A study on improving english email writing skills for employee in tan hung phat co , ltd

ABSTRACT In modern society, English is important for business in today’s markets Many more and more to expending their business internationally in our globalized world The English language dominates the business sphere, and it is important that the workforce of any multi-national business have no problem Vietnam's economic structure has shifted toward industrialization and modernization, having a positive influence on the development of related economic sectors and create jobs for employees in different regions and areas throughout country The deeper and comprehensive integration of the country's economy into the global economy has brought Vietnam tremendous opportunities Over hundreds of years of development and integration, English has become a popular language and it is internationally recognized, used as a common language Currently, if graduates want to have a well-paid job, they have to learn English In order to complete graduation paper, the researcher had a chance to intern in Tan Hung Phat Company Limited, where researcher found the current situation of using email writing as well as errors of employees Therefore, the researcher decided to choose the study “A study on improving English email writing skills for employee in Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd” The study adopted purposive and quota sampling methods, where questionnaires were used to collect data The total number of respondents was respondents who worked at departments which usually use English at the company During my research, with the help of my teacher Mrs Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, I have got more knowledge about English writing email skill as well as how to work with a thesis However, because of the limited time and knowledge, the graduation paper cannot avoid mistakes I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions from the lectures to make the graduation paper perfect ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a great pleasure to thank everyone who helped me to complete the graduation paper successfully 2 First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor – Mrs Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc - one of the enthusiastic lecturers for the valuable guidance and encouragement Thanks to the thoughtful guidance, I finished the graduation thesis in the most complete way Without any help of her, I can hardly finish this graduation thesis In addition, I am grateful to say thank you to all the teachers at English Faculty of Thuongmai University for teaching and providing me a lot of advices, useful information to complete this study Moreover, I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to all the employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd who participated in this study and helped by responding the questionnaires Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books, magazines, and other materials listed in the reference part for their ideas I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family and all my dear friends who always give me their continuous love, support and encouragement throughout my study and this research Thanks for all! Hanoi, March 25, 2020 Student Hoang Thi Kim Dung TABLE OF CONTENTS viii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS No Name Chart 3.1 Table 3.1 3 Table 3.2 Content The percentage of working experience of staff at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd The most significant problem in English skills in the workplace Illustrates the respondents’ frequency of writing email 3 Page 16 17 18 Chart 3.2 Table 3.3 10 11 Chart 3.3 Chart 3.4 Table 3.4 Table 3.5 Table 3.6 Chart 3.5 The number of emails written every day at workplace Some purposes for using email writing of employees at workplace The habit of checking grammatical and lexical after writing Popular grammatical problems in English email writing Frequency of lexical problems in English email writing Some solutions help employees improve in email writing Solutions of improving business English email writing Suggestions for effective ways to improve business English email written 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations English meaning L2 The second language Tan Hung Phat Company Limited Television Tan Hung Phat Company Co.,Ltd TV 4 CHAPER I: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY Rationale In the modern society, English is considered as the global communicative language This means that two people who come from different countries usually use English as a common language to communicate That’s why everyone needs to learn the English language in order to get in touch on an international level English is used in majority of countries in the world as a second language In many countries, children are taught and encouraged to learn in the education field In Vietnam, English is adopted as the most important subject in many school Moreover, in the recent years, Vietnam becomes more and more attract investors from foreign countries in the economy as well as Tourist field Therefore, English become important tool for business to create a good relationship with foreign partners Any big company will hire their professional staff after getting to know whether the people they are hiring are good at English or not Companies who want to function at an international level only consider their staff well educated if they are good English speakers, writers and readers Being an international company, Tan Hung Phat Company Limited require high level of English, especially speaking and writing skills Of the skills, many employees consider writing the most difficult because it is not only specialized knowledge but also professional use of grammar and lexis to write business correspondence In Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd, employees at Exporting and Importing and Sale Department usually respond email and deal with problems to foreign partner Therefore, writing skill play an important role Written language requires formal, lexis correct spelling and grammatical structures as well as organized sentences ideas Good writing skill allows you to communicate your message with clarity To negotiate and deal with foreign partners, good writing skill of business correspondence is every significant, which contribute to the development of Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd In spite of the importance, it has not really been take care of and given priority to improve skill of writing business correspondence Most employees have many difficulties in writing Email because lack of knowledge about English email writing as grammar and using word properly This leads a problem is responding email to partner slowly or customers must wait a long time This is an urgent matter that needs to be solved to overcome difficulties as well as improve writing skill to write business correspondence more effectively Therefore, I choose the topic “A study on improving English email writing skills for employee in Tan Hung Phat Company Limited.” to research The aim of the paper is to focus on Writing Email and object is employee at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd (especiallyt four of Department at company such as Sale and Marketing, Logistic, Export- Import and Accounting) I hope that through the study will be a useful reference helping improve writing skill for not only all employees but also all students who interested in the job related to commercial documents Previous studies To complete a good graduation paper, while making this thesis I have consulted it and selected some good ideas from studying: A study: “Business writing skill” (By students of Charle Sturt University, 2008) reviews particular style and standard of some common correspondence type such as email, report, memos, mentions requirements and skills necessary for formal business writing Besides, the authors also instruct the readers how to improve each of the type and give them quick writing tips in order to create a professional document The study by Aliya Aimoldina, Sholpan Zharkynbekova and Damira Akynova (Philology Department, L.N.Guimilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan), which examines into Pragmatic Failures, is also fairly interesting to discuss here In this study, the trio has identified a number of reasons for pragmatic failures in communication through “A mixture of different genres in one text with a combination of several communicative purposes, a lack of language skill of the authors written in English written, etc” According to Aminoldina and his partners, being aware of communication breakdowns are “especially crucial in communication since improper interpretation of business messages may lead to failure of business information, waste of financial assets, or the legal responsibility The identification of the most frequent failures arising during the conduction of writing letters by business professional is extremely essential Improvement in business letter writing skill has become more and more urgent nowadays In the article “Business and Report Writing Skill”, it is asserted that “Many in the workforce today struggle with the basics of writing including grammar, spelling and punctuation The style and skills required for formal business writing are best developed by practice and experience, but with the right tools and know- how it is not hard to improve” (Charles Sturt University,2008) To sum up, there are some previous studies on errors and improving of writing business documents All the studies show that different aspects of the problem give the reader a more multidimensional view and to recognize the importance of improving writing skill for us in general and for employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd in particular In this part of the study, some previous studies related to this study will be reviewed to identify English wring email errors and proposed some solutions to improve English writing skills for Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Aim of the study The main purpose of the study focused on two issues: • The first one is to figure out the common errors in English Writing made by employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd • The second is to have awareness of grammatical problems as well as using word errors and give suggestion to deal with it for staff Research subjects It can be easily extracted from topic that errors and solutions are primary subjects of the study With hope to entrance the importance of these subjects, a short term project will carry out to seek for errors that are commonly made in writing by employee at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd As the main problems are found, it is vital that next step to be taken so as to make positive changes in relation to English email writing skills of the employee Finally, solutions and suggestions to improve writing skill of the employee as well as develop the appropriate methods for all employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Scope of the study First, the study was conducted on 30 employees of Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Second, a couple of weeks doing internship in Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd has given me insight into the organization and working style of the company It is found the company has established relationship with various international partner Therefore, writing skill is especially important with employees in company in general and four of Department staff in particular I hope to be able to propose effective solutions of