Applied english

Language Skills for
Business and Everyday Use
By: Roberta E. Barry
Loretta Scholten

Presented by:
Georgina V. Kusano

The first and most
important step in
writing is to know
who you’re writing to
– who they are and
what they want.
- David G.
Lyon, The XYZ’s
Business Writing

 Principle 1. Organize your thoughts before
you write.
- know the purpose of the document
- know the intended audience.
- direct and efficient

 General to the specific
- begin with a general
statement
- proceed with the specific
information such as
history
examples
reasons

Tough Wear
45123 Anytown, MI 45123

July 15, 2004

Jeremy Adams
541 Ramsey Court
Yourtown, MI 78456

Dear Mr. Adams:

Thank you for shopping with us. You are a valued client and we appreciate your business and know
that you want to keep your account current with us.

On May 3, 2004, you purchased $400 of merchandise from our store in Yourtown. Your payment of $150
is now overdue.

In the credit arrangement you signed, you agreed to pay off your bill in three payments. The first
payment of $150 was due June 3, 2004. Please send this amount now.

Failure to pay on time may affect your ability to charge merchandise at our store. Thank you for your
prompt attention to this matter.

You may call me at 1-888-895-2563 if you have any questions or concerns. Your continued patronage is
important to us.

Sincerely,

Paime Mimonei
Credit Manager

 Specific to the general
- give the specific
information such as
history
examples
reasons
- give the general
statement

Tone Deaf Music
587 East Street, Anytown, MI 45123

August 15, 2004

Linda Goodman
Guitars and Such
784 Peach Street
Yourtown, MI 45126

Dear Mrs. Goodman:

I will be in Yourtown on September 5, 2004 and would like to meet with you
at your office to discuss the new guitar models that you may be interested in
for the upcoming year.

I have enclosed our latest catalogue. Please note the items in light blue highlights. They are
the new guitar models to come in and are now on a special to preferred clients.

I will contact you later this week to schedule an appointment. If you need to get in touch with
me, please call me at 1-888-457-7896. I look forward to talking with you. Thank you for your
continued business.

Sincerely Yours,

Paime Mimonei
Sales Representative

 http://www.business-plans-
guide.com/example-of-business-letters.html
 http://jobsearch.about.com/od/morejobletters
/a/businessformat.htm

2. Time
– Present the history, schedule, or sequence of
events

4. Cause-Effect
– explain why
something
happened
followed by the
result

5. Problem-Solution
– present facts
or examples to
indicate a
problem and
then give the
solution to the
problem

Principle 2. Prefer the active voice.

Examples:
Active Voice: A broken cable stopped the printer.

Passive voice: The printer was stopped by a broken
cable.

Active Voice: Ace hardware sold five bicycles.

Passive Voice: Five bicycles were sold by Ace
Hardware.

 Principle 3. Use a simple writing style that avoids
“unbusinesslike” expressions.

Avoid the italicized words:

The other guys have a better
product.

We are dying to hear the news.

Our dispatcher is a dud.

She is crazy about your idea.

The new marketing
representative made
an awful impression.

Principle 4. Omit unnecessary words.

- wordy writing hides your message.

“Please try our product for one month”

than

“Will you be so kind as to try our product for the
duration of one month?”

Concise
Along the lines of like
At a later date later
At this point in time now
For the duration of a month although(though)
In spite of the fact that although(though)
For the reason that because
On the basis of by
On behalf for
Will you be so kind as to please

Instead of Use
Absolutely complete complete
Advance planning planning
Assembled together together
Consensus of opinion consensus
Enclosed herewith enclosed
Exactly identical identical
Join together together
Same identical identical

 Principle 5. Use positive word and specific
words.

Avoid: Managers should tell employees not to
wear jeans.

Use: Managers should explain the accepted dress
code to employees.

Avoid: Do not forget to lock the file.

Use: Be sure to lock the file.

 Principle 6. Use grammatical
correct constructions.

- -grammatical correctness is necessary for effective
writing.

- people who express themselves well grammatically are
more likely to be respected and chosen for jobs and
promotions.

 Principle 7. Use a dictionary.

- words are the
mainspring of
the language

- the dictionary
is a virtual
treasure chest of
useful
information.

I. Noun – is a word that names something or
anything such as persons, places, things, activities,
qualities, and concepts.

Nouns

Classification Functions Properties

Common Major Sentence
Proper Nouns Case
Nouns Elements

Objects of
Concrete Person
Prepositions

Abstract Appositives Number

Collective Modifiers Gender

Direct Address

Clauses

1. Proper Nouns
- name specific
persons, places, things, activities, qualities, and
concepts that are important to have a separate
name.

- always begins with a capital letter.

2. Common nouns
- name a general class of
persons, places, things, acti
vities, and concepts.
- not capitalized.
- there are three groups
of common nouns.

 Concrete Nouns
- names anything physical
– something that you can perceive through one or more
of the five senses.
- bring pictures to your mind.

 Abstract Nouns
- Name qualities,
ideas, conditions,
acts, or relationships
that are formed in the
mind and are formed
in the mind and are
separate from their
objects.
- Many abstract nouns
end in –ness and ty.

