Difficulties experienced by the third year english majors at thuongmai university in business writing skills and suggested solutions

ABSTRACT This study is conducted to identify the difficulties in writing business letters as well as suggest solutions to improve this skill This research use quantitative methods Survey questionnaires and interviews were mainly used in this study Survey questionnaires were set up to distribute 100 students in classes (K53N1, K53N2, K53N3, K53N4,K53N5 and K53N6) to collect data The interviews were conducted randomly among ten students having done the questionnaire Raw data was converted to numbers and percentages From the results obtained, there were conclusions drawn about students' attitudes and their difficulties in English business writing skill In general, third-year majors were aware of the importance of writing skill and want to improve this skill Third-year students face many difficulties in writing business letter From the research findings, the researcher offerred suggestions and recommendations to help students solve difficulties in English business writing skill The researcher hopes this study can help third-year students improve their writing skill and support the further studies avoid shortcomings and limitations ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received many assistances, precious ideas and encouragements from my teachers, family and friends First of all, I would like to show my deepest respect and profound gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Do Thi Bich Dao for her guidance, detailed comments as well as her constant support, which were decisive factors to the completion of my research Secondly, I would like to give my sincere thanks to the teachers at the English Faculty of Thuongmai University for giving useful lectures and professional knowledge, which helps me fulfill my study Furthermore, I also appreciate the third-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University due to taking time to response my questionnaire, which helped me collect factual data and information effectively Last but not least, I warmly thank my family, my parents who always give me more strength and motivation I would like to express my sincerity to all my friends for their help and encouragement TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations English meaning Vietnames meaning TMU Thuongmai University Đại học Thương Mại K53N Course 53 of English Faculty Khóa 53 khoa Tiếng Anh etc etcetera vân vân LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS No Name Content Page Table 3.1 Years of learning English 21 Table 3.2 The importance of English writing skill towards K53N at TMU 22 Chart 3.1 22 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Chart 3.2 Self-evaluation of K53N towards English writing skill Frequency of writing business letters The length of a business letter The attitude of K53N at TMU towards improving English writing skill Table 3.5 The motivation to improve English writing skill of K53N at TMU 24 10 Table 3.6 Table 3.7 Table 3.8 Mistakes of writing business letter Difficulties in writing business letters Suggested solutions to improve business letter writing skill 25 27 28 11 Chart 3.3 Suggestions to teacher in helping K53N improve English writing business letter 29 23 23 24 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY The first chapter includes an overview of the research topic The first problem mentioned is the reason for studying the topic as well as previous research and the aims of the study In addition, Chapter I also points out the salient features of the research subjects and scope of the study Moreover, this is also the chapter outlining the research methodology used in the study process Finally, this chapter is also a chapter that summarizes the parts of the organization of the study 1.1 Rationale 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 mean 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 With the continuous growth of commerce and industry, the usefulness and importance of business letter are increasing gradually Business letter serves as a formal method of communication between people, providing valuable information on business related matters, and serving a legal purpose Business letter does not only secure, promote business, but it also maintains cooperation without complications With the help of business letter, entrepreneurs can easily exchange information with employees, partners and clients Business letter plays an important role in establishing and maintaining relationships over a wide area to enlarge the scope and the extent of the business Moreover, it also promotes goodwill and enhances the prestige and the image of the organization Realizing the importance of business letter, Vietnamese students in general and Thuongmai University students in particular have been studying hard in order to improve their English business letter writing skill, especially in the today’s context of international economic integration Business letters are written for the fulfillment of several purposes, so they are divided into different types such as: enquiry letter, order letter, complaint letter, refusal letter, quotation letter, etc Each of these types, besides the characteristics of a business letter, also carries some specific characteristics During the previous four years, my friends and I had chances to study English thoroughly in terms of four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing) as well as English theory (English grammar, phonetics and phonology, semantics, and so on) I would say that Business Correspondence is my most favorite subject during the period in university since it taught me some skills such as writing memos, email, 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-fourth of the world's mainland business letter is written in English Although business correspondence is easy to understand, writing business correspondence well is not easy We can not only learn its basic rules of format, styles but also study all off its aspects Writing a correct form of English business letter is really a problem not only to elementary