writing email and help these employees in this department increase their work productivity Third, understanding the key role of English writing skill as well limitation of time This study concentrates on common errors made by employees when email writing and find out solutions to improve English writing skills for all employees Research methodology With the purpose of the study to help the Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd employees find out their common errors in writing business correspondence, the causes of these errors and to improve it through problem and errors, the methods: Data collection instruments: the main instruments used in the study to collect data were questionnaire, interview questions Questionnaire: the questionnaire is considered as common instrument to collect data in research It aims at finding out staff’ view of errors, their solutions to improve in English writing email skill The questionnaire helps us look for necessary information and main problem relating to the research subject The questionnaire of the study is described as below: • An exclusive list of questions was created on google forms and then was sent to the employees by email to collect information about “what are the common types of errors and solutions to improve email writing skill given by employeesb at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Interview: It aims at finding out problems of staffs in writing skill, their view of errors, their difficulties in English writing email The research closely and regularly instructs what the members need to discuss, avoid being away from the topic, the method eliminates unnecessary information and save time Procedures Step 1: Determining and preparing the content of designing questions Step 2: Starting survey by asking manager of the company and employees in Export – Import Department listed questions and determine the solutions they adopt when using English wring email skill Step 3: Collecting errors and solutions from their answers and then explanation cause and evaluation of errors Step 4: Giving reliable figures with charts and conclusion from the calculated results 1.7 Organization of the study The graduation paper includes parts as following: Chapter 1: Overview of the study The introduction of the study including: rationale, aim of the study, scope of the study, method of the study and organization of the study Chapter 2: Literature of the study Theoretical background supplies the readers with the theoretical background including the theory of academic writing, business correspondence, errors and techniques Chapter 3: Research findings The current situation of using business correspondence as well as the common skill used, problems, errors and causes of these frequently – made errors of the employee in Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Besides, the main part of research findings is proposing effective solutions as well as techniques to improve the skills Chapter 4: Recommendation and suggestions for further studies CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of this chapter is to give information about overview of writing, overview of email writing and errors in email writing, then suggest some essential solutions to improve English email writing skill The background knowledge will help readers understand more errors of email writing and suggestions for leader’s company and employees to improve it in English 2.1 Overview of writing skill 2.1.1 The definition of writing skill There are many definition of writing according to experts: According to White (1986), writing is process of expressing the ideas, information, knowledge or experience and understand the writing to acquire the knowledge or some information to share and learn Nunan (2003) states that writing is an intellectual activity off finding the idea and thinking about the way to express and arrange them into a statement and paragraph that is clear to be understand by the people It includes that the writers and demanded to show the thoughts and organize them into a good composition In addition, writing presents the writer’s concept in understanding an issue which is show to the public It requires the integrations of idea systematically written Writing is considered as an active creation of text involves on the one hand lower-order transcription skills such as handwriting, punctuation and spelling and on the other hand, higher- order, self- regulated thinking processes such as planning, sequencing and expressing the content (Berninger 2002) It requires the writer to express the content of writing to be understood by the readers According to white and Arndt (1991) in Hammad, writing is a thinking process which demands intellectual effort, and it involves generating idea, planning, goal setting, monitor evaluating what is going to be written, and using language for expressing exact meanings It means that writing consist of some stages that should be done by the writer in conveying the message of writing Based on the explanations, it can be concluded that writing is an effort to express the writer’s thinking feeling, or ideas in written form by considering writing aspects and writing stages to be clear understood by readers 2.1.2 The classification of writing skill Robin Jeffrey (2017) stated that: “There are four main types of writing expository, descriptive, persuasive and narrative Each of these writing styles is used for a specific purpose A single text may include more than on writing style” Expository writing is one of the most common types of writing When an author writes in an expository style, all they are trying to is explain a concept, imparting information from themselves to a wider audience Expository writing does not include 10 Grammatical structure problems The above table shows that the popular grammatical errors made by the