIX 61

* * * * *

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

English, like oxygen, is the essential thing in our daily life It is one of the most important languages in today's global world It is the mother tongue of about two hundred million people There are more than three hundred million people speak English as their first or native language Another three hundred speak it as foreign language Therefore, it is used as a means of communication in everyday life, especially in business.

Nowadays, due to the internationalization trend of the world economy, the business world has need for the global language of English Many companies not only operate in their countries but also are expanding overseas Therefore, people in business world are learning English to break the language barrier somehow This makes it easier to broker deals or tell potential partners what is expected of them It is often the tradition of the business world that you need to know your potential partner's mother tongue

During the previous four years, I and my friends had chances to study English thoroughly in terms of four skills practice (reading, listening, speaking and writing) as well as English theory (English grammar, phonetics and phonology, semantics, and so on) I would say that Intelligent Business is my most favorite subject since it teaches

me some skills such as writing memos, e-mail, letters that are essential for working in a business world in the future To keep in touch with partners, the best way is to use business correspondence in English because more than three-forth of the world's mail and business letter is written in English Although business correspondence is easy to understand, writing business correspondence well is not easy

From the above reasons, it is, to my mind, an urgent need to prioritize in proposing the common mistakes students usually face with when writing business

correspondence Therefore, in my research, designing a study on difficulties in writing business correspondence for major English students of Foreign Languages Faculty

of Academy of Finance really satisfies the need.

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY.

It has been easy to realize that business correspondence is an important tool for business activities' communication or exchange information That is why the minor thesis is aimed to design a study on difficulties in writing business correspondence for major English students of Foreign Languages Faculty of Academy of Finance Further more, the ambition of this thesis is to actively, effectively and directly contribute to the further research, development and implementation of writing business correspondence The thesis can be seen as overall picture that help students to have a general view of fundamental things about the skill and to explore the writing business correspondence skill in other novices' point of view

3 METHODS OF THE STUDY.

Writing business correspondence is a skill to be learned In order to perform this study, I firstly choose the method of analyzing, summarizing, and synthesizing materials and books to perform the theoretical background Besides, I also make use of information from informal discussions with my teachers and my friends.

In the process of writing this paper, I also base myself on the knowledge, suggestions and recommendations I have gained from my teachers, my supervisor and from some references

Last but not least, my awareness of writing business correspondence skill gained from learning English at Foreign Language Faculty of Academy of Finance provide me favorable conditions to the completion of the study.

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

This thesis is a methodical investigation into the subject of writing business correspondence; a focus and systematic request for information that may go beyond generally available knowledge to acquire more in-depth analysis and elucidatory comment on the topic It's a product of a long searching process with a series of activities unfolding overtime It involves a number of things such as the collection of data, the evaluation of results, and so on.

5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.

The study is divided into three parts:

The first part is the introduction dealing with the rationale, aims, methods, scope,

organization, and significance of the study.

The second part is the main part of the paper with three chapters:

Chapter I states the review of literature This chapter provides a general

overview of business correspondence.

Chapter II presents the research methods and procedures including the methods

adopted in doing the research, the selection of participants, the materials, the methods

of data collection and data analysis

Chapter III is the results and discussion.

The last part is the conclusion summarizing the content of the paper and giving some

suggestions for further study.

6 SIGNIFICANCE

It is hoped that this study, to some extent, will be a useful reference material for FFL students to get more ideas and techniques in improving their writing skill.

