How many times have you dialed a potential client’s number, heard his or her voice mail and promptly hung up?  Leaving a recorded message is very intimidating not only to  non-native  but also to native English speakers. Therefore, it is important that before you make a phone call,  you have a written script or outline ready.  You never know if you’ll be connected to the person you’re calling or to his or her voice mail.  Moreover, you need to pay attention to your voice mail greeting message; it needs to be clear and professional.  For someone calling you for the first time, this message is his or her first impression of you and your firm, and as we all know, we only get one chance to make a good first impression.  Thus, use this communication technology with care, or you will unwittingly leave a bad impression.

 

• When you record a greeting for your voice mail system, remember that you are at work and not at home. You want to leave a greeting that would be understood by most business callers. Here’s an example:

 

“This is Henry Johnson in the Accounts Payable Department at ……………….. Please leave me a message, and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.   Thank you.”

 

• Leaving a clear and concise message is possible if you prepare what you want to say in advance. Therefore, when you call someone, always be prepared to leave a voice mail message if he or she is not there.

 

• Speak slowly and distinctly.
• Leave your name and telephone number. Your voice may not be recognizable to the recipient, and your call cannot be returned if your telephone number is unclear.
• Indicate why you are calling.
• Leave a short message that is direct and to the point.
• Keep your message friendly, but don’t forget professionalism
• Indicate when you will be in the office to receive the return telephone call.

 

•   Use voice mail as a way of informing a person that other communications are waiting or coming, since voice mail users frequently check voice mail more often than e-mail or the fax machine.

 

Remember, when you get a message on your voice mail system, return it the same day, if possible, or the next morning.

 

 

The following site can help you further your study of telephone communication:

 http://esl.about.com/od/businessspeakingskills/a/t_message.htm

To: parkhotelres@parkhotel.com
From: Jsmith@xyzlaw.com

Subject: Hotel reservation

Dear Sirs:
I need the reservation for the large conference room for Sunday, November28. Please let me know if an room is available.

Thank you,

J. Smith
XYZ Law Firm
Dallas, TX

The English articles are among the trickiest words for non-native English speakers to master. They appear in just about every English sentence and play an important role in maintaining successful communication. In business communication, where writing to an international public is often necessary, using articles correctly is especially important. How many times do you find yourself not sure whether you are using the English articles correctly in your business correspondences? If you continually make errors in article usage, such as in the above example, you may create a negative effect on those who are reading your e-mails, letters or memos. Your readers may think that you have an imperfect control of the language and lower their opinions of your professionalism.

• To better understand the meaning of the English articles and when to use them, you need to understand the concepts of definiteness and specificity

1. What does it mean to say that something is definite or indefinite?

Something is definite when it is known, familiar, unique, or identified to the speaker and the hearer. Something is indefinite when it is novel, unfamiliar, or assumed to be identified by the hearer.

If the noun is definite, use the; if not,

use a, an, some, or no article.

In the above e-mail, J. Smith inquires about the availability of a conference room. She erroneously uses the definite article the instead of the indefinite a. The potential ‘reservation’ is still novel and unfamiliar as is the ‘conference room’. Therefore, the indefinite article should have preceded both nouns.

 

2. What makes a noun or noun phrase specific or nonspecific?

A specific noun phrase is one in which the identity of individual member(s) is clear.

A nonspecific noun phrase is one where the identity of a member of the set is not clear.

a. Use the when you know or assume that your listener is familiar with and thinking about the same specific thing or person you are talking about. When you say you want the book, you’re implying one particular book, even if you haven’t named it. The introduces both singular and plural nouns or noun phrases.

b. A and an are more general in meaning, and they work only with singular nouns. If you want a book, you’re willing to read any book. A comes before words that begin with consonants, and an comes before words beginning with vowels.

• The English articles function as adjectives to indicate ‘which one’. In other words, they point out or introduce a noun. In order to know which articles, if any, to use, you need to understand what type of noun they introduce.