employees are using incorrect grammar in email writing, arranging words incorrect the grammatically, and cannot write varieties of sentence structure In which the subject – verb agreement errors were made by 33% employees and the preposition errors were made by 30% employees And The lowest mean scores occurred with two statements regarding grammatical structure problems The respondents were by 15% with the statement: “I cannot use correct tenses in business English email” And “I cannot use appropriate punctuation in business English email” is 6% by employees According to the results shown above, the highest level of problem was using correct grammar in business English email The result of the study related to the findings of Tanaviboonlaya (2015) She reported that the employees had difficulty in using correct grammar Moreover, the study of Decharotchanawirun (2016) also mentioned that Thai employees had a high level of problem in using correct grammar When were school, they were learned about grammar But nowadays, with heavy workload, they spent less time learning it Therefore, it can be seen that employees need some solutions as soon as possible to solve the errors to avoid it when writing Besides, ones of the most typical reasons caused errors is lexical These statistics are shown in the following table Word choice and vocabulary problems Types of errors The percentage of error makers I cannot use appropriate greeting and complimentary close words in English email writing 20% I cannot write difficult or unusual words without dictionary in English email writing 47% I cannot use a wide range of educational vocabulary in English email writing 30% I cannot avoid using jargon and unfamiliar words and phrases in English email writing 26% I cannot use proper formal and informal words in English email writing 36% 23 Table 3.4 Frequency of lexical problems in English email writing As shown in Table 3.3.7, the respondents agreed with two statements as the highest mean scores of word choice and vocabulary errors: “I cannot write difficult or unusual words without dictionary in English email writing” (47%) and “I cannot use a wide range of educational vocabulary in business English email” (36%) The respondents felt neutral in the lowest mean scores with the statement “I cannot use appropriate greeting and complimentary close words in business English email” (20%) According to the results shown above, the highest level of problem found that the Tan Hung Phat employees had was with difficult or unusual words without a dictionary in business English email writing The results of the study related to the study of Hinkel (2004) which found that the limitation on vocabulary in second language writers was usually the great problem in producing writing In short, employees may encounter lots of problems when they write an email Therefore, it is necessary to find out possible solutions to help employees overcome these problems 3.3.3 Some solutions and suggestions on English email writing skills for employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd The third part investigated the employees’ needs for improving business English email writing and suggestions for effective ways to improve business English email writing of employees Most solutions are given by researcher and employees chosen appropriately ways for themselves Besides, the open-ended question asked “Have you improved your email writing skills lately? If yes, what solutions have you used? And “Do you have any suggestions to improve English writing skill for Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd employees The employee’ suggestions are summarized into some points as follows The ways employees used to improve email writing skills at workplace The solutions employees used in email writing Read carefully and revise emails before sending them Use spelling and grammar checker programs to avoid grammatical errors Underline interesting and special structure and take note if necessary 24 Percentage s (%) 67.5% 53% 27.5% Read more and find examples of email from websites or on newspaper 40% Table 3.5 Some solutions help employees improve in email writing In the survey questionnaire, the author has included a few feasible solutions for employees, and the table above is 30 employee’s answer The result showed that 67.5% employees stated they read carefully and revise emails before sending them In fact, this step is one of the most important parts when email writing This is a good way to determine email which can be made by grammatical and vocabulary errors and also help them have a good look in eye’s partners as well as customers Another great way to check emails before sending them is use spelling and grammar checker programs to avoid grammatical errors, and 53% also agreed this solution The recorded figure for the answer “read more and find examples of email from websites or on newspaper Meanwhile, 27.5% thought that they should underline interesting and special structure and take note if necessary In short, the employees will become a good writer if they use some ways in email writing process as well as improve email writing skills However, some above solutions are necessary but not enough, they employees should take part in training course which the company provide to improve email writing skills, specially, every employee should practice email writing every day themselves Description The company to provide in house English writing training to improve my English writing Attending English training course in language institutions Using English writing regularly in the company to improve my writing skill Spending time on learning and practicing the use of English by myself such as watching movies and reading English news online The percentage of employee’s opinion.