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QUESTIONS:

1.What is the most important information in a Curriculum Vitae.

2.What can you say about the content and the format of a CV?

3.What practical recommendations for making a resume / a CV are the most useful for your?

4.What particularities of the British and the American English you should consider in business letter writing?

LECTURE 9: Business Correspondence for the XXI-st Century

1.Business Email Writing

2.CVs/Resumes for the XXI-st Century

3.Webpage

1.Business Email Writing

Email is a quick and direct form of communication so write short and direct emails. These should remain focused on their purpose and come to the point quickly.

Email, when used properly, can serve as a means of ongoing promotion for a business.

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There are several parts of the email:

Subject:

Include a short and specific subject in the subject field. This is to help the receiver. They‟ll be able to better sort their email and deal with it efficiently if they can see what each message is about quickly and easily. Also, messages without a subject might get rejected or sorted into the spam folder.

Greeting:

Even though emails are less formal you still need a proper greeting at the start. You should use a similar greeting style as used in the proper format for business letters. This is „Dear‟ followed by the persons title and name (full name if possible – first and surnames). This can be followed by a colon or a comma: a colon in the first message and commas after that.

Main Body:

The main body should address the subject of the email quickly and concisely.

Don‟t waste words and stick to the subject. Quickly state the information you want to send to the receiver or why you‟re emailing. Then explain what needs to be done by the receiver. Often there'll be at least one attachment. Summarize what you‟ve attached and what needs to be done with it. For example, if you want comments from the receiver say so, or if the attachment is just for their records state that.

Closing:

Choose a general closing that‟s appropriate for nearly all circumstances and use it on all your emails, such as, „best wishes‟, „sincerely‟ „thank you‟. This closing will become associated with you by all the people you email regularly and it‟ll add familiarity. Then on the next line type your name. You can just use your first name as your full name will be in your email signature.

Signature:

You should set a signature that‟s attached to all your emails. This should include your full name, title and job, company name and address as well as your telephone numbers. Keep the signature as short as possible but also include all the information someone would need to contact you.

The following are some tips to help you when you are writing business letters through email:

A heading is not necessary in an email (your return address, their address, and the date).

Use a descriptive subject line.

Avoid using an inappropriate or silly email address; register a professional sounding address if you don't have one.

Use simple formatting, keep everything flush with the left margin; avoid special formatting and tabs.

Keep your letter formal, just because it's an email instead of a hard copy is no excuse for informality (don't forget to use spell check and proper grammar).

Try to keep your letter less than 80 characters wide, some email readers will create line breaks on anything longer and ruin the formatting.

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If possible, avoid attachments unless the recipient has requested or is expecting an attachment. If it is a text document, simply cut and paste the text below your letter and strip out any special formatting.

If the person's name is unknown, address the person's title e.g. Dear Director of Human Resources.

Problems with Writing Business Email: Once the send button has been clicked the email is gone and you can‟t make any changes. This is one of the biggest problems with email writing. You can send something in a moment and regret it latter. When writing business email remember:

To keep it suitably formal: this means you should keep on topic and remain neutral in your tone wherever possible. If you need to offer criticism of someone or something take your time; draft the email and wait before sending. This gives you time to think of mistakes or a better way to phrase it.

Be careful who you send the mail to. Make sure that you send the email to the correct person and don‟t CC it to everyone by mistake. Take time to check this with each email.

Check it for mistakes. Proofread your emails before sending them. Any mistakes will reflect badly on you so they all need to be found. You do this by proofreading your business emails.

2.CVs/Resumes for the 21st Century

In the past it was usual to produce your CV/resume and covering letter on paper and submit them by post (snailmail) or fax. Today, it is increasingly usual for companies to ask you to send your CV by email or for candidates to place their CV on a webpage. These are two excellent ways of distributing your CV, but there are several important points that you should not overlook.

When you send your CV by email, you can send it either as inline text (that is, written in the body of the email) or as a file attached to the email (or as a combination of these).

In all cases, please make sure that the subject line is clear, and relevant. Your prospective employer may receive hundreds of CVs by email and many will have subject headings like:

CV

Job Application

John Brown

JB

Your Vacancy

You can imagine how frustrating it is to sort emails with meaningless subject lines like these (or, worse still, no subject line at all, as sometimes happens). If your name is "John Brown", a good subject line would be:

Resume: John Brown

CV & Covering Letter: John Brown

Job Application: John Brown

Application for Post of Sales Manager: John Brown

Inline text:

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It is best to use "plain text". Yes, you can write your email in "HTML" or "Rich Text", but will your prospective employer be able to read it? Will it arrive correctly formatted? Will colours, typefaces, tabs and spacing, and any special characters like fancy accents be correctly presented? Perhaps yes. Perhaps no. Unless you are certain that what you write will be seen as you intended, you cannot take the chance with such an important document. Plain text, on the other hand, can be read by virtually all email programs world-wide and you can be confident that what you send is what arrives at the other end. However, even with plain text it is advisable to:

1.Keep the line-length short: Use hard carriage returns (the "Enter" key) every 65 characters maximum.

