Luận văn phân tích Đối chiếu cấu trúc diễn ngôn của Đơn thư từ chức trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES x NGUYÊN THỦY DƯƠNG A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAM

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

x

NGUYÊN THỦY DƯƠNG

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE RESIGNATION LETTERS IN TERMS OF

DISCOURSE STRUCTURE

PHÂN TÍCH ĐÓI CIIÊU CÂU TRÚC DIỄN NGÔN CỦA ĐƠN

'THƯ TỪ CHỨC TRƠNG TIÊNG ANH VÀ TIÊNG VIỆT

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

: English Linguistics : 60220201

Ilanoi ,2014

'VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDLES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

a,

NGUYEN THUY DUONG

ACONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE RESIGNATION LETTERS IN TERMS OF

DISCOURSE STRUCTURE

PHAN TiCH DOL CHIEU CAU TRUC DLEN NGÔN CỦA ĐỚN

THU Tl CHUC TRONG TIENG ANH VA TIENG VIRT

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field : English Linguistics Code : 60220201

Supervisor : Dr Dỗ Thị Thanh Hà

Hanoi 2014

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT

I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled “A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese resignation letters in terms of discourse structure”

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Hanoi - 2014 Nguyen Thuy Duong

ABSTRACT

A resignation lelfer is one kind of busimess letlers, which holds an important role in

helping the employee to maintain a positive relationship with his/her old boss, and paves the

way for him or her to move on However, this kind of letters does not receive much attention

from the researchers in English and Vietnamese ‘Therefore, so as to help people have better understanding of resignation letters and see the similarities and differences in writing style of

English and Vietnamese resignation letters, this thesis studies discourse structures of 20

resignation letters (10 in English and 10 in Victwamesc), then compares and contrasts them The major methods used in this thesis are ‘move analysis’ approach, comparison and contrast

methods The result: of the study shows thal the structures of English and Vietnamese

resignation letters are basically similar They only have some differences in the length of the

letters and the kinds of moves From the result of the analysis, the characteristics of

resignation letters both in English and Vietnamese can be clarified Then, the knowledge of

discourse structure of Linglish and Vietamese resignation letter can be applied in writing an

effective and persuasive letter of resignation

TARLE OF CONTENTS

C@rtificate of Originality of Study Projeot Report

3 Methodology of the Study

6, Organization of the ‘Thesis

2.2.3 Approach to Genre: Move Analysis,

tà 3 General Description of Resignation Letters

3.1 Delition of Resignalion T.etlers

AY

2.3.4 Formal of Vielnamese Resignation Leters

Chapter 2: Methodolapy

1 Description of Samples & Method of Data Collection

2 Methods of Dala Analysis

1, Discourse Structure Analysis of English Resignation Letters

L.L The Surface Features of English Resignation Letters

1.1.1 Length of Discourse

nh ố ố ố.ốố

1.1.3 Sentenee

1.1.4 Vocabulary

1.2 The ‘Move Analysis’ of English Resignation Letters

1.2.1 The Analytical Framework

1.2.2 General Analysis of Move Types in English Resignation Lettors ++

1.2.3 Detail Analysis of Move ‘Types in nglish Resignation Letters

1.2.3.1 Move 1 — Opening

1.2.3.2 Move2 Addressing

1.2.3.3, Move 3 — Stating Resignation & Informing the Last Day of Work

1.23.4 Move 4— Giving the Reason of Resignation Positively

1.2.3.5 Move 5 Uxpressmg the Willingness to llelp with the ‘Transition

1.2.3.6 Move 6 — Requesting Interest from the Old Company

1.23.7 Move 7— Showing Gratitude & Wishing Success

2.3.8 Move 8 Hnding

1

2 Discourse Structure Analysis of Vietnamese Resignalion Ï.etlers

2.1 The Surface Features of Vietnamese Resignation Letters

3.21 The Analytical Framework

General Analysis of Move Types in Vietnamese Resignation Letters

2.2.3 Detail Analysis of Move Types in Vietnamese Resignation Letters

.4, Move 4” Stating Resignation & Informing the Last Working, Date

22 5 Move 5° — Stating the Reason of Resignation

2.2.3.6 Move 6° — Expressing the Willingness to Help with the Transition

.7, Move 7° — Committing Onself to Fulfill One’s Duty

2.2.3.8 Move 8° — Showing Gratitude & Wishing Success

2.2.3.9 Move 9 — Requesting Interest from the Old Company

2.2.3.0, Move 10° EndM cà nh nh nh nh nh on He

Chapter 4: Comparing and Contrasting discourse structure of English and

1 The Surface Features of English and Vietnamese Resignation Letters

LL Length of Discourse

1.2, Paragraph, Sentence, Vocabulary

2 The ‘Move Analysis’ of English and Vietnamese Resignation Letters

2.1 The Analytical Framework

2.2 General Analysis of Move ‘I'ypes in English and Vietnamese Resignation Letters

2.3 Detail Analysis of Move Types in English and Vietnamese Resignation Letters

2.3.1 Opening

2.3.2 Addressing ¬

2.3.3 Staing Resignatiom and Trformmg the [ae Day oŸ Work

2.3.4, Giving the Reason of Resignation

2.3.5 Lixpressing the Willingness to llelp with the ‘'ransition

2.3.6 Requesting Interest from the Old Company

2.3.7 Showing Gratitude & Wishing Success

2.3.8 Ending,

vi

Appendix I Move Analysis of English Resignation Letters

Appendix IL Move Analysis of Vietnamese Resignation Letters

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS

‘TABLE:

