English training phase II - lesson two -Sentence structure

A. Read the information about sentence structure
A simple affirmative sentence in English typically has the order Subject + Verb + Object. Each part can be a phrase rather than a single word:
This report (Sub) will analyse (Verb) last year’s budget. (Obj)
There can be an adverb phrase as well, and it often comes at the end. Adverbs say how (quickly), where (at our office) or when (next week) something happens. If we have several adverbs together, the usual word order is HOW – WHERE – WHEN. Look at these examples:
I am looking forward to our meeting in Munich next month.
Sales rose by over 10% in Hungry last year.
B. Now rewrite sentences with correct word order.
1. I am writing /to let you know/ from Head Office in Munich/ I am coming to visit/ next month/ that /your offices in Moscow.
I am writing from Head Office in Munich to let you know that I am coming to visit your offices in Moscow next month.
2. This will be/ in Central Europe /part of a visit/ to all our subsidiaries /that /I am making.
This will be part of a visit that I am making to all our subsidiaries in Central Europe.
3. to consult with you /I will take the opportunity/ about our strategic plan/ for Central Europe,/ which/ for some time /we have been working on
I will take the opportunity to consult with you about our strategic plan for Central Europe, which we have been working on for some time.
4. I would also like /our production facility/ while I am in Moscow/ to visit/ and if there is time, /as well/ some of the local supplies.
I would also like to visit our production facility while I am in Moscow, and if there is time, some of the local suppliers as well.
5. I will contact you again/ when /I can travel/ the exact dates/ as soon as I know.
I will contact you again as soon as I know the exact dates when I can travel.
C Put the lines in the emails below into the correct order:
Email1:
Dear Jeff,
I am writing to thank you 1
The meetings were very productive, and 4
As well as the business side of things, 7
The next time that you are in Munich, 11
Please give my regards
for your hospitality
during my recent trip to Paris.
I really appreciate the time you took
I am sure that they lay the basis for
to show me the Notre Dame, and
to your colleagues in the Paris office.
and the wonderful meal that we had afterwards.
a good long-term business relationship.
it will be my pleasure to return your kindness.
It was a great pleasure to meet them all. 15

I am writing to thank you for your hospitality during my recent trip to Paris. The meetings were very productive, and I am sure that they lay the basis for a good long-term business relationship.

As well as the business side of things, I really appreciate the time you took to show me the Notre Dame, and the wonderful meal that we had afterwards.The next time that you are in Munich, it will be my pleasure to return your kindness.

Please give my regards to your colleagues in the Paris office. It was a great pleasure to meet them all.

Regards,

Stone

Email 2:
Thank you for taking the time to attend 1
Unfortunately, we have to inform you that
As we mentioned in the interview, we had 5
While we were impressed with your interview, 8
We appreciate your interesting in 12
many applications for this position
your application has not been successful.
an interview with us last week.
we did not feel
working with us,
that you have the necessary skills
, and we would like to take the opportunity
and experience for the position.
and the standard of candidates was very high.
to wish you every success in the future. 15

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for taking the time to attend an interview with us last week. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that your application has not been successful.

As we mentioned in the interview, we had many applications for this position and the standard of candidates was very high. While we were impressed with your interview, we did not feel that you have the necessary skills and experience for the position.

We appreciate your interesting in working with us, and we would like to take the opportunity to wish you every success in the future.

Best regards,

ABC Corporation

How to write a delayed mail

Dear Stone,

Sorry about my very late response, I've been much too busy lately. About the CD writers, I don't have personal experience with them but I think that it could be a problem if the writing was stopped in the middle. It doesn't surprise me that the people who setup your CD making computer encountered problems with the CD writer being interrupted.


One solution that I can think of is looking at a CD-RW drive. I know that CD-RW drives are able to perform writing on a CD-RW disk with stopping and restarting. Maybe they are able to perform the same operation on a normal CD, but I'm not sure. Another possible solution would be to look for a CD-writing software program that has a fix for your problem (I'm sure your not the only one).


I wish I could offer more concrete help, but my knowledge of CD-Rs is a tad shaky. Let me know if you make any progress.

Michael Brinton

Computer Hardware Editor


Another example:

Dear Stone,

I wish I had gotten back to you earlier, as I could have warned you that WordPerfect would be uninstalled. However, you do have a couple options, the first being to click here to download a free trial of WordPerfect X3 until you can request a set of CDs from Dell. Alternatively, you can switch to the free OpenOffice suite, which was designed to compete with Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Office. Either way you should be up and running in an hour or two.