1.2 Background knowledge of business correspondence:

In our day to-day life we exchange our ideas, thoughts and other informationwith our friends, relatives and other people Sometimes we directly talk to them andsometimes we also write letters to them In letters we express our feelings in afew words, we may ask for any information or we may write about a complaint inconnection with our problems Similarly businessmen also exchange ideas,information by writing letters They communicate business information tocustomers, suppliers and others and at the same time receive a variety of lettersfrom them There is a straightforward explanation of business correspondencegiven by Merriam-Webster, Inc.can help even non-professionals have an overall

picture of what business correspondence is It stated that "Business

correspondence is the communication or exchange of information in a written format for the process of business activities Business correspondence can take place between organizations, within organizations or between the customers and the organization The correspondence is generally of widely accepted formats that are followed universally"

1.2.1 The meaning of Business Correspondence:

Communication through exchange of letters is known as correspondence

We communicate our feelings, thoughts etc to our friends and relatives throughletters that may be called personal correspondence A businessman also writes andreceives letters in his day to-day transactions, which may be called businesscorrespondence Business correspondence or business letter is a writtencommunication between two parties Businessmen may write letters to supplier ofgoods and also receive letters from the suppliers Customers may write letters tobusinessmen to seek information about availability of goods, price, quality, sample etc

or place order for purchase of goods Thus, business letters may be defined as a media

or means through which views are expressed and ideas or information iscommunicated in writing in the process of business activities

1.2.2 The importance of Business Correspondence:

Nowadays business operations are not restricted to any locality, state or nation.Today production takes place in one area but consumption takes place everywhere.Since the businessmen as well as customers live in far off places they don't havesufficient time to contact each other personally Thus, there arises the need for writingletters In the past the situation was not so Business letters were not essential in oldendays But now the importance of letters has increased because of vast expansion ofbusiness, increase in demand as well as supply of goods

i) Help in maintaining proper relationship: Nowadays business activities are not

confined to any one area or locality The businessmen as well as customers are scatteredthroughout the country Thus, there is a need to maintain proper relationship among them

by using appropriate means of communication Here business letters play an importantrole The customers can write letters to the businessman to seek information aboutproducts and businessmen also supply various information to customers This helpsthem carry on business on national and international basis

ii) Inexpensive and convenient mode: Though there are other modes of

communication like telephone, telex, fax, etc but business information can be providedand obtained economically and conveniently through letters

iii) Create and maintain goodwill: Sometimes business letters are written to

create and enhance goodwill Businessmen at times send letters to enquire aboutcomplaints and suggestions of their customers They also send letters to inform thecustomers about the availability of a new product, clearance sale etc This results incordial relations with the customers, which enhances the goodwill of the business

iv) Serve as evidence: We cannot expect a trader to memorize all facts and

figures in a conversation that normally takes place among businessmen Throughletters, he can keep a record of all facts Thus, letters can serve as evidence in case ofdispute between two parties

v) Help in expansion of business: Business requires information regarding

competing products, prevailing prices, promotion, market activities, etc If the trader has

to run from place to place to get information, he will end up doing nothing It will simplyresult in loss of time But through business letters, he can make all enquiries about theproducts and the markets He can also receive orders from different countries and, thusenhance sales

1.2.3 Types of Business Letters:

Business letters are written for the fulfillment of several purposes The purposemay be to enquire about a product to know its price and quality, availability, etc.This purpose is served if you write a letter of enquiry to the supplier After receivingyour letter the supplier may send you details about the product as per your query Ifsatisfied, you may give order for supply of goods as per your requirement Afterreceiving the items, if you find that the product is defective or damaged, you may lodge

a complaint These are the few instances in which business correspondence takes place.Some important business letters are the following:

i) Business Enquiry Letter: Sometimes prospective buyers want to know the

details of the goods which they want to buy, like quality, quantity, price, mode ofdelivery and payment, etc They may also ask for a sample The letter written to sellerswith one or more of the above purposes is known as enquiry letters

Sample of Business Enquiry LetterTel 23241053

Fax.:23244155

M/s Acron Electricals 22/c, Main Road Darya Ganj, New Delhi-2

(A.B.Kumar) Partner

Sd/-ii) Quotation Letter: After receiving the letter of enquiry from a prospective

buyer, the sellers supply the relevant information by writing a letter that is calledquotation letter These letters are written keeping in view the information asked for likeprice list, mode of payment, discount to be allowed etc Businessman should reply tothe inquiries carefully and promptly