Table 1: Seven analytical steps

‘Table 2; ‘The number of words in the corpus of English resignation letters

Table 3: The frequency of move types in the corpus of English resignation letters Table 4: The order of moves in English resignation letters

Table 5, The list of moves and steps in English resignation letters

Table 6: The number of words in the corpus of Vietnamese resignation letters

Table 7: The frequency of move types in the corpus of Vietnamese resignation letters

‘Table 8: ‘The order of moves in Vietnamese resignation letters

Table 9: The list of moves and steps in Vietnamese resignation letters

Table 10: The analytical frameworks of English and Vietnamose resignation letters

DIAGRAM:

Diagram I: The length of English and Vietnamese resignation letters

viii

PART A— INFRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

A Business Lotler, the most popular and the most widely written type of Icller, is used to serve as a means of communication written for various commercial purposes ‘hese

purposes can be a business deal, complaint, warmng, uolicc, invilation, declaration,

information, apology and various other corporate matters There are many types of business

letters such as Application Letter, Acceptance Letter, Demand Letter, Letter of Complaint,

Resignation Teller, Sales Tetiers, ofc Among these types of Iellers, the Teller of Resignation may receive the least notice because people often think that when they leave their jobs they have nothing to do with their old company and old employer However a

good resignation letter can help the employee mamlain a posilive relalionship wilh his/her

old boss, and pave the way for him or her to move on In addition, the employee might need

a reference from the previous employer These show that knowing how to write a good

resignation letier is very important Nevertheless, it scoms that no researchers concem this kind of letter in English and Vietnamese Hence, in order to help people have better

underslanding of resignalion Ielters and sec the similantics and differences im writing style

of English and Vietnamese resignation letters, this study focuses on comparing and contrasting discourse structure of English and Vietnamese resignation letters

2 Aims of the Study:

‘The aims of the study are:

To review the background knowledge of discourse analysis and resignation letters

‘To point out the similarities and differences between discourse structures of English and Vietnamese resignation letters

‘To give some suggestions for writing resignation letters in English and Vietnamese

3 Scope of the Study:

Conducting this study, I do not have the ambition to cover everything about discourse analysis of Lnglish and Vietnamese resignation letters 1 only concentrate on analyzing

English and Vietnamese resignation letters in terms of discourse structures

4 Research Question:

What are the similaritics and differences between discourse structures of English and

Vietnamese resignation letters?

5, Methodology of the Study:

‘Move analysis’ approach is applied in this research to analyze the discourse

structure of resignation letters in English and Vietnamese Besides, in order to find out the sunilaritics and differences between discourse structure of English and Victnamese

resignation letters, the author uses comparison and contrast method

6 Organization of the Thesis: the study is divided into five main parts as follows:

Part A — Introduction

This part consists of rationale for choosing the topic, aims and scope of the study,

research queslion, research methodology, and organtyation of the study

PartB Development

Chapter I — Literature Review and Theoretical Background

This chapter includes general description of discourse analysis, discourse structure,

‘Move analysis’, and geneyal information about English and Vietnamese resignation letters Chapter 2 —Methodology

‘this chapter describes the participants and methods which are applied to collect and analyze the data

Chapter 3 — Anatysis of Discourse Structure in English and Vietnamese Resignation Letters

In this chapter, the author analyzes discourse structures in English and Vietnamese resignation letters in detail

Chapter 4 — Comparing and Contrasting Discourse Structure of English and Vietnamese

Resignation Letters

The similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese resignation letters

in terms of discourse structures are pointed out in this chapter

(1964), Searle (1969), Grice (1975), ITalliday and [fasan (1976), Widdowson (1979), Brown,

and Yule (1983) are linguists who greally contribute lo the overall picture of discourse

analysis because they have provided a fundamental theory of discourse analysis In Vietnam,

there are many linguists having joined in the trend of researching on discourse

analysis as well Among these Hinguisis, Tran Ngoc Them is regarded as the first one studying this new field In terms of genre analysis, there are a number of researches on

academic genres such as research arlicle (Swales,1990), sales promotion letters, job

applications (Bhatia, 1993), sociology articles (Brett,1994), dissertations (Hyland, 2003),

or “Genre Analysis of Personal statements: analysis of Moves in Application Essays to Medical and Dental schools”, by Ding (2007), “Self-composed: Rhetoric in Psychology

Personal Statements” by Brown (2004), and so on With regards to resignation letter, up to

now, there has been no research

Therefore, it is necessary to have a research in terms of discourse structure of

resignation letters in English and Vietnamese Ilopefully, this study can bring some

conlribulons to the theory and implicatious of teaching and learning writing skill,

especially writing English and Vietnamese resignation letters

2 Theoretical Background

2.1, General Description of Discourse and Discourse Analysis:

2.1.1 Definition of Discourse:

According to Crystal (1992: 25), “discourse is a continuous sireich of (especially

spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such a sennon, argument, joke or a narrative” Cook (1989: 156) defines discourse as “stretches of language

perceived to be meaningful, unified, and purposive” Nunan (1993: 6) states that discourse

3

needs “Lo be defined in terms of meaning”, and “pieces of discourse are those thal form a meaningful whole”, Widdowson (1979: 98) states “Discourse is a use of sentences to perform acts of communication which cohere into larger communicative units, ultimately establishing a rhetorical pattem which characienves the pieces of language as a whole as a kind of communication.”

