A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University

A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of thirdyear students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

Supervisor : Mrs Nguyen Bich Hong, M.A

Student : Le Thi Dieu Linh

Class : K52N5

Student code : 16D170306

Hanoi - 2019

The completion of this study would not have been possible without thecooperation from third-year English major students at Thuongmai University whoparticipated in the study I am very grateful to all of them for providing usefulinformation for the analysis of this study.

Last but not least, I would like to give my sincerely thanks to my family and

my friends who always give me the encouragement and inspiration which helps meovercome difficulties to fulfill my graduation paper

Eventually, this research has been fulfilled to the best of my knowledge,however, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable Therefore, I would begrateful if I receive appreciated comments and suggestions from readers for theperfection of this graduation paper

Hanoi, December 3, 2019

Student

Le Thi Dieu Linh

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Business Correspondence plays an important role, it is also a compulsorysubject at university In this study, the author would attempt to investigate thedifficulties in learning Business Correspondence of third-year English majorstudents at TMU, which consist of problems from learners (attitude toward learningthis subject), teachers (teaching methods) and curriculum (the completeness andperfection) Besides, the errors in business letters written by students are alsodetected Based on data collected by questionnaires and accumulating somebusiness letters of students, the author would like to analyse so as to give objectiveresults performed in charts and tables particularly and the factors affecting learningBusiness Correspondence Then, the research would like to give somerecommendations and suggestions to deal with the difficulties in learning thissubject Hopefully, this study is a useful reference source for students, who want toimprove their learning Business Correspondence and writing business letters skill aswell as enhance their academic results

TABLE CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF IMAGES, TABLES AND CHARTS vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research subjects 4

1.5 Scope of study 4

1.6 Research methodology 4

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Background knowledge of Business Correspondence 6

2.1.1 Meaning of Business Correspondence 6

2.1.2 Importance of Business Correspondence 6

2.1.4 Types of Business Correspondence 8

2.1.5 Parts and form of a business letter 9

2.1.6 Several types of business letters 14

2.2 Points to remember when writing a bussiness letter 15

2.3 Essential qualities of business letters 16

2.3.1 Inner quality 16

2.3.1 Outer quality 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20

3.1 Data analysis 20

3.1.1 Data collected by the questionnaires 20

3.1.2 Data collected by accumulating students’ bussnines letters 30

3.2 Discussion about difficulties of the students in learning Business Correspondence 33

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CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 35

4.1 Recommendations 35

4.1.1 To students 35

4.1.2 To teachers 37

4.1.3 To the university 38

4.2 The limitations of the study 39

4.3 Suggestions for further studies 39

CONCLUSION 41

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Word Meaning in English Meaning in Vietnamese

TMU Thuong Mai university Đại học Thương Mại

v

LIST OF IMAGES, TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 2.1 Types of Business Correspondence 8Table 3.1 The evaluation of students about completeness of content incurriculum and documents compiled by English Faculty 25Table 3.2 The evaluation of students about missing parts of BusinessCorrespondence documents 25Table 3.3 The evaluation of students on the difficulties in writing several types

of business letter 27Table 3.4 Mistakes the students often make when they write business letters 31

Chart 3.1 Amount of time students spend doing Business Correspondencehomework and preparing the new lessons 21Chart 3.2 Students’ activities in free time 22Chart 3.3 The frequency of finishing homework and preparing new lessons 23Chart 3.4 Writing activities according to teacher’s control in BusinessCorrespondence classes 24Chart 3.5 The frequency of researching from other sources of BusinessCorrespondence documents 26Chart 3.6 The influence of curriculum and documents on students’ result inlearning Business Correspondence 30

Image 2.1 Basic business letter format 13

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale

In the current period of economic integration, English is an important tool incommunication and information exchange, especially business English The role ofbusiness English is becoming increasingly important for us This is one of theindispensable factors in the current process of globalization, which helps trade withforeign countries increase In particular, the use of business correspondence skills inEnglish is a matter of concern

In fact, Business Correspondence is a compulsory subject for the third-yearstudents of English Faculty at Thuongmai University Learning how to write acommercial English letter requires more skills than learning how to write a regularEnglish letter Students need to master not only the forms and organization of acommercial letter, but also the appropriate style and intonation for the writing Theway of writing a commercial correspondence is usually more formal and than theregular correspondence, so writers have to keep in mind the general structure andapply it appropriately for each type of letter or email It is also a difficult problemthat students deal with when learning Business Correspondence Besides, fact alsoshows that almost students have not known how to learn this subject well

