Difficulties in writing business correspondence of export import staff at anh minh transport and trading investment company

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE OF EXPORT-IMPORT STAFF AT ANH MINH TRANSPORT AND TRADING INVESTMENT COMPANY Supervisor: Nguyen Bich Hong Student: Hoang Van Thao Class: K52N2 Id: 16D170114 Hanoi - 2020 HÀ NỘI - 2016 ABSTRACT According to Wikipedia, Business correspondence means the exchange of information in a written format for the process of business activities Business correspondence can take place between organizations, within organizations or between the customers and the organization The correspondence refers to the written communication between persons Hence oral communication or face to face communication is not a business correspondence According to Business Dictionary, business correspondence is "any written or digital communication exchanged by two or more parties." Business correspondence comes in the form of letters, emails or text messages Understanding the principles of business correspondence is one of the most fundamental tasks for any business professional Businesses use business correspondence to develop a professional relationship with their customers, and this is an effective way of building a loyal customer base It gives companies the ability to communicate continuously with their partners and eventually develop an understanding of their needs and wants to gain an advantage over competitors In this study, the researcher has showed the knowledge of the business correspondence Also some difficulties in writing business correspondence have been presented and there are some suggested solutions for them In order to finish this study, the researcher used some methods such as collecting information from books, and the Internet to get theoretical background Then, a questionnaire was conducted with the help of export-import staffs from AMT company After getting the result, the researcher analyzed and presented some difficulties and recommended some solutions for those who had obstacles when writing business correspondence After that, I decided to choose this topic: “Difficulties in writing business correspondence of export-import staff at Anh Minh Transport And Trading Investment Company” as my topic of graduation thesis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude towards teachers at English Department – Thuongmai University who have supported me in my process of conducting thesis Especially, I would love to express my sincere thanks to my beloved supervisor – Ms Nguyen Bich Hong who has helped me a lot from outline preparation to the completion my graduation paper I have a valuable opportunity to study and work at Anh Minh Transport and Services Trading Company (AMT Company) in the internship I would like to express my thanks to Mrs.Tho - the manager of export-import, for her support and insightful advice when working at AMT Company Moreover, I would like to thank all the staffs from Export-Import Department for joining in the survey and helping me during the internship Although my graduation thesis has been completed, the shortcomings are inevitably avoided Due to my limited knowlege, I would like to receive the comments, appreciations and feedbacks from teachers to complete better and better Student Hoang Van Thao TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY .1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previously studies 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research Subjects .5 1.5 Scope of the study .5 1.6 Research methodology 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Business correspondence 2.1.1 Definition of Business Correspondence 2.1.2 Parts of Business Correspondence 2.1.3 Main types of business correspondence 12 2.2 Inquiry Letters, Order Letters, and Complaint Letters 13 2.2.1 Inquiry Letters 13 2.2.2 Order Letters 15 2.2.3 Complaint Letters .17 2.3 Difficulties in writing Business Correspondences 19 2.3.1 Difficulties in writing Inquiry Letters 19 2.3.2 Difficulties in writing Order Letters 19 2.3.3 Difficulties in writing Complaint Letters 20 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 22 3.1 Research context .22 3.2 Research procedure 22 3.3 Result of the Survey Questionnaires 23 3.4 Result of the Interviewing 28 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 30 4.1 Existed problems and difficulties in in writing a business correspondence of the Export-Import staffs 30 4.2 General suggestions for the Export-Import staffs in the Anh Minh company to improve in writing skill on business correspondence 30 4.3 Suggestions for inquiry letter, order letter, and complaint letter 32 4.3.1 Suggestions for difficulties in writing inquiry letter 32 4.3.2 Suggestions for difficulties in writing order letter .32 4.3.3 Suggestions for difficulties in writing complaint letter .33 4.4 Recommendations for managers of the AMT Co to help the staffs improve business correspondence writing skill 34 CONCLUSION 36 REFERENCES 37 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English is a very important language in communication It does give us the chance to communicate well with others English has spread the fastest growing scientific language in the world This language currently occupies the position of a trading language Many multi-national companies when dealing with