We can see that most of the definitions of discourse typically involve reference to concepts of language above or beyond the sentence, language as meaning in mieraction, language in use, and language in situational and cultural context

2.1.2 Discourse and Text:

There Have becn so many concepts around the lwo lerms ‘Tex? and ‘Discourse’

Some linguists use them interchangeably Other linguists try to make a clear distinction

between therm For example, Widdowson (1984 100) argues, “Discourse 13 a

communicative process by means of interaction Its situational outcome is a change

in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, intentions made clear, its linguistic

product is text” Brown & Yule (1983: 6) argue that text is (he representation of discourse

and the verbal record of a communicative act David Nunan (1993: 6) clarified the two terms as follow: text is used “to refer to any written recard of a communicative event” while

discourse refers “to the interpretation of the communicative event in context”

Tor the sake of simplicity, in this thesis the two terms are used

interchangeably to refer to any stretch of language in use, which is in most cases longer than

In the introduction to The Iandbook of Discourse Analysis, Schiffrin et al (2001)

group the definitions of ‘discourse analysis’ ito three general calegories The first, one is

A

the study of language use, the second is ihe study of linguistic structure ‘beyond the

sentence’; and the third one is the study of social practices and idcological assumptions associated with language and/or communication

The first (ype concentrates on traditional lingurstic

consiructs - phrase and clause

structures ‘The second one focuses on extended sequences of utterances or semences, and on

how to construct and organize those ‘texts’ in systematic ways The third concentrates either

on participants’ actions in particular communication events or on the general characteristies

of speech/discourse communities in relation to issues such as power and gender

We can say that discourse analysis gives us insight into various aspects of language

im use such as: how discourse ners and their realivalion in language differ (rom culture to

culture; how talk follows regular patterns in a wide range of different situations: or how

texts are structured beyond sentence level

2.1.4, Discourse Structure:

In the theory of discourse analysis, the concept of discourse structure has been

studied and expanded by many different researchers Halim and Mason (1990) discuss

constituents of discourse in terms of element and sequence Elements and sequences

of discourse with their certain rhetorical functions te the whole purpose of a

discourse create a stable discourse organization ‘The text structure is seen in the light of

pragmatics by Ross (1975) Ie states that text structure is ‘expectation structures’ While

Halliday and Hasan (1976) define discourse structure as the organization of langnage above

the sentence such as: the paragraph, episode, or topic unit

Although each researcher has his/ her own view of discourse structure, they are

essentially the same All of them suppose that discourse of all lands has definite

organizations, and the flexibility of structures varies from genre to genre ‘they try to

establish the relationship between discourse structure and the communicative purpose of the

speakers or writers, im order that they find out the method to analyze discourse structure

based on the relationship of the factors of discourse

2.2, Genre Analysis and Approach to Genre

2.2.1 Genre

A genre is a culturally and linguistically distinct form of discourse such as narrative,

exposition, procedural discourse, ete Sharing communicative purposes has been the

5

principal criterion winch characlerives a class 0Ï comrmmicallve evenls as a genre

According to Bazerman (1988: 62), "a genre is a socially recognized, repeated strategy for

achieving similar goals in situations socially perceived as being similar" Uxemplars of a

parlicular genre share similarilics int "slucture, style, contont and intended audien

(Swales, 1990; 58), With the similar point of view, Bhatia (1993: 13) defines “a genre is a

recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purpose(s) identificd and mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly ocours.” [le also stresses the important role of

communicative purposes in genre identification: “Although there are a number of other

factors, ike content, form, intended audience, medium or channel, [bal in{luence the nature

and construotion of a genre, it is primarily characterized by the communicative purpose(s)

that itis intended lo fulfill"

Relating the above discussions to this study, a resignation letter can be seen as a

genre which shares the common communicative purpose that is stating resignation; and its

social function is informing and persuading the employer to lel the employee resign front his! her current position and at the same time helping the employee to remain the good relationship with the old company They are also the communicative purpose that forms the

key criterion for identifying data in this study

2.2.2 Genre analysis

Swales (1990) supposes that genre analysis is a means of studying spoken and

written discourse for applied ends; it is an analysis of text to derive an indication in a rationale of why genre texts have acquired certain features Bhatia (1991) considers genre analysis as (he analytical (ramework revealing (he ulilizable [orm-function correlations and contributing to the understanding of the cognitive structuring of information in specific

areas of language use

Up to now, Genre analysis, especially which concentrates on moves, has become a commonly applied approach to discourse analysis

2.2.3 Approach to Genre: Move Analysis

‘There are two approaches in corpus-based discourse analysis ‘Lhe fiist is top-down, and the second is bottom-up Under the top-down approach, the analysis starts with the

identification of communicalive purposes of the gene which is done by experl informants

6

Next, these global purposes arc compared against the texts in order to identify moves On the contrary, under the bottom-up approach, identifying surface linguistic features is the

starting point Then, the salienl linguistic (ealures thal frequently occur across texts arc

explored to idemify patterns Based on these pattems, the researcher will identify rhetorical

move structures

‘Move analysis’ is considered to be an illustration of top-down approach which is used to analyze the discourse structure of texts in a specific genre level (Swales, 1981, 1990) The aim of “Move analysis’ is to identify the moves, move sequences, and key linguistic features of the lexis ina specific germe In order to have clear understanding about

“Move analysis’, we need to clarify three important terms: ‘move’, ‘text’, and ‘genre’

There are many definitions of ‘move’ According lo Nwogu (1991: 114), move is

“ a text segment made up of a bundle of linguistic features which give the segment a uniform orientation and signal the content of discourse in it” Duszak (1994: 299) considers

move as“ a conventional stralegy to carry oul a discourse goal” Holmes (1997; 325)

defines move as “ a segment of text that is shaped and constrained by a specific

communicative function” Bhatia (1993: 30-31) supposes moves as “ cognitive structures

which serve certain communicative intentions and are subservient to the overall discourse

communicative purpose of the genre”

Two terms — ‘genre’ and ‘text’ are discussed in the above sessions In detail, Swales

(1990) states that ‘genre’ focuses on the communicative purpose of discourse; and ‘text’ is considered as a sequence of ‘moves’, each move represents a stretch of text serving a

parlicular communicative (thal is, semantic) [unction

2.3 Gencral Description of Resignation Letters:

2.3.1 Definition of Resignation Letters:

A resignation letter is one kind of business letter which the employee uses to formally inform the employer that he is leaving his job A resignation letter can help the

employee keep a good relationship with his employer, and al, (he same lime it helps him

make progress in his new career easily.