students but also students at upper levels or even graduated ones Therefore, the researcher decided to choose “Difficulties experienced by the third- year English majors at Thuongmai University in business writing skills and suggested solutions” as the topic for her research with the hope that the learners will be able to write business letters in more professional and effective way 1.2 Previous study The researcher has found a lot of notable works about business letters that expressed the writers’ concern about difficulties in writing business letters and solutions to deal with the difficulties The studies below had been conducted to analyze and found out mistakes as well as difficulties that writers often encounter when writing business letters “Business letters writing in business communication”, a case study of Intermat company, written by Aggoune Amina in 2015, offered an examination of business letters influencing recent and present practice in written communication as well as illustrated the range of features that exist in business letters at present in order to know what makes business letters effective He found that English is the common corporate language used in Intermat company and there were mistakes and workers faced difficulties when they communicated and interacted with non-English speaking colleagues all over the world The typical mistakes are related to special spelling; abbreviations and special acronyms; punctuation; and format of the letters Therefore, this study helped to plan a letter and built principles of effective business letter writing “Problems in writing English business letter: errors and factors” (Third semester of Bina Bangsa Economics students majoring in Manageme) of Shafa Firda Nila (2017) was conducted to identify the problems of error found in English business letter writing and to explain the factors that caused the problems This study used qualitative method The data were collected from the English business letter written by third semester of Bina Bangsa Economics students majoring in Management and Accounting Her research results indicated that there are four classifications of error found in English business letter written by third semester students: morphological, lexical, syntactic, and mechanical error These four errors are divided into eight types, namely: verb, noun, article, word choice, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization Word choice error is the highest frequency of error type (20.3%), respectively followed by sentence structure error (18.3%), verb error (12.1%), punctuation error (11.3%), noun error (9.7%), spelling error (9.5%) Meanwhile, article and capitalization error share the same percentage of 9.4% Also, there are three major factors that cause the errors: language transfer, overgeneralization, and context of learning Most of the students are still interfered by Bahasa Indonesia grammar which is different from English Besides, the students fail to recognize some terminologies or vocabularies related in business correspondence; they tend to generalize the language and not pay attention to the difference between general English and business English The study “An analysis of some techniques to improve writing English business letters”, written by Vu Thi Huong Giang (2010) (Haiphong Private University), emphasized on techniques in writing English business letters and suggested some solutions for improving techniques in writing English business letters The author found out essential techniques related to four categories including attitude; positive emphasis; tone; and language Besides, the solutions that the writer suggested are also realistic and highly feasible All these studies not only helped the researcher with prescious knowledge but also inspired the researcher to conduct “Difficulties experienced by the thirdyear English majors at Thuongmai University in business writing skills and suggested solutions” which aims at finding out difficulties and suggesting some solutions to improve the business writing skill of these subjects 1.3 Aims of the study The primary of this study is to find out subjective and objective reasons why third-year students have difficulties in English business writing and then propose the solutions for both teachers and students in teaching and learning the writing skill The study used quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection Its aim is to answer the following research questions: What is the reality of English business writing skill of the third-year English  major students at TMU? What are the difficulties that the third-year English major students face when  studying English business writing? What are the possible solutions to solve those problems?  1.4 Research subjects The subjects of this study are third-year English major students at Thuong Mai University whose English are supposed to be at intermediate level After more than years of learning at university, junior students are familiar with teaching method at university Most of them could use four skills of English speaking, listening, writing and reading effortlessly and confidently At high school, students are familiar with learning grammar and reading skill to prepare for the paper examinations or the entrance examamination to the university Otherwise, at university, subjects which are taken into the curriculum of 10 and meaning Mistakes related to lacking essential parts of the letter like missing date, not containing enough information in the inside address or lacking reference are usually encountered error 3.3.2.2 Difficulties in writing business letters Difficulties Percentage Having difficulties with word choices: being confused when 78% choosing words to express your attitude and your content Grammatical difficulties related to plural markers, articles, 73% verbs, tenses, … Not understanding the essential parts of the letter 14% Table 3.7: Difficulties in writing business letters According to table 3.7, the biggest difficulty in writing business letters for the students was word choice Almost the students admitted that they had too few vocabulary and collocations for writing business letters They