Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 1
Email of introduction
Dear Ms Owen If you’re not sure whether to
use the person’s first name or
Mr/Ms and their surname, it’s
My name is Edward Robertson, and I have recently taken safest to use their surname. You
In the first paragraph, can become less formal in later
over from Anna Jeffries as Rekin Transport’s Regional emails.
introduce yourself.
Sales Manager for the South West region. As you may
Mention the person
who gave you their know, Anna has recently been promoted to a new post at
name. our headquarters. As you have been such an important At the beginning of a sentence,
As … is more formal and
customer for us over the years, Anna suggested that I professional than Because ….
should get in touch to introduce myself.
Flattery – saying nice things
about the other person and their
In my role as Regional Sales Manager, I will be responsible business – is a very effective
for making sure you receive first class service in all technique, but don’t overuse it.
your dealings with Rekin Transport. For all regular
In the second
orders, please continue to use our email account
paragraph, explain
your role and what it (sales@rekintransport.co.uk) or our online order form. For
means in practice for more unusual or specialised requests, including discounts
the other person. This is less direct than ‘You
for large orders, please contact me directly by phone or by
should contact me’.
email. I should also be your first point of contact if you
have any questions or comments on the standard of service Don’t mention negative things
like complaints in your first
you receive from us. email.
End on a positive
note. It’s good to
mix fixed expressions I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope we’ll be able This is a standard phrase that
you can use in all your emails.
with something to continue our strong partnership with you in the future.
Present continuous (I’m looking
more creative and forward …) is also possible, and
personalised. slightly less formal.
Yours sincerely

Use this ending after Dear Mr …

Edward or Dear Ms …. You could also
use Best regards or Kind regards,
which are slightly less formal.
Edward Robertson
Regional Sales Manager (South West Region)
Telephone: (01632) 656800

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 2
Request and enquiry
If it’s a Dear Mr Leonard
personalised
request, start This is the simplest way to
by introducing My name is Sharon King, and I am the Training Manager introduce yourself.
yourself. In less at Rencher Engineering. I recently attended an excellent
personal requests, training course conducted by you on Time Management. I
go straight to the found the content of the course extremely useful and you
purpose of writing.
made the whole event very memorable and enjoyable.

Use a formula like this to make

I would therefore like to ask if you would be willing to your request more polite.
conduct a similar course for a group of middle managers at
Make your request my company. I have identified Time Management as one
and say why it is of the key areas for improvement in our business, and I am When you make a big request,
important for you. show that you understand that
confident that your course would be extremely beneficial to it may be inconvenient for the
our team. I realise you must have a very busy schedule, but other person.

I hope you will find time to spend a few days at our offices.
Contrast the high benefits (e.g.
extremely beneficial) with the
If you think this is something you might be interested in, low costs (e.g. a few days).
After the request,
you need a call please let me know so that we can discuss details such as
There is no need to go into
to action: tell the dates and of course your fee. Perhaps we could arrange an detail in your initial email. Save
other person what introductory meeting at our offices to plan how to take this that for your first meeting (or a
later email).
to do next. forward.
In enquiries, describe what you
I would also be very interested to find out what other are looking for, using a/an (e.g.
a trainer who could provide …).
Keep the request training courses you would be able to provide. I am Don’t create the impression that
(paragraphs 1–3) you are offering a contract (e.g.
especially keen to identify a trainer who could provide
separate from I would like you to provide …).
advanced training for professional negotiators. Again,
any follow-up
enquiries. please let me know if you would be interested in discussing This is a very safe way of
this further. asking for a response to an
enquiry. There is no danger of a
misunderstanding.
Finish on a I look forward to hearing from you soon.
positive note. Best regards

Sharon King

Training Manager
Rencher Engineering

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 3
Notes and minutes Use abbreviations like mtg
(meeting), mgr (manager),
info (information), cust
(customer), inv. (investigate)
and v. (very). Just make sure
1. Last mtg: all actions comp’d
you can remember what
each of your abbreviations
2. RH: Cust. complaint – BG Bearings (big contract). Late delivery (again – also last
means!
Sept.). No info from CS for 2 days. No apology. V. angry. May end contract.
Make a note of who led each
Action plan:
discussion and who made
• GL to phone cust. asap important points.
• BA to inv. reason 4 late delivery
Don’t write full sentences,
• RH to inv. who in CS dealt with complaint, why no response
just the key words for each
• Follow up nxt mtg fact.

3. GL: Visit from HQ confirmed 18 – 22 March. M Bryant (CFO) & H Thomas (?) Use to-infinitives for most
Problem: why are they coming? No info. action points, and make
sure you mention who is
Action plan: responsible for each.