(%) 32.5% 27% 85% 60% Table 3.6 Solutions of improving business English email writing As shown in Table 3.3.8, the respondents show a great solution with two statements regarding needs of improving business English email writing The highest mean score occurred with statement “Using English writing regularly in the company 25 to improve my writing skill” (85%) Another choice agreed by lots of respondents was the solution “ Spending time on learning and practicing the use of English by yourself such as watching TV, and reading English news online” (60%) Nowadays, students can easily find English programs on the internet as films, books, news, magazines and websites Employees can full take the advantages of these free resources in order to both relax and learn English Additionally, three statements show the solutions to improve business English email writing The statements are “the company should provide in house English writing training to improve my English writing” (32.5%), “Attending English training course in language institutions” (27%) According to the results shown above, the highest needs of the employees in order to improve writing skill were that they should use English writing regularly in the company and spend time on learning and practicing English by themselves The suggestions related to the study of Tanaviboonlaya (2015), which found that the employees should always use English writing skill to communicate in the workplace One of the highest needs showed the interest in self- study of learning and practicing English This is in line with the concept of self- study of Mingmei (2012) who suggested on the self-concept of studying that individual differences and environmental factors will decide the choice of learning strategies One factor of individual differences will influence the choice of learning strategies Referring to Ellis’s (1990), model of L2 acquisition, learning strategies play the mediating role between individual learner differences and learning outcomes Individual learner differences (beliefs, affective states, general factors, and previous learning experiences) together with various situational factors determine the learners’ choice of learning strategies Suggestions are given by employees to improving email writing skills at workplace This part of the study was an opened-ended question “What you suggest an effective way to improve your business English email writing” Twelve respondents or 66.67 % replied to the question The respondents’ suggestions were summarized and categorized into main points to explain the suggestions as follows 26 Chart 3.5 Suggestions for effective ways to improve business English email written Table 3.9 reported the suggestions for effective ways to improve business English email writing from the 24 respondents Seven respondents suggested self-study in free time and keep practicing to write in English Five respondents suggested trying to use English as much as they can to improve writing skill by everyday used Four respondents suggested that they need teaching from native English teachers or get coached from experts Two others suggested to find the good pattern online is the easy way to improve skills such as grammar and vocabulary Four respondents suggested that the company to support the employees in improving English skill by providing training in writing emails, letter or communication According to the suggestions, the most respondents suggested that they should self-study in free time and keep practicing to write in English for an effective way to improve business English email The finding affirms the study of Decharotchanawirun (2016), which determined that the employees should try to learn and always practice by themselves In addition, Berger (1993) reported that the writers should try to write as a simple routine rather than be forced to write for many hours  The results from interview: After conducting to interview manager and long – term staff of Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd The results are showed in the following: Ms Le – manager of Export – Import Department said: “we were tested regularly in company once a month to help our keep in mind all the knowledge about email writing skills We also had trained through basic training when the employees applied to the company” This was a saving solution, but the effectiveness was limited In addition, another solution given by her was colleague’s checkup When an employee finished their email writing, it will be transferred to colleague with higher rank to checked – up before it sent to partner” Two experienced employees said that they thought the company should open professional training course with in – depth tutorials This will be a really good solution that brought instant effectiveness Through courses, the employees can improve English email writing skill, so their work is more effective Moreover, they 27 suggested that every employee try to learn and practice themselves to improve grammar and vocabulary CHAPTER IV: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS In chapter III, an interview was conducted on current situation in English writing email of 30 employees at Tan Hung Phat Company Limited Basing on the information collected from the questionnaire as well as the interview questions, it can be see that there are some challenges for the employees in writing email The part of the chapter presents limitation of the study suggestion for further studies as well as some suggestions that will be useful for employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd 4.1 Limitation of the study Although the researcher has made great effort towards conducting this study, there undoubtedly exist some limitations Firstly, I just study only 30 staff of four Department, not entire staff of the company It would be difficult to determine whether the same results with larger number of samples Secondly, I’m only collecting one assessment