provides readers recommendations and suggestions to deal with writing reply emails

ABSTRACT This graduation aspires to have some specific solutions to difficulties in writing reply emails for the staff in Sales Department in Techcom Truong An Co.,ltd This is carried out within nearly a month, with the main situations is the reality in writing reply emails of the staff The study mentioned general theories of reply emails, providing some criteria for comparison in the other parts of the study The results from the questionnaire survey and statistical analysis showed that the staff in the company still had to cope with a lot of problems during their writing reply emails process as well as other kinds of email Commonly found difficulties are belong to some main groups with their own features and characteristics such as: difficulties are related to information, issue is involved in applying theory in reality, problems have connection with specialist terms, and grammar problems Each group of them has their own roots, causes their own consequences There are some real stories for the readers to clearly imagine of these problems The results in the paper can also be improved by consulting some suggestions and recommendations in the last chapter of this study For information problems, recipients should acknowledge, ask for time to solve them immediately In terms of the theory which applied in real emails, it depends on each specific situation, the writer will wipe out some unnecessary parts and use suitable style When meeting specialist terms in processing documents, the writer should ask other people for advices, and self-improve every day And in a reply email, the writer should not use complicated structures or words The study also supply other useful tips and point to remember to help the readers “keep calm” when dealing with reply emails ACKOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received so much of helps, guidance and encouragements from many people Sincerely, I would like to express my gratitude to them for their enthusiasm and advises for me First of all, I would like to express my deepest thank to my supervisor, Vu Thi Thanh Hoa, MA who has offered me suggestions on how to shape the study and always been most willing to give me valuable advices, helpful comments, corrected my graduation paper as well as inspired me with her guidance and ideas I am also grateful to all teachers in the Faculty of English of Thuongmai University for their thorough training me with their previous supportive lectures in the last for years And many thanks to managers and staff in Techcom Truong An Co.,Ltd, who helped me a lot and provided very much useful information for me to complete this study Last but not least, as always I wish to take this opportunity to give my special thanks to my family, my friends for their understanding and encouragement throughout the preparation of this study This graduation paper has been completed with my great efforts However, errors and mistakes are unavoidable because of my limited knowledge Therefore, I am very willing to receive the reflection, sympathy and contribution from teacher to make my study more perfect Hanoi, 19th April, 2018 Nguyen Thanh Thao TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i ACKOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIRGUES vi CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale .1 1.2 Previous study 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research subjects 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Research methodology 1.7 Organization of the study .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of email and some theories 2.1.1 Definition of email and reply email .6 2.1.2 Importance of reply email 2.1.3 Essential qualities of a reply email .8 2.1.4 Classification of reply email .9 2.2 Structure of a reply email .9 2.3 Content in a reply email .11 2.3.1 Reply to a job applicant 11 2.3.2 Reply to enquiries .12 2.3.3 Reply to an order 13 2.3.4 Reply to requests for payment 15 2.3.5 Reply to complaints 15 2.4 When and How to write a reply email 16 2.4.1 When to write a reply email 16 2.4.2 How to write a reply email 17 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20 3.1 Data analysis 20 3.1.1 Result from survey questionnaires for TAG’s staff .20 3.1.2 Result from reply emails analysis in TAG 26 3.2 Summary of findings 27 3.2.1 Information problems 27 3.2.2 Theory about email problems 28 3.2.3 Email’s style problems .28 3.2.4 Specialist terms problems 29 3.2.5 Grammar problems 30 CHAPTER 4: RECCOMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 32 4.1 Some suggestions to overcome staff’s difficulties in writing reply emails 32 4.1.1 Solve information problems 32 4.1.2 Deal with applying theory and form of reply emails in reality 32 4.1.3 Cope with email’s style problems 32 4.1.4 Face with specialist terms problems 33 4.1.5 Deal with grammar problems 34 4.2 Some tips for writing emails 35 4.2.1 Use formal language 35 4.2.2 Use a proper form of closing 35 4.2.3 Message text 35 4.2.4 Style 35 4.2.5 Email abbreviations 36 4.3 Points to remember 36 CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDIX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations WTO CEO CO.,LTD TAG Meaning in English World Trade Organization Chief Executive Officer Limited Company Techcom Truong An Meaning in Vietnamese Tổ chức thương mại giới Giám đốc điều hành Công ty trách nhiệm hữu hạn Công ty TNHH Techcom E.g URL Limited company Example Uniform Resource Locator Trường An Ví dụ Địa tài nguyên LIST OF TABLES AND FIRGUES List of tables Table 3.1: Staff’s frequency in writing reply emails in English .20 Table 