大学英语创意写作 实用写作 填空重点句型

Chapter one

Business documents are written to get things done. They are read by busy people and this means that documents need always to be concise and clear. They also need to be correct in terms of grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and spelling. The 4Cs (conciseness, clarity, courtesy and correctness) are very important.

Effective business communication

As with any form of communication, the most important factors in business communication are purpose and audience. Academic communication, for example, communicates information and arguments between students and staff in academic settings. Journalistic communication informs and sometimes persuades large sections of the general public about events in the world. Workplace communication gets things done between staff in workplace situations.

The first basic rule of workplace communication, whether spoken or written, is that it needs to be as long as necessary and as short as possible. This rule applies equally well to letters, memos, reports, e-mails, resumes, meetings, and telephone conversations. Busy business people do not appreciate wordiness and require communication which is clear and concise.

A clear and concise style is achieved by choosing appropriate language for the purpose. In letters, the effective workplace communicator will avoid wordy and clumsy phrases.

It is important to remember that this concise style needs to be balanced by politeness. Workplace communication should not be abrupt. Indeed, politeness is essential for good working relationships. Politeness is achieved by making sure that letters, memos ,phone calls etc. all have the right tone. The tone should neither be too boastful, nor too modest.

A final and very important feature of effective business communication is its language accuracy. In most companies, a letter is considered to be ‘unmailable ’ if it contains ever a single error in formatting, spelling, punctuation, or grammar. So, careful and detailed editing and proofreading of a written document is essential. Employers and colleagues will form a

negative impression of a person’s abilities and attitudes if he/she uses incorrect language in workplace communication. Effective written workplace communication, then, needs to show:

A style which is clear and concise

A tone which is polite but not overly modest

A presentation which contains no errors of format and language Workplace writing: informative and persuasive types

Workplace writing: informative and persuasive types

There are two general types of workplace documents, those that try to either:

Inform the reader about a product or service

Persuade the reader that this product or service is a good one and worth buying.

The workplace writer chooses content and language which will best achieve their aim.

Levels of formality

Business communication, then, needs to have appropriate style, tone, format and language. The style should always be concise, but the level of formality depends on the situation or topic and the status of people sending and receiving the communication: Bottom-up communication

To a superior = more formal

Top-down communication

From a superior = more formal

Sideways communication

To and from people of same rank = less formal

Chapter two

Memo writing guidelines

A memo is an administrative document. it

Is used only for communication within a company, i.e. it is an Intra-company document and is not used for inter-company communication

May be distributed top-down or bottom-up

Deals with a single topic

Names its sender(s) and recipient(s) clearly

Has short, easily readable paragraphs

May have sub-headings and numbered sub-sections

May be distributed electronically or in hard copy Increasing and reducing distance between sender and recipient

Using formal language increases the ‘social distance’ between a sender and a recipient. Informal language reduces this distance. Informal:

Exaggerated or slang terms

Abbreviated words, e.g. we’ve, I’ll

Emphasis markings. (i.e. bold font, exclamations, italics, underlining)

Formal

Longer, more complex sentences

Complex vocabulary

No abbreviated words

Use of personalization

Using first person words like ‘we’, ‘I’, and ‘ours’and second person words like ‘you’ and ‘your’ reduces the distance between the sender and the receiver. Junior employees writing to senior employees can use these words, but they need to be careful that the right distance, and therefore courtesy, is maintained. Degrees of directness

Modern business writing aims to be brief and direct, yet not so direct that it will offend the receiver. The position of the sender and receiver in the organization will influence how direct the language should be.

Chapter three

Letters of a request are written to seek information or to obtain a response to a specific enquiry. Letters responding to requests give information but also attempt to build goodwill. It is important to remember that while memos are normally written for communication within a company, letters are mainly written for communication between different companies.

Below are a request letter and a letter responding to the request. The letters are written in block format, which is now the most common format for such letters. As you can see, the main

feature of this format is that everything is blocked or justified to the left side of the page. With this style, it is not necessary to use commas or full stops in the date, address, salutation, or close. Guidelines for writing request and response letters

Subject line: write a suitable subject line to identify previous correspondence

Salutation: if you know the name of your recipient, begin Dear Mr. or Ms. X and close Yours sincerely; if you do not know the recipient or their gender, begin Dear Sir/Madam and close Yours faithfully

Body of letter: order information logically, explain and clarify it, provide additional information if appropriate.

Close: end in a polite and friendly way to maintain goodwill

An order request

Opening: state what you want to order and the source of the service or product.

Body: list items stating quantity, order number, description, and unit price; and show total price of order.

Close: request shipment by a specific date, state method of payment, and express goodwill.