§ There are two classes of nouns, proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are words that name a specific person, place, thing or idea. For example, Tom and New York are proper nouns. A proper noun has two distinctive features: it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence. Common nouns, on the other hand, do not name a specific person, place, thing or idea. For instance, secretary and company are common nouns.

§ Common nouns are further classified into count and noncount. Words that can be counted are called count while words that cannot be counted and describe things as wholes are called noncount. For example, the noun, report, as in I need to finish my report today is a count noun because you can count reports. On the other hand, the noun, weather, as in the weather is mild today is noncount because you cannot count weather; rather, weather is described as a whole. Another thing to keep in mind concerning count and noncount nouns is that count nouns can take either the singular or plural form while noncount nouns take only the singular form.

• More facts about article usage

• Use the article a or an before a singular noun. Use an before a vowel sound. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u. Do not use the article a or an before a plural noun
• Introduce a singular noun with the indefinite articles a or an. When you refer to this noun again, use the definite article the. Use the before a singular noun if this noun is the only one or if the speaker and listener share an experience and are referring to the same one.
• Introduce a plural noun with some, any or no article. When you refer to this noun again, use the definite article the.
• Do not use the with a plural count noun (e.g., apples) or a noncount noun (e.g., gold) when you are making a generalization.

 Incorrect:  The apples are my favorite fruit.

Correct:     Apples are my favorite fruit.

Incorrect:  The gold is a metal.

Correct:     Gold is a metal.

• The following websites can help you further your study of English articles:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslart.html

• The modal auxiliaries in English are: can, could, had better, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, and would.
  

For many speakers of English as a second or foreign language, modals can be quite confusing. For one thing, they express a speaker’s attitudes, or “moods.” As we all know, you need to have a high emotional and social I.Q. to be able to understand someone’s attitudes or moods in your own language let alone in a second or foreign language. For example, modals not only express that a speaker feels something is necessary, advisable, permissible, possible or probable, but they also convey the strength of these attitudes. Moreover, each modal has more than one meaning and use which further complicates the matter for students of English.

• Virtually all modals can express both logical probability and social interaction.

Understanding the context of a social situation allows you to select the appropriate modal. Let’s use the social context of a meeting. You walk into a conference room full of potential clients and announce that “the meeting may begin now”; you are granting the people in the room permission to begin the meeting. You, therefore, need to be a fairly important person in your organization to be able to grant them permission. Furthermore, the meeting is a formal one; otherwise, you would have used can instead of may for granting permission. In contrast, let’s consider another scenario. Your boss asks you when a certain report will be ready. You answer him that you’ll do your best and that “it may be ready tomorrow”; knowledge of the social situation has little or no effect on the modal you use. What you want to communicate to your boss is that the probability of the report being ready the following day is relatively low.

• The following are some key facts relating to auxiliary modals and phrasal modals:

*Modals never change their form and do not show tense; they do not take a final -ed, -ing or -s.

Correct——–He can type.    He must have been sick.      I might be leaving soon.

Incorrect——*He cans type.        *He musted been sick.     *I mighting leave soon.

 

*Modals carry the negative of a sentence by adding not or n’t :

Correct——You shouldn’t smoke in the office.

Incorrect—-*You don’t should smoke in the office.

 

*We don’t use the infinitive to after a modal which is required when two ordinary verbs follow each other in sequence. Instead, a modal is followed immediately by the simple form of a verb.

Modal + Verb                                                Verb + Verb

 

Correct—- I can go.                                    I want to go.

 

Incorrect— *I can to go.                               * I want go.

 

*Every modal has at least one phrasal counterpart, and some modals have several; notice that the phrasal modals are made up of two or more words:

Modal                                                               Phrasal Modal

 

Can, could                                                       be able to

 

Will, shall                                                    be going to, be about to

 

Must                                                                have to, have got to

 

Should, ought to                                        be to, be supposed to

 

Would (=past habit)                                         used to

 

May, might                                               be allowed to, be permitted to

 

 

*The subject-verb agreement rule does not apply to modal auxiliaries but does apply to phrasal modals (except for used to). Furthermore, all phrasal modals require that a ‘to‘ infinitive precede the main verb.

