ABSTRACT Research topic: "Mistakes in writing complaints and orders letters of Purchasing Department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company" are both meaningful and necessary in theory and practice when writing business correspondence with foreign partner by English. This study codified theoretical issues related to business correspondence in English, especially complaint letters and order letters, the cause of mistakes when writing these two types of business correspondence of purchasing staff member of the company. The study also analyzed, found difficulties in writing letters of complaint and letters in English that employees of the Purchasing Department faced based on their reasons and actual expression through the use of Data collection methods - survey questionnaires for all procurement department employees and based on 30 complaint letters and order letters. From the above difficulties, the study has provided some useful solutions to help the Purchasing Department staff improve the skills of writing complaint letters and order letters by English.
Due to limited time, awareness and practical experience, research cannot avoid errors and errors. Therefore, I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions to improve the research i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing the thesis, I received enthusiastic help from supervisors, teachers of the English Department - Thuongmai University, my family and especially the staff of Purchasing Department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my beloved supervisor- Vu Thi Thu Trang, who directly leads me. Thanks for her helpful advice and detailed comments in the preparation as well as editing. Besides, she always supports and creates favorable conditions for me to complete this graduation article.
Secondly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Purchasing Manager of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company- Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh, who helped and guided me very enthusiastically during the internship and work. I also give special thanks to all the staff of the purchasing department, especially contributing their ideas and experiences to help me enrich my graduation. Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation to my family and friends, especially my parents who always take care of me and bring me to complete my thesis.
Hanoi, April 18, 2019 Student Bui Thi Phuong Trinh ii TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT.ii TABLE OF CONTENT.iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS.v CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF STUDY.3 Aims to the study.5 Scope of the study.7 Organization of the study.5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.1 Overview of business correspondence.2 Importance of Business Correspondence.3 Types of business correspondence.2 Overview of business letter.2 Importance of business letter.3 Function of business letter.4 Parts of business letter.5 Types of Business letter.6 When to write which type of Business letter.3 Overview of order letter.2 Factors to be considered while drafting order letter.4 Overview of complaint letter.2 Types of Complaint Letters.3 Factors to be considered while drafting complaint letter.5 Mistakes in writing business letter.2 Common mistakes in writing business letter.21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH FINDINGS.1 Education level of purchasing department staffs.2 Timeserving in purchasing department.3 How frequently do writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department?.4 Number of staffs feels confident in writing complaints and orders letters.5 Mistakes in writing complaints and orders letters.2: The main reasons for writing complaint and order letters.32 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.1 Some solutions which the company can use to improve writing complaint and order letters skill of Purchasing Department Staff.2 Some solutions which the staff can use to improve writing complaint and order letters skill of them.3 Some suggestion for the school where students are trained before they become employees.37 CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDIX iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: Sample of Error Log (adapted from Ferris and Hedgcock, 2005).4 Table 2: Recapitulation of Errors.5 Chart 1: Education level of purchasing department staffs.24 Chart 2: Timeserving in purchasing department.25 Chart 3: How frequently do writing complaints and orders letters of purchasing department?.26 Chart 4: Number of staffs feels confident in writing complaints and orders letters. 27 Table 3: The results of the survey results in mistakes.28 Table 4: The results of the recapitulation of mistake.32 v CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF STUDY 1.1 Rationale After nearly 30 years of renovation, Vietnam has achieved important achievements. From an outdated agricultural economy with 90% of the population working in agriculture, up to now, the material and technical foundations and socio- economic infrastructure have been gradually met to meet the industrialization, modernize (industrialization and modernization) and transfer all activities of self- sufficient agricultural economy to an industrialized economy. Vietnam's economy has gradually integrated into the regional and world economy.
The achievements of the process of industrialization and modernization bring the country to develop and improve the material and spiritual life of the people and contribute to ensuring security and national defense. Along with that strong development, Vietnam is also facing to some problems in which trade integration is also a big challenge. Vietnam is a potential market with an abundant labor force that is an ideal choice for foreign investors. Not only communicative English, commercial English also has affirmed its importance not only for tourism companies but also for other fields, especially real estate.