foreign partners will it in English Thus, letters is an indispensable tool of communication in business Business letters or business correspondences are used to sell the products, make inquiry about customers or prices of goods, seek information and advice, maintain good public relation, increase goodwill and perform a variety of other business functions With the continuous growth of commerce and industry, business letters are more and more important and necessary Especially in the context of corona virus outbreaks are intensing outbreaks all over the world that everyone needs to avoid face-to-face contact Firstly, business letter helps exchanging business information Letters are the most economical and convenient means of exchanging information With the help of letters, executives can easily exchange information with customers, suppliers, investors, government offices; regulatory authorities etc Secondly, it helps maintaining proper relationship Nowadays business activities are not confined to any one area or locality The businessmen as well as customers are scattered throughout the country Business correspondences play an important role in establishing and maintaining relationship with various parties Business correspondences reduce the distance between a business and its customers, suppliers, creditors and other public groups Customers can write to businesses looking for information on services Thirdly, though there are other modes of communication like telephone, telex, fax, etc.; Business information can be provided and obtained economically and conveniently through letters Valuable time and costs can be saved Last but not least, it helps in expansion of business Business requires information regarding competing services, prevailing prices, promotion, market activities, etc In this global business, an excellent command of English is required for key jobs Anh Minh Transport is a logistics company, especially in importing and exporting foreign orders The documents and contracts of the company are mainly in English, and when negotiating and contracts signing with foreign partners, Anh Minh company always uses English The main roles of the Export - Import department in AMT Co are listening to customer concerns, researching market, tracking trends and monitor competition, preparing necessary English documents with Customs, and helping improve import and export process of the company and customer Especially, the essential role of the Export - Import department is keeping in touch with customers through business correspondences Any incoming letter must be replied in a short time The letter should be tactful, simple in language, helpful and every customer must feel that their enquiries are being considered Nowadays, many companies not only operate in their countries but also are expanding overseas During the internship in AMT Company, the researcher has got chances to study English thoroughly in terms of four skills practices especially writing business correspondences In order 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 mail From the above reasons, it is an urgent need to prioritize in proposing the difficulties that Export-Import department’s staffs of AMT Co often face with when writing business correspondences In addition, AMT export-import staffs often deal with inquiry letters, order letters, complaint letters from customers during working time Therefore, the study on difficulties in writing business correspondence in the export-import department of AMT Co and some suggested solutions really meet the need 1.2 Previously studies According to Gale (2014), business correspondence is one type of communication, which is used every day in all workplaces There are many types of business which usually come with standard structure and style It realized although business correspondence is more and more necessary and easy to understand, writing business correspondence well is not easy Guffey & Du-Babcock (2010, p.100) mentioned that email and letter has been the alternative communication channel lately Communication by email is “a process and continuous activity”, which means both sender and receiver cannot revoke the information or messages delivered According to Guffey & Du-Babcock (2010), good business communications are brief, the content should be easy to read and understand, and unnecessary words, sentences or even paragraphs should be deleted Some solutions are indicated that improvement of readability should be sought through the use of headings, bulleted listings, side headings, and an introduction that explains what will follow Cultural differences should be considered so the content is clear and precise in language; slang that causes confusion abroad should be avoided The writer should double-check before sending and use spell check Locker & Kaczmarek (2011) stated that email and letter has many advantages in business communication; for instance, employees can decrease working time by using email to communicate and convey information promptly and business letters can be used to confirm in written form when contract is plenary in spoken communication Research has shown that the effective business correspondence writing should determine the readers cause they may differ to be superior, middle or line management, colleague, the customers, potential customers, the government, or other companies in