HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ---o0o--- DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION PAPER DIFFICULTIES OF BUSINESS WRITING IN THE INTERNSHIP ENVIRONMENT OF HUFLIT SENIORS MAJORING IN BUSINESS ENGLISH IN DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES Instructor: M. Vo Xuan Dieu Student: Nguyen Thi Yen Kieu School ID No.: 15DH710284 Class: TA1503 June, 2019 TABLE OF CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Business writing style differs significantly from academic writing style .2 Some difficulties in business writing .2 Objectives of the study.3 Scopes of the study .4 Organization of the study. 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 English and the importance of English with the development of the global business world .2 The difficulties in business writing .3 The comparison between business writing and informal writing .4 The definition and the role of business writing at the workplace .1 Summary of the findings.
38-39 REFERENCES APPENDIX (QUESTIONNAIRE) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my warmest thank to the Foreign Languages Department which gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic “Difficulties of Business writing in the Internship environment of HUFLIT seniors majoring in Business English in Department of Foreign Languages” and I would like to express my heartfelt thanks of gratitude to my instructor Ms. Vo Xuan Dieu (M.) who spent most of her time on correcting my research and suggested me many beneficial ideas to have a complete study. Without her assistance and dedicated involvement in every step throughout the process, this paper would have never been accomplished. I would like to thank her very much for her support and understanding over these past four years.
Second, I take this opportunity to express gratitude to all of 50 HUFLIT seniors who majoring in Business English for their help and support to complete the survey. And last but not least, I also thank my parents for the unceasing encouragement, support and attention during my research process both spiritual and financial aspects. Besides, I would like to say thank to my closest friends who friendly gave me the ideas and advised me to carry out this paper. I am also grateful to my roommate partner who supported me throughout this venture.
ABSTRACT Being aware of the importance of writing in general and business writing in particular as well as some difficulties students may have in their study and the application of business writing at the workplace, the writer tried to carry out this research with the hope to investigate the attitudes of the Business English major seniors at HUFLIT towards business writing and some specific benefits of business writing with students throughout their internship period to support them work more effectively. In order to achieve these objectives, some instruments, namely document analysis and questionnaire were used for collecting the response from students at HUFLIT University. A questionnaire was given to 50 HUFLIT seniors majoring in Business English. The purpose was to find out the common mistakes they usually have in their business writing.
The questionnaire consisted of 2 parts: personal information and main questions. The main content was presented with 9 questions. The result showed that students always pay attention to learn how to write business writing effectively. But they also had difficulty in using business writing with three main common problems as follows: the incorrect grammar structure, the lack of vocabulary, and the memorization of the format of each business writing type.
However, they can apply it effectively in their internship period with some popular types of business writing, namely emails, memos and business letters. The conclusion showed that learning to improve writing skill and business writing skill plays an vital role with students who studying at school and working at the workplace. Students will have an opportunity to enhance their business writing if they are familiar with some practical situations at the working environment. For the next study, the author will exploit more aspects of the difficulties in business writing to have pragmatic results.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter will give the background information about the study. It establishes the scope, context, and objective of the research being conducted by summarizing the main purposes and main ideas of this study.1 Background information English is nowadays of paramount importance in global business world. Moreover, it becomes a foremost international language for communication universally, it necessitates the needs for explicit norms for the corresponding professional working in worldwide business environment. With the increasing of the trade world, it requires students to master in all skills of business, especially the skill of the business writing.
What is business writing? Business writing involves in memorandums, reports, proposals, emails, and other forms of writing used in organizations to exchange information with internal or external circumstances. Business writing is a type of professional communication and professional writing is an elemental aspect bringing out the success for your future career. Well business writing is an opportunity to showcase your communication skills, your professionalism, and an image of who you are. Davies & Birbili (2000) stated that “Writing is becoming ever more central and crucial to the world of work, with computers on every desk, email and the internet adding to the world’s written words in almost epidemic proportions.” It is true that nowadays writing is used regularly in working environment as oral communication and it becomes an indispensable tool contributing to the success of communication during working period.
Moreover, writing is one of the skills making up most of the time in your work, for example, writing proposals for customers, noting the issue of immediate feedback or the email of colleagues. But, do you ensure that your writing is clear and impressive? How do you highlight the message that you want to send? That what the recruitment are finding from their employees. According to Gil Amelio, he claimed that “Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others.