 Names a group or collection of persons, places,
things, activities, qualities, and concepts.
 Are plural in meaning.
Examples:
committee team audience jury
club crew company class
family group band school

a, an, or the (articles)
a computer
an effect
the department
a decorator an informant
the stockbroker
-You can also add the before the word and of after
the word.
i.e.
the account of the building of the coat of
The arrival of the bureau of the freight of

Many nouns add s or es to show plurals.

communication, communications
organization, organizations
business, businesses
loss, losses
mechanic, mechanics
tax, taxes

Descriptive
words (called
adjectives)
often appear
before nouns.

difficult problem
large budget
efficient
employee
several computers
young consultants
beauty desk
similar report
zealous worker

II. Pronouns

- it is a word that
replaces a noun (or
another pronoun).
i.e.
Paula deserves the
promotion.
She deserves the
promotion.

Juan recommends the
use of voice mail.
He recommends the use
of voice mail.

Subject Possessive Object
Pronouns Adjectives Pronouns
I my me
He his him
She her her
It its it
We our us
You your you
They their them

Avoid this:

Diane prepared Diane’s own tax return.

Instead:

Diane prepared her own tax return.

 the word or group or words that a pronoun
replaces.

In each of the following sentences, the pronouns
are in italics and the antecedents are in all-
capital letter.

Justin is the PERSON who saw the accident.

The BOOK that Ms. Sachs requested is now in
stock.

KATRINA has opened her own law office.

- - Expresses action
- - A group of verbs
- Function as a single verb.
- - State of being (existence)
- Usually begin the part of a sentence that tells
what sentence or something is doing or being.

Transitive Verbs
- To complete their action, some verbs must
transfer this action to another word that
follows the verb.
- need direct objects to complete their action.

Example:
The president of the company
bought a computer.

Intransitive verbs

- Complete verbs
- A verb that does not need an object to complete
its meaning.

Example:
The new company president arrived yesterday.

auxiliary + main verbs
- According to Radford (2005), auxiliary has
the semantic property of marking
grammatical properties such as tense
, aspect, voice, or mood.

Aspect: perfect and progressive(i.e.
have, has, had/be)
He has/had [gone] She is/was [staying at home]

Voice: (i.e. be, been, am, is, are, was, were)
They are/were [taken away for questioning]

Expletive or Dummy: (do, does, did)
He really does/did [say a lot]

Modal: (i.e.
can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should
, must, ought)
You can/could [help us]

 Verbs can show a change of time (or
tense) with endings such as:
s, ed, en, and ing.
 Helping verbs
 Time expressions

Every employee in the hotel works eight-shifts.

Yesterday, every employee in the hotel worked eight-
hour shifts.

 If it makes sense to put to, be, she, or they before a
word.
to repeat he rescued

she sold they stopped

 Is a descriptive or limiting word that modifies a
noun or a pronoun.
 A single-word adjectives always come before
the noun they modify.

a conscientious
an indispensable
an efficient employee
a dissatisfied
a meticulous
a talkative

 Often ends in ous, able, or ible, this will help you
recognize some unusual adjectives.
Examples:
marvelous, nervous, vigorous, conscious, delicio
us, desirable, payable, permissible.
 Answers the following questions about a noun or
pronoun:
How many? The manager hired ten employees.
What kind? Everyone like a helpful person.
Which one? Randall does not want to sit in the
yellow chair

 Adjectives usually precede the nouns and
pronouns they modify.
 They can appear as predicate adjective after a
linking verb.
Written communications were sent to the new customers.
The company president like her nine employees.
All the company’s sales managers are young.

Adjective Comparative Superlative
efficient more efficient the most efficient
difficult more difficult the most difficult
helpful more helpful the most helpful
complex more complex the most complex
bright brighter brightest
angry angrier angriest

 Adjectives make comparisons by adding the
endings er and est or the words more and most.

 An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or
another adverb.
 Most adverbs answer the questions:

How? All new dictionaries quickly
disappeared.
To what extent? The nearly finished report was
returned to the accounting
department.
Where? The new manager left early.
When? I will meet you here.

 Mr. Baxter hurriedly SIGNED the contract.
 The proofreader DID his job well.

 Our systems analyst is too SLOW.
 You should replace this really OLD CABINET.

 Our systems analyst is too SLOW.
 You should replace this really OLD CABINET.

 The applicant accepted the position somewhat
HESITANTLY.
 This new laser printer performs exceedingly
WELL.

 They frequently end in ly.
 However, a word ending in ly can be an
adjective, such as a costly mistake.

drove carelessly ran smoothly
walked briskly effectively presented
Sang frequently worked willingly

 Adverbs make comparisons by adding the
endings er and est or the words more and most.

Jane worked harder today than she worked
yesterday.

Jane worked the hardest of all employees.

 Is a word that shows the relation of an object (a
noun or pronoun) to another word in the
sentence, usually a noun or a verb.
 It combines with its object and any modifiers
to form a prepositional phrase.
- usually limit the meaning of
another win the sentence more exact.
- it usually functions as
adjectives or adverbs.
- sometimes it functions as
nouns.