the similar market Knowing who the readers are can help determining what type of information to contain in the letter Letter should contain a lots knowledge about the topic that conclude from both external and internal written works and materials to the company (Sue, Fryar and Thomas ,1994) According to A study of problems in the business English writing skills of Thai employees at The Classic Chairs Company by Miss Thandarin This study focused on surveying the problems related to the business English writing skills of the employees at The Classic Chairs Company in order to improve their English writing skills The findings from this study could provide useful information to help improve their English writing skills in the workplace, which will increase their confidence As a result, their productivity and performance will increase English skills usage and problems in the workplace, reasons for using business English emails and type of business English writing usage This study showed that the problems mentioned issues written English that the employees at The Classic Chairs Company encounter in their duties English writing skills refer to emails, letters and reports The researcher chose the method of analyzing, summarizing, and synthesizing materials and books to perform the theoretical background in the A study on difficulties in writing business correspondence for major English students of foreign languages faculty of academy of finance by Dam Hong Loan, Foreign Languages Department, Academy of Finance Besides, the researcher also made use of information from informal discussions with teachers and friends This study has showed some difficulties that major English students of foreign languages faculty of academy of finance often have faced with when writing business letters Besides, the researcher has already suggested some ways to improve the difficulties It helps students to have a general view of fundamental things about the skill and to improve some difficulties that they often have got Other scholars such as A study on written structures, personal pronoun, decision and attitude expressions in commercial correspondence by Dinh Thi Thu Ha, Haiphong University This study was completed thanks to information collected from internet, books to get theoretical background After that, the analysis on 50 letters is carried out to get basic knowledge and specific exemplifications In order to make the study more persuasive and interesting, some examples are taken from some close companies and reliable sources In this study, the researcher pointed out an overview on related theoretical background of commercial correspondence, business terms during the study; the main aims of the study is a comparison of the real status between written structures, personal pronoun, decision and attitude expressions used in business correspondence, and from then, finds out some strategies to compose a good letter for students 1.3 Aims of the study The aim of this study is to investigate and find out difficulties that staffs in the Export - Import department of AMT Co have faced when writing business correspondence, especially in inquiry letters, order letters, and complaint letters and give some suggested solutions in order to improve the business correspondence writing skill and to easily contact, communicate and persuade customers This also presents several useful tips to make the letter plentiful and create a good impression on the reader 1.4 Research Subjects The subject of the study is difficulties in writing business correspondences at the Export - Import department of AMT Co., Although there are many kinds of business correspondences, this study just focuses on inquiry letters, order letters and complaint letters, which the staffs in the Export - Import department often deal with during in the AMT Company 1.5 Scope of the study The study was conducted in the Export - Import department of the AMT Company, and all the staffs in the Export - Import department persuaded to take part in and answer some questionnaires in order to find out obstacles in writing business correspondences and difficulties of AMT export-import staffs when dealing with inquiry letters, order letters, complaint letters from customers during working time 1.6 Research methodology This study is a systematic investigation into difficulties that staffs at the Export Import department of the AMT Company have faced It is helpful to find out obstacles and solve problems, support and help them to improve their performances Tools of data collection: questionnaire The questions in the questionnaire were designed in order to ask the exportimport staffs about business correspondences, their background about business letters, how they use them at work, what kind of problems, difficulties they have faced in writing business correspondences, and some recommendations that they suggested to help themselves and company to improve and get over these obstacles The detail contents of the questionnaire was attached in the appendices part good at grammar, lexis, or terminology would make anyone could get into troubles In a business letter like an inquiry letter, these obstacles can be fatal About 33.3% feel difficult when focusing on the recipient's needs, purposes or interests Sometimes they said that focus on their own concerns rather than those of the recipient Meanwhile about 