Hope this helps,
John

English training phase II - lesson one - Respond a request

1. Correct an Email
In the email below, there are many mistakes and inappropriacies. Find them and correct them.

1) Hi Dear Mr Jeff
2) Thank you for your quickly respond.
3) According to your request for assistance, please notice
4) the below information:
5) Please find the attachment of the server requirements
6) for the Dalian office. Please kindly refer to it.
7) Regarding to your question about payment, I need to
8) Forward the query to the Financial deportment. They
9) Will contact with you soon.
10) Highly appreciate if you can reply me with update
11) contact informations for all members of your team.

Best regards

FW De Klerk

2. Revised Email

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for your quick response.
Regarding your request for assistance, please note the following information:

Please find attached the server requirements for the Dalian Office.

Regarding your question about payment, I need to forward the inquiry to the Finance department. They will contact you soon.

I would appreciate it if you could get back to me with updated contact information for all members of your team.

Best regards

FW De Klerk

OR

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for responding so quickly.

Regarding your request for assistance, please note the information below:

Attached please find the server requirements for the Dalian office. For more detailed information on the prices, please refer to page 4.

Regarding your request about payment, I need to forward the inquiry to the Finance department. They will contact you soon.

I would appreciate it if you could get back to me with up to date contact information for all members of your team.

Best regards

FW De Klerk

3. Phrases learned from the course:
-Thank you for + Ving
-Thank you for your (noun)
-Thanks for your + (noun)
-Thanks for + Ving

-Please note that
-Please be informed that

-The information below:
-The following information:
-The information as follows:

-Regarding your request for

-Please find attached the server requirement.
-Attached please find the server requirement.
-Attached is the server requirement.

-I'd appreciate it if you could get back to me with updated contact information.

What to say in an email to indicate that you are sending an attachment/file.

From eslpod
An attachment is anything extra that is added to or connected to the main thing. In an email, an attachment is usually a file that is also included within the email and that one can open by clicking onto an “icon” (small image, picture).

The most common phrases people use are “attached is/are” or “I’ve attached.”
- “I’ve attached three photos for you to choose from.”
- “Attached is the sales report for the month of June.”

If you want to be a little more formal, you can use the phrases “attached please find” or “please find attached.” These are more appropriate for formal business emails.
- “Please find attached the customer lists for our new products.”
- “Attached please find three documents related to the court case we discussed.”
- “Thank you for taking the time to interview me for the new position at your company. Attached please find a list of my former employers.”

If you are sending a letter in the mail, you can use the “attached” phrases listed above when what you are adding/attaching is stapled to or paper clipped to the letter. If it is not physically attached but included in the same envelop or package, then use “enclosed” instead.
- “Enclosed is an example of the new packaging for our product.”
- “Please find enclosed the reports from the past six months.”

English Training Course - An external request

Subject: New shipping date for P/T-008/05
Dear Simone,

Thanks for your comments of the order below (P/T-008/05). It maybe tight to meet our delivery schedule of April.

As it takes 4 days for sea freight, another 2 days for distribution, also at least a week for customs clearance, so please arranged it earlier your schedule.

In order to meet our sales promotion in April, we need to receive the products in the end of March, so please help us by corresponding with our supply team and check if it is possible to ship the goods around March 16.

Awaiting your favorable reply by today.

Claudia

This is an email from Claudia, who works for a whole sale business to Simone, who works for one of her supplies. Claudia wants to make a request to Simone for an order to be shipped earlier so she can deliver the products to customer on time.

A good request email would usually have four parts:
1. Background: explain the situation behind the email.
2. Request: tell the reader what you want him or her to do.
3. Motivation: explain to the reader why he or she will benefit from the fulfilling the request.
4. Action: remind the reader what action you’d like them to take.

Let’s first check the mechanics.

Thanks for your comments on the order below (P/T-008/05). It may be tight to meet our delivery schedule for April.

As it takes four days for sea freight, another two days for distribution, and at least a week for customs clearance, so please arranged it earlier your schedule.

In order to meet our sales promotion in April, we need to receive the products by the end of March, so please help us by corresponding with our supply team and checking if it is possible to ship the goods around March 16.

Now let’s take look at the style.
If you look into the first paragraph, you see Claudia begin with an introduction statement, reminding Simone which order she wants to discuss. The second sentence is a background sentence:

Thanks for your comments on the order below (P/T-008/05). It may be tight to meet our delivery schedule for April.

So I think we break the introduction sentence out.

Thanks for your comments on the order below (P/T-008/05).

It may be tight to meet our delivery schedule for April.

In the fourth paragraph, we have another sentence about the background. So I will cut these out and move to the second paragraph.