Therefore, in order to study this problem in depth, I have conducted the research

entitled: “A study on difficulties in learning Business Correspondence of third-year

students at English Faculty, Thuongmai University” Hopefully, this study will

help students understand deeply the issues that they have not noticed before andsuggest some solutions to solve the problems and help them improve their learningBusiness Correspondence I also hope this research will help them to enhance theiracademic results and augment their using business correspondence skill for theirfuture jobs

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1.2 Previous studies

In the world, there are many business correspondence documents as well asmany studies related to business correspondence They are most commonly found inuniversities

In 2014, Zi Yu (School of Foreign Languages China Jiliang UniversityHangzhou, China) and Yuyang Fu (School of Communication Simon FraserUniversity Vancouver, Canada) had a research paper on the subject, with the title

“A Study on the Characteristics and Writing Principles of Business Correspondence”

This paper takes “3C” principles, a standard of a good business correspondencegenerally accepted in academic field and British linguist G.N Leech’s famouspoliteness principles as a theoretical background, analyzing the characteristics of thelanguage used in BC, respectively in terms of its lexical characteristic and itsstructural characteristics in sentences Then, in order to batter grasp the key to write

a successful business correspondence, some main writing principle like polite

principle will be specifically analyzed The study came to a conclusion “The

principles for BC writing are to stylize the letter with the above characteristics.

“You attitude” in mind goes first, followed by attention on tactful sentences Besides, interrogative sentences could be used to save you from embarrassment when inevitably being negative The last but not the least, the update terms could not be ignored with rapid development of business environment and society”

In 2014, Shafa Firda Nila (Management and Accounting, Indonesia)

implemented the study “Problems in writing English business letter: Errors and

Factors” In this study, “the data were collected from the English business letter written by third semester of Bina Bangsa Economics students majoring in Management and Accounting The students were asked to respond a complaint letter from a customer of the given situation The error category is based on Ferris and Hedgcock model (2005) The researcher identified the problems of error found

in the letters and explained the factors that caused the problems to draw the conclusion”.

In addition to the research of famous scholars over the world, in Vietnam, therewere also many studies related to this issue

“An analysis of some techniques to improve writing English business letters” by

Vu Thi Huong Giang (2010 - Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong Private University).

The study aimed to give theoretical background of definition, importance,

purpose, business letter format and some types of business letter Besides, it foundout some common mistakes in writing an English business letter Then the authorconducted an analysis of the results and suggested some techniques in order to havegood will in writing English business letter

“A study on difficulties on writing business correspondence for major English students of Foreign Languages Faculty of Academy of Finance” by Dam Hong Loan (Foreign Languages Faculty of Academy of Finance).

The minor thesis designed a study on on difficulties on writing businesscorrespondence for major English students of Foreign Languages Faculty ofAcademy of Finance Further more, the ambition of this thesis is to actively,effectively and directly contribute to the further research, development andimplementation of writing business correspondence The thesis can be seen asoverall picture that helps students to have a general view of fundamental thingsabout the skill and to explore the writing business correspondence skill in othernovices’ point of veiw

In short, there were several studies related to business correspondence, butmost have only dealt with the principle of writing and using commercial letters aswell as difficulties in writing a business letter or email In the above studies, thewriters have not given an overview of the difficulties that students encounter when

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learning business correspondence as a compulsory subject in university andsolutions.

1.3 Aims of the study

To find out the difficulties and recommend possible solutions to improvelearning Business Correspondence skills of the third-year English major students.Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study is aimed at:

 Analyzing the real situation and difficulties in learning BusinessCorrespondence

 Suggesting some possible solutions to improve learning BusinessCorrespondence skills

1.4 Research subjects

The research subjects in this study are the difficulties in learning BusinessCorrespondence skills of the third-year English major students at TMU With thehope to enhance the importance of these subject, the author carried out to seek todifficulties that are commonly made in learning Business Correspondence skills ofthe third-year students in English Faculty As the main problems are found, it isessential to find possible solutions to improve learning Business Correspondenceskills

same time The question can conduct easily without researcher’s presence Thequestionnaire consists of 10 multiple choice questions The content of thequestionnaire includes:

 Section 1: Background information and motivation of the students

 Section 2: Issues as learning difficulties, materials, time allocation, and thestudents’ opinion about their learning Business Correspondence