 I will finish the project later.
 I will finish the project on Friday.

in the mean time concerning the merger
from Chicago without delay
under hi breath by a prominent
of the errors at the end

Here are the common prepositions:

About behind for since
Above below from through
Across beneath in throughout
After beside into to
Against between like toward
Along beyond near under
Among by of underneath
Around concerning off until
As down on up
At during over with
Before except past within

 is a connecting word that joins words or
groups of words called clauses and phrases.

AND, BUT, OR, NOR, FOR, YET, SO

 Subordinating clause joins clauses of unequal
value

Although, because, if, since, that, until
when, where, while

 Pay now or pay later.
 We purchased the machine because it is
economical.
 Mr. Durham and Ms. Sandusky did not
report for work.
 The new appraiser is slow but accurate.
 You will get the promotion if your
excellent work continues.
 Business has been slow since Mr. Crane
left the company.

 Is a group of words used to show strong
feeling or sudden emotion.
 Usually an exclamation point or comma
follows
 Often interjections are independent of the rest
of the sentence.
 A pure interjection do not add to the basic
meaning of a sentence.

 Ouch! Something bit me!
 Oh, do you really believe her story?
 Hurray! Swenson has been promoted.
 Wow! We all have a new chairs.

 Write a one-page, double spaced paper about an
occupation that interests you or about your present
occupation if you are employed. Give some
interesting facts about the occupation. What type
of person enjoys this occupation? Considering the
present economy, what is the future in this
occupation? Will advancement be readily
available?
 When you are finished with your paper, go back
and write N above each noun, V above each
verb, Adj above each adjective, and Adv. above
each adverb.

 Tells time when an action occurs or the
condition exists.

 Can tell the stage of the action

 Tense comes from Old French
tens "time", from Latin
tempus "time", a translation
of Greek chrónos "time".
"Tense" as an adjective is
unrelated, since it comes from
the perfect passive participle
of the Latin verb tendere
"stretch".

Function:
* habitual action
* general truth
* scheduled activity

 Pattern:
* V1 (s/es)
* to be = is, am, are
Adverb of time:
*
always, usually, generally, often, sometimes, oc
casionally, frequently, seldom, never, every, on
ce/twice a week/a month
Example:
* She bakes a cake every week.

Function:
* in progress at the moment of speaking
* near future

Pattern:
* is/am/are + ing

Adverb of time:
* now, at present, at this time / moment, today, this
(week, month), still
* expressions such as: Look!; Listen!; Be careful!; etc.

Example:
* She is baking a cake now/at this time.

Function:
* happened in the past and there is a result at
present
Pattern:
* have/has + V3
Adverb of time:
* already (in positive sentence), yet (in negative
and interrogative
sentence), since, for, just, recently, lately
Example:
* She has baked a cake already.

Function:
* began in the past and still in progress at present
(continuous action until present)
Pattern:
* have/has been + ing
Adverb of time:
* since, for
Example:
* She has been baking a cake since I came and she
hasn't finished it yet.

Function:
* began and ended in the past and no relation with
present
Pattern:
* V2
* to be = was/were
Adverb of time:
* yesterday, last, ...ago, this morning, just now,
once upon a time
Example:
* She baked a cake yesterday.

Function:
• was in progress at a certain time in the past (was in progress
when another action happened)

Pattern:
* was/were + ing

Adverb of time:
* when, as, while, at 7 o'clock yesterday
* (past continuous) when (simple past)
* (simple past) when (past continuous)
* (past continuous) when (past continuous)
Example:
* She was baking a cake at this time yesterday.
* I was taking a bath when she phoned me this morning.
* She phoned me when I was taking a bath.
* She was cooking while I was listening to my iPod.

Function:
* result at the second action in the past
Pattern:
* had + V3
Adverb of time:
* before, by (the time), after
* (past perfect) before/by (simple past)
* (simple past) after (past perfect)
Example:
* She had baked a cake before I came yesterday.
* I arrived at her house after she had baked a cake.

Function:
* future activity

Pattern:
* will/shall + V1

Adverb of time:
* tomorrow, next ..., tonight, soon

Example:
* She will bake a cake tomorrow.

Function:
* will be in progress at a certain time in the future
Pattern:
* will/shall be + ing
Adverb of time:
* at 7 tonight, at this time tomorrow, when she
comes next week, in a few minutes/days, in a few
years' time
* when (simple present)
Example:
* She will be baking a cake at this time tomorrow.

Function:
* will be completed before another time in the
future (result at the second action in the future)
Pattern:
* will/shall have + V3
Adverb of time:
* before/by + (simple present)
Example:
* She will have baked a cake by the time I comes
tomorrow.

Function:
* still in progress at the second future action

Pattern:
* will/shall have been + ing

Adverb of time:
* for ... before/by + (simple present)

Example:
* She will have been baking a cake for 10
minutes by the time I comes tomorrow.

Applied english

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Applied english