Thanks for your comments on the order below (P/T-008/05).

It may be tight to meet our delivery schedule for April. In order to meet our sales promotion in April, we need to receive the products by the end of March.

As it takes four days for sea freight, another two days for distribution, and at least a week for customs clearance, so please arranged it earlier your schedule.

Please help us by corresponding with our supply team and checking if it is possible to ship the goods around March 16.

Let’s make a few vocabulary changes. I am going to change tight to difficult. Tight is informal. And since we have used the word April in the first sentence, we don’t need to use it again in the second sentence, we can change this to for that month.

It may be difficult to meet our delivery schedule for April. In order to meet our sales target for that month, we need to receive the products by the end of March.

The third paragraph is a request paragraph.
She says so please arrange it earlier in your schedule, it doesn’t give Simone a very clear idea about of Claudia wants her to do. We already know from looking into the fourth paragraph that Claudia wants to the good to be delivered around March 16. So let that information and move to the second paragraph so Simone knows exactly what she need to do.

As it takes four days for sea freight, another two days for distribution, and at least a week for customs clearance, we would like you to ship the goods by March 16.
You should explain to your reader what she will benefit.
So let’s add a motivation paragraph here.


As it takes four days for sea freight, another two days for distribution, and at least a week for customs clearance, we would like you to ship the goods by March 16. An early shipment will allow us to meet customer expectations and generate more sales in future.

The fourth paragraph should be our action paragraph.

Please help us by corresponding with our supply team and checking if it is possible to ship the goods by March 16.

Let’s go back to the beginning and review the tone of the email.
First let’s look at the two sentences what C asked S to do something:
-We would like you to ship the goods by March 16.
-Please help us by corresponding with our supply team and checking if it is possible to ship the goods by March 16.

The first request use indirect form, but the second request may be too direct.
Let’s change it to more polite way:

We would appreciate if you can help us by corresponding with our supply team and checking if it is possible to ship the goods by March 16.

We also need to do something about the closing statement.
It is not a good way to close an email.
Let’s change it to an indirect way:

I look forward to your reply.

Let’s look the update email:

Subject: New shipping date for P/T-008/05
Dear Simone,

Thanks for your comments on the order below (P/T-008/05).

It may be difficult to meet our delivery schedule for April. In order to meet our sales target for that month, we need to receive the products by the end of March.

As it takes four days for sea freight, another two days for distribution, and at least a week for customs clearance, we would like you to ship the goods by March 16.
We would appreciate if you can help us by corresponding with our supply team and checking if it is possible to ship the goods by March 16.

I look forward to your reply.

Regards,

Claudia

English Training Course - Writing an internal bad news email

Now you will a short email from Jenny, who is responsible for her company’s IT services. She is writing this email to give her colleagues some bad news.
Subject: Server Restart Inform
We will restart our mail server from 17:15PM to 18:00PM today because of the backup tape equipment has some problems, I’m afraid that we will restart the server many times, sorry for the inconvenience to you, any questions please call 588.

Best regards,

Jenny

Let’s talk about the best way to deliver a bad news. When you write to someone outside your company, it is a good idea to use an indirect style. Although you should also make sure your readers understand and accept the bad news. But in this case, Jenny is writing to her own colleagues, in this internal bad news, it is best to use more direct style, since the company wants to deliver you the bad news efficiently. At the same time, she needs to be polite and to show understanding for her colleagues receiving the bad news.

All right, let’s start with the mechanics of this email.
As you can see, we have a subject line. We can not use inform as a noun in this way, so we’d better change this to something like notice.

When we looked into the body of this email, the first thing we noticed is the entire message is just one sentence.

Subject: Server Restart Notice
We will restart our mail server from 17:15PM to 18:00PM today because of the backup tape equipment has some problems. I’m afraid that we will restart the server many times. Sorry for the inconvenience to you. Any questions please call 588.

Best regards,

Jenny

In the first paragraph, Jenny wrote the company will restart the server. Since Jenny is using 24-hour time here, she doesn’t need PM after 17:15 or 18:00. Also we need to change because of to because. Remember that because of always follows by a noun or noun phrase.
We can not also say ‘Any questions please call 588’, it is actually a sentence fragment. We’d better change this to a complete sentence by making the first part into a clause – ‘If you have any questions, please call 588’.

And finally, we should think about constructing email into a separate paragraph.


Subject: Server Restart Notice
We will restart our mail server from 17:15 to 18:00 today because the backup tape equipment has some problems. I’m afraid that we will restart the server many times.

Sorry for the inconvenience to you. If you have any questions, please call 588.