Sample of Quotation LetterTel 508632-35

Fax 508600

M/s Bharat Fans Bharat Complex Hyderabad Industrial Estate Hyderabad - 500032

Darya Ganj, New Delhi-2

Subject: Your letter No PR/F/2002/27 dated July 27, 2002

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter of enquiry We would be glad to meet your requirements of selling our

fan in your retail showroom

Our quotations are given in the price list enclosed We offer 10% discount on order above Rs

50,000 Besides, we allow a grace period of 45 days for payment of dues to our regular customers

We are confident that you will find our prices competitive and our terms and conditions

reasonable We look forward to meeting your requirements

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully, For M/s Bharat Fans Sd/-

(Desgupta) Encl: Price List & Terms and Conditions Sales manager

iii) Order Letter: In the previous section, we have studied about letters of

enquiry and reply to enquiry i.e., quotation letter The prospective buyer afterreceiving the reply to his enquiry letter may decide to place on order with that businesshouse which offers goods at minimum price and at favorable terms and conditions.Letters written by a buyer to the seller giving the order to purchase the goods is calledorder letter

Sample of Order Letter:

Tel 3241053

Fax.3244155

M/s Acron Electricals 22/c, Main Road Darya Ganj, New Delhi-2

E-mail: elc@acr.vsnl.net.in

Website: http://www.acronelc.com

Subject: Your letter of quotation No SL/F/2002/12 dated August 10,2002

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your prompt reply to our enquiry letter of July 27, 2002 As we find your prices

and terms quite reasonable, we wish to place a trial order as per the list enclosed

As pointed out in our enquiry letter, quality is important Should the goods meet our expectations,

substantial orders will follow

Payment will be made within the time limit prescribed in your quotation letter

Thanking You,

Your faithfully, For M/s Acron Electrical Sd/-

(A.B.Kumar)

iv) Complaint Letter: A complaint letter is written when the purchaser does not

find the goods up to his satisfaction It is normally written by the purchaser when he/she receives wrong, defective or damaged goods or receives incorrect quantity ofgoods It can also be written directly to the transit authority when the goods aredamaged in transit Thus, we may define a letter of complaint as the letter that draws theattention of the supplier or any other party on account of supply of defective ordamaged goods

Sample of Complaint LetterTel 3241053

Fax.3244155

M/s Acron Electricals 22/c, Main Road Darya Ganj, New Delhi-2

E-mail: elc@acr.vsnl.net.in

Website: http://www.acronelc.com Ref PR/F/2002/27 Dated: September 5, 2002

(A.B.Kumar) Partner

v) Recovery Letter: The letter written by the seller for collection of money for

the goods supplied to the buyer is called recovery letter The aim of recovery letter is tocollect money without annoying the customers The letter should include informationregarding the amount of arrears argument for payment, and last date for payment Thelanguage of recovery letter should be polite, so that the customer is not offended andfuture transactions with him are not adversely affected

Sample of Recovery LetterTel 508632-35

Fax 508600

M/s Bharat Fans Bharat Complex Hyderabad Industrial Estate Hyderabad - 500032

E-mail: bh@fan.vsnl.net.in

Website: http://www.bhfan.com

Ref.-SL/F/2002/12 Dated: December 10,2002

M/s Acron Electricals

22/c, Main Road

Darya Ganj, New Delhi-2

Subject: Recovery of dues

Dear Sir,

We believe that the payment of our bill No 1713 dated September 2,2002 must have escaped your attention As the payment is due since long, we would appreciate if you send us your cheque immediately Please let us know whether payment is being withheld for some special reasons

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully, For M/s Bharat Fans Sd/-

(Desgupta) Sales manager

1.3 Essential Qualities of A Good Business Letter:

A letter should serve the purpose for which it is written If a businessmanwrites a letter to the supplier for purchase of goods, the letter should contain allthe relevant information relating to the product, mode of payment, packaging,transportation of goods, etc clearly and specifically Otherwise, there will beconfusion that may cause delay in getting the goods Again the qualities of paperused in the letter, its size, color, etc also need special attention, because it creates apositive impression in the mind of the receiver The qualities of a good businessletter are classified as: Inner qualities and Outer qualities