• GL to co-ord. agenda (mtgs, site tour, etc.). Circ. email by Mon 11.
You can use numbers (e.g.
• SP to manage itinerary (hotels, taxi, meals, etc.) 4 = for) and symbols (e.g. &
= and, @ = at) but it’s often
Minutes of Management Team – 4 March quicker to write the full
words.
Present: Graham Lewis (Chair) Ruth Hunt Boris Adams
Minutes: Susan Patterson (PA to Chair) Don’t forget, you can check
details later, when you write
1 Review minutes of previous meeting up your notes.

All actions completed

You can use past participles
2 Complaint from BG Bearings as a short form of the passive
in both notes (e.g. the visit
Ruth reported a serious complaint received from BG Bearings, concerning a late has been confirmed) and
delivery in February. They claim they received no information for two days, and are minutes (e.g. all actions have
been completed).
still waiting for an apology. They say there was a similar problem last September.
They are extremely angry, and threaten to terminate the contract. Use lots of reporting verbs.
You can use past simple for
Ruth asked Graham to phone their CEO immediately to apologise. things that people said at
Boris volunteered to investigate the cause of the late delivery. the meeting and present
simple or present perfect to
Ruth will investigate what went wrong in Customer Services. report things said outside
All to report back at next week’s meeting to plan next steps. the meeting (e.g. they claim
/ they have claimed that …).
3 Visit from Headquarters
There are some techniques
Graham confirmed that two senior executives, Malcolm Bryant (Chief Financial for making minutes more
Officer) and Hannah Thomas (Marketing Director) will visit between 18th and 22nd official, like using all instead
of everybody, and to-
March. General concern that no information has been provided regarding the infinitives for future plans.
purpose of the visit.
Graham agreed to find out more information and to co-ordinate and circulate an Give each item a clear title
and a number.
agenda by Monday 11th March.

Susan will oversee the itinerary.

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 4
Invitation
OTC Financial Services,
Sender’s company 14, Central Avenue,
name and address
Anytown

Date 1st September 20XX

Mr Robert Winters,
Recipient’s name and 404 Net Marketing,
address Unit 11A, New Business Park, You can place a colon (:) after
your greeting in US-style letters.
Anytown In the UK, a comma is more
common.
Greeting Dear Robert:
When you have a clear subject
Subject line (bold or INVITATION TO BUSINESS MIXER line, you can include some
underlined, capital As you may know, we will be moving to our new offices at background information before
letters) the actual invitation.
the end of September. We are very excited about our new
Background
premises, which are much larger and more modern than
information Try to relate the information to
our current location. We believe this move will enable us to the reader: how/why will it be
interesting.
serve our customers much more effectively.

To celebrate, we are planning a small business mixer Show that the recipient is
The invitation for some of our best customers and our closest business special, and not just one of
hundreds of invitees.
partners, and we would be delighted if you could attend.

Make sure you advise people

The party will take place in our new office in the Blueberry
what to wear – this can be a
Field Business Park (see enclosed map), on the evening of serious source of stress and
embarrassment if people get it
Practicalities: where, Thursday 14th September, from 7pm to around 10pm. Food
wrong.
when, why and what and drinks will be provided. The dress code is business
to wear casual. We hope the party will also be a good opportunity Emphasise why the recipient
might benefit from attending.
for you to meet some useful contacts from the local
business community.

Please let me know by Thursday 7th if you will be able to

Avoid putting too much pressure
The call to action, attend, and if you would like to bring any colleagues. If on the recipient: they don’t
need to feel bad if they can’t
with a deadline. you cannot attend our event, you are still very welcome to
attend.
come and visit us in our new office at any time.

Sincerely,

Gloria Alexander

Gloria Alexander
If you enclose other documents,
Office Manager
it’s good to show how many
Enclosures Enclosures (1): Map of location there should be.

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 5
Making a complaint
Greeting Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about the standard of the

conference facilities that you provided my company with
Purpose of writing when we organised the ‘Vision 3000’ conference at your
hotel in Pasadena last Wednesday and Thursday (24 and 25
July).