Best regards,

Jenny

Now let’s move to the style of this email, when you writing an email to deliver a bad news, one good strategy is to buffer the news, that is, to put some neutral material at the beginning and the end of the email, and also at the beginning and the end of the paragraph containing bad news. This makes the delivery less (a bright), and helps avoid giving a negative impression to the reader.
As you can see, Jenny has not followed the rule. She goes straight to the bad news.
Let’s rewrite this paragraph to put the explanation first:

We have discussed that the backup tape equipment for our mail server has some problems. For this reason, we will restart the server from 17:15 to 18:00 today. I’m afraid that we will restart the server many times.

The last sentence of the paragraph gives the readers some additional bad news’, we can rephrase this words in a positive way.

We have discussed that the backup tape equipment for our mail server has some problems. For this reason, we will restart the server beginning at 17:15 today. We expected the server to be available again after 18:00.

When an email has to deliver a bad news, it is also helpful to emphasize what the readers would benefit by cooperating. So let’s help Jenny add a new sentence in the second paragraph.

We have discussed that the backup tape equipment for our mail server has some problems. For this reason, we will restart the server beginning at 17:15 today. We expected the server to be available again after 18:00.

These repairs to the server will make your Internet and email connections more reliable in the future.

In the last paragraph, ‘Sorry’ sounds very informal, let’s change to ‘We apologize for’.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me on the extension 588.

Finally, we should add a closing sentence to show the appreciation.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.



Let’s look at the update email:

Subject: Server Restart Notice

We have discussed that the backup tape equipment for our mail server has some problems. For this reason, we will restart the server beginning at 17:15 today. We expected the server to be available again after 18:00.

These repairs to the server will make your Internet and email connections more reliable in the future.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me on the extension 588.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Regards,

Jenny

English Training Course - Asking feedback on a report

To: Emily@xyz.com
Subject: Please review this document
Dear Emily,
I should be glad if you review the attached document. Please can you let me know if you have any inputs, comments and concerns?
I look forward to hearing from you.
If I don't receive your feedback by 5:00pm next Wednesday, I will deem that you are OK with the content of the attached document.
Thank you very much for your attention!
Regards,
Stone

Stone wants the language to sound friendly but he also wants to keep the language direct and professional.
Let’s first look at the issue of mechanics –the grammar, punctuation, spelling and layout of the email.
I think the formatting of this email needs a couple of changes. In the first paragraph, we have a phrase – I look forward to hearing from you, which normally appears in the conclusion of a business letter.
We also need to make few corrections to the grammars of the first paragraph:
-We add ‘could’ before ‘review’ to make an indirect request.
-Since this is a request, so let’s say ‘Can you please’ instead of ‘Please can you’.
-‘inputs, comments and concerns’ basically mean the same thing.
In the third paragraph, I don’t think Stone need to use the exclamatory point. That’s very informal.

Now let’s go back the top and look at the style of the email beginning with the subject lines. ‘Please review this document’, we don’t know what kind of document he is referring to. Is it report？Unfortunately, we can not fix that because the information is missing from the email. Let’s move on to the first paragraph, where we will see the same problem. Stone doesn’t tell us what kind of document he is talking about.
I think we should make some changes in the second paragraph to make it more formal.
-A word like OK is very informal, let’s change it to ‘satisfied’.
-Instead of saying ‘that you are OK with the content of the attached document’, just saying ‘that you are satisfied with the document’. Stone has explained that the document is attached to the email.
-Stone has made a request in the body of the email. We don’t need to repeat this request in the subject lines. To make it less direct and more polite, we can change the subject line to ‘Document for review’.

I think the tone of first paragraph doesn’t have any major problems.
However, if we look at the second paragraph, there certainly some changes we should make.
‘If I don't receive your feedback by 5:00pm next Wednesday’, by using a negative verb here, Stone created a negative feel for the entire sentence. Instead of talking about what Emily shouldn’t do, let’s talk about how she can help Stone to improve the document-‘I would like to receive your feedback by 5:00pm next Wednesday’.


Let’s look at the update email:
To: Emily@xyz.com
Subject: Document for review
Dear Emily,
I should be glad if you could review the attached document. Can you please let me know if you have any comments?
I would like to receive your feedback by 5:00pm next Wednesday, so that I can make any changes you feel are necessary.
Thank you very much for your attention. I look forward to hearing from you.
Regard,
Stone

English Training Course - Talking about email - Part 3

Today we will talk about how to write a friendly and diplomatic email.
Task A: How can you establish a good relationship with someone if you only communicate by email?
Here are some strategies. Do you think they are useful?
-On Fridays, wish the person you are writing to a good weekend.
-On Mondays, ask how their weekend was.
-Always stress your thanks for any help or information they have given you.
-Avoid writing an email when you feel angry or upset.
-Accentuate the positive and think very carefully about how you express negative points.