1.3.1 Inner Qualities: The inner qualities of a good business letter refer to

the quality of language, its presentation, etc These facilitate quick processing of the

request and that leads to prompt action The inner qualities of a good businessletter vary:

i) Simplicity - Simple and easy language should be used for writing business

letters Difficult words should be strictly avoided, as one cannot expect the reader to refer

to the dictionary every time while reading letter

ii) Clarity - The language should be clear, so that the receiver will understand

the message immediately, easily and correctly Ambiguous language createsconfusion The letter will serve the purpose if the receiver understands it in the samemanner in which it is intended by the sender

iii) Accuracy - The statements written in the letter should be accurate to, the best

of the sender's knowledge Accuracy demands that there are no errors in the usage oflanguage - in grammar, spellings, punctuations etc An accurate letter is alwaysappreciated

iv) Completeness - A complete letter is one that provides all necessary

information to the users For example, while sending an order we should mention thedesirable features of the goods, i.e., their quality, shape, color, design, quantity, date ofdelivery, mode of transportation, etc

v) Relevance - The letter should contain only essential information Irrelevant

information should not be mentioned while sending any businesscorrespondence

vi) Courtesy - Courtesy wins the heart of the reader In business letters,

courtesy can be expressed by using words like please, thank you, etc

vii) Neatness - A neat letter is always impressive A letter either handwritten

or typed, should be neat and attractive in appearance Overwriting and cuttingsshould be avoided

1.3.2 Outer Qualities - The outer qualities of a good business letter refers

to the appearance of the letter It includes the quality of paper used, color of thepaper, size of the paper etc Good quality paper gives a favorable impression inthe mind of the reader It also helps in documenting the letters properly Thereare various outer qualities of a good business letter

i) Quality of paper - The paper used should be in accordance with the

economic status of the firm Nowadays the cost of the paper is very high.Therefore, good paper should be used for original copy and ordinary paper may

be used for duplicate copy

ii) Color of the Paper - It is better to use different colours for different

types of letters, so that the receiver will identify the letters quickly and promptaction can be taken

iii) Size of the paper - Standard size paper (A4) should be used while

writing business letters The size of the paper should be in accordance with theenvelopes available in the market

iv) Folding of letter- The letter should be folded properly and uniformly.

Care should be taken to give minimum folds to the letter so that it will fit the size

of the envelope If window envelope is used then folding should be done in such

a way that the address of the receiver is clearly visible through the transparent part

of the envelope

v) Envelope - The size and quality of the envelope also need special attention.

The size of the letter should fit the size of the letters The business firms use differenttypes of envelopes i.e., ordinary envelope, window envelope, laminated envelope etc Inwindow envelope there is no need to write the address of the receiver separately onthe envelope It is clearly visible through the transparent part on the face of theenvelope, which may be called as window In laminated envelope a thin plastic sheet or

cloth is pasted on the inner side that gives extra protection to letters from beingdamaged during transit

1.4 Part of A Business Letter:

The quality of a good business letter will be maintained if we give properattention to each and every part of the letter There are some different parts of a businessletter The essential parts of a business letter are as follows:

1.4.1 Heading -The heading of a business letter usually

contains the name and postal address of the business, E-mail

address, Web-site address, Telephone Number, Fax Number, Trade

Mark or logo of the business (if any)

1.4.2 Date - The date is normally written on the right hand side

corner after the heading as the day, month and years Some examples

are 28th Feb., 2003 or Feb 28, 2003

1.4.3 Reference- It indicates letter number and the

department from where the letter is being sent and the year It helps

in future reference This reference number is given on the left hand

corner after the heading For example, we can write reference number

as AB/FADept./2003/27

Different parts of a business letter-

9 Signature

10 Enclosures

11 Copy Circulation

12 Post Script

1.4.4 Inside address - This includes the name and full address of the person or the

firm to whom the letter is to be sent This is written on the left hand side of the sheet below thereference number Letters should be addressed to the responsible head e.g., the

