Doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself! It seems like it was yesterday we started this course on a cold, wet night in Kalmar, and now it's almost time for the In-Tray exam.
The exam itself will appear on the web site on Friday. You'll find it in Module 4 on the In-Tray Exam page. You'll see another useful page there too: In-Tray Exam procedure. So … what exactly is an In-Tray, and why are you being examined about it?
Your in-tray is the tray on your desk where all the incoming documents are placed. As you work through them, you do your day's work! The In-Tray exam sees you as a temp (worker from a temporary agency, like Manpower) who's been taken on by the three companies in the course. You have to draft responses to various documents that have come in, or situations that have arisen. These responses are going to be in the form of letters of complaint and apology, an internal memo and a brief report.
The practicalities work like this:
• you open (or download) the .pdf document which is the exam booklet
• you choose the particular tasks you want to answer (remember that there are 16 alternatives - four for each company - but you only write four in total)
• you write the documents you need to write …
• and then send them to David, either as e-mail attachments or as print-outs which you put in an envelope (it helps if you put all your four answers into the same electronic document, if you're attaching it to an e-mail, but this isn't compulsory)
What happens then …
… is that I print the document out, mark it in green ink (because people have bad memories of red ink from school!), make specific comments on each task, give each task a mark … and finally send everything back to you. I'll send you a notification of your final result by e-mail, but the actual marked tasks, together with my detailed comments are sent back to whatever address we have for you - so make sure that you've let me know, if you've moved house since the course began in February.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get back to me.
Monday 14 April 2008
Warm-Up 4
Warm-Up 4 doesn't give you any marks (!), but it is, perhaps, a way for you to see the collective wisdom of the group about two key areas in the In-Tray exam: complaining and apologising. Since you don't get any marks for it, you don't have to do it either - but I'm sure that your contributions will be gratefully received by everyone else, if you do!
Thursday 3 April 2008
Feedback on Warm-Up 3
I think I've now finished marking Warm-Up 3, so here's my general feedback on how you performed on the task.
This task was all about turning informal spoken English into formal written English and you've all got the right basic idea of a) turning the focus away from the people and towards the situation or phenomenon you're describing; and b) using the right kind of formal language.
It's difficult to find the right formal tone, if you're not used to this sort of language, and quite a few of you didn't realise that a 'digger' is an excavator when you're talking formally. A dumper truck, however, is the same no matter how formal you are!
We also use far fewer phrasal verbs in formal English, preferring a word of French or Latin origin instead. 'Expire' for 'run out' is one of these examples.
Then there's the problem of English having so many damn words! You ought to be able to 'certify' an excavator … except that this particular verb is chiefly used to describe what a psychologist does when he commits someone to a mental hospital! You also ought to be able to 'certificate' one, except that this verb is only used in the context of a new drug - or a new aircraft - being brought on to the market and receiving official permission to be launched from a government licensing authority.
The tool you can use to help you here is a thesaurus. Roget's Thesaurus is the standard one in English. Here's part of their entry for 'expire':
Main Entry: expire
Part of Speech: verb 1
Definition: end
Synonyms: back gate, buy it*, cease, close, conclude, conk, croak*, decease, deep six, depart, die, elapse, end, finish, go, kick off, lapse, meet maker, one-way ticket, pass, pass away, pass on, perish, quit, run out, stop, strike out*, terminate
Antonyms: begin, commence, live, start, thrive
Here's the direct link: Thesaurus.com
Use the thesaurus to find some synonyms for 'get' too - it's too colloquial for just about anything other than e-mails and memos on this course.
Apart from that, don't forget to use the full form of verbs, instead of short forms, like 'I'm' and 'won't'.
Good luck with Send-In Task 3!
This task was all about turning informal spoken English into formal written English and you've all got the right basic idea of a) turning the focus away from the people and towards the situation or phenomenon you're describing; and b) using the right kind of formal language.
It's difficult to find the right formal tone, if you're not used to this sort of language, and quite a few of you didn't realise that a 'digger' is an excavator when you're talking formally. A dumper truck, however, is the same no matter how formal you are!
We also use far fewer phrasal verbs in formal English, preferring a word of French or Latin origin instead. 'Expire' for 'run out' is one of these examples.
Then there's the problem of English having so many damn words! You ought to be able to 'certify' an excavator … except that this particular verb is chiefly used to describe what a psychologist does when he commits someone to a mental hospital! You also ought to be able to 'certificate' one, except that this verb is only used in the context of a new drug - or a new aircraft - being brought on to the market and receiving official permission to be launched from a government licensing authority.
