英语商务信函的写作的特点及原则.doc

编编 号号 本本科科生生毕毕业业设设计计 论论文文 题目 题目 On Characteristics and Writing Principles of Business Correspondence 外国语 学院 英语 专业 学 号 1201060204 学生姓名 李艳红 指导教师 胡纯 讲师 II 二 一 年六月 摘要 I 摘摘 要要 商务函电作为一种商务交流的工具 在如今经济全球化和经济一体化的大背景下 已成为商务往来中最重要的环节 商务函电是两方之间进行的书面交流的一种方式 在 商务函电的往来中 双方观点得到表达 想法和信息得以沟通和传递 商务函电旨一般 是为达到一个特定的目的 如销售某一商品 对某一商品进行询价 对某一信息或建议 的咨询 处理某一客户的投诉抱怨 树立公司形象等 它的功能在于在买家与卖家之间 搭建起一座信息交流的桥梁 它就像交易达成环节中的 短板 是决定成败的关键 现 如今很多国家 比如中国 从某种程度上说非常依赖与其他国家之间的贸易关系和开拓 海外的新市场 因此 商务函电的有效交流能帮助与国外的客户 经销商 供应商等保 持或新建起长期的友好关系 也因此 学会撰写一封成功的商务函电的必须性和重要性 变得毋庸置疑 然而 仅仅照搬照抄书上的原则是远远不够的 在商务交流中 知道 为什么 和 怎样 同等重要 我深信这一点 所以在入正题之前研究了 交流 的 本质 然后追根溯源商务函电作为交流的一种方式有什么样的目的和功能 以英国语言 学家 G N Leech 著名的礼貌原则和学术界普遍所接受的一份好的商务函电的标准 3C 原则作为理论研究背景 我在接下来的章节中分析了商务函电中英语语言特点 由此总结出了撰写一份成功的商务函电的需要遵循的原则 关键词关键词 商务函电 交流 特点 撰写原则 Abstract II Abstract Today under the background of economic globalization and economic integration business correspondence has been the most important links of trade activities as a tool of business communication The definition of Business Correspondence BC is that it is a written communication between two parties It is a means through which views are expressed and ideas or information is communicated in writing in the process of business activities The aim of BC is to achieve a definite purpose such as selling a product making an enquiry seeking information or advice dealing with complaints of a customer establishing a good company image etc It functions as a link between the buyer and the seller It is a sticking point in a business transaction acting as a make or brake role Many countries now like China are to some extent dependent on trade relations with other nations to import resources and open up new markets overseas Efficient communication in BC therefore can help maintain or establish the long term relationship with foreign customers distributors suppliers etc Therefore there is no denying the fact learning to write a good business letter is indispensable and vital However following the principles by the book is far from enough In business communication knowing why and knowing how are equally important Believed in it I started with exploring the nature of communication then the purpose and function of BC as an important means of communication Based on the British linguist G N Leech s Politeness Principle together with the widely accepted criteria of a good BC the Three Cs principles this paper then analyzes the characteristics and comes out with the writing principles of BC Key words Business Correspondence BC communication characteristics writing principles Contents III Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 1 The Nature Of Communication 1 1 2 The Purposes and Functions of BC 2 CHAPTER 2 A SURVEY OF RELEVANT LITERATURE 3 2 1 The Three Cs Principles 3 2 2 Leech s Politeness Principle PP 4 CHAPTER 3 CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE 5 3 1 Lexical Characteristics 5 3 2 Sentence structural Characteristics 6 CHAPTER 4 WRITING PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE 11 4 1 Built in Sincerity 11 4 1 1 Thank you Goes First 11 4 1 2 Positivity Goes Throughout 11 4 2 Fuzzy Language Used Strategically 12 4 2 1 Face saving for others 12 4 2 2 Interrogative Sentences for Indirect Order 12 4 3 You Attitude In Mind 13 4 4 Offer More and Ask More 14 4 4 1 Conditional Sentence to Maximize the Possibilities 14 4 4 2 Past Tense and Continuous Tense to Minimize the Potential Harm 15 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 17 REFERENCE 19 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 20 Characteristics and Writing Principles of Business Correspondence 1 Chapter 1 Introduction No one in this world can live without communication Communication is what we human beings are born with Of all forms of written communication letters are the most common the most numerous and the most personal Correspondence is one of the chief means of keeping oneself in touch with those separated by distance Despite the availability of modern means of quick and convenient ways of communication letters are as important as they were centuries ago With the growth of commerce and industry the usefulness of BC has also increased When you enter a profession you will have to write dozens of letters every day as part of your routine work Many of these will be written to persons you have never met and perhaps you can never hope to meet You will be writing letters to other firms and companies customers suppliers associate organizations government officers employees etc Such letters are business correspondence So a good business correspondence is a make or break role in successful business communication you may ask Definitely In that case how can we write a good business correspondence No rush To achieve this we should first know what communication is anyway then what the functions of BC are and its characteristics Those are what this thesis will touch upon There are 5 chapters in total in this paper Firstly it tries to present a little review on methods of ancient communication which will help us better understand the nature of communication and then the functions of business communication The characteristics of BC come mainly in two angles which are in Chapter 3 respectively being 3 1 in terms of its language and 3 1 in terms of its text After the extensive research of the former chapters a natural summary of principles of BC writing is given in Chapter 4 The last chapter is a conclusion arrived at based on the previous research 1 1 The Nature Of Communication As author R C Sharma Krishna Mohan pointed out in his book Business Correspondence and Report Writing 1 Proper communication is the fragrance of a blossomed soul Communication means sharing sharing of information and intelligence It can be classified as verbal communication and nonverbal communication Verbal communication is generally thought as spoken language We express ourselves through words Types of Verbal Communication include face to face discussions speeches