usually felt confused when choosing words to express their attitude as well as convey their message This problem may come from their motivation to learn vocabulary It is necessary for the student to accumulate vocabulary by themselves in long term, which helps them write more smoothly and easily The second biggest challenge that 73% of the third-year students had to cope with was grammatical issues Although most of them have learned English for a long time, they encounter basic grammatical mistakes such as plural markers, articles, verbs or tense Only 14% of the participants responded that they did not understanding the essential parts of the letter This problem came from the fact that students did not study theories before writing 3.3.3 Suggested solutions to improve English business letter writing skill Solutions Reducing word choice mistakes by learning more about business expressions Establishing your objective, making an outline before you begin to write the letter, reviewing and revising the letter after writing Improving grammar, spelling and punctuation 31 Percentage 94% 80% 89% Table 3.8: Suggested solutions to improve business letter writing skill The table represented the student’s agreement on suggested solutions As could be seen from the table, “reducing word choice mistakes by learning more about business expressions” is the first and foremost choice of most of the students with 94% This is understandable that once you improve your vocabulary, other related problems are also solved The results also showed that improving grammar, spelling and punctuation as well as establishing objective, making an outline before writing, reviewing and revising the letter after writing were great tips that the students needed to write letters successfully with 89% and 80% respectively Chart 3.3: Suggestions to teacher in helping K53N improve English writing business letter According to the figure of the chart above, it can demonstrate that the participants agree to be checked and fixed their letter after writing in front of class by their teacher with the percentage of 53% Secondly, 35% of third-year students showed that they would like their teacher be professional development continuously Only 12 out of 100 students, accounting for 12%, considered high scores as one of their encouragement to improve their English business writing skill 3.4 Data analysis from interview Question 1: How you think about your English writing ability at present? In this question, most third-year students said that their writing are supposed to be average and poor, rarely students are good at this skill It is demonstrated that finding out suitable methods for them to improve their writing skill is extremely urgent and important Question 2: What is the most challenging problems that you encountered during enhancing your English business writing skill? 32 The results from this question is quite similar to the questionnaire The majority have a number of problems while improving writing ability such as word choices, grammar and not understanding essential part of the letter Question 3: How much time you spend improving writing skill per day? In this question, few students were aware of spending more time improving their writing skill Half of the third-year students who were interviewed just used 15 to 30 minutes to practice their skill while just only one of them learned over 60 minutes Question 4: Do you have any suggestions for friends, teachers? There are some suggestions that the author collected from the interview  • • • • • •  • • • For friends: Make a group to study together Correct other’s mistakes Exchange letter to each other to check Writing letter at least 30 minutes per day Learn new words with usage of them and try to make sentences with these words Learn about business expressions in economy articles For teachers: Sharing more tips to write a successful letter in English Focusing more on weak students Give sample letter for students to learn about writing style of the author 33 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Suggested solutions to improve business letter writing skill for the third- year English-majored students at Thuongmai University 4.1.1 Solution 1: Learning more about business expressions Business expressions relate to vocabulary aspect and it cannot be denied that vocabulary plays an important role because it can influence the effect of communication in general and of business letters in particular 4.1.1.1 Terminology Each of area in the life like international trade, business talks, economy, finance, marketing, and insurance has its own professional vocabulary Thus, a large number of terminologies and jargons are used in business correspondence, which are considered to be used actually, professionally, and properly For instance, in international trade, there are, “standby credit”, “free on board”, “partial shipment”, “blank endorsed”; in insurance, “all Risks”, “war Risk”, “with average or with particular average”, “force majeure”, and etc Business writing is different from other academic disciplines writing Therefore, to write a good business English, one should learn relevant knowledge related to business English, avoid professional vocabulary changing into normal vocabulary However, in international business activities, the differences in language and culture may create misunderstandings easily The students often failed to recognize the appropriate word because they are much to transfer the word literally by ignoring the context The best way to use a professional term is to clear the concept and practice describing accurately all aspects of business activities and relevant documents, which can effectively avoid ambiguity and omissions 4.1.1.2 Polysemy Polysemy is a feature of English vocabulary, especially in business correspondences The same word in business English has different meanings For example, the common meaning of the word “premium” is “an extra payment added to the basic rate” However, in the business contract or the insurance business, it means “an amount of money that you pay once or regularly for 34 insurance policy”; in the financial futures industry, means “the balance of the long rate higher than the spot exchange rate” Furthermore, in business correspondences, “confirm” is frequently used by businessmen “Confirm” may mean “making a position, an agreement, etc more definite or official”, or mean “cash guaranteed” depending on different contexts In business English, words having the phenomenon of polyseme appears very often Thus, third-year students should have good knowledge about this aspect and pay more attention to this for writing an effective business letter 4.1.1.3 Abbreviations Conciseness is one of the characteristics of business English letter A concise letter should be written in a simple and natural way, directly to the point Wordiness, flowery words, and the over-frequent use of conjunctions (as “and”, “but”, “however”, etc.) should be avoided The wide use of abbreviations is another feature of concise word Initials abbreviations are one of the most common methods in business correspondence writing Abbreviations are frequently used in business letters to avoid lengthy explanation and improve work efficiency, in accordance with the requirements of saving time and improving efficiency in international business For example, Encl (enclosures), C.C (copy circulation), P/S (postscript), L/C (letter of credit), B/L (Bill of Lading), FOB (Free on board), CIF (Cost, insurance and freight), No ( number), Ad (advertisement), etc However, writers should not misuse abbreviations in writing business letters Writers should only use common and standard ones that the reader can understand the message intimately 4.1.1.4 Expressions in business letters Business correspondences writing is the formal style, so words must be also formal The formality of business correspondences is mainly represented in the following three aspects: Firstly, to our friends, we usually write in a casual way but to business partners is in a formal one The basic vocabulary or oral English is being replaced by more formal expressions Thus, third-year majors should review the following list of 35 words and expressions, then remember to eliminate these terms from their business writing vocabulary Some following expressions should be avoided: according to our records may I ask acknowledge receipt of in due time with reference to in due course of time with regard to in receipt of with respect to in view of at hand, on hand permit me to say attached please find pursuant to attached hereto thank you again enclosed herewith Thank you in advance beg to inform, beg to tell for your information hereby, herewith I have your letter according to our records Secondly, verbs are used to replace verb phrases For instance, “inform” and “advise” replaces “tell”; “duplicate” replaces “copy”; “dispatch” replaces “send”; “purchase” replaces “buy”; “certify” replaces “prove”, etc.Thirdly, the simple preposition and conjunction are replaced by the prepositional phrase For example, “in accordance with” replaces “according to”; “for the purpose of” replaces “for”; “in the case of” replaces “if”; “with reference to” “with regard to” replaces “about”, etc These words are accurate in meanings and they help business correspondence writing be more formal 4.1.2 Solution 2: Improving grammar, spelling and punctuation 4.1.2.1 Grammar Business letters will be the first impression that a businessman makes on someone and grammar plays an important role in deciding whether he can create positive impression in the mind of the reader Reading is considered as the number one way that you can practice to improve your grammar skills in general When you read, you reinforce correct grammar in your mind Besides, reading will help with all aspects of your writing, from sentence fluency to increased vocabulary Therefore, reading business letters regularly will help you understand how language used to convey messages in different situations While improving grammar in written materials in general and in business letters in particular, you should first pay attention to sentence structure errors Many 36 students still write the incorrect sentence structure because of their less understanding of English grammar Sentence structure errors in English happen because of the usage of modifiers A modifier is a word or phrase that provides description in a sentence However, if the modifier is put in the wrong place, it can lead to confusion instead of clarity to your sentence 4.1.2.2 Spelling Spelling error is an error deals with the error in spelling the word In most cases, the students misspell the words because they not check the correct spelling in the dictionary Nowadays, there are many kinds of dictionaries available, both in print and online, which are very helpful for non-native speakers These dictionaries give more information and often many more examples of words in context to help students select and use words appropriately Students should be consistent about using British or American spellings throughout their letter If you catch yourself spelling certain words wrong over and over, consider learning from your mistakes by creating your own personal list of frequently misspelled words Keeping this list close at hand as you write will save you time and probably eliminate many of your common spelling mistakes Sometimes to know the rules is the best way to learn, and then becoming aware of English spelling rules can help you avoid some common spelling mistakes There are many writing handbooks and style guides that contain a complete list of spelling rules You can learn and practice one or two rules at a time until you understand them and the next time you find a word that you cannot spell, let’s try finding out if that word follows a rule 4.1.2.3 Punctuation In writing business letters, the punctuation error refers mostly to the using of commas and periods Punctuation marks such as comma and period should be used for separating the sentences to make clear meaning Thus, poor punctuating will make your reader confuse and irritate Placing commas and periods accurately helps you say what you want more clearly, and in fewer words Therefore, it is necessary to know the rules of English punctuation when you write There are not