UNIT C- REVISION

WRITING LETTERS AND

EMAILS

Dr. Tuyet Be, PhD

Faculty of ESP, Foreign Trade University
tuyetbt@ftu.edu.vn
Letters vs. Emails?

 Which one is more formal?

 Which one is more common?
 1. Practice- Letter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
a) Central Admissions
Office Wye House
Park Campus
University of Mercia
Borchester BR3
5HT United
Kingdom
b) Ms P Tan
54 Sydney Road
Rowborough RB1 6FD

c) Ref: MB/373

d) 3rd May 2021

e) Dear Ms Tan,

f) Application for
MSc Sustainable
Building
Technology

g)Further to your recent application, I would lik e to invite you to the university for an informal
interview on Tuesday 21st May at 11 am. You will be able to meet the course supervisor, Dr
Schmidt, and look round the School of the Built Environment.

h) A map of the campus and instructions for finding the university are enclosed.

i) Please let me know if you will be able to attend on the date given.

j) Yours sincerely,

k)

l) Mick Bramble

Administrative Assistant

Central Admissions Office

Practice: Label the following features of formal letters with the letters (a-l) from the left
margin.

(d ) Date ( ) Ending ( ) Request for response

( ) Greeting ( ) Address of recipient ( ) Address of sender

( ) Further details ( ) Reason for writing ( ) Sender’s reference

( ) Subject headline ( ) Signature ( ) Writer’s name and job

title
Letters

a) Address of sender g) Reason for writing

b) Address of recipient h) Further details
c) Sender’s reference i) Request for response
d Date j) Ending
e) Greeting k) Signature
f) Subject headline l) Writer’s name and job title
 Example answer- Letter

54 Sydney Road
Rowborough RB1 6FD

Mr M. Bramble
Administrative Assistant
Central Admissions Office
Wye House
Park Campus
University of Mercia
Borchester BR3
5HT

5th May 2020

Dear Mr Bramble,
I
n
f
o
r
m
a
l

I
n
t
e
r
v
i
e
w
:

Y
r

R
e
f
:

Source: Bailey, S.
M (2017). Academic writing : A handbook for
international students.
B Taylor & Francis Group.
/
3
7
3

Thank you for inviting me to interview on May 21st. I will be able to attend
on that date, but it would be much more convenient if I could have the
interview at 12, due to the train times from Rowborough.
Writing the date

 Write the date out in full:

 10 November 2014, November 10, 2014 or November 10th,

2014

 Avoid 10/11/2014 or 11/10/2014

“Reasons for writing” phrases

Why are you writing?

Make it easy for your reader to understand why you are writing by putting your objective at
the beginning of your message.
Making reference

I am writing with reference to your letter of 6 November.

With reference to your letter (of date), I...
In response to your request, I can confirm...
With regard to your memo, I...
Following our conversation this morning, I.....
Further to your letter of...., I
Thank you for your letter of June 14th.
To ask for confirmation
Following our meeting yesterday, I would be grateful if you could confirm the following points.
Please could you confirm the date of ...?
To inform
I am writing to inform you that ...
Please be informed that, due to …, the Sales Dept will...
Please be advised that the office will close from
I am writing to advise you that the office will close from ...
To ask for information or advice

I am writing to inquire (enquire BrE) about ………………….

I would be interested to find out more about ...
I would be interested to receive further details about...
Please could you give us some information / details on your range of ...
I would appreciate your advice concerning …
I would be grateful for your advice concerning ....
To explain or to clarify

I am writing to explain ………….concerning ....

In response to the questions in your letter of ................, I am writing with further
information.
I would like to clarify our …………………...regarding ...
In response to your recent inquiry, I hope that the following information
clarifies…………………
To suggest or advise

In response to your complaint concerning ..., may we suggest that you contact ...
Following your inquiry regarding ..., I would like to make the following suggestions.
With regard to your email about ..., we advise you to contact ...
We would like to advise ………to ………...
In response to your letter, we feel that it is advisable to...
To ask someone to do something

I would be grateful if you could send me further information about....

I would greatly appreciate it if you would ....
Your help would be appreciated in planning...
Please would you sign ....
Kindly check ...
Please make sure that ...
Please ensure that …
To reply to someone's request

As you requested, I am enclosing ...