television radio telephone conversations seminars videos etc 2 What should be noted is that verbal communication also includes the written word Written includes e mails books letters magazines newspapers notes faxes announcements commercials etc Communication is a two way process It needs to have a sender a receiver and a message In order to have a successful communication we need to send the message clearly The key to a great communication is understanding each other While nonverbal communication it is said that scientific research on nonverbal communication began with the 1872 publication of Charles Darwin s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Since that time there has been an abundance of research on the types of unspoken communication And till now the well accepted types of nonverbal communication include facial expressions gestures Para linguistics body language and posture eye gaze Haptics and appearance 3 江南大学学士学位论文 2 1 2 The Purposes and Functions of BC Written communication covers different kinds of practical writing such as secretarial writing like routine correspondence forms notices minutes memos reports etc BC has many forms like enquires quotations offers orders sales contract claims etc and individual correspondence According to experts in Business Writing the purposes for BC are 4 1 to convey information 2 to make requests or effect changes 3 to respond to previous writings 4 to propose new alternatives and options For most companies writing BC is the primary means of communication with other business partners It enables an exchange of ideas facts recommendations and proposals Without BC communication no company can exist Maintaining the smooth flow of information exchange is critical to modern business 5 BC is highly functional in several ways 1 A letter establishes a tangible record for late reference 2 A letter spans different quickly at relatively low cost 3 A letter reduces the need for business travel to attend face to face meetings 4 A letter transacts routine business matters efficiently Characteristics and Writing Principles of Business Correspondence 3 Chapter 2 A Survey of Relevant Literature This chapter attempts to lay the theoretical foundation for the two well accepted criteria of a good BC The criteria of a good BC and principles for writing a BC have experienced development and changes in theoretical studies Here we are going to list two scholars understanding and theories of these two issues respectively in order to detect a line of evolvement for the better understanding of the characteristics and writing principles of a good BC 2 1 The Three Cs Principles The importance of BC in English has long been recognized with English being the universal language for international trade and business Many experts in business thus have done abundant research about successful BC and come into agreement that a good BC follows the three Cs principles Clearness Conciseness and Courtesy 6 Clearness is avoiding ambiguity It is the foundation and bottom line of successful business communication Clear BC conveys enable the reader to know what exact you are expressing and increases the possibility of making a deal and most importantly make a sale The wrong message can mean lost opportunities upset business partners and can even send your customer to the competition Four steps are given to make sure BC clearly deliver the exact message 1 Know your receiver of this business correspondence Ask what is important to him Make sure that every sentence resonates clearly with the message that you know what your receiver wants and you can deliver it 2 Know the action you want your receiver to take Don t beat around the bush make it obvious that you would like to see a specific action occur as a result of what you have written 3 Make your BC easy to read At the beginning of your BC write what you are going to cover Then cover the topics in the order you stated at the beginning Review the topics quickly at the end of your BC 4 Proofread your letter Nothing reduces the perceived value of a business communication like a missing or incorrectly spelled word Have a quick read through after finishing will help secure the clearness Conciseness is to pass message in fewest possible words in order to save time In conciseness you have to eliminate the unnecessary words and make the clear idea about the message To follow the conciseness you have to shorten the wordy expressions write only relevant statements avoid repetition and give few examples and words Of course concise writing doesn t mean short only but it has to be precise straight forward and relevant to the topic There some basic steps to write concise documents or letters 7 1 Focus on message avoid useless information and lengthy explanations 2 Be clear avoid long phrases 3 Use plain language use simple and straight language 4 Stay simple do not beat around the bush 5 Illustrate don t explain in figure pictures cases 江南大学学士学位论文 4 Politeness in BC writing is theoretically based on the Politeness Principle introduced by British linguist G N Leech which I am going to illustrate in the following part 2 2 Leech s Politeness Principle PP PP has long been an important subject studied in pragmatics In 1967 the American philosopher and logician Paul Grice raised the famous Cooperative Principle CP His idea is that in making conversation the participants must first of all being willing to cooperate otherwise it would not be possible for them to carry on the talk 8 It was based on CP that Leech proposed a series of maxims as a way of explaining how politeness operates in conversational exchanges Leech defines politeness as forms of behavior that establish and maintain comity That is the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony In stating his maxims Leech uses his own terms for two kinds of illocutionary acts He calls representatives assertives and calls directives impositives Each maxim is accompanied by a sub maxim between square brackets which