Secretary, the Principal, the Chairman, the Manager etc Example:

Andhra Pradesh - 500032 751007

1.4.5 Subject - It is a statement in brief, that indicates the matter to which

the letter relates It attracts the attention of the receiver immediately and helps himknow quickly what the letter is about For example,

Subject: Your order No C317/8 dated 12th March 2003

Subject: Enquiry about Samsung television

Subject: Fire Insurance policy

1.4 6 Salutation - This is placed below the inside address It is usually

followed by a comma (,) Various forms of salutation are:

Sir/Madam: For official and formal correspondence

Dear Sir/Madam: For addressing an individual

Dear Sirs/Dear Madam: For addressing a firm or company

1.4.7 Body of the letter- This comes after salutation This is the main part

of the letter and it contains the actual message of the sender It is divided into threeparts

i) Opening part - It is the introductory part of the letter In this part, attention of

the reader should be drawn to the previous correspondence, if any For example- withreference to your letter no 326 dated 12th March 2003, I would like to draw yourattention towards the new brand of television

ii) Main part - This part usually contains the subject matter of the letter It

should be precise and written in clear words

iii) Concluding Part - It contains a statement the of sender's intentions, hopes

or

expectations concerning the next step to be taken Further, the sender should alwayslook forward to getting a positive response At the end, terms like Thanking you, Withregards, With warm regards may be used

1.4.8 Complimentary close - It is merely a polite way of ending a letter It must

be in accordance with the salutation For example:

i.) Dear Sir/Dear Madam Yours faithfully

ii) Dear Mr Raj Yours sincerely

iii) My Dear Akbar Yours very sincerely (express very informal

relations)

1.4.9 Signature - It is written in ink, immediately below the complimentary

close As far as possible, the signature should be legible The name of the writershould be typed immediately below the signature The designation is given below thetyped name Where no letterhead is in use, the name of the company too could beincluded below the designation of the writer For example:

Yours faithfully For M/S Acron Electricals (Signature)

SUNIL KUMAR Partner

1.4.10 Enclosures - This is required when some documents like cheque,

draft, bills, receipts, lists, invoices etc are attached with the letter Theseenclosures are listed one by one in serial numbers For example :

Encl: (i) The list of goods received

(ii) A cheque for Rs One Thousand dtt Feb 27,2003 (ChequeNo ) towards payment for goods supplied

1.4.11 Copy circulation - This is required when copies of the letter are

also sent to persons apart of the addressee It is denoted as C.C For example,

C.C i.) The Chairman, Electric Supply Corporation

ii) The Director, Electric Supply Corporation iii) The Secretary, Electric Supply Corporation

1.4.12 Post script - This is required when the writer wants to add

something, which is not included in the body of the letter It is expressed as P.S Forexample,

P.S - In our offer, we provide two years warranty

Format of a Business LetterTel

Fax

Name of the firmPostal address

E-mailWebsite

To: Name and address of

the person to whom letter is

(Name)Enclosure

CC- PS

Designation

1.5 Summary:

Correspondence plays an important role in our daily life It is the meansthrough which we exchange our ideas, thoughts and other information with our friends,relatives and other people

We know that business operations are not limited to any locality, state or nation.Since businessmen live at distant places they do not have sufficient time to contacttheir customers personally This difficulty has been overcome by writing letters This is

a part Business Correspondence

The importance of Business letters (i) It helps in maintaining proper relationship(ii) It is inexpensive and convenient mode of communication (iii) It creates andmaintains goodwill (iv) It serves as evidence (v) It helps in expansion of business

The various types of letters are: (i) Letter of Enquiry (ii) Quotation Letter (iii)Order letter (iv) Letter of Complaint (v) Letter of Recovery

The essential qualities of a Business letter are:

The essential parts of a Business letter are (i) Heading (ii) Date (ii) Reference (iv)Inside address (v) Subject (vi) Salutation (vii) Body of the letter (viii) Complimentaryclose (ix) Signature (x) Enclosures (xi) Copy circulation (xii) Post script.