3.2: Style is often used in a reply email .22 Table 3.3: The level of applying theory in writing reply email of the staff 23 Table 3.6: Staff’s common problems in writing reply emails 24 Table 3.7: Common problems in reply emails of TAG 26 List of figures Diagram 3.1: Staff’s opinion about the importance of writing reply email 20 Diagram 3.2: Staff’s frequency in writing reply emails in English 21 Diagram 3.3: Style is often used in a reply email 22 Diagram 3.4: Assess email’s inner quality .22 Diagram 3.5: Suitable time to write reply emails 23 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale In today global world, where developing nations are trending towards global integration, openness is more prevalent in most countries Since then, the economy and society have continued to welcome new cultural flows into their country In Vietnam, after the country joined the major economic associations in the world such as WTO the country has many opportunities to learn and receive technical and information technology achievements in the world Gradually, the industries are also developing, including those that have not been developed in the past, such as information technology In this area, most of the achievements are inherited from the developed economy, so the content, knowledge, and approach are all related to English - the most popular foreign language in the world When working in information technology companies or in other fields, employees often have to deal with English documents, using English as a powerful tool to get things done In the process of translating documents, direct translations, writing e-mails to partners or clients of the company, communicating or consulting clients / foreign partners in English, there are many problems that cause English language users to have difficulty Recognizing the constant difficulties that arise, and through the practice of selfactualization, I found that understanding the causes and resolving them are really necessary To improve the quality of work people need to overcome, and overcome the barriers to work And for a student in English faculty, in my opinion, solving problems related to language practice at work is an effective way to improve work productivity And in a myriad of issues related to the practice of English for a graduate student in English and to start looking for a suitable job, emailing is one of the most important skills Business letters are one of the ways for any business to communicate with all of its stake holders These stake holders may include customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, management, government and the public in general Proficiency in email writing is a process of cultivating and practicing in reality to accumulate experience and eliminate mistakes Professional emailing, especially customer and partner responses, demonstrates the hard-working of learning, working, and engaging with partners So hone in email writing skills is essential and should be one of the serious goals that commercial English students desire to pursue and achieve it 1.2 Previous study In general, theories or researches work on writing emails especially the reply email in a company, agency or organization is still a potential topic The previous researches related to this topic mostly discuss on theoretical and practical aspects, and the different types of letters, but very few essays or works in-depth study on other type of message However, these writings and works have also created a certain foundation for subsequent scholars to study and develop their own works A study on email focuses largely on email marketing, "The truth about email marketing," published in 2008 and written by Simms Jenkins Simms Jenkins is the CEO of BrightWave Marketing - the leading email marketing agency in the North American With the managing of Simms Jenkins, BrightWave Marketing has grown rapidly, building many relationships that have been ranked as one of the fastest growing private companies (according to Inc News) He is also the author of another book titled "The new inbox: why email marketing is the digital marketing hub in a social and mobile world" was released in 2013 His 2008 book mentions 49 truths about email marketing, they are mostly about development and social issues around email "Simms has the expertise to simplify the complex email world From e-mail marketing specialists to email-savvy fans, The Truth about Email Marketing can bring deep knowledge and thought-provoking information that we all can apply in online marketing and email marketing.” Among 49 truths the fact No 21 is a short essay on how to write email in general In addition, a Japanese book about email guidance is a very meticulous study The book is about a company specializing in stationery products, with two main characters are the new sales and PR staff, work under a general manager, and the other characters are the company’s partners Emails appear around the work situations of these characters: corporate internal mail, superior mail assignments to subordinates, quotation and appointments for client companies, mail between the PR department and advertising printing company In each situation will appear an email, called NG mail, means that the email content is not good (difficult to understand the word is not transparent, , and then analyze each step to see where is not good, how to fix, how to layout After analyzing each step and giving a layout for each situation, there will be a standard email rewritten in such a layout Because it is written in the form of simulation so it is very well and understandable, show out each part of the mail structure for what purpose, and which can