When we booked the hotel for this conference we

Include as much detail as
were assured that all of the rooms would have Wi-Fi. possible to enable the recipient
Unfortunately, on the first day most participants could to investigate what went wrong
on this specific occasion
only access the Wi-Fi when they were in the hotel lobby.
This caused a great amount of inconvenience, as we wanted Most of the verbs will be in the
past simple (or present simple
to broadcast the conference live to our sales team in New for a continuing problem).
York and many of our employees at the conference needed Tell your story in a simple,
Details of the chronological order.
wireless in their bedrooms to conduct business while the
complaint
conference was going on. The problem was reported to your
staff and we did have Wi-Fi in the conference rooms on the
second day. However, this led to a lot of inconvenience and
meant that our colleagues who were not able to attend did
not get to see or participate in the first day. Furthermore,
Use the passive to keep
the issue of Wi-Fi in the bedrooms was not resolved and the your story focussed on what
employees had to use a pay-per-use service. happened to you, not what
caused the problem
We have worked with your hotels in various cities over the
years and we have always been satisfied with the service
Explain why you had
you have provided us with in the past. We understand that
to complain Nobody likes someone who
the situation was perhaps out of your control, but I felt that
complains all the time. Try to
I had to write to you to ensure this does not happen again. show you are normally tolerant
and patient. You didn’t want to
I feel that we deserve an apology, compensation for the complain, but you had to.

Your expectations problems in the conference rooms and full refunds for the
bills our staff received from having to use a pay-per-use
service to connect to the Internet.

Closing I look forward to your prompt reply. This makes it clear that you
expect a reply very soon.

Yours faithfully,

Rose Williams

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 6
Negotiations in Writing Make it clear that you see
potential to reach an agreement
before raising any general
Dear Brian concerns.
Thank the other
person at the Thanks for sending the standard price list for your products. I was Provide evidence that you have
researched the market and that
beginning, and pleased to see that your prices are broadly in line with those of our
you are considering a range of
refer to earlier current supplier, although you are far from the cheapest supplier on options.
contact the market.
If you number your points, it’s
Introduce your I have a few questions to discuss with you before we make a decision easier for the other person
negotiation to respond, using the same
as to which supplier to choose. numbers.
points
First 1. Your price list covers orders of 100–999 units (standard price) and
Start each point by saying which
negotiation 1,000+ units (10% discount). As we are planning to order around 800 figures you want to discuss, and
point where you found those figures.
units this year, what level of discount would you be able to offer us?
2. In your last email, you mentioned that your standard lead time is This is more assertive than
Second
simply asking ‘Would you be
negotiation seven weeks. This seems rather long to us. We were thinking more able to offer us a discount?’ but
point along the lines of 4 weeks. don’t use it too aggressively.

Positive ending Please let me know what you think. I hope we can make this work. When attacking the other side’s
position, be sensitive. Use words
All the best like ‘seem’ and ‘rather’.
Jan
These reassurances are very
important. Remember, you’re
Dear Jan trying to build a long-term
business relationship, not to
Thank the
Thanks a lot for getting back to me so soon. I’m sure we’ll be able destroy the other side in a brutal
other person negotiation.
to find a solution that meets your needs. We’re aware that some
and respond
to any general companies in our market are offering much lower prices, but our Provide evidence for any positive
concerns customers tell us they prefer us because we are much more reliable. claims about your company.

Anyway, to answer your questions: When you make a concession,

make it clear whether it is
1. Yes, I think we could be flexible on this. As a goodwill gesture for permanent or temporary.
First
your first order, we could offer a 5% discount on 800 units, or the full Emphasise that you are making
negotiation the concession for a reason, so it’s
point 10% on 900. clear you didn’t simply set your
prices too high in the first place.
2. The lead time is trickier, as it would involve re-arranging our
production schedules. A four-week lead time would be possible, but Always try to get something in
Second
return for your concession.
negotiation we would have to add a surcharge (around $2,000, TBC) on the order
point to compensate for the disruption to our other orders. Let me know if Explain why some concessions
are difficult.
you’d like me to look into this option more carefully.
Additional We often do deliver within four weeks of an order, but we would not be If you’re not ready to give an
information on exact price (because it depends
able to guarantee that without the surcharge. on other factors), write TBC (= to
second point
I feel as if we’re very close to reaching an agreement that will be good be confirmed).

for both of our companies. Statements of what might be

lost can be more persuasive
Best regards than explaining what the other
Anna person might gain.

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 7
Making arrangements
1
Dear both
When you arrange a meeting that may
It’s now nearly been three months since our last face-to-face meeting, so be inconvenient for the other person,
it’s useful to say why you think it’s
I’d like to arrange a follow-up. I know we can get a lot done by email and important.
by phone, but there’s no substitute for time spent together.
Show flexibility, but you should also
Therefore I’d like to invite you all to come to head office for 2–3 days guide the others by providing a general
in the second half of November. My suggestion is for us to meet from time-frame (e.g. the second half of
November) and suggesting an actual
the 18th to the 20th, but I can be flexible – I have no other important date.
commitments during those weeks.
Use simple linking words in informal
Please let me know what you think, so I can start making the necessary writing: and, but, so, because.
arrangements.