CHAPTER 2 METHOD AND PROCEDURES

* * * * *

2.1 Introduction

The previous chapter of the thesis provides an overview of business letter,drawing on pertinent theories, examples and illustrations from linguisticsresearch In the upcoming chapter, an empirical report is presented based on thefindings from a survey This chapter starts with a brief description of the currentsituation, survey purpose, subjects, method and procedures

2.2 The objective of the survey

The aim of the quantitative survey is to explore how students think aboutthe skill of writing business letter From their own point of view and throughtheir practical experience, how important writing business letter skill might be,what may be the basic requirements of a good business letter and also what theywould do in some specific situations during the process of writing businessletter, etc The survey is not an ambitious plan to examine the students'acquisition of writing business letter skill or to study how they actually write inreality

2.3 Subjects

Although Foreign Language Faculty at Academy of Finance mainly offerswriting business correspondence skill courses to the second-year students, thesurvey is conducted with one group of 48 third-year students of the year 2012-

2013 The subjects are chosen for the following reasons: (i) they have finish fourterms of studying and practicing writing English skill, (ii) many of them havepractical experience in writing business letter in English Therefore, to some

extent, they are already aware of the role of business letter in business activities'communication However, third-year students are not the businessman, soobviously they do not have a wide knowledge about all scales of writingbusiness letter skill Their responses are mainly based on the experiences thatthat they have accumulated through the six terms of studying English at school

2.4 Methodology and Method of the survey

2.4.1 Methodology

As mentioned above, the main aim of the study is to impartially record thefindings about students' personal opinions on business letter It is obvious thatthe methodology of quantitative best suits the aim With this type of research, theresult are given numerical values and evaluated through some mathematicaltreatment and then put in a form of a report of quantitative data of analysis

2.4.2 Method

A survey is designed with the types of group administered questionnairethat allows to get the survey results in one space of time and also ensures a veryhigh responses rate There are 60 copies of the survey were handed out and thereturn is 55 There are seven questions, six of which are made in form of scaleditems where the subjects choose only one point on a scale that best representshis/her view The last question is written in the form of dichotomous item, whichoffers the subjects different alternatives The questions involving the generalinformation and specific difficulties as well as supposed solutions to each areraised

2.5 Procedures

At the end of the writing skill lesson, about 60 students were asked tocomplete the survey They were given 15 minutes to consider and answer thequestions On each copy of the survey, there is a clear introduction to the

purpose and a simple introduction about how to respond to the questions Thesample questionnaire is available in the appendix at the end of the thesis.

2.6 Findings and Discussion:

2.6.1 The findings

After receiving the feedback, I have worked on the raw data, analyzed,and summarized them in terms of number of options and the respectivepercentage for each of them In addition, following is the table of the surveyquestionnaire’s results:

Items

Very

Rather

Table 1: Difficult items in writing business correspondence

Based on the summarized results in the table, we could have someoverviews about the difficulties and common mistakes in writing business letter.However, to make them readily understood, I will draw out the mostfundamental result for each item based on the calculated figures in Table 1

2.6.2 Some difficulties and common mistakes in using grammar in writing business letter

Figure 1: Difficulty levels of using grammar in writing business correspondence

According to the figures, 12.5% supposed that using grammar in writingbusiness letter is difficult; and 25% thought it is rather difficult On the contrary,noone considered it as very difficult work and 47.9% said that it is not difficult;and 14.6% of the students had no opinion

Grammar is very important, no matter how much the rules change, as it iswhat makes it possible for us all to communicate and understand what we see,and what we say Writing is using grammar, and grammar often puzzles thestudents with its vast number of rules Working out all the grammatical errors isimpossible, on this survey the author found the most popular one lies in usingparallel structure Keeping ideas parallel causes many students a great deal oftroubles because it also requires the grammar to be parallel By using parallelismyou can say to your readers, “Here are some ideas which have something incommon and which I have arranged in the same grammatical form so that you

Very difficult Difficult Rather

difficult

Not sure Not difficult

can understand them easily” When you use parallel structure for your ideas youwill see how clear and direct they are expressed.