of each staff, as a result, it would be impossible to affirm that these problems were outstanding Thirdly, the study was conducted in short time The study was conducted only more than one months Thus, the results of the study might be less convincing and it could not cover all types of errors in English writing email 4.2 Suggestion for further studies As the sccope and duration of research are limited, so the topic is not yet able to fully exploit all aspects of the problem So, here are some research proposals for future topics to dig deeper into this issue and the reader will have more insight into English email writing 28 In the future, there will be topics be able to enrich the subject such as: difficulty in writing email, communication, etc Besides, new survey forms such as interviews, observations, etc should be added to make topic more persuasive Beside the techniques that the employees can use and common grammatical and lexical errors of employees, there are still a lot of other aspects such as how to improve communication skill, using grammar and lexis effectively in paragraph writing and essay writing, etc These issues are suggested for further studies 4.3 Recommendations and suggestions for employees at Tan Hung Phat Company Limited 4.3.1 Suggestion for employees As mentioned above, email writing skill is one of most the difficult skills for employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Although employees encountered various kinds of errors in email writing, they need to study hard to become better writers The employee should learn and always practice by themselves They should try to find solutions to their problems, determine the objective of the message and organize the content to make readers understand better Furthermore, they should always reread again and check if any content leads to misunderstanding, as well as reading more and finfings examples of email from websites As a staff, the usage of English writing should be more attentive not only documentations but also in emails So the grammar foundation is extremely helpful Moreover, English users could type writing tasks on Microsoft Word and set up the checking spelling and grammar tool to limit the common mistakes Besides, reading is also are one of the best ways to improving writing skills In the free time, a habit of reading books and newspapers should be created An effective way to read is to carefully and deeply, underline interesting and special structure, and if necessary, take notes carefully As a result, you will consolidate your grammar knowledge, learn the expression like a native, give up the habit of translating each word  Suggestion on improving grammar structures As the previous chapter, grammar is the basic elements of language Using a wrong grammar can lead to regrettable misunderstandings, so we need to be careful in using grammar structures To be better at English grammar, we must practice doing 29 grammar exercises regularly It is necessary to take part in English course for grammar lessons They also practice themselves by doing online exercises just by some simple clicks There are a number of websites, which offer exercises on a wide range of topics Some common and useful web pages to learn English grammar http://webster.commnet.edu and http://www.tienganhonline.net/grammar.htm, which provide useful grammar exercises with available answer key to help learners be familiar with grammar structure forms Alternatively, learners can access the webpagehttp://lopngoaingu.com or http://www.tienganh123.com, which are very common to learner at every levels of English I also would like to suggest them some reliable grammar books that offer answer keys and clear explanations for each grammar point “English Grammar in Use” (Raymond Murphy – Available in Vietnamese), “Oxford Practice Grammar with Answers” (Norman Coe, Mark Harrison, Ken Paterson) and the series book consist of Grammar Practicem for Elementary Students, for Pre - intermediate Students, for Intermediate Students, and Grammar Practice for Upper Intermediate Students (Elaine walker, Steve Elsworth) can be considered as helpful tools for those who want to improve their grammar quickly and effectively  Suggestion on improving vocabulary It is undeniable that reading is the best effective way to enlarge vocabulary When reading, they can see lot of words being used in certain context and it is the factor that makes much more effective than learn-by-heart the new word lists If the staffs are not able to infer the word’s meaning during their reading process, it is a good chance to guess its meaning just by understanding the overall text When they are familiar with this habit, they will raise their level up by reading more difficult one in a variety of topics Therefore, they should try to use their newly learned words in as many ways as possible At the department, they can take full advantages of helpful tool such as internet, sticky notes, ect to learn new words easily By that way, whenever the employees work with their computer, they can see these words frequently and thus memorize them By that constantly practicing, hopefully that they will make their collection of vocabulary richer and richer, and it is one of the shortest ways to avoid misused words in writing 30 Moreover, the writer also should make up as many associations and connections as possible When finding a new word, they should relate this word to the words already known Connecting the new word with its family words can help them easily remember and enlarge their vocabulary For example, the word “gargantuan” (very large) has a similar meaning to the words “gigantic, huge, or large”, so we can use: “small, medium, large, very large, and gargantuan” By that way, we will have a plentiful source of vocabulary to deal with new word’s problems in writing English  Suggestion some tips