be used structures, phrases From the basic knowledge and information in these above books, the reader can combine his or her personal research to improve their own correspondence in every single type of email In this study I focus on the way to write reply email by finding some common problems in my internship company in a short time, and suggesting some solutions for the difficulties 1.3 Aims of the study The study on writing reply email of staff in sales department aims to figure out an overview on writing strategies and procedure commonly employed in writing reply emails and other types of emails as well In details, my Graduation Paper aims at achieving some objectives: The first objective is studying some aspects of writing reply email skills in business correspondence The second purpose is to explore the real situation of writing reply email in Techcom Truong An Co.,ltd The findings and discussing some common problems occur in writing reply emails such as: presenting without a purpose, not informative enough, and other mistake in sentence’s structure… are hopeful that they will help to improve email writing skills of staff in Techcom Truong An as well as other students in English faculty The last but not least aims is providing suggestions to get an effective way in writing reply emails 1.4 Research subjects After a short time of practicing and working at Techcom Truong An Co., I have accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience It is notable to say that email writing is used quite a lot in the task assigned as a sales staff Thereby I learned many lessons, correct many mistakes in the practice of language and apply what has been learned and practical work So I found writing a graduation paper on this topic very necessary Although many departments of the company use English in their work, but because of the knowledge and material resources of the individual is limited, so I chose to study on the subjects who share the same work and work situation In conclusion the research mainly focus on the way to write reply emails of staff in Sales Department of Techcom Truong An Co., Ltd 1.5 Scope of the study The study focus on reply emails sent to foreign partners or abroad companies, so they require of effort and time to research and study However, due to the limitation of time and knowledge, my study could not cover all the aspects of this theme in this field I only focus the study on Techcom Truong An Co.,ltd 1.6 Research methodology This Graduation Paper is carried out with purpose of helping learners enlarge their writing email skills and “keep calm” when dealing with emails All of data in this Graduation Paper are mainly collected from the real emails in sales department of Techcom Truong An Co.,ltd, through reference books and documents in the Internet Website as well These data are divided into groups based on communication, any communication that is diplomatic and formal sounds inefficient, bombastic or even suspicious to you (“What does he try to hide?”) First put yourself in the shoes of the receiver of your message, and only then start writing your mail Your aim is to be effective: sometimes diplomacy is the key to effectiveness, and sometimes directness is Make a choice E-mail messages were very casual; however, e-mail is now becoming more formal as it takes the place of business letters and memos The exact level of formality required depends on the content of the e-mail and the relationship between the sender and the audience 3.2.4 Specialist terms problems The next group of problems is involved in some specialist terms Using words and translating specialist words is difficult and complicated So most of the staff and emails in the company all got into some troubles with this Staff can lack vocabulary, are not good at word choice or sometimes they see some words causing confusion in the recipient’s emails Or in some specific emails, they are suffer from Vietnamese affection, so the way to use word in them is not professional Moreover, some emails use wrong/complicated word in the content, this is not wrong, but it shows that you are not friendly in communication with your partners It is not the aim of this chapter to summarize a complete list of the technical errors in English that are frequently found in writing reply emails But because this chapter emphasizes the less technical principles of rhetoric, it is not to be inferred that the more specific and technical rules of grammar and rhetoric may be slighted by the business correspondent “All technical rules are useful in so far as they explain how language may be made a more effective means of conveying thought And if language is to be a valuable medium of expression, there must be agreement concerning the meaning and arrangement of words and groups of words Rules are merely the crystallization of the consensus of opinion in this regard the opinion of those who speak and write well For clearness of expression, then, the rules of grammar and rhetoric are indispensable Whether or not these rules were set down in black and white, they are inherent in the very nature of language They are the fundamental cause of the usefulness of language Many grammatical and rhetorical rules concern the expression of the finer shades of meaning These are the rules that many consider 29 useless But a knowledge of them is essential to the person who writes important letters that require absolute accuracy and completeness of expression.” Words has been said to be live things, and words express thoughts Deep and accurate thinking can only be done by men whose ability in discriminating the meanings of words is highly developed Carelessness in the choice