She

• is able to

• is going to

• is allowed to                      go to Jerusalem tomorrow.

• has to

• has got to

• Below is a chart of modals expressing various degrees of probability, attitude, politeness or indirectness when making predictions or requests, and giving advice.

Auxiliary & Phrasal Modals: Making Predictions must has to/has got to necessarily, very certain will fairly certain should probable, probably, likely may perhaps, maybe, quite possible could/might possible, possibly	Examples Sally: The phone’s ringing. Rita: That must be our client in the U.S. That should be our client in the U.S. That may be our client in the U.S. That could/might be our client in the U.S.
Auxiliary Modals: Making Requests will/would requests of a general nature can/could may/might specific requests for permission can/could	Examples Stacy: My computer went down again.            Could you take a look at it? Mike: Can we take a coffee break now?
Auxiliary & Phrasal Modals: Giving Advice  must strong necessity have to/have got to necessity had better/best advisability with threat of bad result should/ought to moderate advisability might/could weak advisability	Examples You must e-mail Tom for confirmation. You have to/have got to e-mail John to confirm next week’s meeting. You had better/best, should/ought to call Tom and confirm tomorrow’s appointment. You ought to talk to Nancy today and make sure all preparations for the conference are going as planned. You might/could call Tom and ask him if he received our check.

• Sites that can help you further your study of English modals:

http://esl.about.com/od/beginningenglish/ig/Basic-English/Modal-Forms.htm

http://waylink.co.uk/?page=3132

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/auxiliary.htm

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalintro.html

 

When you’re trying to close a deal, write a proposal, or give a presentation, your English can make all the difference.  Good grammar is essential to good speaking and writing. One area in particular that causes great difficulty for those whose English is a second or foreign language, is prepositions, 150 to be exact. Can you remember the last time you sent an e-mail knowing that it probably contained some prepositions you used incorrectly?  Did you realize that your mistakes could cause your reader to misunderstand you or become offended?  As professionals and business people, you cannot afford to make these mistakes.

 

• What are prepositions?

Prepositions connect words to other parts of a sentence and have a close relationship with the word that follows, which is usually a noun. They never change their form, regardless of the case, gender etc. of the word they are referring to.

 

Some common prepositions are the following:

 

about above across after against along among around at before behind below beneath beside between beyond but

by despite down during except for from in inside into like near of off on onto out

outside over past since through throughout till to toward under underneath until up upon with within without.

 

• One of the greatest learning challenges presented by prepositions is their meaning.

He was born in the spring.

 

She threw the paper in the wastebasket.

 

The letter is written in French.

 

Although the preposition in is used in each of the above sentences, its meaning is not the same.  In the first example, in refers to time.  When was he born? He was born in the spring.  In the second example, in refers to direction, where something is going; in this case, the direction is from outside the wastebasket to the inside of the wastebasket. The last  example shows how the preposition in expresses the relationship between the noun, letter, and the word, French.

 

• Four things prepositions tell

The four things that prepositions tell are 1) where something is (location);  2) where something is going (direction);  3) when something happens (time);  4) the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and another word in a sentence.

 

Location

 

The subway is near her home.

 

They live just around the corner

 

We live within ten miles of your house

 

The town is across the river.

 

I’ll meet you at the mall.

 

Directions

 

She went to the city.

 

She jogged around the block.

 

He threw it just beyond the fence.

 

We came by the back road.

 

We went through the tunnel.

 

Time

 

I’ll wait until noon.

 

They arrived during the storm.

 

I had an appointment for two o’clock.

 

The time is ten to five.

 

We should arrive within two days.

 

Relationship

 

   Sam went to the party with Ann.

 

He is a man of ideas.

 

They never play by the rules.

 

You must choose between law and medicine as a career.

 

We went on a strict diet.