2.Avoid fancy spacing and tabulation: A CV/resume that is beautifully formatted in MS Word or some other word-processing program cannot be reproduced with the same layout in plain text. You should not even attempt it. Instead, you will need a different, simpler approach, similar to the one below:

Plain text email:

2010 to date Sales Manager

United Technologies Ltd (London, UK) 205-2010

Sales Representative

Wonder Techniques Inc. (New York, USA)

Attachments:

You should be very careful about sending your CV as an attachment. Many people are very cautious about opening attachments, largely because they can contain viruses, and your email with an uninvited CV attachment may well be deleted before it ever sees the light of day. If you are sure that your prospective employer will accept attachments, then this can be a good way to submit your CV and covering letter.

Be careful too that your documents are properly laid out with a file format that can be read by your prospective employer. An MS Word document (.doc) is almost certain to be readable by anyone, on PC or Mac. Better still, convert it to the universal Rich Text Format (.rtf). If you send your CV produced on some obscure word processing program, and do not convert it to RTF, then do not be surprised if you never hear from your prospective employer again.

Another word of caution: like the subject line for your email, be sure to give your attached files meaningful names. Do not simply attach a file called "CV.doc" or "coveringletter.doc". Once it has been saved to your prospective employer's hard disk, the name will be meaningless, unless they have taken the trouble to change it.

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But you should not give them this trouble. Instead, call your attachments something like:

Resume_John-Brown.doc

CV-and-Covering-Letter_John-Brown.doc

job-application_john-brown.rtf

JohnBrown_Application-for-Post-of-Sales Manager.rtf

3.Webpage

It can be a very good idea to place your CV on the Web. This makes access to your CV easy and rapid world-wide. If you wish to retain confidentiality, you can always password protect it. Unfortunately, many people suddenly become artistic as soon as they add pages to the Web. They believe that they can somehow enhance their CV by adding colour, or unusual typefaces, or fancy backgrounds. They pay for their artistry in illegibility. If there is one, immutable law of the Universe, it is that contrast between text and background increases legibility (readability). In general, black text on a plain white background is the easiest text to read. (That is why books, newspapers and magazines the world over are printed in black text on white paper, except for some very special effect.) Remember, too, that a prospective employer may wish to print out your CV, and will almost certainly prefer to have a result that looks more like a conventional CV:

Here are 10 essential tips that summarize much of what we have already discussed, and add some new ideas:

Tip 1: Use design that attracts attention: Employers don't have time to read through each of your job descriptions to know if you have the skills they need.

The design of your CV must do it for them.

Your CV should be well-organized and emphasize the most important points about your experience, skills and education.

This information is the first impression that an employer has of you.

Tip 2: Match your headings to the job: Use a job title and skill headings that match the job you want. An employer who sees unrelated job titles or skills will immediately think that you are not right for the job in question.

Tip 3: Write convincing content: Good design will get an employer's attention. But after that, you must concentrate on the content of your CV, the actual descriptions of your skills and abilities, to ensure an interview and good job offer.

Tip 4: Use 'power words': You need to control the image that an employer has of you. To do this, use power words that match the position you want. If, for example, you are applying for a financial post, you should use as many financial skills power words as possible

Tip 5: Use 0123456789: People react to numbers! Numbers are alive and powerful. They create vivid images in our minds. General statements are easy to

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ignore. Be specific and use numbers when describing your duties and achievements. Don't talk about 'managing a major turnover'. Talk about 'managing a $27,000,000 turnover'.

Tip 6: Put important information first: List important information at the beginning of your job description. Put statements in your CV in order of importance, impressiveness and relevance to the job you want. A powerful statement with numbers and power words influences every statement that follows.

Tip 7: Find key words from the job description: Let an employer do your work for you! Employers spend much time and money writing job advertisements and descriptions that contain key words for the position offered. Read these descriptions carefully to find the key words. Then use the same key words in your CV and cover letter.

Tip 8: Sell benefits, not skills: Holiday companies do not sell holidays. They sell relaxation, adventure, sun, sea and sand (the benefits of a holiday)! You should not sell your skills (many other people have the same skills). You should sell the benefits of your skills. When you write your skills and past duties, be careful to explain their benefits to the employer.

Tip 9: Create the right image for the salary: Use language that creates the right image for the level of job and salary you want. Position yourself at the appropriate level. The language you use will immediately influence an employer's perception of you.