of words is the result of careless thinking Therefore, the fundamental problem of acquiring a vocabulary and of acquiring the ability to use words most efficiently is that of developing the ability to think deeply and accurately Choosing the right word to express the exact meaning for the occasion requires, first, that the exact meaning be held clearly in mind; second, that the reader's point of view be clearly held in mind; and third, that the writer have a keen appreciation of the minute differences in the meanings of words - not that he have a large vocabulary, but rather that he be able to make comparatively few and simple words accurately express many of his ideas 3.2.5 Grammar problems Last but not least, the group of problems in dealing with grammar in writing reply emails is also a significant issue While there are kinds of grammar problems, the study will focus on the top most common mistakes Determiners: words that come before a noun or noun phrase and tells us if the noun is general or specific and often specifies quantity This category includes articles (a, an, the) and words such as this, that, every, each, which, and that The most common issue concerns knowing which determiner to use or omit and when to so Prepositions: words that precede a noun or pronoun and shows that word’s relationship to another word in the same sentence or clause The hardest part about prepositions is that there aren’t many rules When in doubt, use the tools we list below to double-check expressions! Regardless of whom the e-mail is being sent to, it should always be written with correct spelling and grammar Also, avoid the use of ALL CAPS for emphasis because it is seen as shouting Try using italics instead Full capitalization should only be used for the subject line Another mistake to avoid is the use of emoticons ;-) since they 30 make the message look unprofessional Finally, never send an e-mail that you wouldn’t like to see reproduced Once sent, an e-mail is beyond your control What's the price of bad grammar? In October 2006, a contract dispute between Canadian cable company Rogers Communications and telephone company Bell Aliant revealed that a misplaced comma can be worth $2 million The contract said: "This agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party." Rogers Communications believed the placement of the second comma stated the contract was good for at least five years, while Bell Aliant said the comma indicated the deal could be terminated before if one year's notice was given In the end, Canada's telecommunications commission sided with Bell Aliant They stated the comma should have been omitted if the contract was intended to last five years in its shortest possible term As a result, Bell Alliant was able to save over $2 million by ending the deal early Using grammar is a basic skill, but a lot of people still got this trouble, and neither the staff in TAG, but they hardly ever made such kind of this mistake They can lack grammar structures or used too complicated structures, but rarely used wrong grammar/tense in their email If they do, they are warned and fixed immediately And in the end, writing reply emails is a necessary skill to any English-major student, there are a lot of problems when dealing with them However, to cope with all the problems we only need to take everything into consideration, we will minimize the mistakes in the lowest level 31 CHAPTER 4: RECCOMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Some suggestions to overcome staff’s difficulties in writing reply emails 4.1.1 Solve information problems The problems related to information can lack documents, differences in culture, or some errors in the received emails which caused some vagueness They all make the information in business become stuck, and the readers have to solve the problems to continue And the advice when facing such difficulties like that is you have to send a reply email to the writer, acknowledge and explain the inconvenience, ask for a short time to solve (if necessary) In some cases, when information asymmetry appears you have to ask for more information, look for information yourself to ensure everything you received Whatever the problems belong to recipient or the writer, the emails are written in a polite way 4.1.2 Deal with applying theory and form of reply emails in reality As all we know about the previous theories of writing email, the standard structure often consists of 12 parts (as 2.2) However, when encountering in working reality, staff in some cases wipe out some unnecessary parts, such as: heading, date, subject, insider address… But you have to be careful when doing like that to keep polite attitude in your emails, especially you are new staff And about the kind of email’s form used in reply emails, there are many kinds of it So before starting to write an email, writers have to thoroughly consider the contents they intend putting in the email 4.1.3 Cope with email’s style problems Formal, diplomatic, informal, direct? When you are used to diplomatic and harmonious forms of communication, the message “Your argument does not make sense I disagree” comes across as blunt When you are more familiar with direct communication, any communication that is diplomatic and formal sounds inefficient, bombastic or even suspicious to you (“What does he try to hide?”) First put yourself in the shoes of the receiver of your message, and only then start writing your mail Your aim is to be effective: sometimes diplomacy is the key to effectiveness, and 32 sometimes directness is It depends on you And remember some tips about the style when writing emails: Keep text very brief and easy to scan, especially