25% feel poor planning After that, researcher mentioned some common difficulties which staffs usually get in writing Inquiry Letters will rate the level of those In this question, the researcher show four main difficulties collected In terms of them, the researcher put rating the levels of difficulties though Figure 07 Question 10: What difficulties have you got when writing Order Letters? Figure 09 Difficulties Number of respondents Arranging Percentages (%) 40 Writing too long 46.67 Others 13.33 information 40% of the staffs not know how to arrange their important information in business letters Moreover, 46.67% of them write some paragraphs too long when no needed 13.33% have other difficulties, such as poor knowledge and grammar 27 Question 11: What difficulties have you got when writing Complaint Letters? Figure 10 Difficulties Listen to customers’ Number of respondents Percentages (%) 20 26.6 Give a solution to solve 46.6 Others compalaint Explain clearly to customers As we can see from figure 09, 46.6% of stafs consider giving a solution to solve a compalaint letter that is one of the most important difficulties This figures say that giving a solution is always essential in stafs’ mind This is one of the most important steps in handling customer complaints They find it difficult to come up with a solution that is like discussion and discussion between the two sides 26.6% of the staffs often feel explain clearly to customers that is not easy in order that the customers could easily understand In addition, 20% of them said that they not know how to listen to customers’ compalaint when they have to listen a bad news in the letter that no matter how difficult the customer is, try to be polite in the best way, and 8% have other problems 3.4 Result of the Interviewing Besides using questionnaire, researcher interviewed some staffs about related problems Especially, researcher ask staffs to list some specific difficulties when writing a business correspondence at work In this question, staffs named a lot of problems in writing a letter or email And this is the result for the interviewing: Figure 11 Difficulties The title is not clear Content is not concise Do not pay attention Check the letter again Number respondents of Percentages (%) 53 27 13 28 First of all, 53% of them named the title is not clear which is the important problem In fact, when sending and replying English emails, they often fall into one of three cases: absolutely no subject line; write the title into a long sentence; only a "Re: " or too short Such minor errors cause emails to be stuck in countless work emails, or automatically categorized as spam in the recipient's inbox They found that it is really not easy to learn if new staffs The second, 27% of them said that content is not concise On average, staffs spend 2/3 of the time in the office checking, sending and responding to emails However, the content presentation is not condensed and easy to understand to save time The language skills are not good, they still depend on the habit of using common sentence patterns and using "Google translate" emails from Vietnamese to English which takes more time and also makes the email become wordy In addition, Do not pay attention to the style and steps to check again account for 13% Different from sending to friends (informal), most business letter are in formal style Therefore, when looking up the meaning of words in a dictionary or sentence structure online, they often not pay attention to whether the word and sentence are solemn enough to use in emails to boss or customer They use abbreviations (I'm instead of I am; Your or You quite instead of You are), use slang, create "word" yourself Finally, About 7% of them said problem that seemed so simple but often ignored was not reading the letter or email before sending it After they have to think too much, they often relax without checking whether letter or email is okay Absolutely not asking someone to check the letter before sending For example, a common case when talking by phone to a boss or foreign customer is that they not hear and understand the letter or email address to fill in the recipient box The data from interview indicated the same with the result of questionnaire as well 29 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Existed problems and difficulties in in writing a business correspondence of the Export-Import staffs In this study, I have gathered some of the most difficult for writing a business correspondence in export-import staffs at AMT company The first part of difficulty in planning Another weakness of staffs in conducting a business correspondence is planning the content They said that ideas, information and figures are not always put in clear and suitable order to help readers understand correctly and persuasively The researcher show that popular mistakes met in this type are the confusion of ideas, lack of information or statistic, unscientific organization and unclear sequence The second part is the background knowledge, which is much more difficult than the previous one because in order to fulfill the task well, the writer not only need good planning but also need a good basis of knowledge This is also one of the difficulties that most of these staffs when writing a business correspondence Besides, language problem also account for a high proportion A