2.3.2 Characteristics of Resignation Letters:

Resignation Ietter is considered onc kind of the business Ictters Therefore, it has some characteristics that an effective business [etter should have According to Santos

(2006), there are ten basic characteristics

‘The first one is ‘conciseness’ It means the number of words and sentences that are used to convey the message is as few as possible The writer can achieve this by eliminating wordy and trite expressions

‘The second one is ‘clarity’ Precise and familiar words should be used Jargon,

colloquialisms, and slang should be avoided because they often cause confusion

The third is ‘consideration of the readers’ needs, interest, aud circumstances’ The

letter should be written from their point of view and how they benefit from the content of

the message

The forth is ‘completeness’ This means the letter bas to present all the facts that the

reader needs to help him or her make a sound decision on the writer’s message

The fiflh one is ‘concreteness’

than general and vague

‘Courtesy’ is the sixth characteristic that should be included in the resignation letters

Thờ lelter rust be specific, vivid and defimte ralher

It means the letter should express the respect and the concem for the reader ‘the language discriminating on the basis of age, race, disability, gender, religion, ethnicity, and

nationality must not be used in this kind of letter

‘The next characteristic is ‘coherence’ All the words and sentences in the letter

should be arranged correctly ta make the ideas flow smoothly and logically The

‘coherence’ can be achieved by using some devi

° 1s the eighth one that should be taken into consideration The writer

has to make sure that all the figures and facts arc accurate; all the grammar, punctuation, and spelling are flawless

The nex one is ‘credibility’ This feature refers to the communnicalor’s status

(whether as himself’ herself or as representative of the company) Being a message sender,

the writer must write the true and believable information The letter must sound hanest and

sincere.

Last but not least, the letter must be ‘consistency’ of tone and style TL means the

writer should usc only one tone and one style from the beginning to the end of ‘the letter

2.3.3 Format of English Resignation Letters:

The wobsite-hilp:/fobsomch aboul com/od/sampleresignalionletters/a/resignsamples htm

is a reliable website which provides us a large amount of useful information related to a

variety of letters such as: job application letters, cover letters, recommendation letters, thank you Iettors, resignation letters, otc According to this website, a full English resignation letter should have the following, parts:

Header: both the date and the emplayer’s contact information (name, title, company name,

address, phone tumber, and email) should be the first part of a resignation letter Tl this 1s art

email rather than an actual letter, the employee's contact information should be put at the

end of the letter, after his signature

Salutation: this part is used to address the letter to the manager with his or her formal title

(“Dear Mr ‘Mrs ‘Dr XYZ)

Paragraph 7: in this part, the cmployce sialos thal he is resigning and informs the dale on

which his resignation will be effective He should check the contract to see how much notice

he is required to give his manager

Paragraph 2: the employee can say the reason why he is leaving (ie he is beginning another job, he is going back to school, or he is taking time off), but this is not necessary If

the employee wants to say why he is leaving, the reason should he positive He should focus

on where he is going next, not on what he disliked about his current job

Paragraph 3: in this part, the employee should say that he is willing to help with the transition that his leaving will cause

Paragraph 4: if the employee would like a letter of reference from his manager, he oan ask

for it here

Paragraph 5: this part is used to thank the manager for the opportunity to work for the company Lf the employee has a particularly good experience, he can go into a bit more detail about what he appreciates about the job (he people be worked with, the projects he

worked on, etc)

Close: to close the resignation letter, a kind but formal signoff should be utilized, such as

"Sincerely" or "Yours Sincerely.”

Signature: (he eiuployee puls an end of the letter with his handwritten signature, and this is

followed by his typed name

A Sample of English Resiguation Letters:

Iie with deep rearc that give you my formal notice of resignation se a journalist atthe Wall Sirct Journal Publisher

‘My last working day will be March 16

Thave accepted a position with another publisher that will further my growth and development in my career I have enjoyed working at the Wall Street Journal Publisher and will miss my collcagues here, However, this new position will challenge my growth and further my career

T appreciate the professional development and growth from the Wall Street Journal Publisher, and in particular from you

“Your mentoring support hes eneouraged me and 1 hope that we wall contique our relationship az I move forward in my career

T wish you and the Wall Sweet Journal Publisher continued growth and success in the future

‘ictnamese Resignation Letters:

Vicinamese people do not usually write resignalion tellers when they give up their jobs That leads to the difficulty in finding the standard form of a Vietnamese resignation

letter The process of searching the format of Vietnamese resignation letters in some

websites such as _ http://ayya.vn/mau-don-xin-nghi-vicc-mau-don-xin-nghi-vice-viet-tay-

hay/, and http://Iuatminhgia.vn/Mau-don-xin-nghi-viec-newsview-237-70L aspx, or hillp:/Avww brink vi‘diendarvindex.php?showlopic 1797 shows that the formal of

resignation letters in Vietnamese is influenced by the Knglish ones

Therefore, partly based on format of English resignation letters and partly based on

the survey of the corpus in Vietnamese, the formal of Vietnamese resignation letlers is

found out with the following parts:

Header: the official name of the country and the name of the letter should be the first part of

a resignation lelter

Salutation: this part is used to address the letter to the manager and the personnel

đepartrnenl

10

Part 1: the employee shortly introduces bimself/ herself in this part (stating the name and

the department where he/she works)

Part 2: in this part, the employee states that he is resigning and informs the date on which

his resignation will be effective

Part 3: the employee can say the reason why he is leaving with the positive attitude

Part 4: in this part, the employee should express his/her willingness in helping with the

transition

Part 5: the employee will commit himself’ herself to fulfill his/ her duty before leaving

Part 6: this part is used to appreciate the job, show deep gratitude to the manager for the

opportunity to work in the company, and wish [he company suc

Part 7: in this part, the writer formally resquests the ald company to deal with his’ her

resignation leller by baw

Close: the employee puts an end of the letter with stating the place and the date he/ she

writes the letter

Signature: the employee gives bis/ her signature and full name on the right corner of the

letter, and on the left comer that is the signature and full name of the person who confirms

the letter - the manager

A Sample of Vietnamese Resignation Letters:

CONG HOA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM:

Kinh git: Ran link dao Cing ty Cé phn Seu Tổng hợp Hà Nật

Trưởng phòng Té chiec — Hanh chinh — Nhdn sr

"Tên tôi là: Nguyễn Quang Huy

'ộ phận làm việc: Phòng Quản ti Doi sống

‘Toi rid lay làm tiếc vì sẽ không còn lăn việc lại Công ty Có phẩu Sơn Tổng hợp Hẻ Nội trong Hới gián

quyết định nhận vị trí công việc mdi dé tìm thêm co hội phát triển mói , phủ hợp với chuyên môn và khả năng lảm việc

của tôi

Tai thực sự tẩy làm vĩnh dự lớn được làm việc tại đây trong suốt 5 năm qua Trang quá trình làm việc tại đây, Công ty

đã cho tôi có được may mẫn lâm việc với những đồng nghiệp Lốt củng với mnệt mời trường làm việc tốt Tôi xin chân

thành cảm ơn Công ty đã tin tưởng tôi trong, suết thời gian vừa qua va chúc cho Công ty chủng ta sẽ đạt dược những,

thành công như mong muốn

ll

đũ vả có Irách nhiệm

Rất mong được sụ giúp đ của Ban lãnh đạo Công ty

'Tôi xin chân thành cám ơn !

Y kiến của trưởng bộ phận

12

tối làm đọn này xin được nghỉ việc tù ngày 8 tháng năm 201 0 Tôi sẽ hàn giao công việc của mình một cách đầy:

Tà Nội, ngày 8 tháng 6 năm 2010

Người làm đơn

Nguyễn (Quang Huy

Chapter 2 — Methodology

1 Description of Samples & Method of data collection:

AL first, 4 was difficult io collect this kind of letlers, especially those in Vietnamese

because Vietnamese people do not have the habit of giving resignation letters when they

want to give up their jobs It took two months to collect over 100 resignation letters in

Fnglish and Vietnamese from different companies and organizations i New York,

Philadelphia, San Francisco, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kien Giang, ‘bai Nguyen and so on

Most of these letters are searvhed on the mlernct and the rest is colleeied directly The

writers of resignation letters in Hnglish are Hnglish speakers, and the authors of Vietnamese ones are Vietnamese people These letters include a variety of reasons to resign such as:

resignation for further education, health condition, or pursning a new career, moving to

another place; and some letters do not give the reasons to resign

Out of the total of aver 100 resignation letters collected, the corpus of this study

consists of 20 resignation lelters (len im Enghsh and ten in Vietnamese), which were

selected based on the status of the person who resigns from the office and the background

that he or she gives (he resignation letters The lolal words m 20 Tetlers are 4294 in which

English resignation Kettors consist of 1786 words and Vietoamese resignation letters have

2508 words, ‘he number of words in 10 Lnglish resignation letters ranges from 107 to 304

While the range of words in Vietnamese resignation lelicrs are bebween 166 and 352 The

average length of resignation letters in Vietnamese (250.8 words) is slightly longer than that

of English ones (178.6 wards)

Tho sclocted texts cover a wide range of staffs’ jobs such as: editor, accounting clerk, secretary, receptionist, filing clerk, librarian, production supervisor, etc ‘They represent a

variety of author styles However, all these letters have a common characteristic that is the

person who gives the resigrilion letter is an office stall and the reason why he/ she wants to

resign is pursuing a new career

2 Methods of data analysis:

To analyze the corpus, the thesis follows seven major analytical steps which were

developed by Biber et al (2007), as shown in this table:

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Table 1: Seven analytical steps

Develop the analytical framework: determime set of

possible functional types of discourse units, that is, the

major communicative functions which discourse units

can serve in corpus

Sogment cach texi into disvourse unils (apply the

analytical framework from step 1)

Analyze the lexical’ grammatical characteristics of

each discourse unit in each text of the corpus

5 Linguishe description of

discourse categories

Describe the typical linguistic characteristics of each

functional category, based on analysis of all discourse

units of a particular functional type in the corpus

6 Text structure analysis

7 Description of discourse

organizational tendencies Analyze complete texts as sequences of discourse

units shifling among the different funetional types Describe the general patterns of discourse organization

across all texts in the corpus

‘Adapied from Biber et al (2007) Afler applying seven analytical slops to analyze the corpus, the results are displayed via tables/graphs in percentage terms From that the frequency of each category is determined and the results are discussed and evalualed The analysis results of resigealion lettors in English and Vietnamese arc synthesized and discussed in an attempt to find out salient discourse features of this genre Finally, discourse structure of resignation letters

in Fnylish and those in Vienamese are compared and contrasted to point out the similarities

and differences between them.