because many of our recipients read email on mobile devices Consider what you want users to after reading your email Be sure to include one or two (maximum) buttons to emphasize that call-to-action (e.g Register, Give, See Who is Attending) Use headings, when appropriate, to convey to users what follows in a particular section Minimize the use of images Any images should play a supporting role so your message can be conveyed clearly and effectively if the image does not display Never send an email that is simply one big image Don’t use “click here” as link text or paste the full URL as the link text When calling the user to action, use brief but meaningful link text that makes sense when read out of context For example, use Reunions Registration rather than Click here to register for Reunions Proofread and check links 4.1.4 Face with specialist terms problems Differences in language, culture often caused a lot of misconceptions or difficulties for people in communicating with each other And so does it in working, especially in writing email – a direct method in international commerce When writing an email, the writer may be not good at word choice, having Vietnamese affection; or the recipients can meet some words which caused some confusing issue… all of them are related to specific terms in writing emails And the writer also get into many troubles with this kind of problem So one of the most effective solution here is selfimprove, improve skills, improve the vocabulary, fix mistakes in writing emails, try the best to go over mother tongue affection by reading newspapers, English books And whenever getting into troubles like this, you should ask other colleagues, or richexperienced people to deal with them 33 Regardless of how simple the ideas or phrases, translation can be complicated, so technical material requires even more scrutiny Hiring translators with the correct scientific background, as well as fluency in the desired language, is critical Even with a background in engineering, a translator might have to some research to fully understand the intricacies of the material he or she is translating before a job can be completed Good translators never take on work they don’t feel competent to complete and they also educate themselves about the material they’ve agreed to translate In addition, remember the old saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words?” When it comes to translation, a picture may also have numerous interpretations Graphics, screenshots, and photographs always need to be analyzed for appropriateness, considering the culture into which they’ll be exposed Something as simple as a photo of a woman scientist with her hair tied in a ponytail while she’s using a microscope might be offensive in an Arabic culture where women are expected to wear headscarves Place a black border around your pictures in China and everyone assumes the people in your pictures are dead Use a lot of yellow in your graphs or diagrams and people in China may avoid looking at them because yellow signals that the material is pornographic Knowing the cultural norms and taboos of any area requires more than a textbook Trust a professional translator to guide you through the maze of what’s acceptable and what’s not 4.1.5 Deal with grammar problems Firstly, regarding determiner misuse Articles: to decide which article to use, first decide if you have a countable or uncountable noun Then follow the rules in the attached flowchart and article In short: If you have a noun + prepositional phrase that pinpoints one specific noun, use “the” in front of the noun If you introduce a specific noun for the first time, use “a” or “an,” followed by “the” for subsequent mentions If you mean “any” of that noun, use “a” or “an.” If you mean “all” members of that noun class (each and every one, generally), then, for countable nouns, use the plural + no article For uncountable nouns, use the singular + no article 34 If you mean a category as a whole (and not each and every member of that category), use “the.” Countable nouns: The apple is delicious → Apples are delicious I read the new book The book was fascinating → I read a new book The book was fascinating Uncountable nouns: The water is healthy for you → Water is healthy for you I bought the water yesterday, and now I will put the water in the fridge → I bought water yesterday, and now I will put the water in the fridge Secondly, incorrect prepositions: prepositions in the English language are tricky The good news is that if you are trying to reduce wordiness, you can often replace verbal and prepositional phrases with strong verbs! One more thing that, in a reply email, the writer should not use complicated grammar This means that you are creating difficulties for your partners and yourself as well 4.2 Some tips for writing emails 4.2.1 Use formal language Since formal emails are written for professional contexts, you’ll want to give a good impression Use complete sentences and polite phrasing Avoid things like: Slang, Unnecessary contractions, Emoticons and emojis, Profanity, Jokes… 4.2.2 Use a proper form of closing As with salutations, there are a variety of closings that are acceptable in formal emails Make sure to follow up with your full name and job title or other signature (if you have one) 4.2.3 Message text The presentation of the text in an email is usually less formal than in a letter 4.2.4 Style Email is a relatively recent development, and because it is perceived as a quick and informal means of communication, people are often unclear about the style and conventions they should use in business situations As a general rule, although email 35 correspondence