language problem may manifest itself in a new staff's letter as: poor vocabulary, awkward phrasing and unconventional grammar, difficulty with sentence structure and word order, differences in language style between Vietnam and foreign customers, raising problems as well The last, these three main difficulties, which often found in export-import staffs' works, there is a mistakes Few staff pay attention to the structure of a business correspondence, therefore the mistake of format is the most popular one found in this study, others have difficulties in addressing the customer' degrees, medals, honorary titles 4.2 General suggestions for the Export-Import staffs in the Anh Minh company to improve in writing skill on business correspondence It is important to know that writing for a business proposal of a project or a business offer to a customer should be given much care, since the way message that is 30 delivered will reflect the reputation of the company Therefore, knowing how to improve business writing skills is very important and useful as well  Read Books There are a number of books about how to improve business writing skills It will help to sharpen the ability to write and communicate our thoughts as an entrepreneur Read these books during the spare time and apply it on next letter Some of these materials also has samples of written work and exercises for mastery They also have additional suggestions on how to improve business writing skills The information contained in them will surely improve business writing ability It's reading a book that can truly improve your skills Let's read some books that will expand your horizons and teach you to become a better writer Some business writing books you can read such as Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business by Kenneth Roman or Words that Sell by Richard Bayan The books will help you say what you want to say, with less difficulty and more confidence the classic books have been expanded to include all new advice on e-mail and the e-writing world, plus a fresh point of view on trading correctness  Practice writing The writing process is an ongoing process that always needs attention Keep in mind that writing skill will not be improved overnight, and it can only strengthen by doing it often By having patience and a positive attitude, letters will be able to become better Even if it is as simple as writing an email to friends or colleagues, use this as an opportunity to improve writing skills Not only we can focus on the technical aspects of writing, like grammar and spelling, but we can develop your style  Take short business writing courses If studying independently does not work, enrolling on a short business writing course might be a better way to learn and improve the business writing skills There are courses like this available online and are being offered in adult classes of a lot of colleges This will not only sharpen writing skills but will also help in knowing the latest trend in business writing The deadlines set by these courses and the interaction with the instructor and classmates will surely help to find ways on how to improve the business writing skills 31 32 4.3 Suggestions for inquiry letter, order letter, and complaint letter 4.3.1 Suggestions for difficulties in writing inquiry letter  Organize thoughts before you write Before writing, we need to think about the message we want to pass across The biggest mistake that people have got when starting to write is that they not know well about what they are going to write As a result, the writing tends to be less structured Collect thoughts first before starting writing As we think about whatever we are going to write, make sure that our audience will be able to get our intended message easily  Define the key messages The key messages need to be clearly defined before writing This will ensure that we are really passing them through to audience effectively, and make sure the message is suited for the particular target audience Strive to write in a brief and clear manner and avoid the use of jargon as much as possible Many of readers are obviously busy and will spare little time for reading Don’t bore them Besides, most people not like to read so presenting main points early will help capture and maintain the reader’s attention throughout the letter  Proofread and Edit letters before sending Reread and correct the letter thoroughly before sending it Grammars and spell checks are helpful tools but it should not be solely relied on for it has a number of lapses This is a way to improve writing skills because grammar ability- an important element of writing is being polished Part of the hard work in writing brief letter is a careful review Read your letter aloud, checking for spelling and grammar errors Ask yourself: Is my request clear? Are there any possible misunderstandings? What would I think if I were the recipient? And delete any unnecessary words, sentences, and paragraphs when you revise 4.3.2 Suggestions for difficulties in writing order letter  Get your main points organized for specific planning Organizing main points before developing materials helps maintain a smooth flow and ensures that message gets delivered in a logical manner This will help to avoid postponing message to the middle point of the writing 33 Key points should be listed out before starting out on