 Section 3: Basic mistakes students make when writing a business letter

Then, the researcher collect business letters writen by several students (about 10students) so as to find out the mistakes From these errors, the researcher willanalyze to find out the causes and the difficulties that students encounter whenstudying this subject as well as offer solutions

1.7 Organization of the study

As many other scientific studies, the structure of this research is divided into

4 parts:

 The first chapter, “Overview of the study” outlines the rationale by which the authordecided to conduct this study as well as the limit within which the study is conducted.This part also presents some methods for the accomplishment of the study

 The second chapter is about “Literature review” The author will present theoriesrelated to theoretical background It focuses on background knowledge of BusinessCorrespondence Besides, it also mentions points to remember when writing abussiness letter and essential qualities of business letters

 The third chapter shows the “Research findings” of the study including theanalysis It presents an overview results of the survey questionnaires about learningBusiness Correspondence of the third-year students at TMU basing on the data aswell as results of collecting business letters writen by these students

 The last chapter in this part entitled “Recommendations and suggestions”(optional)

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Background knowledge of Business Correspondence

2.1.1 Meaning of Business Correspondence

It is not deniable that Business Correspondence is coming more and morepopular and important in commercial world Thus, many economists, specialists intrade field have studied hard so as to provide readers all over the world with thebackground of Business Correspondence or Business letters as well as the way tolearning them best

In The Language of Business Correspondence in English, Nguyen Trong Dan (1997) said: “The business letter is the principal means used by a busniness

firm to keep in touch with customers; very often it is only one and customers form their impression of the firm from the tone and quality of the letters it sends out”.

In Business Correspondence by Translation and Interpreting Department of

English Faculty, it is stated that correspondence is communication through

exchange of letters “We communicate our feelings, thoughts etc to our friends and

relatives through letters that may be called personal correspondence A businessman also writes and receives letters in his day-to-day transaction, which may be called business correspondence Business correspondence or business letter

is a written communication between two parties Businessmen may write letters to supplier of goods and also receive letters from the suppliers Customers may write letters to businessmen seeking information about availability of goods, price, quality, sample etc or place order for purchase of goods Thus, business letters may be defined as a media or means through which views are expressed and ideas

or information is communicated in writing in process of business activities.”

2.1.2 Importance of Business Correspondence

Nowadays business activities take place strongly not only among domesticenterprises but also with foreign enterprises Therefore, busniness has had vastexpansion, supply of goods also has increases Communicating through businesscorrespondence is indispensable and its importance is prominently enhanced Based

on reality and knowledge provided in Business Correspondence by Translation and

Interpreting Department of English Faculty, we have the following points:

 Enables maintenance proper relationship

There is a need to maintain proper relationship among the businessenterprises and customers by using appropriate means of communication Thecustomers as well as business enterprises are not confined to one place Therefore,business correspondence plays an important role The customers seek informationabout various products and services from the companies and the companies inreturn can reply regarding the supply side of it

 Inexpensive and convenient mode

This is considered as an economical and convenient mode of communication

 Create and maintain goodwill

Businessmen at times send emails or letters to enquire about complaints andsuggestions of their customers This can be a form of feedback mechanism Theyalso send letters or emails to update the customers about the availability of a newproducts, clearance sale, discounts, etc This results in cordial relations with thecustomers which enhances the goodwill of the business

 Serves as evidence

Business enterprises cannot memorise all facts and figures in a conversationthat normally takes place among with internal as well as external parties Throughwritten communication in the form letters or emails, he can keep a record of all theinformation Thus, business correspondence can serve as evidence in case of disputebetween two parties

 Help in expansion of business

Business requires information regarding competing products, prevailingprices, promotion, market activities, etc If the trader has to run from place to place

to get information, he will end up doing nothing It will simply result in loss of time

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But through business letters, he can make all enquiries about the products and themarkets He can also receive orders from different countries and, thus enhancesales.