may tend towards informality, it should follow the same principles as any other form of business correspondence Here are some basic tips about style: In general, email messages follow the style and conventions used in letters or faxes And not confuse personal messages with business messages In a business message, the same rules of writing apply as for a letter: write clearly, carefully, and courteously; consider audience, purpose, clarity, consistency, conciseness, and tone On the other hand, use correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, as you would in any other form of correspondence The next point is that: not write words in capital letters in an email message This can be seen as the equivalent of shouting and therefore have a negative effect If you want to stress a word, put asterisks on each side of it, for example: * urgent* Keep your email messages short and to the point People often receive a lot of emails at work, so conciseness is especially important In general, limit yourself to one topic per message This helps to keep the message brief and makes it easier for the recipient to answer, file, and retrieve it later And last but not least, check your email message for mistakes before you send it, just as you would check a letter or a fax message 4.2.5 Email abbreviations TLAs (three-letter acronyms) In order to keep email messages short, people sometimes use abbreviations for common expressions, just as they in text messaging and email writing These are known as TLAs (three-letter acronyms), although some of them are more than three letters long Here is a list of some of the most commonly used TLAs: AFAIK as far as I know; BFN bye for now; …Use TLAs with great care, and only when you have established a friendly, informal relationship with your correspondent They should not be used in letters and faxes 4.3 Points to remember These points below are supplied as advises when writing reply emails They are mentioned in Correspondence Business book of Thuongmai University 36 The reply to an enquiry does not only tell your customer whether you can provide the goods or services he has asked about, but also indicates what sort of firm you are; whether you are aware, conscientious, and efficient Avoid opening with expressions like “We are in receipt of your enquiry” or “With reference to your enquiry” or “In reply to your enquiry”… These openings tend to sound rather cold Avoid phrases like “We are talking the liberty of sending you…” or “We hasten to reply to your esteemed enquiry of the 10 th inst.” You will sound like a firm that should gone out of business a century ago If you use expressions like “It was with the utmost pleasure that we receive…” or “We deeply regret that we cannot supply you with…” you will appear at best desperate or, worse, insincere A straightforward “Thank you for…” or “I would like to thank you for…” or “I am sorry that…” is enough Make sure that you not leave out any information, and have supplied the printed matter that you think will help your customer Assure you customer that your have faith in your product, which means that you have to “sell” it A reply to an initial enquiry is the first impression your customer will have of you, and that will be how he judges you So a direct approach, telling the customer what the product is, why he should buy it, how much it will cost, and what concessions you are offering, will create an impression of an efficient company that can handle his order smoothly After you have written your reply, check it to make sure that you have answered all the customer’s questions, and included all the points you wanted to make Ask yourself if the letter flows, or seems short and sharp; if it sounds helpful, or just informs the customer The best test of all, of course, is to ask yourself if you would order something from a firm that has sent you the email you have written 37 CONCLUSION In the nearly forty pages of content, the study basically mentioned some general theories as well as difficulties and solutions to write reply emails in Techcom Truong An Co.,Ltd The theories in the paper are supplied with clear and reliable origin But they are still not perfect and complete due to the limitation of time and knowledge All findings in the study are collected by conducting surveys in working reality and some specific emails of TAG And the results show that there are a lot of common problems which occurring in staff’s working process The first group of problems in writing reply emails is related to difficulties in dealing with information in reply emails such as: lack information and documents, meet vagueness information, face to some cultural differences… The next group is about how much theory and parts of email’s form staff often apply in their emails, or sometimes they maybe use wrong kinds of emails The third group is related to style used in the reply emails Most of the email in the company are formal emails, but in some particular case are informal The next group of problems is involved in some specialist terms Using words and translating specialist words is difficult and complicated So most of the staff and emails in the company all got into some troubles with this Words have been said to be live things, and words express thoughts Deep and accurate thinking can only be done by men whose ability in discriminating the meanings of words is highly developed Carelessness in the choice of words is the result of careless thinking So choosing the right word is a very important thing to express the profession in working Last but not least, the group of problems in dealing with grammar in writing reply emails is also a significant issue