Tip 10: Target the job: You will have more success if you adjust your CV and cover letter for the specific skills an employer is seeking. This means that you would write one CV for one particular job and a different, modified, CV for another job. You 're-package' yourself. In that way, an employer will see immediately that you correspond to the job description. It is not dishonest to 're-package' yourself. You are simply presenting yourself and your skills in the best light for a particular employer. This will help you to get more interviews. It will also allow you to apply for a wider range of jobs.

Bonus tip: Solve your employer's hidden needs!

Employers want people who can solve problems, not create them! Your CV and cover letter should show how you can solve the employer's problems and needs. And in addition to the skills or needs shown in a job advertisement, an employer may have other needs. You should identify these additional needs and show how you can satisfy them too.

But concentrate first on the needs listed in the job description. Your additional solutions should come later, and low-key, after you already have the employer's attention.

These samples are intended purely as a guide to what is possible. Please do not simply try to copy them for your own resume, because your resume should be unique (like you!). The resume template is deliberately basic so that you can easily modify it as need be:

Languages

Language 1 (fluent/excellent/good/some knowledge)

Language 2 (fluent/excellent/good/some knowledge)

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Interests

My Interest 1, My Interest 2, My Interest 3, My Interest 4

Referees

Name (telephone number)

Address

Name (telephone number)

Address

QUESTIONS:

1.What are the particular features of business correspondence for the XXI-st century.

2.Why business email writing plays an important role in communication?

3.What can you say about CVs/resumes for the XXI-st century?

4.How to create a Webpage?

5.Why do peple use “snail-mail” in business correspondence if they have better modern opportunities?

Business Letter Self-Assessment Test

Are the following statements True or False?

8. Contact information generally appears in the closing paragraph of the letter.

Your CV and Covering Letter Self-Assessment Test

Choose the most appropriate answer for each question :

1.On your letter of application, your name should appear:

A) at the top, on the right B) at the bottom C) at the top and at the bottom 2.If you start your covering letter 'Dear Mr Lincoln', you could end it:

4.What date is represented by '04/11/58'?

A) 4 November 1958 B) 11 April 1958 C) don't know

5.In your covering letter and CV/resume it is best to use: A) active verbs B) passive verbs C) doesn't matter

6.How many pages should a CV/resume usually be? A) 1 or 2 B) at least 3 C) as many as necessary

7.What is the standard paper size in the USA?

A)Letter B) A4 C) Executive

8.The principal objective of your CV/resume is to:

10. In the English-speaking world, a CV/resume and its accompanying letter should usually be:

A) typed or word-processed B) hand-written C) doesn't matter

Business Correspondence Assignments

Assignment 1: Letter: Compose a letter to a client, employee, or member of the community, with copies to your immediate supervisor and your instructor, explaining a company decision, policy, or procedure. Your letter will be evaluated on the basis of

correct letter format, including paragraph content, salutations, and signatures as well as document formatting.

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use of writing style and language choice to convey a clear, concise, direct and appropriately businesslike tone.

correct grammar, spelling, syntax and vocabulary use.

Follow the format carefully, structure the letter content carefully, and proofread carefully. You may select any topic for the letter, and students are encouraged to locate a letter topic that is typically used in their own discipline. An accounting major might write a letter explaining an audit decision to a client, while a marketing major might provide advertising costs to a prospective client.

Assignment 2: Proposal: Prepare a persuasive message to propose some company activity (purchase, employee social event, advertising campaign, etc.), policy change (benefits administration, office procedures, etc.), or business process (an accounting method, order fulfillment or other operating procedure, etc.). The communication will be scored on the basis of

o clarity of the message with respect to the action being proposed (clear introduction of context and proposal);

o personal credibility demonstrated in the communication of the message (professionalism of delivery (confident, conversational), group cohesiveness);

o logic of case made in support of the proposal (and adherence to the form of logic required in the assignment): narrative: plausibility, relevance, value; argument: problem, cause, solution, workability;

o validty and appropriateness of evidence presented in support of the case being made: narrative: image, self-disclosure, coherence; argument: claim, evidence, refutation.

Assignment 3: Thank you Letter: Prepare a letter to thank someone for taking the time to conduct an interview, providing assistance or advice, or performing some other activity that you found to be helpful in your job search, work performance, or career advancement. The letter should reflect the business style and professional tone and reflect an appreciation for the career building steps. Email the letter as an attachment to the instructor. It will be scored on the basis of

•Correct letter format and language use.

•Clear description of the action performed.

•Clear description of the positive effect that has resulted (or will result) from the action.

•Positive, relationship-building content element.

Pay attention to the proper form of a letter, of course, and proofread carefully. Your positive, relationship-building content might reflect an effort to give positive recognition. If the thank you letter follows a job interview, an excellent technnique is to include some reference to the interview conversation. It's important that the interviewer remember you as a unique, individual rather than just one of many nameless interviewees.

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