Course Description
This writing course will improve your English for business correspondence writing and, in the end, you will write what you want to write in your business letters and emails. We will not only write, we will look at the writing process, types of correspondence, how to respond to emails and letters, the use of tone, common writing errors, and your grammar and writing problems.
Tone can be important. This is the feeling that people get when they read your letters. It is important because you do not wish to offend or confuse the reader. Tone can range from direct (come out and just say it) to indirect (where you allude to it). Your being direct or indirect will depend on who you are talking to, or what you are writing about. The way that you write to your boss, less direct language, is different than you write to a peer or a subordinate, more direct language. This is tone.
We will also analyse the grammar and sentence structure in your writing to identify things to work on. This we will do by looking at previous writing examples and writing exercises done for the class. As well as your grammar, we will look at common errors such as: use of gerunds and to plus infinitives; run on sentences; sentence fragments; subject verb agreement; etc.
This correspondence course will also prepare you to write different types of emails and letters. These include inquiries (ask questions of the reader), requests (ask them to do something), complaints, good news, bad news, etc.
We will look at the process to use and the organization of your letters and emails. The process includes thinking about what you will write and then putting the ideas into an outline. We will use a standard three part organization for writing. The first part of the letter or email is where you give some information about yourself and your organization (if needed), and why you are writing. The next part is the body of the correspondence where you write or do what you said you would do in the first part. For example: ask questions, or give information. The last section is the next steps and a polite ending.
For each section of the email or letter and for each letter type we will review some useful phrases and sentences. These phrases can be used for beginning the correspondence, for giving information, for asking questions, for stating the next steps, and for politely ending the email.
There will be lots of practical experience writing different types of business letters and emails as well as responding to the different types of correspondence. The end result will be your writing will become clearer, it will be more easily understood, your clients will have more respect for your letters and emails, and you will have fewer communication problems. You will be more confident in your own writing, and it will become easier.