The tool you can use to help you here is a thesaurus. Roget's Thesaurus is the standard one in English. Here's part of their entry for 'expire':
Main Entry: expire
Part of Speech: verb 1
Definition: end
Synonyms: back gate, buy it*, cease, close, conclude, conk, croak*, decease, deep six, depart, die, elapse, end, finish, go, kick off, lapse, meet maker, one-way ticket, pass, pass away, pass on, perish, quit, run out, stop, strike out*, terminate
Antonyms: begin, commence, live, start, thrive
Here's the direct link: Thesaurus.com
Use the thesaurus to find some synonyms for 'get' too - it's too colloquial for just about anything other than e-mails and memos on this course.
Apart from that, don't forget to use the full form of verbs, instead of short forms, like 'I'm' and 'won't'.
Good luck with Send-In Task 3!
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Feedback on Warm-Up 2
Having now - finally - marked all the Warm-Up 2s, I thought I'd give you some general feedback. It's too late for Send-In 2, unfortunately, but the same kinds of exercises come up in the exam at the end of the course too, so this feedback might be useful anyway.
You handled the task very well, in general. Most people avoided the temptation to score points, which is smart, but concentrated instead on describing what happened calmly and factually. What many of you needed to work on, though, was formulating your demands clearly - so that the US company can just pay you what you want and get rid of you! In other words, a clear statement of what would make you happy is probably all you need in a case like this - the US company won't mind paying you (it's such a small sum that the administration alone costs them more).
There were some language points which recurred, and here's an explanation of the ones I think lots of people need to be careful with:
1. The word 'inconveniences' ought to exist … but it doesn't! There's a grammatical distinction between words which identify individual items (e.g. 'chair') and ones which describe general phenomena (e.g. 'inconvenience'). The point is that the words in the second category don't have plural forms, so you can't put an 's' on the end of 'inconvenience'.
2. Colloquial language is the language of speech, not of writing. Everyone knows that 'quid' and 'buck' are the everyday, spoken names of the currencies of the UK and the US, but we write 'pounds' and 'dollars' in contracts. 'Get' is one of these colloquial expressions - avoid it if you can when writing formal letters.
3. Prepositions are always tricky. 'In', 'on' and 'at' are particularly so. Here's a trick that works nearly all the time:
When you're talking about places and periods of time, 'in' is for the largest unit, 'on' for a smaller one and 'at' for a point in space or a point in time. Thus, it's 'in 2009', 'on Monday', 'at 8.00 am' and it's 'in Sweden', 'on Storgatan' and 'at no. 29 Storgatan'.
4. The verb 'appreciate' has been causing problems. When you use the word on its own, it means 'increase in value' (my house appreciated by 10% last year). When you want it to mean an expression of gratefulness, it needs an object (like 'it'). I.e. "I would appreciate it if you would …"
5. Be careful with 'would' and 'should'. "Your representative told me that I should receive a discount" is actually saying that the guy is hoping and speculating - not making any kind of firm undertaking. Change 'should' to 'would' and it becomes a promise.
6. Short forms have been causing problems. 'I'm', 'don't', 'can't', etc work very well in informal letters to people you know. You can't use them in formal letters though (I'm writing informally at the moment, which is why I don't write 'cannot'!).
If you'd like further explanation of any of these points, don't forget to ask!
You handled the task very well, in general. Most people avoided the temptation to score points, which is smart, but concentrated instead on describing what happened calmly and factually. What many of you needed to work on, though, was formulating your demands clearly - so that the US company can just pay you what you want and get rid of you! In other words, a clear statement of what would make you happy is probably all you need in a case like this - the US company won't mind paying you (it's such a small sum that the administration alone costs them more).
There were some language points which recurred, and here's an explanation of the ones I think lots of people need to be careful with:
1. The word 'inconveniences' ought to exist … but it doesn't! There's a grammatical distinction between words which identify individual items (e.g. 'chair') and ones which describe general phenomena (e.g. 'inconvenience'). The point is that the words in the second category don't have plural forms, so you can't put an 's' on the end of 'inconvenience'.
2. Colloquial language is the language of speech, not of writing. Everyone knows that 'quid' and 'buck' are the everyday, spoken names of the currencies of the UK and the US, but we write 'pounds' and 'dollars' in contracts. 'Get' is one of these colloquial expressions - avoid it if you can when writing formal letters.
3. Prepositions are always tricky. 'In', 'on' and 'at' are particularly so. Here's a trick that works nearly all the time:
When you're talking about places and periods of time, 'in' is for the largest unit, 'on' for a smaller one and 'at' for a point in space or a point in time. Thus, it's 'in 2009', 'on Monday', 'at 8.00 am' and it's 'in Sweden', 'on Storgatan' and 'at no. 29 Storgatan'.