Chapter 3 — Analysis of discourse sfructurc in English and

Resignation Letters

1 Discourse Structure Analysis of English Resignation Letters:

1.1 The Surface Features af English Resignation Letters:

1.1.1 Length of discourse:

Vietnamese

In general, resignation Ictters in English are rather simple and their length is short

‘They are presented in only one page All the ten letters which are used in this study totally have 1786 words The number of words in each letter is presented as follows:

‘Table 2: The number nf words in the corpus of English resignation letters

The letter number

No.1 No.2

From the above table, we can see that letter no.3 has the fewest words, and letter no.9

has the mosh words The rest Iellers have over 100 words im average

1.1.2 Paragraph:

As mentioned in the format, of an English resignation letter, 4 full one should have five paragraphs in the body of the letter However, the survey shows that the number of paragraphs in these ten letters ranges from 3 to 6 paragraphs, The letters - no.3, no.5, and

no.7 have 3 paragraphs, Tho letlers - no.1, 0.2, no.4 and no.6 have 4 paragraphs Two

letters no.8 and no.10 have 5 paragraphs each Only letter no.9 the longest one has 6

paragraphs The number of sentences in each paragraph ranges from 1 to 6 senlenoes There

aro 12 paragraphs which have one sentence in cach (29.3%) There are 19 paragraphs having

2 sentences in each, equal to 46.3% & paragraphs have 3 sentences in each one, which equals to 19.6% No paragraph has 4 sentences (0%) There is one paragraph having 5 sentences (2.4%) and one paragraph having 6 sentences (2.1%) These figures indicate that

most of the paragraphs contain 1 to 2 sentences and the number of paragraphs having more

than 2 sentences takes a small percentage

1.1.3 Sentence:

The total number of serences m the body of ten English resignation letters is 85, im

which the longest sentence has 48 words, and the shortest one has 6 words Other sentences

have the average length from over 10 to over 20 words

The study of teu English resignation letter indicales (hal using complex, compound,

and extended simple sentences is the common trend That accounts for the number of

sentences int cach paragraph is rather few

Most of the sentences in these letters are written in active voice and begin with

subject ‘I because in writing, the English often goes straight to the problem and thinks of

Swho’ or ‘what? in advance

1.1.4, Vocabulary:

All the letters take ten key characteristics in writing resignation letters into

consideration Therefore, words thal are used in these letters arc clear, simple, easy to

understand, but still formal so that the letters can convey the message effectively and avoid

confusing

Because the cmployces want their cmployers to accopt their resignation letters without feeling unpleasant and uncomfortable, they often use some words such as ‘please’,

‘would like’, or ‘regrel’ im the Jeilers We can sec the following examples:

Please accept this as my formal resignation letter from my position as accounting clerk to be effective from September

IL is wilt deep regrel thal 1 give you my formal nolice of resignalion as editor ai (he Wall 8treeL Jơurmal Publisher

(letter no.1)}

‘With some regret, this letter is my resignation from my position as administrative assistant with Wallace Development

Company Limited (letter no.9)

Please accep! this lelter as formal nolice that I wish to resign frou ay position as a Gling clerk, effective from the dale

above (letter no 0)

1.2 The ‘Move Analysis’ of English Resignation Letters

1.2.1 The Analytical Framework:

In order to analyze the corpus, the first step is to develop the analytical framework; that means the sct of communicative and funclional calegorics which can be represented in the texts of the genre must be determined ‘To identify the move types for a genre, it is essential to understand the overall rhetorical purpose of the texts in the genre Then the fimetion and local purpose of cach text segment must be found cut and evaluated The process of sorting out move types is rather difficult, therefore, multiple readings and

reflections on the texts are needed

Based on the above format of an English resignation letter, there 1s a move which is

used to request the letter of reference However, in the process of reading and categorize

move types m TÔ English resignation letters, (his mave lype hasn't been found out Instead

of that, a new move type cmorges, that is requesting interest from the old company Hence,

after reading, reflecting and evaluating the corpus many times and also basing on the format

and communicative purposes of an English tesignalion Ietler, the aralylical (framework of English resignation letters is developed, It inchudes the following moves and steps:

Move 1: Opening

Step A: The date of writing resignation letter Step B: The employer's contact information Move 2: Addressing

Move 3: Stating resignation and informing the last day of work

Step A: Stating resignation

Slop B: Tnforming the last day of work

Move 4: Giving the reason of resignation positively

Step A: Stating the resignation reason

1?

Slep B: Expressing imteres! in the old job

Move 5: Expressing the willingness to help with the transition

Move 6: Requesting interest from the old company

Move 7: Showing gratitude & wishing success

Step A: Appreciating the old job

1.2.2 General Analysis of Move ‘Types in English Resignation Letters

The survey of 10 resignation letters shows the frequency of moves thal appear in

each letter as follows:

Table 3: The frequency of move types in the corpus of English resignation letters

Move 1 nol, no.2, no.3, no.4, no.5, no.6, no.7, no8, no.9, 100%

110.10 Move 2 no.1, 90.2, n0.3, no.4, no.5, no.6, no.7, no8, n0.9, 100 %

no.10 Move 3 no.l, no.2, n0.3, no.4, no.5, no.6, no.7, no8, no.9, 100%

no.10 Move 4 no.l, no.2, 00.3, n04, no.5, no.6, no.7, no8, 00.9, 100%

no.10

The above table indicates thal move 1, move 2, move 3 move 4, move 7 and move 8

appear in all the letters in this corpus, whereas, move 5 appears in 5 letters Move 6 only

appears in letter number 10 ‘That means 6 move types (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8) are obligatory and 2 moves (5, 6) are optional in this carpus