many rules to master, and they are quite simple when someone explains the difference in plain 37 English Some of the most frequent punctuation mistakes are forgetting commas, using too many or not enough spaces and using exclamation marks 4.1.3 4.1.3.1 Solution 3: Planning your writing Considering your reader Another tip for improving your business writing skills is being aware of the reader who will receive your letter In many cases, writers often think about what they wanted the letter to contain However, analyze what your reader wants to hear and focus on these areas You may highlight major points that are their concern in order to sustain their attention 4.1.3.2 Establishing your objective Establishing the objective of business letter means you get clear on why you are writing and what you are writing Keep in mind that courtesy never goes out of style and your reader will appreciate your attention in that regard 4.1.3.3 Organizing your letter Organizing your business letter before you draft it will establish a logical order in which to express your information Then, you make a simple outline by gathering all the information you have on the situation you are writing about For example, if you are writing a letter of complaint, you should know exactly what the problem was and what you hope to achieve as a result of your letter If you are writing an order letter, remember to gather all the information about the product you need 4.1.3.4 Drafting your letter Base on your outline and turn each fragment into a full and complete sentence expressing a single thought or idea In order that your thoughts and ideas are conveyed in a cohesive manner, you should write in as natural a sounding voice as possible Make sure that the scope of your letter contains all the necessary information included in your organizational list 4.1.3.5 Reviewing and revising the letter after writing After all, you should take a review of your draft as the final inspection to see whether your objective is clearly stated and your scope concisely defined and 38 remove any mistakes including word choice mistakes, grammatical mistakes or format mistakes Moreover, carefully check for grammatical mistakes like wrong spelling, incorrect punctuations, incomplete sentences and so on Examine your word choices carefully The usage of abstract terms, ambiguous words, etc may lead to misunderstanding or no understanding and then obscure your objective Ask yourself if your letter includes all the essential parts and necessary information Recipient’s address or date is often easily forgotten In addition, you should also check the structure and tone of the letter Make sure that the transitions between paragraphs are smooth and your point of view, tone and style are consistent throughout the text 4.2 Limitation of the study Despite the fact that the study has certain strong points such as finding out the reality of business English writing of third-year majors, suggesting some solutions and recommendations for both students and teachers to study and teach English In the light of limited time, lacking of source, the author’s ability and other unexpected elements, the author cannot deny that the study has still got a number of shortcomings Firstly, because of the limited of time and experience to some extents, the author could not conduct other methods, for example, classroom observation which can help to obtain results more exactly Secondly, the researcher only concentrated on the third-year English major students which only accounted for a limited number of students in the English Faculty Hence, the results of the study cannot be absolute Moreover, the researcher was not able to cover all the aspects of reality and solutions In spite of the mentioned limitations, the author hopes that this exploratory research will contribute to deal with the situation of studying and teaching English writing skills at Thuongmai University 4.3 Recommendations Because of the limitation, this research could not cover all aspects of the study Besides, the study merely concentrates on difficulties and real situations of the 39 third-year English-majored students in order to help them improve their English writing skill Additionally, for the further studies, to have better results, the researcher should conduct questionnaire surveys or interviews with more participants and the data collection methods Observation is also essential to get more persuasive results Although the study cannot avoid the limitations, the researcher has completed the thesis under the guidance of the supervisor and self-effort Any comments and criticism will be highly appreciated for better further study 4.3.1.1 40 CONCLUSION This research was presented with the aims to find out difficulties in writing business letters as well as suggesting solutions to improve business letter writing skill The research was based on the survey questionnaires and interviews The results of the research have made it possible to come to these following conclusions: It was found that all third-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University have written business letters, but all of them had difficulties in writing Using wrong grammar, spelling, and punctuation is their highest frequency of mistake type Moreover, the second biggest challenges to all the students were word choice and grammatical issues Based on the findings of the study, some solutions were suggested with the hope of tackling the problems To solve the problems, students should learn more about business expressions, plan before writing, and review and revise the letter after writing Furthermore, the teachers should pay more attention to their students and find out the learners’ difficulties so as to help their students overcome these problems and improve their writing skills The researcher hopes that this study may partly contribute to improving the quality of teaching and learning English business writing skills at Thuongmai University REFERENCES Business Correspondence Textbook, Thuongmai University, Hanoi 41 Vu Thi Huong Giang (2010), An analysis of some techniques to improve writing English business letters, (Published Graduation