Commercial Correspondence in English [antikvár]

PrefaceTo the TeacherThe growing importance of English as the international business language has brought with it an increasing demand for up-to-date courses in commercial correspondence. Yet many teachers feel that the teaching of English for business is too specialized for them to do successfully. This book is an attempt to help two different types of teacher: the teacher of English as a foreign language, who feels he is not competent to teach business subjects, and the teacher of business subjects, who feels unqualified to tackle the linguistic problems involved in teaching English.Because this book, unlike most of the other books on commercial correspondence which have appeared, is intended to be a teaching book and not a reference manual it deals with actual people in business situations and gives examples of the letters they would write. The teacher should select the letters appropriate for the particular class he is instructing. The authors hope that this approach will suggest techniques for approaching the subject as an interesting and lively series of situations. By placing the examples in the context of normal business operations, we hope that both teacher and students will find the subject easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to adapt to the situations encountered in real life.The book progresses from the basic situations which require the writing of a letter in English to someone in England to a consideration of situations arising in foreign trade, although these are usually covered by the use of printed forms rather than of letters. The introductory chapters consider the layout of letters and the answering of advertisements for a job in great detail, in order to make the statement of the points to be made in a letter and its correct layout second nature. By the time the first real business letters are written, the whole technique of correct layout and of writing in simple English should be automatic. The various processes in domestic trade transactions are considered in some detail, to give the foreign student a clear picture of what happens in English firms and a background from which to proceed to international correspondence.The emphasis throughout the book has been kept on the writing of letters in a business context. Because we hope to teach the student tovii