‘The survey also shows that the order of moves is not necessarily similar to the move

order in the analytical framework

Table 4: The order of moves in English resignation ledlers

Nol

No.2 No.3

No

No.5 No.6 No.7 No8 No9 No10

From the table we can see that move 1, move 2, and move 3 are located at the

begining of the letters; move 8 is at the end; other moves can exchange their orders with

cach other; especially, move 4 often goos with move 7 Moreover, some moves repeat For

example, move 4 appears 2 times and move 7 appears 3 times in letter number 2; or in letter

number 9, move 3 turns up 2 limes, move 4 repeats 3 times and move 5 appoars 2 Limes

‘This indicates that except for some certain move types, depending on the style of the writer,

the sequence of some move types can be changed or repeated withoul affecling the content,

of the letters

In addition, moves and steps do not necessarily coincide with paragraphs - more than

one move/step appears in the same paragraph and one move/step can appear in two different

paragraphs.

Table 5: The list of moves and steps in English resignation letters

This move can be realized by means of the following two steps

Step A: ‘he date of writing resignation letter

Step B: The employer's contact information

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All of the ten letlers in the corpus have move 1 The position of this move is al the

beginning of the letters Its steps follow the order — step A-> step B in which step A is used

to state the date when the employee writes the resignation letter and step B contains the employer's contact information including name, title, company name, and address Some

examples are shown as follow:

the Wall Street Journal Publisher Einstein Medical Center

1.2.3.2 Mave 2 — Addressing:

Move 2 also appears in the whole corpus of Linglish resignation letters It follows move 1 and is utilized to address the employer This move always starts with the short and simple structure: Dear + Mr/ Mrs/ Miss + the employer’s sumame For instance:

1.2.3.3 Move 3 — Stating Resignation and Informing the Last Day of Work

Move 3 is also considered a compulsory move type in this kind of letter because of

ils appearing Irequency in the corpus This move may be realized by means of two steps

Step A: Stating resignation

Step B: Informing the last day of work

instep A, the writers state that they will give up their jobs This step takes place right after move 2 The ways to express this step are various Some letters express the regret

about their leaving:

It is with deep regret that I give you my foumal notice of resignation as editor at the Wall Street Journal Publisher

(letter no.1)

With sone regret, this letler is my resignation from my position as adminislealive assistanL váth Watlace Development

Company Limited (letter no.9)

Some state resignation by using structure: ‘please accept from as ”

Please accept this as ny formal resignation letter from my position as accounting clerk (Icklcr 10.2)

Please accept thiz as my formal resignation letter from my position as receptionist .(letter 110.4)

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Please accepl this letier as Lormal nolice hai 1 wish to resign from my position as a filing clerk, effective frou the date

above (letter no.10)

Some just state resignation directly as follows

‘This is to formally notify you that Tam resigning from TT Wilson Computer Company ag secretary (Iettor 110.3)

This Ictter ig to announce my resignation as librarian at Seton Hall University (letter no.5)

I have decided to tender my resignation ftom my position as administrative assistant with Willoughby Brewing

Company (etter no.G)

The purpose of Uns (eller is Lo inform you of my resignation from my currenl posilion as billing accountant (letter

no.?7)

Lam resigning from my position as a production supervisor (Letter no.8)}

The above examples indicate that the writers tend to use formal words such as ‘deep

regrel’, ‘please’, ‘formal’, ‘formally’, ‘lender’ in order to meel communicative purpose of

this step that is stating resignation without making the employers unpleasant

While step A is used to state resignation, the employees utilize step B to inform the

[inal dale when they work in their old companies Step B louds Lo appear right aller step A

In the exception of two letters (no.? and no.20), from letter no.] to letter no.8, the position

of step B is ight afler slop A (80 %) To express step B, the wrilers offen use structure: ‘my

last/ final day (of work) will be

‘My last working day will be March 16", (letter no 1)

‘My last day will be August | 5”, two weeks from today (letter no.5)

My last day will be Augusl 10” (letter no.6)

‘My last day of work will be October 14 2010 (letter no.7)}

‘My final day is Tune 10, so you have the fill two weeks? notice (Ieticy n0.9)

iny final day at work will be April 19 2010 (letter no.10}

1.2.3.4 Move 4— Giving the Reason of Resignation Positively

In the genre of resignation letters, there arc many lcttors which do not give the reasons to resign Llowever, because one of the criteria to select the corpus of this study is based on the reason ol resignalion, hal is pursuing new carcer Thorefore, the move — giving the reason of resignation positively is obligatory in this corpus Move 4 does not necessarily stay right after move 3 Vor instance, in the letter no.2, 3, and 8, following move 3 is move 7

Move 4 may be realized by means of one or more oŸ two stops

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Ñiep Á: Stabing the resignation reason

Step B: Expressing interest in the old job

Step A is used to state the reason why the employees give up their jobs This step

appears in all the len lellœrs In some lelers

slop A appears 2 or 3 limes in the samo

paragraph or in different paragraphs; for example, in letter no.1 this step turns up 2 times in paragraph 4, while the author of letter no.9 uses this step 3 times in paragraphs 3, 4, and 6

Lhave accepted a positon with another publisher thal will further my growl and development in my career

«However, this new position will challenge my growth and further ny carer (P.4) - (letter no.1)

Lhave accepted a position as a manager at a firm that is not a competitor with Wallace Development This was a timciy

offer since T am ready for the next step forward in my career (P.3) - (Jeller 110.9)

Thad determined, after talking with you about the possibility, that such a promotion wanld be unavailable here for several years, I really wanted to take all of my team leader experience to the next level and have reporting staif

members (P.4) - (letter no.9)

Rather, 1 am pursuing my next opportunity (P.6) - (letter no.9}

Having the same reason to resign, but there are many ways to express this step We

GAM §

¢ (he following cannple:

‘You protably already kriow the reason 1 sun feaving is thai | pursue a new career (letter no.2)

Bul afler long hours of consideralion, any decision is now final and I have accepted a position wilt anolher company

(letter no.3)

T have heen offered a position as a secretary, a position which T feel will give me a better chance to farther my career

(letter no.)