Paper) Foreign Languages Department, Haiphong Private University Andrea, B G (2010), Business English – The Writing Skills You Need for Today’s Workplace, Barron’s Educational Series Aggoune, A (2015), Business Letters Writing In Business Communication: A Case Study Of Intermat Company, Setif University, Algeria Alison, D (2019), The Best Formatting for a Business Letter, retrieved March 25, 2020 from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-format-a-business-letter- 2062540 Jiang, Y (2015), Study of Language Features of Business English, School of Petroleum Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China Jeffrey, S (2002), the AMA Hand book of Business Letters, Amacom Shunhui, Z (2010), Analysis of Language Features in Business Correspondences, Institute of Art & Fashion, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin, China Shafa, F N (2017), Problems In Writing English Business Letters: Errors And Factors (Third semester of Bina Bangsa Economics students majoring in Management and Accounting), The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature and Teaching 10 The Business Communication (2018), What is Business Letter or Commercial Letter, retrieved March 25, 2020 from https://thebusinesscommunication.com/whatis-business-letter-or-commercial-letter/ 11 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/business_letter 12 Nguyen Trong Dan (2010), The Language of Business Correspondence in English, Social- Labor Publisher 42 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Dear third-year English-majored students of Thuongmai University, the following questionnaire is designed for my graduation paper Your assistance in responding the following questions will help me a lot for the study Please answers the question sincerely as only this ensures the success of the study The data collected is used in the research paper only, and not for any commercial purposes Thank you for your cooperation! Part 1: Personal information What class are you studying? £ £ £ £ £ £ ……………………………………………………………………………………… What is your gender? Male Female How long have you learned English? (Tick out the best answer) 3-5 years 5-7 years 7-9 years Over 9years Part 2: The reality of English business writing skill of third-year student majors at Thuong mai university How you think about the importance of English writing skill ? (Tick out the best £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ answer) Extremely important Important Neutral Less important Unimportant How you evaluate your ability of writing in English? (Tick out the best answer) Excellent Good Average Poor Bad How often you write business letters? (Tick out the best answer) 1-3 letters per day Over letters per day 1-3 letters per week Other: …………………………………………………………………… 43 What is the length of a business letter that you usually write? (Tick out the best £ £ £ answer) 100-200 words 200-300 words Over 300 words Do you think that improve your writing skill is necessary? (Tick out the best £ £ £ £ £ answer) Very necessary Necessary Neutral Not very necessary Not necessary at all What are your motivations to improve writing skill? (You can tick more than one £ £ £ £ £ option) To learn major subjects at class better To meet future job requirements To take part in the examination To boost the other English skills ( listening, reading, speaking ) Just feel have to Part 3: Some difficulties experienced by third year student majors at Thuong mai university in business writing skills What mistakes you usually make when writing business letters? (You can tick £ £ £ £ £ £ more than one option) Using wrong grammar, spelling, and punctuation Using unfamiliar abbreviations or overly technical terms Using impolite expression and poor tone Lacking information or long and rambling content Lacking essential parts of the letter Others :…………………………………………………………………… What difficulties you have in writing business letters? (You can tick more than one option) £ Having difficulties with word choices: being confused when choosing words to express your attitude and your content £ Grammatical difficulties related to plural markers, articles, verbs, tenses, … £ Not understanding the essential parts of the letter £ Others: ………………………………………………………………………… Part 4: Suggested solutions to improve in business writing skill of third year student majors at Thuong mai university 44 Which of suggestions below you agree with to improve English business letter writing skill? (You can tick more than one option) £ Reducing word choice mistakes by learning more about business expressions £ Establishing your objective, making an outline before you begin to write a letter, reviewing and revising the letter after writing £ Improving grammar, spelling and punctuation £ Others: ………………………………………………………………………… Do you think what teacher should to help you improve your English business £ £ £ £ letter writing skill? (Tick out the best answer) Checked and fixed students’ letter after they writing in front of class Professional development continuously Give high scores to encourage students to enounce during lessons Others: ………………………………………………………………………… Thanks a lot for your help! APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTION Question 1: How you think about your English writing ability at present? Question 2: What is the most challenging problems that you encountered during enhancing your English business writing skill? Question 3: How much time you spend improving writing skill per day? Question 4: Do you have any suggestions for friends, teachers? 45 ... majors at Thuongmai University in business writing skills and suggested solutions? ?? which aims at finding out difficulties and suggesting some solutions to improve the business writing skill of these... even graduated ones Therefore, the researcher decided to choose ? ?Difficulties experienced by the third- year English majors at Thuongmai University in business writing skills and suggested solutions? ??... of English business writing skill of the third -year English  major students at TMU? What are the difficulties that the third -year English major students face when  studying English business writing?