Chapter four

In all workplace writing, we aim to be courteous, concise and clear and to write accurately. These principles are true even for letters of complaint, which should never be rude or aggressive. Letters of adjustment should, of course, be models of tact and politeness. The sentence construction and vocabulary you choose for such letters should suit the purpose and the receiver of your document, and should link ideas logically and smoothly. Maintaining courtesy

Courteous language aims to build and maintain a good relationship between the sender and the receiver of the message. Your choice of language will depend on your purpose for writing and your relationship with the receiver. As all business correspondence involves a professional relationship between colleagues and clients, there is always a degree of distance present between the sender and the receiver in every

communication. However, there are situations in which it is appropriate to express different degrees of distance. You need to know how to choose the right sentence construction and vocabulary to suit these different occasions.

Heading distance

Modern business writing in English tends to have a reduced distance between the sender and receiver, compared with business writing in the past. Managing distance is complex; it is possible to create too much or too little distance between the sender and the receiver and this may affect the degree of courtesy in the message. In letters of adjustment, distance is particularly difficult to judge—you should normally apologize but finish the letter by closing the distance between you and the recipient. This can be done by reminding the recipient of past successful dealings, offering sensible compensation and assuring him or her of excellent future service.

The information sequence in letters of complaint Letters of complaint normally include the following information:

An explanation of the problem

The consequences of the problem for both parties

A request to solve the problem

The information sequence in letters of adjustment

A letter of adjustment is a response to a letter of complaint. A letter of adjustment will normally include the following information in the given order:

An offer of apologies

A summary of action taken to rectify the problems

An assurance of goodwill including the offer of compensation, if appropriate

Chapter five

Instructions and advice are important in the world of business. These types of writing appear in notices to employees, in user manuals and in menus. Instructions use simple language but their formats need to be clear and attractive.

Extracting instruction from advice

Writing which gives advice usually goes into much greater detail than used to give instructions.

Chapter six

A business report is written because information which has been gathered needs to be presented in an organized way. The length and format depends on the purpose of the report, the content and, of course, the intended audience or readers.

In brief reports—describing a simple event or presenting a straightforward set of facts—the memo/letter format is often used, and the structure is simple. Memo reports are usually for internal communication and letter reports for external communication.

Longer reports are a little more complicated, however, and the have slightly different rules because of their length.

Reports are typically divided into several headed sections, each with a particular function. This makes the information in the report more ‘reader-friendly’, since the reader can either read the whole report or concentrate only on those sections in which he or she is interested.

Active and passive voice

The passive voice appears mostly in the Procedure section and sometimes the Findings section. The function of the passive voice is to make the information sound objective and impersonal, to remove any hint of personal bias

Here the use of the active voice would sound too subjective and informal. By contrast, in the Findings section, use of the passive to report respondents’reactions to questions would sound clumsy.

Preliminary information

The preliminary section of the report contains all the information required to understand what follows in the main part of the report, and the way it is organized.

Memo or letter of transmittal

The memo or letter of transmittal is a short covering text. It is usually very brief, and simply informs the reader that you have completed the report as requested and that a copy is enclosed for reference or action.

Title page

The title page of a report should answer the basic questions: who? What? And why? Apart from the title of the report, we would therefore expect to see the author’s name, the name of the person who asked for the report to be written, and their respective positions in the company, as well as the date and, where necessary, the reference number.

Table of contents

The table of contents page is a list of the main sections of the report with sub-headings and page numbers. Use small Roman numerals to number the pages in the preliminary section of your report;

Summary/abstract/synopsis

The summary of a report is placed at the beginning, even though it is probably the last thing that is written. It is a very brief version of your report, and should allow a busy person to understand the main findings, conclusions and recommendations quickly and easily. When describing the aims of the report, use the present tense. When summarizing the procedure and findings, use the simple past tense.

Terms of reference

The terms of reference clear set out the objectives of the report, the subject area to be covered and any special areas or particular problems which should be addressed. The person who asks you to write the report will give you the terms of reference at the outset, and it is very important that you understand them completely; otherwise you are in danger of writing a report which does not focus on the right area, or that does not include sufficient detail.

Procedure/method

In long reports, it is usual to include a brief a description of the procedures you have used in gathering your information. This allows the reader to check your sources of information and the methods you have employed to do your primary research. The procedure for collecting information may include questionnaires, surveys, desk research, interviews, and observation. When describing the procedures, we generally use the past tense and the passive voice.

Introduction/background

The introduction normally includes background information needed to understand the problem or situation. When describing the background to the report, we generally use the present or present perfect tense.

It is also helpful for the reader if you explain in the introduction how the report is organized. Use Arabic numbers for the pages in the body of the report: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Main findings/results

This, of course, is the main part of the report, in which you write up all the details of your research and investigation. The information should be presented in different section with suitable headings and sub-headings. These are important because they act as signposts for the readers, helping them to understand the report quickly, and to move from one section to another without being confused.