2.1.4 Types of Business Correspondence

Business correspondence can be classified into following parts:

External Correspondence Internal Correspondence

Table 2.1 Types of Business Correspondence

[Source: “A Handbook of Commercial Correspondence” by Ashley, A (1986)]

 External correspondence is with outsiders that include customers, suppliers,government agencies, other business houses and any other stakeholder

 Business Letter: A business letter is a letter written in formal language,usually used when writing from one business organization to another, or forcorrespondence between such organizations and their customers, clients andother external parties

 Internal correspondence is with the internal parties of the organisation which isgenerally done with the employees Email has emerged as an important way ofcommunication as it is quick, cheap and paperless

 Business Memorandum: The term ‘memorandum’ is derived from Latin term

‘memorale’ which means ‘to tell’ Business memos are a means ofinterorganisational correspondence sent between employees in a company orbetween company subsidiary to convey ideas, decisions, requests orannouncements They are more private and more formal than emails but lessformal than letters They can also be compared to reports, but very shortones

 Notice: A notice is a written statement that contains the particulars ofholding any event in an organisation It is a form of downwardcommunication The motive is to convey information to the concernedpersons by requesting them and never ordering them The language is simpleand instructions are understandable.

2.1.5 Parts and form of a business letter

a, Parts of a business letter

The essential parts of a business letter are as follows:

Heading - The heading of a business letter usually contains the name and

postal address of the business, E-mail address, Web-site address, TelephoneNumber, Fax Number, Trade Mark or logo of the business (if any)

Date - The date is normally written on the right hand side corner after the

heading as the day, month and years Some examples are 30th Oct., 2019 or Oct.

30, 2019.

Reference - It indicates letter number and the department from where the

letter is being sent and the year It helps in future reference This reference number

is given on the left hand corner after the heading For example, “we can write

reference number as AB/FADept./2003/27”.

Inside address - This includes the name and full address of the person or the

firm to whom the letter is to be sent This is written on the left hand side of the sheetbelow the reference number Letters should be addressed to the responsible heade.g., the Secretary, the Principal, the Chairman, the Manager etc Example:

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The Chief Manager, State Bank of India Utkal University Campus Bhubaneswar,

Subject - It is a statement in brief, that indicates the matter to which the

letter relates

It attracts the attention of the receiver immediately and helps him to know quicklywhat the letter is about For example,

Subject: Your order No C317/8 dated 12th Novemver 2019.

Subject: Enquiry about Samsung television

Subject: Fire Insurance policy

Salutation - This is placed below the inside address It is usually followed

by a comma (,) Various forms of salutation are:

Sir/Madam: For official and formal correspondence

Dear Sir/Madam: For addressing an individual

Dear Sirs/Dear Madam: For addressing a firm or company

Body of the letter - This comes after salutation This is the main part of the

letter and it contains the actual message of the sender It is divided into three parts

 Opening part - It is the introductory part of the letter In this part, attention of the

reader should be drawn to the previous correspondence, if any For example “with

reference to your letter no 326 dated 12th March 2003, I would like to draw your attention towards the new brand of television.”

 Main part - This part usually contains the subject matter of the letter It should beprecise and written in clear words

 Concluding Part - It contains a statement the of sender’s intentions, hopes orexpectations concerning the next step to be taken Further, the sender should always

look forward to getting a positive response At the end, terms like Thanking you,

With regards, With warm regards may be used

Complimentary close - It is merely a polite way of ending a letter It must

be in accordance with the salutation For example:

Dear Sir/Dear Madam Yours faithfully Dear Mr Raj Yours sincerely

My Dear Akbar Yours very sincerely (express

very informal relations)

Signature - It is written in ink, immediately below the complimentary close.

As far as possible, the signature should be legible The name of the writer should betyped immediately below the signature The designation is given below the typedname Where no letterhead is in use, the name of the company too could be includedbelow the designation of the writer For example:

Enclosures - This is required when some documents like cheque, draft, bills,

receipts, lists, invoices etc are attached with the letter These enclosures are listedone by one in serial numbers For example:

The list of goods received

A cheque for Rs One Thousand dtt Nov 12,2019 (Cheque No ) towards payment for goods supplied.

Copy circulation - This is required when copies of the letter are also sent to

persons apart of the addressee It is denoted as C.C For example:

The Chairman, Electric Supply Corporation

The Director, Electric Supply Corporation

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The Secretary, Electric Supply Corporation

Post script - This is required when the writer wants to add something, which

is not included in the body of the letter It is expressed as P.S, for example:

P.S - In our offer, we provide two years warranty

b, Form of a business letter

To

Name and address of the person to whom letter is sent

Subject:

Salutation,

Opening part

Main part

Concluding part

Complementary close Signature (Name) Designation

Enclosures

CC-

PS-Image 2.1 Basic business letter format

[Source: The Writing Center at Zahnow Library]

2.1.6 Several types of business letters

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a, Business Enquiry Letters

Sometimes prospective buyers want to know the details of the goods whichthey want to buy, like quality, quantity, price, mode of delivery and payment, etc.They may also ask for a sample The letter written to sellers with one or more of theabove purposes is known as enquiry letter