For example,

(1) The mailroom receives incoming mail, which is then sorted and an employee then delivers it.

(2) The mailroom receives, sorts, and delivers all incoming mail.

Sentence (2), expressing the same ideas as the sentence (1), has put them

into parallel structure: receives, sorts, and delivers All the words are verbs using

the grammatical structure of the third person singular By using parallelism,sentence (2) expresses the ideas much more neatly than the sentence (1)

The word “parallel” means “comparable” or “matching” The followingsentence, for example, lacks parallel grammatical structure although it hasparallel ideas

Our company has reputation for high quality work, for progressive management, and for being reliable…

There are three prepositional phrases in the sentence: for high quality

work, for progressive management, and for being reliable The first two phrases

end with a noun The last one ends with an adjective With the parallelismbroken in the last phrase the entire sentence is weakened

grammatical structure goes hand in hand with professionalism Consider thefollowing sentence.

We are looking for a person who are responsible, hardworking and integrity.

The parallel ideas are responsible, hardworking and integrity The writer

has tried to use these words, each describing the person that the company wishes

to employ It follows parallel structure but it is not correct The writer wants to

use three adjectives but integrity is a noun, and it does not have an adjective

form in English

Parallel structures work only when all the structures are grammaticalcorrect Otherwise, you have merely written an incorrect sentence For the abovesentence, it is better to get rid of parallel structure because it does not work

We are looking for a responsible hardworking person with integrity.

The problems occur even more seriously when phrases and clauses have to

be kept parallel Many students find difficult when they use the correlatives:both/ and, either/ or, neither/ nor, not only/ but also, etc For one thing, youactually have to count when you use these idea – joiners

For example,

I have seen neither John nor Jinn nor Jane Is using the wrong structure Neither/ nor requires two element - no more, no less The above sentence has

three If you want to keep the three elements, get rid of neither/ nor.

I have not seen John, Jinn or Jane.

At the same time that you are counting elements, you should make surethat the elements contain the same structure

We hope not only to obtain production estimates but also a summary of production goals.

The grammatical forms following each of the correlatives are not equal.After “not only” we have an infinitive phrase After “but also” we have asentence The result is a very weak sentence that requires the reader to read it

again, simply because the structure lacks balance, it is better: We hope to obtain

not only production estimates but also a summary of production goals.

According to Newmark (1995, p.75), "grammar is the skeleton of a text;

vocabulary, or, in a restricted sense, lexis, is flesh; and collocations, the tendons that connect the one to the other” Grammar not only brings along with it the

major facts about a text, such as: times, places, statements, questions, feelings,etc., but also provides an effective instrument to link such these things into alogical sentence and a text When eyeing up a text, the first eyesight caught is atthe words; however, more important thing is actually the structure expressionsadopted within the sentences Therefore, a sensitive proficiency in the casegrammar is obviously concerned To sum up, grammar in English plays animportant role in the meaning of sentence, rather than the words’ meaning alone

To some extent, it can be accepted that grammar decides the sentences’implication This is rather different from Vietnamese where the words’ meaning

is, in general, the sentence’s intention

2.6.3 Power of Lexis and Terminology, Setting expression and using words in writing business letter

i) Power of Lexis and Terminology Figure 2: Difficulty levels of using Lexis in writing business letter

The above figures demonstrate that the majority of the students surveyedsaid lexis must, by all means, fall into some levels of obstruction, rather than

merely “not difficult” The exact percentage is 91.7%, of which 12.5 % agreed

that using Lexis in writing business letter is very difficult, 27.1 % thought it isdifficult; and 52.1% supposed it is rather difficult In contrast, noone said that it

is not difficult The percentage of students having no opinion is 8.3%

As a branch of linguistics, vocabulary or lexis has long been one of thehard problems The fact is that Lexis of business correspondence is not restricted

in the field only; instead, it refers to all activities in the world, from politics to

difficult

Not sure Not difficult