All the sections in this part of the report should be logically arranged, and any relevant graphics or tables should be integrated into the text. Where possible, the findings should be limited to the most important facts. Complicated statistics and lengthy technical details should not be included here, but left for the appendix at the end of the report. This should ensure that the body of the report remains easy to read and understand. Conclusion

In the conclusion, the new facts should be introduced. Instead, the report writer should use the information in the findings and state the logical implications/results/conclusions that can be reached. Remember, the conclusion should not contain your personal opinions, but should be an objective interpretation of the facts. It can be written using the present tense, or conditional clauses.

Recommendations

Recommendations state what action should be taken on the basis of the evidence you have uncovered and the conclusions you have come to. In some reports, recommendations are vital and may be the main reason for writing the report. Such recommendation reports are discussed in chapter 11 of this book. If recommendations are asked for, then you would expect to see

advice or suggestions for action in this part of the report. Of course, the advice should be based firmly on the findings which have already been presented. Since recommendations tend to be more personal, the use of the personal pronouns I and We is common in this section of the report.

Remember, you cannot make a final decision in the recommendations section. You should simply suggest what action should be taken.

Appendix

The appendix contains supporting information which helps the reader to understand your report more completely. Any information which is not of primary importance, or which may distract the reader from the main points in the body of the report, should be put in an appendix. The appendix can contain maps, charts, graphs, questionnaires, memos, letters, etc. The items included should be self-contained and clearly labeled so that the reader knows exactly what they refer to, or why they are significant. The appendix is normally labeled 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C References/bibliography

The references or Bibliography section is usually the last one in a long report. It contains the details of any previously published sources of information used in the report.

Chapter seven

The important thing about writing a speech is to know your audience. You must choose the appropriate tone for each speech by analyzing the situation before you write your speech. The most obvious characteristics of a speech is that it is spoken and that people listen to it rather than read it. This should affect the way we prepare the speech.

The style of business speeches

It is in many ways more difficult to listen to a speech than it is to read something. The speech writer should keep this in mind and avoid including too many ideas or details. Clear organization, summaries of what you are going to say and a conclusion are all desirable.

The major problem with speeches is that so many of them are boring. Where appropriate try to include little stories that

illustrate your point. Stories are much easier to listen to and remember than highly abstract arguments.

The vocabulary and grammar should be kept fairly simple. Oral English is always much less complex than written English. You don’t want to lose the attention of your audience.

Rhetorical questions—questions which attract the audience’s attention and which you don’t expect an answer to—can help to involve the audience, as listeners will silently answer your questions.

Chapter eight

General speaking, employers are looking for ‘value-added’characteristics among their prospective employees. Increasingly, employers are seeking to recruit all-rounders, people who have not only the special skills and knowledge to do the job in question but who also possess dynamic qualities such as communication and interpersonal skills. The technical aspects of many jobs are now handled by computers and this technological support has put the focus on human skills.

Explanations of your suitability for a particular job should be given in a letter of application attached to your resume. Application letters highlight important information which may be ‘lost’ in a resume. You may have to fill in forms too and write personal statements when applying for jobs.

Tone, style and accuracy in job application letters

It is very important, but also quite difficult, to get the tone and style right in job application letters. Tone relates to whether the letter is polite/not polite, boastful/not boastful etc. Achieving an appropriately polite and non-boastful tone is essential for making the right impression on a prospective employer. Style relates to the level of formality and choice of words in a letter. A job application letter is a formal piece of writing and your choice of words will need to reflect this.

Accuracy is vital in creating the best possible impression on an employer. Mailing a letter which contains errors of grammar, punctuation or spelling is completely unacceptable. A letter which contains such errors is not a mailable document and must

be revised before it is read by an influential person who will evaluate you initially by your written communication skills.

A resume has two main functions

It gives information about your personal status, your education/qualifications, your work record (including part-time job or voluntary/charity work), any special awards, special interests, computer and language proficiency levels, and the names and addresses of referees;

It support your claim to be worth interviewing for the advertised post and with this in mind you may need to elaborate or emphasize certain sections of your resume in response to the demands of a particular job.

Language features of resumes

The most important language feature of a resume is its simplicity—it is unusual to use whole paragraphs or even whole sentences in writing a resume. This is because a resume needs to give accurate information as concisely and clearly as possible. The tone of the resume may appear to be abrupt but in fact a more accurate description is economical and reader-friendly. Key information can be very quickly found by the reader if the resume is written in a concise way.

So, the language of resumes is very simple. The main feature appears under the heading Part-time Employment Record, that is, the use of action verbs in the simple past tense. These verbs placed at the beginning of a phrase help your writing to be dynamic and engaging for your readers.

Select content in resumes

Certain information is compulsory in resumes: name, address and contact telephone number, for example. However, other items may be regarded as optional and thus be omitted, e.g. your age, marital status and your e-mail address.