Thave been offered the position of plant ananager This is a new jolt opportunity for me, a job opportunity Ihral will not

be available here for quile sore lime So, I will pursue this new job opportunily (letter no.8)

.afince my graduation frorn university [ fave been pursuimg # carcer more lilting with my long term aspiralions and 1

have received an excellent job offer with witich I can use the skills and knowledge I have worked so hard for (lellcr

no.10)

To support for siep A, to make sialing resignation reason more positively, the

employees use step B ‘This step is utilized to express the interest in the old job Nevertheless, this step is optional because its frequency is 60 % Some letters do not contain this step such

as: letter no.3, 4, 5, and 7, but in letter no.2 and 9 step B takes place 2 times

‘The position of step A and step B can be exchanged for each other tor example, the

order of these two steps in letter no.I is: step A — step B — step A, in letter no.2 is: step B—

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slep A —slep B, in letler no.9 is step A — siep A —slep B—slep B—step A, in letter no.6 and

no.10 is: step B — stop A, and in Ietter no.8 is: step A —stop B

In order to express step 13, the authors often use the word ‘enjoy’

Thave enjoyed working at the Wall Street Jounal Publisher and will miss my colleagues here (eller 110.1)

Lhave immenscly enjoyed working here as the accounting clerk for the past six years, .(letter no.2)

‘While 1 have enjoyed iy time spent working for your team, .(letter no.6)

Tim sure you know thal Unis decision was dilficull for me because I have truly enjoyed und leumed from sy colleagues

here, (letter no.9}

1.2.3.5 Move 5— Expressing the W'

no.4, 6, 8, 9, 10); thus, if is plional This move is not always afler move 4 Tn letler no.4, 6,

8, and 10, move 5 turns up one time Only in Jettor no.9 this move appears two times

In spite of offering to help the old company, the employees have to choose the expression carclully to demonstrate their goodwill in helping with the transition As we can see in the following examples, the authors usually use some structures: ‘please feel free to ’, ‘please be assured that I will do all ’ ‘I’lLhelp all °, or ‘I'll be happy to help

Please fecl free to contact me should the need ever ariec (letter no.4)

‘This was not an cary decision and took many hours of consideration However, please be assured that I will do all I can

to assist in the uneventful transfer of ny duties before leaving, (letter 10.6)

TW help all that T can until T start my new job Just let me know what you need me to do (lelict 110.8}

Till be happy to help train my replacement if yon can fill the position quickly T am also leaving a fully developed joh Acecription, eo nothing slips through the cracks { can be available by phone on a limited basis if needed after my last

day This offer is known about and supported by my new employer (letter no.9)

1.2.3.6 Move 6— Requesting Interest from the Old Company

Move 6 is utilized to request interest from the old company It is not necessarily

included in the English resignation lotlers because its appearing Irequency is 10 % Tn the whole corpus, this move only appears in letter no.10 In this letter, move 6 is even befare

move 5

In order to contribute to the acquisition of the general communicative purpose of this

genre, that is persuading the employers to accept the resignation without feeling unpleasant,

the vocabularies used in move 6 are very posilive

234

TT have onlsianding aceuanulstsd arma leave, please advise me how rauch [ have, and whelher I am permitted lo (ake

it or if it will be paid tome (etter no.10)

1.2.3.7 Move 7— Showing Gratitude & Wishing Success

Move 7 is used to express the employees’ deep gratitude to the old employers and

companies, at the same time to wish the old companies success This move is considered one of the most important moves in Inglish resignation letters On this account, all of the ten letiers in the corpus have move 7 This move may be realized by means of one or mare

of three steps

Step A: Appreciating the old job Step B: Thanking

Step C: Wishing success

The order of these three steps can be changed In step A, the writers appreciate their

old job This step appears in § letters (80%) They are letters wo.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 Analysis of the corpus indicates that the most frequent word which is used in this step is

‘approciale’, The following is some examples

T angreciate the professional development and growth from the Walt Street Joumal Publisher, and in particular from you

“Your mentoring; support has encouraged me and I hope that we will continue our relationship as I move forward in my

career (letter no 1)

My time here was an incredible experience for me and T muly appreciate all that T leamt working here for the past three

years, (letHer no.)

1 appreciate the professional development and grovth from Acme Company and in parlicular from you during the list

five years Your mentoring has

state (letter no.7)

spired me and T hope that we will continue onr relationship as T move to a different

Working al Anchor Brewing Company for the pasl twelve yeurs was an opportunity thai I appreciate Starting as a production worker, I progressed through the rauks tomy cusreat supervisory role and I appreciate the help aud support that T had from yon along the way T've enjoyed my coworkers and the company provides an excellent work

environment for employees (letter no.8)

In step B, the employees give thanking to the employers This stop tums up in 7

letters (no.2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 10) in which this step has 2 times of appearance in letter no.2

‘thank’

The survey shows thal the most used word in step B

T wish to thank yon and alll my colleagues at Hinstein Medical eater for all your help, professional ecuurtesy, and

support (letter no.2)

and T want to take this opportunity again to thank you for permitting me ta be patt of the team (leer 10.2}

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