Task B: An Austrilian company is working with a Chinese developer to launch a new software product. The Austrilian project manager replies to Zhang Lina about the launch schedule.
Considering how to rewrite the mail in a more diplomatic way.

To: Zhang Lina
Re: Pre-launch development conference
Dear Lina,
The dates you've set for the pre-launch development conference (11-12 Sep) are no good. I told you before that nobody from the Austrilia office is free to attend at that time. You must change it to the following week.
I received your latest software prototypes and have passed them onto all team members.
Send me the new dates asap so we can finalise our schedule.
Regards
John

Task C: Question Match

Task D: Use appropriate phrases to make the mail on Task B more friendly and diplomatic. Refer to the launch schedule. Show consideration for the fact that changing the date will affect other scheduled events too. Wish Lina success on the software development project.
To: Zhang Lina
Re: Pre-launch development conference
Dear Lina,
Many thanks for sending us the information on the launch schedule. However, there seems to be a slight misunderstanding about the dates for the pre0-launch development conference. I 'm afraid that no one from here will be free to attend on 11-12 Sep. I am really sorry if I didn't make that clear in my last email. Would it be possible to reschedule the conference for the following week? I realized that will mean changing some of your other scheduled events. I'm very sorry about that.
Could you please let me have the new dates for the conference as soon as you can because obviously we have to plan our schedules at this end.
Thanks a million for the software prototypes. We are all extremely impressed with the work you guys have done.
We wish you every success with the rest of the software development project and look forward to meeting up with you at the conference.
Best regards
John

English Training Course - Talking about email - Part 2

Today we will focus on how to make requests in email.
Let's get started with a sample:
Email A:
From: Jason Bourne
To: Martin Smith
I need the test results urgently. Can you please send them right away so we can get on with the next stage of the project?
Email B:
From: Jason Bourne
To: Martin Smith
Hi Martin,
I know you're very busy this week but I was wondering if you could send the test results as soon as possible? We can't start the next stage of the project without them. I'd really appreciate it.
Regards
Jason

• Which email is more polite?
• Is there any situation where email A is appropriate?

How to make request?

1. Saying how you got the contact

-We met last Thursday on your stand at the Munich Trade Fair.

-I am emailing you off your website, which I found through Google.

2. Giving reason for writing

-We are a manufacturer / supplier / provider of ...

-We are interested in ...

-We are a Turkish company exporting to the EU, and we need ...

3. General requests

-We would be grateful for some information about ...

-Please send us information about your product range and prices.

4. Specific requests

-In particular, we would like to know ...

-Please send full details of your prices, discounts, terms of payment and delivery times.

-Could you also say whether there is any minimum order.

5. Close

-An early reply would be greatly appreciated.

-I look forward to an early reply, and am sure that there is a market for your products here in Hungary.

English Training Course - Talking about email - Part I

Do you know how to write a well-formatted and polite email? When I wrote the first English email in my new company, I am so nervous. I am not sure wether my expression is polite and clear to the recipient. It is a hard time for me. I'd like to share some information about how to write a clear and polite email.

Task A: Please correct the following sentences in a mail:
1. The details are as following.
"As follows" is often used to introduce a list (of things, etc.) E.g.
The 75 students are divided into five groups as follows:
group 1 - group 5
We may also say:
--The 75 students are divided into the following five groups:
--The five groups of 75 students can be found in the following list:-
2. Could you please help to check it?- Could you please check it?
3. Please find the attached report.- Please find attached the report.
4. Thank you for your checking.- Thank you for checking.

Task B: formal or informal email?
Formal:
I am afraid I will not be able to attend the meeting on Friday. As I will miss the meeting. I was wondering if you could send me a copy of the minutes? I will write to Anna as well, to inform her that I will not be there. Once again, please accept my apologizes for this, and I can assure you that I will be at the next meeting.
Informal:
Sorry I can't make the meeting on Friday. As I'll miss the meeting, could you send me a copy of the minutes? I'll write to Anita as well, to tell her (that) I won't be there. Once again, I'm sorry for this, and I promise (that) I'll be at the next meeting.
Below are the phrases to write in formal/informal way:
Sorry I can not program all the words one by one. I copied a picture here. You are supposed to refer to http://files.motime.com/eee115ff83bcfeb708e6eb48aee00186.doc or www.hueber.de/shared/elka/Internet_Muster/Red2/3-19-002884-2_Muster1.pdf for more details.