Examination results may be omitted from the resume if they are referred in the covering letter you submit or if-you submit transcripts of examination results. Results may also be attached to the resume as an appendix. If put into the body of the text, results can spoil the ‘flow’of your resume. Note that in the resume above, exam results are not mentioned.

You might also include a brief statement of your career objective

at the beginning of the resume. This feature aims to show that you are a dynamic and proactive person, but a fresh graduate must be careful to phrase the objective appropriately, e.g. Chapter nine

Writing effective e-mails

E-mail is a difficult channel of written communication because it has some features of speaking and of writing. Despite its limitations, e-mail is increasing the main channel of communication for sending routine business messages. However, writers should choose other channels for sending detailed data or sensitive messages.

Guidelines for writing effective e-mails

Create your messages off-line.

Be concise.

Be accurate.

Don’t emphasize emotion.

Use attachments.

Consider cultural differences.

Format messages to make them more readable.

Chapter ten

Minutes of a meeting are written for two main purposes:

To create a record of what took place in the meeting

To remind those at the meeting of the actions they need to take after the meeting

The content of minutes

Minutes can be long and almost word for word or they can be very brief. Normally, the minute writer will need to be selective and report only the most important discussion points and decisions. Whatever their length, minutes always include the following facts:

The time and date of the meeting, where it was held, and who chaired it

The names of all those attending the meeting and of those who sent their apologies for absence

The agenda items discussed and all decisions reached

The time at which the meeting ended

The time, date and venue of the next meeting

The actions which need to be taken, by whom and by what date The name of the minute-taker, his/her role and the date on which the minutes were written

Chapter eleven

Recommendation reports are written to investigate a matter of interest to a company and recommend action to be taken on the matter. The topic of a recommendation report can be important or relatively unimportant and the format of the report will vary. Some longer reports are almost book-length, others cover a few pages and some are presented in the format of a memo. Chapter twelve

Advertising is mainly used by marketers to give consumers in the target market a positive image of a particular or service. It helps to position the product in the market. Advertising both informs and persuades and the proportion of information to persuasion depends on the product or service in question and the target clients.

Persuasion is obviously important in advertising and in business communication generally. It helps us to project a positive company image, sell our products and services and adds value to us individually as employees. We persuade others in three main ways:

Appeal to reason

Appeal to emotions

Appeal to trust by emphasizing the status of the company and/or individuals within the company

Clearly, appeal to reason relates to the information in an advertisement, while the other appeals relate more closely to persuasion.

Chapter thirteen

Describing trends

Sales reports generally contain description and interpretation of trends. Describing trends has its own distinctive language.

You can see that it is important when describing trends to give the reader the ‘big picture’. That means that you should describe broad trends and avoid describing every fluctuation in the graph. Interpreting trends

When you interpret trends, you attempt to explain the reasons behind the trends.

Comparing and contrasting trends

Apart from interpreting trends, you may also need to compare and contrast trends in different places or at different times. When you write your paragraph you should bear in mind that your reader can see the table. Start your paragraph by referring to the table.

Chapter fourteen

Business proposals are written to suggest new ideas for organizing a company to make it more efficient or for promoting its products and services in a more effective way. Business proposals may also be called feasibility studies, because they attempt to show that an idea will work in practice. To be practical, there are five areas in which an idea needs to work: the technical, the resource-related, the financial, the social and the environmental.

Purposes and audience for proposals

Proposals may be written for internal audiences or they may be requested by a client and therefore have an external audience. Proposals which are requested are known as solicited proposals and those not requested are termed unsolicited. Audiences for proposals may not be highly trained in a technical sense and so the organization and language employed should be as clear and simple as possible.

Chapter fifteen

Promotional materials can be subdivided into a number of different types:

Sales letters

Promotional e-mails

Brochures

Press (or news) releases

Print and TV advertisements

Writing sales letters and e-mails

Sales letters aim to stimulate interest in the company, product or service being promoted. The language used is positive and is written in a more friendly and informal manner than in other types of business correspondence.

Goodwill messages

Promoting products and service depends not only on winning new clients. To show appreciation of existing users of your products or services, send goodwill letters or e-mails.

Chapter sixteen

A company profile prospective clients and customers with what the company considers to be key information about the organization. This will normally include:

Facts and figures about its major products and services

The history and development of the company

Its mission and philosophy

A statement of identity

A projection of its preferred image (including a logo)

While it aims to provide the reader with an overview of the company, its primary purpose is to persuade the reader to support the company in some way. So, a company profile has both informational and promotional purposes.

Mission statements

One of the most important parts of a company profile is the mission statement. This is a declaration of a corporation or organization’s philosophical ideals and values. A mission statement stresses values,

Positive behaviors, and guiding principles. Mission statements tend to be formally expressed and widely communicated to both internal and external audiences. They set a standard by which an organization is supposed to measure itself.