the writing Knowing how to bring out the writing in an organized and interesting manner makes the message more intelligent and essential to communicate effectively in business  Be concise When writing, remember to keep audience in mind Understand that readers not have time to read through multiple paragraphs The audiences only want the important details, not everything else in between This advice is even more relevant today, especially when writing letters or emails These short words express your respect for the reader By using short words, you have done the hard job of making your message easy to understand The same is true for sentences and short paragraphs Avoid writing large blocks of text if you want your letter to be clear and easy to understand Once you've followed the standard letter structure, make each sentence short as short as possible 4.3.3 Suggestions for difficulties in writing complaint letter  Consider reader Before writing, it should be defined readers who will receive the letter In many cases, writers often think about what they wanted the letter to contain However, it should be the other way around Analyze what reader would want to hear and focus on these areas Highlight major points concerning in order to sustain their attention Be concise and informative keeping a professional tone in writing these letters  Maintain a firm but respectful tone, and avoid aggressive, accusing language While writing complaint letter, remain diplomatic and courteous at all times No matter how justified the complaint may be, not allow the letter to become angry, sarcastic, or threatening Keep in mind that the person that reads the letter will often not be the person responsible for the problem Moreover, try to put yourself in the other person's place, and write the letter accordingly If the complaint letter does not bring about the expected results, consider writing another letter with a firmer tone, or try writing to someone higher up in the chain of command 34 4.4 Recommendations for managers of the AMT Co to help the staffs improve business correspondence writing skill  Offer on-site Business English lessons Depending on the employees’ availability and need, lessons can be once, twice or even three times a week Small groups of 4-8 people is a good choice to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak and receive sufficient personal instruction and feedback from the trainer and the others Once the employees language skills have been properly assessed, small groups may be further assembled by their area of focus It may also be necessary for some employees in specialized positions to receive more focused one-to-one lessons For example, export-import staffs in the AMT Co always have to work with foreign clients, so they may need to improve not only their background knowledge about logistics but also English skills like speaking and writing business correspondence This will help them to get ability to answer questions accurately, effectively and with confidence  Set up an English library If space is available, one nice location may be the company break room or in a dedicated area of a conference room Firstly, Some English reference books are suggested like a good bilingual dictionary, thesaurus and appropriate reference books (e.g., tax law, legal code, etc.) In addition to on-site Business English lessons, some popular language courses or writing business letter course may be considered to invest in Moreover, the library should be populated with business and industry related magazines and newspapers such as Harvard Business Review, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal Be sure to include reading material on a variety of general interest topics like sports, computer gaming, hiking, running and parenting Lastly, make sure all of the staffs are aware of this valuable resource so that they regularly take advantage of it A check out system might be set up, where staffs can take certain materials home for a fixed period of time Encourage them to take note of any words, phrases or text which might be confusing to them so they can share it with the in-house trainer for feedback 35 4.5 Limitations and suggestions for futher studies As a matter of fact, nothing is perfect and limitations are inevitable The study presented in this mirror thesis is of no exception Firstly, This study only surveyed staffs in AMT company, the small sample still unexplored in other difficulties when writing a business correspondence The further studies should focus on several factors affecting staffs motivation, we should add factors such as company culture, education level or staff personality characteristics into the research model Therefore, further studies need to overcome this limitation Secondly, because of time constraints, the study cannot deal with the inadequacies of staff but only the best-evaluated one, the difficulties of writing a letter This does not mean that difficulties are not of value in finding out the most effective and fastest way to write a business correspondence in export-import staffs at AMT Co These difficulties call for further research Further studies need sufficient time to examine and identify other difficulties Finally, the study is merely focuses on the evaluation and assessment from the staff's real experiences and experiments on work in dealing with foreign customer in