English Commercial Practice and Correspondence [antikvár]

PREFACE There has been, we believe, a long-felt need for a book to give the foreign student, simply and clearly, the outlines of English Commercial Practice and the writing of Commercial Correspondence. There are numerous admirable books for this purpose for the English student, but the English student's background knowledge and problems and difficulties are not, generally, those of the foreign student. Of the writers of the present book, one has had wide experience as a business man both abroad and in England, the other has been for many years a teacher and a writer of textbooks of English for foreign students. It is therefore from the angle of the non-English student that this present book has been written. In it, the main branches of English commercial practice have been covered and particular attention has been paid to the typical correspondence of each department. So, a considerable number of letters of the kind most frequently needed in business have been included. These will be found grouped foi the student's convenience under the headings Inquiries and Offers, Orders and their Execution, Complaints and Settlements, etc. In this connection readers should note a special feature (not, so far as we know, to be found in any other book of this kind), the Appendix of Standard Phrases for Correspondence (page 242-55). So often the student, confronted with the problem of writing business correspondence, is at a loss to know what is the appropriate expression for his particular type of letter. He will, it is true, have met all these expressions as he has worked through the book, but until he has had considerable experience in the writing of letters, the right phrase may not necessarily rise to his call when he wants it. In the Appendix he will find the various alternatives all ready classified to help him out of this difficulty. Our aim, however, has been not only to teach him English Commercial Practice, but also to teach him English, to 5