All the best

Mark

2
Hi Mark
Put the actual dates in brackets. This
I’m really sorry, but I’m away all that week (18th–22nd) for a conference. The makes it much easier for the other
person to understand your suggestion.
following week would be fine, though, ideally the second half (27th–29th).

I hope that doesn’t make life too complicated. This is a nice way of ending an apology
or a large request.
Donna
In informal emails, you can greet more
than one person by name, rather than
3 writing ‘Hi all’.
Hi Mark, Hi Donna
Keep your replies brief – there’s no need
Actually, that second week’s better for me too. Shall we say 27th–29th, to provide any context as long as the
then? readers can see your message is part of
a conversation.
Tony
It’s essential to include a formal
confirmation, including the location and
the month – things which you didn’t
4
Hi both need to mention during your earlier
email exchange.
Yes that’s perfect. I can confirm our meeting at head office for 27th–29th
This is a nice way of making further
November. Could you both look into flights? It would be great if you
requests.
could arrive on the evening of the 26th and leave on the 30th, to give us
three full days. I’ll be in touch soon with info regarding hotels and an There’s no need to worry about the
details until after you’ve confirmed
itinerary. bigger issues like the date and location.

See you both soon.

Mark

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 Professional English

Writing for
Impact
Template 8
Report
Use your judgement to decide
which facts are most relevant to
Executive summary senior managers. If the report
follows a specific incident, you
On August 18th, around 200 litres of should start by briefly saying
what happened and when.
The Executive 1,1,1-Trichloroethane leaked onto the floor of the
Summary includes warehouse. Fortunately, there were no injuries The reader will want to know
key background
as a result, but the accident was costly and could why this report is important,
information, plus so state this clearly in your
the most important have been much more serious. This report finds summary.
findings and that the accident resulted from understaffing and
recommendations. from a general failure to follow Health and Safety You should have at least one
procedures. It recommends improved training and sentence summarising the
findings and at least one for your
closer monitoring by management. recommendations.

Introduction
In the Introduction, Use present simple verbs with
state clearly and This report analyses the causes of a recent accident in non-human subjects (e.g. this
concisely the our factory, and proposes changes to our Health and report analyses / proposes /
recommends) to make your
purpose of the Safety (H&S) and Staff Training policies to prevent a report more official.
report.
recurrence of such problems.
Research
You can use present perfect
For the purposes of this report, I have spoken to all the to describe your completed
The Research section research.
staff who were present at the time of the accident and
describes what you
those who were involved in the clean-up operation.
did when you were
preparing this report. I have also reviewed our complete H&S Procedures Put any background reading in
(see Appendix 1) and Training Programme (see an appendix.

Appendix 2).
Findings
Use past simple to describe the
The accident occurred at approximately 16:50 sequence of key events.
on Thursday 18th August. A fork-lift truck
The Findings (FLT) driver accidentally knocked the drum of
section is often 1,1,1-Trichloroethane while lifting a neighbouring
the longest part of drum into position. This caused the drum to leak.
the report. This is The leak went unnoticed until staff returned to work
where you explain
on the Friday morning and found the contents of the
what happened and
when, and what the drum had spilled over a large area of the warehouse Focus on reporting facts and
other people’s opinions. Save
consequences were. floor. your own opinions for the
The FLT driver claims that he checked the drum after Conclusions section.

he knocked it, but did not notice that it was leaking.

He says he did not mention it to his supervisor, but You can use present simple for
reporting verbs (e.g. he claims,
he says).
(Page 1 of 2)

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 Template 8 Report
(Page 2 of 2)

Conclusions
The cause of the accident was a simple human error.
Errors like this are inevitable in a large warehouse like
In the Conclusions
ours, so it is important that our procedures are strong
section, express your
opinion about what enough to predict and plan for accidents. In this
the findings mean case, it appears that we already have good procedures
(or might mean), and in place, but that they are not being followed on
how they relate to a day-to-day basis. The shortage of staff in August,
each other.
and in particular the lack of effective management
supervision, may well have been a factor in this
accident.
Recommendations
You can use imperatives for
• Provide urgent retraining for all warehouse staff simple recommendations,
on our current H&S procedures. instead of ‘we must …’.

• All members of staff to receive H&S training at

least once every six months, and whenever they
Finish your report are moved to a new position.
with a series of • There should be one duty manager responsible for
clear, decisive the warehouse on every working day. We cannot
recommendations.
have a repeat of the situation where there appears
to be no-one in charge.
• The duty manager must be more vigilant for any
breaches of H&S procedures. All breaches to be
investigated and dealt with according to Code of
Conduct (see Appendix 3).

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