AMT' export-import staffs , Further studies should be on the feedback of clients on email or any other business correspondence that seem to be more objective and of great usefulness to both other staffs and readers 36 CONCLUSION Nowadays, commercial activities are not only limited within our country but also outsourced to other countries in the region and in the world Therefore, the ability to communicate in English especially the ability to write English business letters may be indispensable in our luggage when applying for a job in a company as well as when working for companies in the future This study is an attempt to puzzle out the concept of business correspondence, to present difficulties that the export-import staffs in Anh Minh Transport Co have faced when writing a business correspondence It is also intended those who may have been interested in understanding more about writing business letter skill The overview of the study in chapter one contains the rationale of the study and a coherent combination of summary and synthesis of previous studies relating to the topic of business correspondence Besides, chapter has already showed research methods used in the study In chapter 2, the study presents the theoretical background of Business Correspondences The study just focuses on Inquiry, Order, and Complaint Letter It shows the definitions, how to use these letters and difficulties that people often have when writing The results of the research conducted in the chapter was analyzed in the chapter Then, the recommendations for the difficulties are presented in the chapter In conclusion, writing business correspondence involves various techniques that are quite easily grasped if well learn and regular practiced Although there is still some weaknesses relating to business correspondence in the study that cannot be covered because of the limited time and corporate staffs, the study is expected to be useful for not only the export-import staffs from the AMT Co but also for those who have difficulties when writing business correspondences REFERENCES 37 Business Correspondence and Report Writing, by R C Sharma Krishna Mohan, (2002) Business Correspondence, by Esther L Baraceros Business Correspondence: A Guide to Everyday Writing, by Lin Lougheed 10 11 12 13 (2003) How to write Effective Business Letters by Hosp Pharm (1993) International Business Correspondence, by Mc Comas (1995) Oxford Handbook of Commercial Correspondence, by A Ashley (2003) Oxford Handbook of Legal Correspondence, by Rupert Haigh (2006) Gale (2014) Guffey & Du-Babcock (2010, p.100) Guffey & Du-Babcock (2010) Locker & Kaczmarek (2011) Sue, Fryar and Thomas (1994) A study of problems in the business English writing skills of Thai employees at The Classic Chairs Company by Miss Thandarin 14 A study on difficulties in writing business correspondence for major English students of foreign languages faculty of academy of finance by Dam Hong Loan, Foreign Languages Department, Academy of Finance 15 A study on written structures, personal pronoun, decision and attitude expressions in commercial correspondence by Dinh Thi Thu Ha, Haiphong University 16 Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/ http://howtowritealetter.net/ http://www.businessdictionary.com http://www.shareyouressays.com https://english.tutorvista.com 38 APPENDICES Appendix 01 QUESTIONNAIRE 39 General information Full name: ………………………………………………………………………………… Age: …………………………………………………………………………………… Position: …………………………………………………………………………………… English level: ……………………………………………………………………………… Time: 30 minutes Difficulties in writing some types of business correspondences N Questions Answer o  Usually Do you often use letter and email for your  Sometimes work?  Few  Not much Do you know what differences between  A little letter and email?  Not at all  Hard Is it hard to identify what types of your  Quiet hard  Not very hard customers’ Business correspondences?  Not hard  Easy Is it easy and clear to understand what  Quite easy  Not easy your customers want?  Hard  Grammar Do you have any problems when writing  Content  Subject a business correspondence?  Not Are you sure of what you are writing in a  Sure  Not sure business correspondence?  Never Do you have any problems with grammar,  Rarely lexis, terminology, and setting expression  Sometimes when writing business correspondences?  Always  Inquiry Letter  Quotation Letter What types of business correspondence  Order Letter you often deal with?  Complaint Letter  Recovery Letter  Planning  Main business, purpose, What difficulties have you got when or subject 40matter  Recipient's needs, writing Inquiry Letters? purposes or interests INTERVIEWING What difficulties have you faced when writing business correspondences at work? 41 ... the Export-Import staffs in the Anh Minh company to improve in writing skill on business correspondence It is important to know that writing for a business proposal of a project or a business offer... for writing a business correspondence in export-import staffs at AMT company The first part of difficulty in planning Another weakness of staffs in conducting a business correspondence is planning... department at Anh Minh company have faced when writing a business correspondence in order to investigate and find research’s result Background knowledge is concentrated on finding difficulties in communicate