However, there are still mistakes in writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company. English is most language that is used in the company. Most staff in purchasing in company has English basically so in writing complaints and orders letters is still weak. In order to help the staffs, especially purchasing department improve writing complaints and orders letters skill after one- month internship at purchasing department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company, I carry on this study with the title: “Mistakes in writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company” 1.2 Previous study There has been a lot of research related to writing business correspondence 1 such as “How to improve your business writing?” by Carolyn O’Hara; “How to improve business writing?” by Jacob Funnell; “10 tips for effective business writing”; “The 10 most important business skill you will need by 2020”… These studies all point to steps to write a business correspondence such as “How to improve your business writing?” by Carolyn O’Hara: “Principles to Remember: Do: Plan out what you will say to make your writing more direct and effective.
Use words sparingly and keep sentences short and to the point. Avoid jargon and “fancy” words. Strive for clarity instead. Don’t: Argue that you simply can’t write.
Anyone can become a better writer with practice. Pretend that your first draft is perfect, or even passable. Every document can be improved. Bury your argument.
Present your main idea as soon as possible.” There has been a lot of book to writing business correspondence such as: “Writing for business”. The author reviewed: “This book has been written for intermediate students of English who want to write business letters. It has been specifically designed for students working for companies which have a need for regular communication with overseas customers, agents, etc. Students who want to use this book should have a basic knowledge of English grammar and a small vocabulary.
In fact it has been assumed that students are familiar with the first three levels of the Cambridge English Lexicon (2207 words). Most words above this level are listed in the glossary”. The book “Writing correspondence…E-mail…Fax…by English” by Nguyen Thanh Yen also is an interesting book about business correspondence. All of these studies and books show ways to improve your business writing skills very effectively.
However, to improve the most effective commercial correspondence skills, it is necessary to find difficulties in the writing process. In business, writing business correspondence is very important in the business of the 2 company, it may even be related to the success or failure of a company transaction. In reality, most people still have some difficulties when writing business correspondence. That is the reason why we choose the thesis “Mistakes in writing complaints and orders letter of Purchasing Department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company” 1.3 Aims to the study The aim of this study is to identify problems in writing complaints and orders letter and find out some solutions to improve writing complaints and orders letter of Purchasing Department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company.
The expectation is the staff of purchasing department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company can write complaints and orders letter correctly to achieve high efficiently at work.4 Research subject Real Estate is highly competitive one, every company requires their staff know English basically. Nowadays, foreigner transactions are becoming more and more popular. Thus writing business correspondence must be clear and understandable. To improve writing complaints and orders letter skill, staffs of Purchasing Department need to understand the importance of writing business correspondence, know how to write letters correctly.
The finding of this study is beneficial for Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company. These finding can be used to help Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company appreciate qualification of purchasing department. Here are some questions to deal with the study What is the reality of the use of English of all staff in Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company, especially purchasing department? What are mistakes in writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company? How frequently do writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department? What are some solutions or suggestions used to help them? 3 1.5 Scope of the study This study focus improving writing complaints and orders letter skill of staff of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company. Moreover it is big problem, requires much time and effort.
Due to limited time, resources and knowledge as well as other conditions, the study carried out to find out mistakes in writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company to help them improve writing complaints and orders letter skill to write complaints and orders letter correctly to achieve high efficience at work. Thus, this study is valuable for the Purchasing Department of Northern Green Land Service and Real Estate Joint Stock Company.6 Research methodology Method of data collection from references is the method we choose in this study. In order to collect data for this study, we follow through letter are sent and received from email and fax in December 2018. There are 3 steps to conduct the survey: Step 1: the researcher identified the situation/reality of writing complaints and orders letter of purchasing department Step 2: the researcher data collection In this step, we will collect 30 order and complaint letters of Purchasing Department and fill in the table which based on Ferris and Hedgcock model (2005) Data Morphological Lexica Syntactic Mechanical l Verb Noun Articl Word Sentence Spellin Punctuatio Capitalizatio Error Error e Choice Structure g Error n Error n Error Error Error Error 1 … 3 Table 1: Sample of Error Log (adapted from Ferris and Hedgcock, 2005) 4 Step 3: The researcher analysis data collection After the error patterns are identified, the total number of error is recapitulated (in componential analysis).
The recapitulation can be seen in the following table: Error Type Frequency of Percentage (%) Error Morphologica Verb Error Noun Error Article Error Lexical Word Choice Error Syntactic Sentence Structure Error Mechanical Spelling Error Punctuation Error Capitalization Error Total Table 2: Recapitulation of Errors 1.7 Organization of the study This study is divided into 4 chapters as follow Chapter 1: The Overview of the study which including rationale, previous study, aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study.