to improve English email writing skills Whether you are self-employed or working for a company, writing email is a part of your job No matter at what post you are working, you will end up writing emails to clients, subordinates or employers You must draft an email having a clear message and is errors-free To create an errors-free mail, it is necessary that you learn email writing email skills in writing Here are a few tips and tricks on how you can write error-free email in English  Be precise: When you are communicating through email, you need to be always specific with your messages You also need to be particular on whom you are sending without error For instance, if you are emailing to your business partner, then you need to write like “I need this task completed by tomorrow for a client” The tone and the language have to be according to the recipients whom you are sending the mail  Clear and error-free English: One of the important parts of sending an email in English is the fluency of your language Sentence formation, tone and vocabulary are an essential part of writing an email in English If you are not so good with your style, then better take up a language course Join English Speaking Course where you will be trained under the experts on how to write an email and get your language fluent This training can also help you during verbal communication with clients, colleagues and employers  Presenting your email thoughtfully: While drafting the mail, always ensure to be thoughtful Give the right amount of information with clear sentences to ensure the reader faces no issues Here is how you     can do: Organise the rest of the information from most to least important Increase the chance of email purpose by sticking to the point Use short and easy words instead of the jargon Avoid acronyms and terms, which the reader may not understand 31  Be formal If you are writing emails to your clients or customers, makes sure the draft is formal Instead of getting personal, it is better to stay formal and present your message clearly and to the point The aim of writing and sending an email is to have professional communication and keep a record Therefore, you should also learn how to speak English fluently and confidently By following these tips and learning writing skills in English, you can successfully draft a mail without any error and you will also see a difference in your speaking skills Writing a crisp email will also present your fluency in the English language 4.3.3 Suggestion for leader’s company Based on this study, it can be suggested that leader’s company should be aware on difficulties of staff in English email writing Besides, the managers should provide ways how to improve email writing skill for employee One of the suggestion was the company should support employees in improving English skill sụch by providing training in writing emails, letter or communication This training courses should review important language and rules for writing correctly and effectively This includes things like grammar, styles and structure sentence in email writing When the employees can improve their grammar skills, concise writing, formal writing, these skills would prove useful in their writing profession In our modern society, email plays an important role in business It can be said to be the most convenient way to communicate and often use between business to business Therefore, to avoid errors in English writing email of employees, right from the recruitment, managers should give specific requirements about English level of employee, especially in Import-Export Department which often uses English as a way of communicating Employers should have a test on English writing level of employee to make sure they have enough of qualification to the job Employers should carefully consider and check the working attitude as well as English input level of employees for example, major in university and English certificate Managers should specify the differentiation between English and Vietnamese grammar to avoid language inference and for a more effective impact in learning Englishlanguage, should encourage employee when making a mistakes in English 32 writing email It’s good in developing a positive attitude towards English language The managers should motivate their employee to write and the managers themselves should take the matter seriously, raise awareness of employees on these errors and provide sufficient remedies to prevent employees from internalizing such errors CONCLUSION There are many errors in English writing email skill for employees at Tan Hung Phat Company such as grammatical errors, lexical errors, stylistic errors However, throughout the study the researcher found out ways to improve English writing email for employees by taking part in training course which can be hold from company and practicing themselves to improve grammar, vocabulary, etc In the study, the rationale, aims, methods, scope and design of the study were mentioned in chapter I in hope that readers will have an overview on the study Chapter II introduced the theoretical background including an overview of writing, overview of email writing, errors in email writing and how to improve English writing email skill Chapter III showed clearly the current situation, grammatical and lexical errors and suggestions of the employees in the company Finally, chapter IV mentioned some limitation of study and proposed some solutions to improve English email writing skill for employees and suggestion some further study Shortcoming and mistakes were unavoidable so the researcher wish to receive positive comments and contributing ideas from others Hope that this graduation paper will be useful for employees in Tan Hung Phat company Limited as well as other English learners 33 REFERENCES Berger A (1993) Improving writing skills: Memos, Letters, Reports