According to these difficulties, the study suggested and figured out some solutions for them, such as: self-improve, ask other people for advises No matter how you are good at theory of solving problems, you should improve your soft skills when dealing with them, keep calm and be polite Due to the limitation of time and ability, shortcomings of this study are unavoidable Firstly, the researcher just uses questionnaires for some staff who are deeply related to research’s aims There should have been an interview with the staff to clarify the difficulties more clearly Secondly, writing real reply emails observations were not applied in this study, therefore, the researcher could not check the effectiveness of the suggested solutions Thirdly, the result of this study may not be generalized for other staff with other majors such as technology, accounting, engineering…, in fact, it only serves as reference information for the companies with the staff with similar characteristics as those in this study Last but not least, this study is done in survey research methods, therefore, the results of this study are just preliminary in finding out the perceptions of the staff in TAG about their difficulties in writing reply emails In the long term, there should be a longitudinal study in this field It is hoped that the people who are interested in this topic will widen the scale of the study with more participants, in other schools, colleges or universities Apart from emails in commercial field, further researches can be done in the fields of other kinds of emails with other fields Despite some limitations, it is still hopeful that this thesis can be a basic knowledge and reference materials for other studies REFERENCES English references A.Ashley, Oxford Handbook of Commercial Correspondence, Oxford University Amanda Meadows, The best American emails, Devastator Faculty of English, Translation and interpreting Department (2017), Business Correspondence, Thuongmai University Harrison McJohnston, A.M (1918), Modern Business A series of text prepared as part of the modern business course and service of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, Alexander Hamilton Institute Lin Lougheed (2003), Business Correspondence: A guide to everyday writing, (second edition), Pearson Education, Inc Nancy Flynn (2014), Writing effective e-mail Simms Jenkins, The truth about email marketing, NXB Lao động – Hà Nội Stewart, M.M (1984), Business English and Communication, McGraw-Hill, Inc Internet resouces https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Formal-Email 10 http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/2007/10/firstperson-pr.html 11 https://thinkscience.co.jp/en/articles/2016-06-WritingResponseLetters.html APPENDIX Survey questionnaires for staff This survey questionnaire is designed for the staff about difficulties in writing reply emails faced by staff of Sales Department in Techcom Truong An Limited Comapny and it will be used for the purposes of data analysis Your assistance in responding to the following questions is highly appreciated Your confidentiality is assured You will not be identified in any discussion of the data In completing these following questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice, scaling items or expressing your ideas in the blanks Thank you very much for your cooperation! Part I: General information Personal information: Sex: male / female Age: Major: How many years of experience in writing business correspondence emails? A Less than year B 2-3 years C More than years Part 2: Working reality and experience What is your opinion about the importance of writing reply emails? A Very important B Important C Not very important D Not important at all How often you write reply emails? A Usually (3-4 times/week) B Often (1time/week) C Sometimes (1-2 times/month) What style you often used in your reply email? A Formal B Informal What you think about inner quality of the reply emails in the company? A Very good B Quite good C Good D Bad E Quite bad F Very bad How much of theory/ form of writing reply emails you apply? A Much B Medium C Little Part 3: Common problems When is suitable to write a reply email? A Immediately B After day C When have enough information to reply D More than days What are common problems you meet when writing reply emails? The level of frequency in the table is listed down from Always – Usually – Normally / Generally – Often – Sometimes – Occasionally – Hardly ever – Rarely – Never Problems Fill (X) 1.Involve in a lack of documents information b errors in received email cause some vagueness c information related to Frequency cultural difference d cultural misconception 2.Involve in a lack of parts as in standard email b use wrong kind of email’s form form of email 3.Involve in a lack of vocabulary b not good at word choice terms c words caused confusion in received email 4.Involve in a use wrong tense b lack of grammar structures grammar c use too complicated structures Other ………………………… problems Thank you very much for your cooperation! …………… ... further comparisons with procedures and data analysis Chapter provides readers recommendations and suggestions to deal with writing reply emails - The last part is the conclusion of the study All... to a quotation Reply to an order Reply to asking about payment, transportation Reply to a complaint Reply to a request Reply to other recovery emails 2.2 Structure of a reply email We have discussed... correspondence, reply emails are very necessary to keep good contacts, and solve problems And right the moment you receive an email, you have to think about how to deal with the problems you faced and how to