4. The verb 'appreciate' has been causing problems. When you use the word on its own, it means 'increase in value' (my house appreciated by 10% last year). When you want it to mean an expression of gratefulness, it needs an object (like 'it'). I.e. "I would appreciate it if you would …"
5. Be careful with 'would' and 'should'. "Your representative told me that I should receive a discount" is actually saying that the guy is hoping and speculating - not making any kind of firm undertaking. Change 'should' to 'would' and it becomes a promise.
6. Short forms have been causing problems. 'I'm', 'don't', 'can't', etc work very well in informal letters to people you know. You can't use them in formal letters though (I'm writing informally at the moment, which is why I don't write 'cannot'!).
If you'd like further explanation of any of these points, don't forget to ask!
Monday 17 March 2008
Warm-Up 3
I'm posting this here now because some of you have *already* started wanting to post Warm-Up 3!
I'll amend this post with some specific Warm-Up 3 information nearer to the deadline.
I'll amend this post with some specific Warm-Up 3 information nearer to the deadline.
Monday 3 March 2008
Warm-Up 2
Warm-Up 2 is all about complaining. 'The Hire Car from Hell' is all about really bad treatment when renting a car in the USA. The idea for this Warm-Up came from the wonderful film, "Trains and Planes and Automobiles", with Steve Martin and John Candy. The task is set up so that you don't have any other option than to write a well-composed letter to the company in the USA - and hope for the best. The sum of money involved is too small to make it worth your while starting a legal action (at least from this side of the Atlantic - it'd be different if you were living in the USA, where they have Small Claims Courts). There's also a lot of scope for 'he said-she said' situations (which is how they describe situations where one person says one thing, and the other person says something different in American English).
The task itself is quite limited: you only have to write FIVE sentences from the letter you'd write (i.e. NOT the entire letter). The point is to see whether you can calibrate your language, so that you express yourself firmly, but refrain from insults and gratuitous comments that will just result in your letter being filed in the trash can! Once again, there's a link to the Send-In Task which comes next.
You submit your Warm-Up Task 2 by copying your text into a comment. Remember to include FIVE sentences only - and to include your name in the submission.
By the way, an FAQ for this task is: what's a 'redeye'? If you'd like to know, take a look at the first comment on this blog post.
The task itself is quite limited: you only have to write FIVE sentences from the letter you'd write (i.e. NOT the entire letter). The point is to see whether you can calibrate your language, so that you express yourself firmly, but refrain from insults and gratuitous comments that will just result in your letter being filed in the trash can! Once again, there's a link to the Send-In Task which comes next.
You submit your Warm-Up Task 2 by copying your text into a comment. Remember to include FIVE sentences only - and to include your name in the submission.
By the way, an FAQ for this task is: what's a 'redeye'? If you'd like to know, take a look at the first comment on this blog post.
Friday 22 February 2008
Send-In Task 1
Just a few words about Send-In Task 1 …
Remember that you send this task to your Internet Tutor - not to David in Kalmar.
There are three alternative Send-In Tasks 1 to choose from: red, green and blue (or Påryd, The Västervik Experience and Alsjöholm). You only have to do one of them.
Each variant of the task has three sections, and the variants have been constructed so that they ought to be of an equivalent level of difficulty (i.e. there isn't an 'easy' variant and a more difficult one).
Finally, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask! If you need help understanding what to do, contact your Internet Tutor.
Good luck with the task - and have a nice weekend.
Remember that you send this task to your Internet Tutor - not to David in Kalmar.
There are three alternative Send-In Tasks 1 to choose from: red, green and blue (or Påryd, The Västervik Experience and Alsjöholm). You only have to do one of them.
Each variant of the task has three sections, and the variants have been constructed so that they ought to be of an equivalent level of difficulty (i.e. there isn't an 'easy' variant and a more difficult one).
Finally, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask! If you need help understanding what to do, contact your Internet Tutor.
Good luck with the task - and have a nice weekend.
Thursday 21 February 2008
Warm-Up 1: General Comment
At time of writing, I think I've marked everyone's Warm-Up 1 and sent it back. The only person I'm a bit worried about is "Linda Andersson" (I couldn't find your e-mail address, so could you mail me so that I can send you your Warm-Up back).
The Warm-Ups were really well done: I awarded marks ranging from 2.5 to 5. If you're wondering what your mark actually means, it works like this. When I mark your work, I keep the ECTS grades in mind. This means that 2.5=50%=Pass. There are five steps between 2.5 and 5, which represent the five steps between Grade E and Grade A in the ECTS system. So … if you've got 3.5/5, that's the equivalent of getting 70% or a Grade C (or a VG in the old system). In my twisted teacher mind (!), I ask myself questions like "does this warm-up merit a pass?" and "how good a pass does it merit?" That's how I arrive at the final mark. If you'd like to hear from me exactly how I arrived at the mark I did, just get in touch and I'll tell you in detail. You're also welcome to get in touch if there's a comment you don't understand. Sometimes larger points of grammar pop up and there's only a limited amount of space in a Comment box to use to give explanations with.