is of less importance These support the idea that negative politeness avoidance of discord is more important than positive politeness seeking concord Not all of the maxims are equally important For instance tact influences what we say more powerfully than does generosity while approbation is more important than modesty Note also that speakers may adhere to more than one maxim of politeness at the same time Often one maxim is on the forefront of the utterance with a second maxim being invoked by implication If politeness is not communicated we can assume that the politeness attitude is absent The whole contents of Leech s PP include Tact maxim in directives impositives and commissives minimize cost to other maximize benefit to other Generosity maxim in directives and commissives minimize benefit to self maximize cost to self Approbation maxim in expressives and representatives assertives minimize dispraise of other maximize praise of other Modesty maxim in expressives and representatives minimize praise of self maximize dispraise of self Agreement maxim in representatives minimize disagreement between self and other maximize agreement between self and other Sympathy maxim in representatives minimize antipathy between self and other maximize sympathy between self and other The core of Leech s principle is to maximize cost to self and maximize benefit to other thus smooth communication can go on and more benefit can be obtained from the communication BC as an important written means of communication should conform to PP to make the most use of BC to maximize the benefits for one s own party Characteristics and Writing Principles of Business Correspondence 5 Chapter 3 Characteristics of Business Correspondence Since clearness conciseness and courtesy are three criteria specially designed for BC BC is bound to be different from other types of writing say an essay a novel or a personal letter Then how Next I m going to explain how English is used for special business purposes in BC BC distinguishes itself from others mainly in the aspects as follows 3 1 Lexical Characteristics In previous chapters we ve mentioned that BC has its own special functions and it should conform to the three Cs principles Bad word choice or misuse of words in BC could be the first step in ruining an opportunity for success Therefore BC owns its own characteristics in word choice 1 Words used in BC are formal and precise Business interaction itself is formal characterized Formality in BC represents the serious attitude sincere wish professional skills good personalities and even good company image These give the receiver of the BC an impression of reliability which is the cornerstone of a successful transaction For example the use of with regard to instead of about deliver in stead of send inquiry in stead of ask in reply to instead of answer duplicate in stead of copy etc More examples are given to show the formality of words used in BC E g 1 We re glad to inform you that the goods you ordered have been shipped by S S Peace on October 20th Here it is better to use inform instead of tell because the former is more formal E g 2 The obligations shall be affected by the liquidation of the contract or by a premature termination of the same Here liquidation and termination in this sentence in fact are respectively the synonyms of cancel and end Choosing the former expressions is only because of their formality E g 3 We will affect the insurance on our cover in views of our long pleasant cooperation relations Here in views of institutes for to show more formality E g 4 Contracts shall be concluded in accordance with the principles of equality and mutual benefit and of achieving agreement through consultation Here in accordance with is much more formal than according to E g 5 We can t grant you insurance coverage for 15 of the invoice value Here grant is the formal choice of give Using grant therefore embodies formality 2 Words used in BC are practical and professional Because what BC bears is mostly on issues like Inquiry Offer Counter offer Acceptance and Signing contracts words used in BC are inevitably technical terms And this also gives the impression of being professional and practical For example insurance coverage means 保险险别 in Chinese clean bill of lading means 清洁提单 claim means 索赔 F O B means 船上交货 etc More examples Eg 1 In case no settlement can be reached between the two parties the case under dispute shall be submitted for arbitrations 江南大学学士学位论文 6 Here dispute and arbitration are technical words used in law English They mean 争 议 and 仲裁 in Chinese respectively E g 2 Please quote us CIF London including 5 commission Here quote CIF commission are all technical terms used in business English Their Chinese translation are respectively 报价 成本加保险加运费价 佣金 E g 3 The experts must present shipping documents when they negotiate payment with the bank Here the technical term shipping documents negotiation means 装船单据 议付 in Chinese 3 Many ordinary words used in BC have informative business connation These words no longer bear their common meanings but refer to specific business terms There are three examples here to explain E g 1 We require you to pay an advance of 5 of the price before supplying your order Here in advance should not be understood as 提前 in Chinese as usual because it means 定金 here now E g 2 Your draft will be honored on presentation Here words draft and honor have discarded their ordinary meanings and referring to 草案 and 兑付 in Chinese respectively E g 3 We have been in this line for 5 years Here line no longer means 线条 in Chinese but 行业 4 Preposition are frequently used in BC Using preposition in BC can not only save time but also avoid ambiguity Here is a beginning of a BC With reference to your letter of March 20th 2009 we are glad to learn that you wish to enter into trade relations with our corporation in the line of furniture In this short simple sentence three prepositions are used Through the first one with reference to your letter w