As you suggested, I am sending you ...
In answer to your inquiry, I ...
As promised, I am sending you...
To thank
Thank you for your letter of February 15.
I greatly appreciated your assistance during …
To enclose something

Please find enclosed the ……… you requested.

Enclosed please find ……………...
Enclosed is / are ...
I am enclosing a ...
I have enclosed …
To attach something
Please find attached a …………….
Attached please find ……………….
Attached is / are …
To complain

I am writing to complain about …

To apologize
Please accept our apologies for the delay.
On behalf of the company, I would like to extend our sincerest apologies for ...
We were very sorry to hear about your recent problem with …
To give good news
We are delighted to inform you that...
To give bad news
Unfortunately, we are unable to ...
Regrettably, we are unable to ...
 Note

 If it is addressed to a known person and the ending is ‘Yours sincerely’.

 writing to somebody whose name you do not know (e.g. The Manager), use
Dear Sir and Yours faithfully.
 A formal letter generally uses the family name in the greeting (Dear Ms
Tan). Certain organisations may, however, use a first name with a family name
or even a first name alone (Dear Polly Tan, Dear Polly).
 If the sender includes a reference it is helpful to quote it in your reply.
Titles

1. Women
 Women are generally addressed as 'Ms'. Only use 'Mrs' if you're sure that the
 woman is married and that she uses her married name.
 Avoid using 'Miss' unless you know that you're writing to a young girl (under the age of
16) or to a much older woman who never married.
 To be on the safe side, most writers use 'Ms', the female equivalent of 'Mr‘ for male
2. Academic
Other titles commonly used are 'Dr' if you are writing to either a medical doctor, or someone
who has a doctorate. Bachelor or master degree holders are normally addressed as either 'Mr'
or 'Ms'.
Punctuation
1. Commas
 Some people put commas after both the opening and the closing:
Dear Sarah,
Best wishes,
 It is also correct to leave out the comma after the opening and the closing:
Dear Mr Smith
Yours sincerely
2. Full stop / Period
 In British English, there is no full stop / period after Mr or Ms:
Dear Mr Brown
Dear Ms Riohards
 In American English, the period is important – leaving it out can give the impression that you're careless:
Dear Mr. Brown
Dear Ms. Richards
Standard closings

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

I look forward to your reply.
I am so much counting on your consideration/support. I am looking forward to your email.
References

 Whitemell, C. (2014). Business writing essentials: How to write Letters, Reports & Emails.
Group work – bonus points

 Writing 1 (pg.92): Sample

 Writing 2 (pg.92): Write an email : ALL STUDENTS
 Vocabulary 1(pg.93)
 Vocabulary 2 (pg. 93)
 Vocabulary 3 (pg. 94) : Sample
 Writing : Write a letter (pg. 94): ALL STUDENTS
Writing
Exercise 1 (pg. 92)

 1 would like to 5 very much hope

 2 would be delighted 6 seeing you
 3 are willing 7 sincerely
 4 invited
Exercise 2
Sample answer

To: Erman Bayar

From: J. Ferreira
Subject: Forthcoming IRTA Sales Conference
Dear Mr Bayar,
Thank you very much for your kind invitation to speak at your sales conference, which I am delighted to
accept. The subject of my presentation will be ‘Barriers to
International Trade’. Please find the abstract attached. My fee will be €1,500. I hope this is acceptable to
you. Thanks also for your invitation to the dinner on the
second day of the conference. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend, as I am giving another presentation
elsewhere that evening.
Yours sincerely,
J. Ferreira
Vocabulary
Exercise 1 and 2 (pg. 93)

 Exercise 1:
 1 g 2 e 3 f 4 b 5 a 6 d 7 c

 Exercise 2
 1 take a psychometric test 4 work a probationary
 2 attend an interview period
 3 shortlist a candidate 5 apply for a job
Vocabulary
Exercise 3 (pg. 94)

 1b  6a
 2b  7a
 3d  8c
 4c  9b
 5a  10 d
Writing (pg. 94)
Sample answer

Dear Mr A,
Thank you for coming to the interview for the post of General Manager at ABC Corporation in
Hanoi.
There were many highly qualified candidates. Unfortunately, despite your skills and
experience, we are unable to offer you the position at this time.
We will keep your name on file and will let you know about any future job openings in our
organisation that may be of interest to you.
Sincerely