Points to be kept in mind while writing letters of enquiry:

 Letters of enquiry should clearly state the information required, which may beasking for a price list or a sample

 Write specifically about the design, size, quantity, quality, etc about the product

or service in which the buyer is interested

 The period or the date, till which information is required, may also be mentioned

b, Quotation Letters

After receiving the letter of enquiry from a prospective buyer, the sellerssupply the relevant information by writing a letter that is called quotation letter.These letters are written keeping in view the information asked for like price list,mode of payment, discount to be allowed etc Businessman should reply to theinquiries carefully and promptly

c, Order Letters

In the previous section, we have studied about letters of enquiry and reply toenquiry i.e., quotation letter The prospective buyer after receiving the reply to hisenquiry letter may decide to place on order with that business house which offersgoods at minimum price and at favourable terms and conditions Letters written by

a buyer to the seller giving the order to purchase the goods is called order letter

d, Complaint Letters

A complaint letter is written when the purchaser does not find the goods uptohis satisfaction It is normally written by the purchaser when he receives wrong,defective or damaged goods or receives incorrect quantity of goods It can also bewritten directly to the transit authority when the goods are damaged in transit Thus,

we may define a letter of complaint as the letter that draws the attention of thesupplier or any other party on account of supply of defective or damaged goods

Points to be considered while writing a complaint letter

 Complaint letters should be written immediately after receiving the defective goods

 Mistakes as well as difficulty due to mistake should be mentioned clearly

 Proposal to correct the mistakes should be made

 Suggestions on how the complaint should be dealt with, i.e., mention ofcompensation, replacement, discount, cancellation etc, should be made

 Mention period in which the corrective action should be taken

 Request to be careful in future

e, Recovery Letters

The letter written by the seller for collection of money for the goods supplied

to the buyer is called recovery letter The aim of recovery letter is to collect moneywithout annoyingthe customers The letter should include information regarding theamount of arrears argument for payment, and last date for payment The language ofrecovery letter should be polite, so that the customer is not offended and futuretransactions with him are not adversely affected

2.2 Points to remember when writing a bussiness letter

According to principles mentioned in Handbook of Commercial

Correspondence by A Ashley (Oxford University), the author find out points of

view to remember when writing a business letter:

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 The layout and presentation of the letter are important as they give the recipientthe first impression of the company's efficiency.

 Write both the sender's and the recipient's address in as much detail as possibleand in the correct order

 Make sure that writers use the recipient's correct title in the addressnd salutation

If in doubt as to whether a woman is single or married, use Ms

 Do not write the month of the date in figures

 Choose the correct salutation and complimentary close: Dear Sir/Madam withYours faithfully, Dear Mr / Ms Smith with Yours sincerely

 Make sure the references are correct

 Make sure your signature block tells the reader what he or she needs to knowabout the writer

2.3 Essential qualities of business letters

Based on knowledge and theories in documents related to BusinessCorrespondence, we know that the qualities of a business letter can be classified asinner quality and outer quality

 Coherent

The language used in the business letter must be coherent The message must

be in a logical way for the clear understanding of the message The flow of themessage must be consistent

 Complete

One must write a complete message It helps the reader to know about theissue and the solution to be taken It should provide all the necessary information.One must also keep in mind that the message should be concise and short alongwith the complete details

 Relevance

The letter should only contain important information Irrelevant informationshould not be included and avoided in any business communication

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 Courteous

The language used in the business letter must be courteous A writer mustalways use open, friendly, and honest wording in his letter It does not mean thatone must use slang and abusive words One must always add the words like please,thank you etc

 Size of the Paper

The standard size of paper should be used An A4 paper is the most usedpaper for writing a business letter

 Quality of the Paper

The quality of the paper used must be good It is not always possible for afirm to use the costly paper One must use good quality paper for original copy andordinary copy for the duplicate copy

 The Color of the Paper

Sometimes it is very useful to use the different color of paper for differenttypes of letter The receiver can clearly understand the intention and the purpose ofthe letter by its color

 Folding of Letter

One must fold the letter properly and uniformly The folding must be done tofit the letter in the envelope It is noticeable that one must not over fold the letter Itwill have a bad impression on the reader’s mind

 Envelope

The envelope used must be of good quality Special attention must be given

to the size of the envelope for fitting the letter

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