If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even matter.” Therefore, writing in general and business writing in specific also play a pivotal role in commercial world that contributing to the success of leadership and the development of enterprises. The function of business writing is various as follows: 1. Asking for inquiries/ giving information/ negotiating prices to customers, suppliers 2. Replying to enquiries and requesting information from customers, suppliers 3.
Complaining about products or services 4. Sending reports/ memos/ documents, project updates and coordinating activities 5. Selling new products/ packages/ promotion However, a complete product of business writing requires many primary following elements: 1. Use shorter sentences 2.
Use useful vocabulary 3. Use active voice 4. Write from the point of view of the company 5. Recommend action rather than refer to individual mental states 6.
Avoid writing word in abbreviation 7. Avoid self reference and references to individual states of mind 1.1 Business writing style differs significantly from academic writing style 1. Using full words and avoid using abbreviations in formal writing is advisable. For instance, word likes “television” which is used in full form in formal writing instead of using abbreviation form of “TV” in informal writing.
Longer sentences are used in formal writing. The information should be in details and as arranged as possible in formal style of writing. Every point should have an introduction, explanation, and conclusion. Informal writing is closely to shorter sentences.
Information showed is brief and in a respectful tone. (Nounlus Blog, 2016, para. Formal writing is preferred in academic, business or official communications, and informal is required for communication with friends, family and close ones. Business letters, formal writing is usually in third person.
The writer can use their point of view i. Whereas, informal writing requires the personal pronoun depending upon the context.2 Some difficulties in business writing To give a complete form of business writing, the writer needs to experience some difficulties. That can be easily seen that some of them who not familiar with how to use business writing easily getting trouble and taking much time to write. According to some researches, the problem that writers are facing is not obtaining the useful vocabulary and academic grammar.
(Thandarin Decharotchanawirun, 2015) Creating the appropriate subject or headline is other difficulty in business writing. The problems were the inability to write with correct grammar and the inability to use a variety of words without checking in the dictionary is very common. They also have to resole problems in choosing appropriate words in writing and using grammar in English writing. Furthermore, with the development of information technology, managers at all levels of an organization need to be excellent in business writing.
Therefore, they are looking for some potential candidates who can write and resolve the business problem professionally. Besides, majoring vocabulary is also one of the most popular problems in business writing. Students cannot avoid using jargons and ordinary phrases when writing in their business letters. They can write a long essay or describe a beautiful place, but it needs to be easy to understand.
“Write to express not to impress, it’s key to longevity as a writer.” (Jeff Crume) Creating an email/ letter/ memo subject line is also one of the popular problems. Subject line shows the main ideas and specific information that the business writing is aiming to. There are still more problems that students confront in business writing and I will discuss more in my research. Nowadays, some companies put the importance of written communication and oral communication as equal.
Therefore, it is necessary and effective for students to practice using some types of business writing in their internship period. By this way they can face with some practical situations, apply their writing skill learned in the class and then improvise at the workplace effectively. There is a variety types of business writing used in the workplace, but three common types, namely emails, business letters, memos which employers require students to obtain at the first start of their beginning profession. Email is transactional business writing.
It is articles used to quickly exchange information between staff or clients in business activities. Although emails are often seen as less formal than business letters, they still different from the normal messages you send to friends or family. Email format consists of four basic parts as follows: 1. Signature (Yours truly, Sincerely) Memo is instructional business writing.
Memo format is presented as follows: Headings with the same basic format: From: (the sender’s name) To: (the recipient’s name) Date: (the date memo written) Subject: (brief content of the memo) Opening, summary, discussion, closing and attachment are then followed. Specifically, memo also is considered as a short notification of new information which is shared within a large group staff in an organization also in business working environment. Memos are “brief reminders” about an upcoming meeting, new regulations for staff and some the offices also requires more complex memos to enhance the work efficiency. Business letter is a tool for organizations to contact with their customers/ clients, suppliers, and then build and maintain the business relationship.
A business letter always contains a few standard parts as follows: 1. Information about its sender and recipient 3. A body consisting of a main problem 5. The sender’s signature 7.
The sender’s name, title, and contact information 8. A list of enclosures, if necessary Nowadays, seniors who have practical experience are required to use writing skill regularly in their internship period. That is the reason why they need to practice written communication in order to achieve competency in their working environment. Internship is a chance for students to apply the theory at the school into some working situations.
It is as a first step for them to get accustomed to the professional working environment and face with some difficulties at the workplace.