 

• sites that can further your understanding of English prepositions

 

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-rule.htm

 

http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blgr_prep1.htm

 

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets/grammar/business-prepositions/

 

http://www.wordpower.ws/grammar/gramch26.html

 

Do you understand the meaning of the italicized idioms in the following scenario?

An American law firm has just been notified that a deal it was negotiating with a large German drug manufacturer on behalf of one of its biggest clients, a famous American pharmaceutical, fell through. A meeting is called, and the legal team working on this deal gives a briefing on their negotiations with the Germans. The senior partner sits up straight, looks everybody in the eye and says “We need to get to the bottom of this. Why did the deal fall through? Let’s go back to the drawing board. In a nutshell, I want another proposal to take to the Germans. I want it with all the kinks ironed out, and I know all of you, when you put your heads together, can pull it off. So let’s get to work.”

• Learning Idioms is as important as learning vocabulary

If you are not an American speaker, you would have a lot of trouble understanding the meanings of the idioms in the above scenario. In order to understand a language, you must know the meaning of the idioms in that language. Students of English must learn its idioms and expressions the way they learn its other vocabulary.

• Hidden meaning

In today’s global business world, where English is the lingua franca, you are likely to come across hundreds of idioms. Idioms are everywhere and are often confusing because the meaning of the words in the idiomatic expression has little and often nothing to do with the literal meaning of the words. For example, the idiom mentioned above, pull it off, does not mean ‘take it off’ or ‘remove it. Rather, when you pull something off, you are accomplishing a difficult task or are successfully doing something difficult. If you try to figure out the meaning of an idiom word for word, you will be stumped. You need to know its hidden meaning.

• Idiom flash cards

Here’s a technique that will help you learn a few new idioms every week. On the front of a small index card, write the new idiom. On the back of the card, on the upper left hand corner, write the definition of the idiom; in the middle of the card, write a sentence using the idiom. Use one index card for each new idiomatic expression. Try to learn 10-12 new idioms a week. The cards are portable and will enable you to review the new idioms every free chance you have. Remember, the more you review, the more likely you are to store your new idioms in your long term memory.

• The following sites can help you begin your study of idioms:

• American idioms

• American business idioms

• business idioms

• 8000 American idioms

Online learning, also known as e-learning, embraces the portability of the Internet to address the needs of today’s busy business executives. A study conducted in 2006 found that there are nearly 3.5 million people participating in various e-learning courses, and that number continues to grow.

The New York Times recently took a look at the growing trend of learning languages online. The article points out that in today’s global marketplace, those involved in business want to gain an edge with the ability to communicate and negotiate in foreign languages.

In addition to the obvious advantages of the lower costs of e-learning programs, as well as the flexibility which allows you to work at your own pace, businesses are adopting e-learning programs as part of a broader integrated approach towards education involving visual, audio and kinesthetic components. These extra sensual features of e-learning make it a successful addition to online language instruction.

Better English = Higher employee productivity

E-learning for business English presents a most-compelling case for employee training. Honing employees’ English increases their accessibility to business documents and information, and enables them to communicate globally with other businesses via email and phone. After investing time in improved language skills, employees are able to focus on the content of their work, reduce their frustration, and speed up the process of writing even simple emails.

The challenges employers face when considering employee training are time and money. Deciding to invest in employee training requires confidence in visible results such as greater employee productivity, a realization of company goals, and a significant ROI.

Businesses understand that their employees are their most valuable resource, and that improving employee productivity in today’s marketplace necessitates training and education. E-learning’s low cost, flexibility and integrated educational methodology makes it a viable and attractive option for businesses around the world.

No matter what your job, you still have to write business-related letters, whether to clients, suppliers, or people within your own company. But writing an effective business letter that gets the message across professionally can be challenging for many reasons, including the following:

1. You’re a programmer/sales person/VP Business Development, not a writer.
2. You have to write business letters in foreign languages.
3. You’re struggling to get results from your business letters.