and proposals Sage pulication printed in United State of American Guffey M & Du-Babcock, B (2010) Essentials of business communication Singapore: Cengage Learning Asia Pte., Ltd Nunan D., 2003, Practical English Language Teaching International Edition, Mc Graw- Hill, Singapore, 88 Media, D & Suttle R (2015) Importance of writing skills in business Retrieved February, 2016 Lentzp (2013) MBA students’ workplace writing: Implications for business writing pedagogy and workplace practice Business Communication Quarterly,76(4) Pathomchaiwat, T (2014) Proficiency of Thai staff at Unicord Public Co., Ltd in writing English email Independent study, English for Careers, Language Institute, Thammasat University Santithawornying, N (2015) Problems in English communication skills between Thai and Japanese staff in a Thai – Japanese leasing company Independent Study, English for careers, Language Institute, Thammasat University Sirinart, S (2013) The classification of grammatical errors of written business messages among M.A students at Language Institute, Thammasat University Websites 10 11 12 13 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importamnt-writingskills-business-845.html www.sitepoint.com www.englishgrammar.org.com www.businessdictionaries.com www.englishlearning.com APPENDIX TOPIC: A STUDY ON IMPROVING ENGLISH EMAIL WRITING SKILLS FOR EMPLOYEE AT TAN HUNG PHAT CO., LTD Hi, my name is Dung I am the senior of Thuongmai University the aim of questionnaire is to collect information to contribute to my graduation study I hope to be helped by your cooperation Thank you so much Question 1: How long have you been working in Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd? 34 1-2 years 3-5 years 5-10 years More than 10 years Question 2: What English skill in most serious problem for you in your workplace? Reading Writing Speaking Listening Question 3: How often you write English email at your workplace? Everyday 2-3day week Once a week More than a week without email Question 4: How many emails you write each days? Less than email per day 1-5 emails per day 6-10 emails per day More than 10 emails per day Question 4: What purposes you use email at workplace? (you can tick more than one) Asking for inquiries/ giving information /negotiating prices with suppliers, shipping, forwarders etc Replying to enquires and requesting information from customers, suppliers, shipping, forwarders, etc Selling new products/ packages/ promotion Reply complaint letter about products or services Sending reports/ memos/ documents, providing project updates and coordinating activities Receiving instruction/ assigning tasks Sharing or providing new information/ activities Dealing with organization such as managers, colleagues, subordinates 35 Question 5: Do you often check grammatical & lexical errors after writing? Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always Question 6: Do you think what grammatical difficulties did you encounter when you write an email? (You can tick more than one) I cannot use correct grammar in business English email I cannot write varieties of sentence structure.\ I cannot arrange words in the grammatically correct order when writing business English email I cannot use correct subject – verb agreement in business English email I cannot write correct auxiliary verbs (helping verbs) in business English email such as have, do, and be, etc I cannot write correct tenses in business English email I cannot use appropriate prepositions in business English email I cannot use appropriate punctuations in business English email Question 7: Do you think any lexical problems you have trouble in writing an email? I cannot use appropriate greeting and complimentary close words in business English email I cannot write difficult or unusual words without dictionary in business English email I cannot use a wide a range of educational vocabulary in business English email I cannot avoid using jargon and unfamiliar words and phrases in business English email I cannot use proper formal and informal words in business English email Question 8: How you improve email writing skills at workplace? (you can tick more than one) Use spelling and grammar checker programs to avoid grammatical and lexical errors 36 Read carefully and revise emails before sending them Underline interesting and special structure and take note if necessary Read more and find examples of emails from websites Question 9: Do you think you will choose any solutions to improve your email writing skills at workplace? The company should provide English writing training course to improve email writing skills for employees Attending training course in language institutions.\ Using English writing regularly in the company to improve your writing skill Spending time learning and practicing the use of English by yourself such as read and find examples of emails from websites and on newspaper Question 10: Have you improved your email writing skill lately? If yes, what solutions have you used? QUESTION INTERVIEW Question: Do you have any suggestions to improve English writing skills for Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd? 37 ... on improving English email writing skills for employee in Tan Hung Phat Company Limited.” to research The aim of the paper is to focus on Writing Email and object is employee at Tan Hung Phat Co.,. .. employees at Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Scope of the study First, the study was conducted on 30 employees of Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd Second, a couple of weeks doing internship in Tan Hung Phat Co., Ltd has... RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS In chapter III, an interview was conducted on current situation in English writing email of 30 employees at Tan Hung Phat Company Limited Basing on the information collected