Lifehack just wrote a post with great tips on writing a business letter that gets results. The author, Dustin M. Wax, relates how in a previous position many of the decisions he made were based on the quality of the letter that he received:

“I can’t tell you how many truly awful letters I’ve had to read in my life. As a former administrative assistant, I was responsible for all the unsolicited submissions to a major New York museum. Artists and collectors all over the country (and abroad) wrote to have their work considered for display or acquisition, and to be honest the decision frequently rested more on the quality of their cover letter than on their work - which, romantic dreams aside, rarely if ever sells itself (my bold).”

So how do you write a business letter that gets results?

Dustin first takes a look at the structure of a good business letter. A formal letter needs to contain certain, basic elements, that when used, make the letter look serious. These elements are:

• Return address and date
• Mailing address of recipient
• Salutation
• Body
• Valediction
• Signature and printed name
• Enclosures – this refers to extra included material like a business card or an invoice

Dustin goes into depth for each of the above points, so be sure to read the post.

The next thing you need to keep in mind is content. No matter how pretty your letter is, if the content isn’t engaging, you won’t achieve your goals since nobody’s going to read it. Dustin says to follow the tried-and-true copywriting formula of AIDA: get their attention, get them interested, arouse their desire, and then tell them what action to take. Dustin gives detailed tips and a case study on how to achieve these goals in the post.

These points are relevant to all forms of business communication, and communication in general. Presentation, i.e. structure, is key to getting someone to take you seriously. Once you’ve got them to even look at you, you need to persuade them to take action by following the steps of AIDA.

Another good resource for tips on writing effective business letters is Englishclub.com. The site has a useful tutorial on writing business letters, which takes you step-by-step through vocabulary tips, letter formats, planning, writing and proofreading. The common phrases throughout this lesson can help you articulate your message with proper English and the appropriate business tone.

Happy business writing!

How to Write a Business Letter That Gets Results

Englishclub.com

Almost anyone who speaks or writes in a foreign language can think of an embarrassing story caused by a mistake in just one letter, word or punctuation mark. When writing emails in a foreign language, you have the chance to review your letter before sending, and make sure that everything is in order. The presentation of your emails, both formal and casual, plays a significant role in shaping your professional image and developing fruitful business relationships through effective communication.

By implementing the following tips, you will be able to create useful email dialogues with clients, potential clients and colleagues:

1. Use an Appropriate Greeting and Signature

When addressing the recipient of the email, make sure you know whether they are a man, woman, doctor, or anything else that may affect which address you use.

In addition, make sure that every email that you send includes all of your contact info in the signature. This ensures that the recipient can store all of your contact details for future communication. Most email clients allow you to attach your signature automatically at the end of each email. To learn how, click here for Outlook, here for Gmail, and here for Yahoo.

2. Be Conscious of the Tone

Deciding upon the tone of your email is the first step in writing the content. Every part of the letter, from the heading, to the body, to the signature, should reflect the appropriate level of formality. For example, beginning with ‘Hi Tal’ is clearly more casual than ‘Dear Tal.’ If you are unsure, closing the email with ‘Sincerely’ or ‘Best Regards’ can keep the tone neutral.

3. Keep it Short

Everyone gets dozens if not hundreds of emails a day. Their time is limited, and keeping your emails short will not only make the writing task easier for you, but it will also make your emails more accessible to today’s busy professionals. Short emails solicit quicker responses and more successfully communicate your message.

4. Use White Space

Make sure that you separate your points with enough white space. Begin a new paragraph for each topic. Add bullets or lists so that readers can scan your emails.

5. Check your Spelling and Grammar

Most email clients today include spell checks. You should also check for spelling on your own to identify typos like homophones (words pronounced the same but spelled differently), which can often lead to spelling mistakes.

Although checking your grammar can be more complicated, read www.copyblogger.com’s list of the six most common grammatical mistakes made when writing copy. Working on a few rules at a time will boost the clarity of even simple emails.

Create your Personal Style

Once you develop your own style and signature, emails can effectively help you express yourself articulately and professionally in any language.