Here are the areas lots of people need to work on:
1. The conventions governing when we use capital letters in English. There are a couple of pages about this in Module 1.
2. The distinction between formal and colloquial language. 'Colloquial' means 'spoken', and there are different usages depending on whether you're speaking or writing. The word 'buck', for example, in its meaning of US$ is known to everyone (thus it isn't a slang expression), but contracts say "dollars", not "bucks". There are several words in general English which you ought to avoid in more formal business English. Here are two of them: "maybe" and "get".
3. Don't forget the apostrophes!
4. Academic qualifications at undergraduate level come in two varieties in the English-speaking world: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.). You mention the specific subject in brackets afterwards, like this: B.A. (Geography). If, however, you want to talk more generally about your qualification, mainly to emphasise the subject, you can use this form of words: a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Studies (from the University of Timbuctoo).
There's a podcast out about my reactions to Warm-Up 1 - and I'm just about to post one about Send-In 1 too.
The Warm-Ups were really well done: I awarded marks ranging from 2.5 to 5. If you're wondering what your mark actually means, it works like this. When I mark your work, I keep the ECTS grades in mind. This means that 2.5=50%=Pass. There are five steps between 2.5 and 5, which represent the five steps between Grade E and Grade A in the ECTS system. So … if you've got 3.5/5, that's the equivalent of getting 70% or a Grade C (or a VG in the old system). In my twisted teacher mind (!), I ask myself questions like "does this warm-up merit a pass?" and "how good a pass does it merit?" That's how I arrive at the final mark. If you'd like to hear from me exactly how I arrived at the mark I did, just get in touch and I'll tell you in detail. You're also welcome to get in touch if there's a comment you don't understand. Sometimes larger points of grammar pop up and there's only a limited amount of space in a Comment box to use to give explanations with.
Here are the areas lots of people need to work on:
1. The conventions governing when we use capital letters in English. There are a couple of pages about this in Module 1.
2. The distinction between formal and colloquial language. 'Colloquial' means 'spoken', and there are different usages depending on whether you're speaking or writing. The word 'buck', for example, in its meaning of US$ is known to everyone (thus it isn't a slang expression), but contracts say "dollars", not "bucks". There are several words in general English which you ought to avoid in more formal business English. Here are two of them: "maybe" and "get".
3. Don't forget the apostrophes!
4. Academic qualifications at undergraduate level come in two varieties in the English-speaking world: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.). You mention the specific subject in brackets afterwards, like this: B.A. (Geography). If, however, you want to talk more generally about your qualification, mainly to emphasise the subject, you can use this form of words: a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Studies (from the University of Timbuctoo).
There's a podcast out about my reactions to Warm-Up 1 - and I'm just about to post one about Send-In 1 too.
Friday 8 February 2008
Warm-Up 1
This is the post both about Warm-Up - and it's the place where you post Warm-Up 1. To do the latter, click on the 'Comments' link (small text right under this post). As I write, it'll say '0 Comments', but as you add things, it'll start saying '1 Comments' (yes, I know it's a grammatical error!), etc. Don't forget to write your name in your post!
What you have to do for Warm-Up 1 is to create a personal profile to appear on your company web site. Don't make it too long: people don't read long posts on a web site. What you have to do is to think about what features or characteristics you think will make a great impact. Take a look at the web page and investigate the links - they'll help you create your own personal profile.
There'll be a podcast about Warm-Up 1 later on today too.
What you have to do for Warm-Up 1 is to create a personal profile to appear on your company web site. Don't make it too long: people don't read long posts on a web site. What you have to do is to think about what features or characteristics you think will make a great impact. Take a look at the web page and investigate the links - they'll help you create your own personal profile.
There'll be a podcast about Warm-Up 1 later on today too.
Thursday 7 February 2008
Hello from Ipswich
Hi everyone!
Where I live, in Ipswich (Australia), there has been a lot of rain. We needed it badly because of severe drought. We still need some more rain - but most of us would like a chance to get dry first.
Welcome to the Business Writing course. I really enjoy working with students from other places, and am looking forward to getting to know you.
Best wishes,
Bruce.
Where I live, in Ipswich (Australia), there has been a lot of rain. We needed it badly because of severe drought. We still need some more rain - but most of us would like a chance to get dry first.
Welcome to the Business Writing course. I really enjoy working with students from other places, and am looking forward to getting to know you.
Best wishes,
Bruce.
Wednesday 6 February 2008
What happened at the Course Launch
There were 17 students in all who came along to the Nisbethska Building in Kalmar this evening. Once everyone had arrived, we tried out being James Bond! English has a greater level of formality than Swedish (though a lesser level than in some cultures), and you have to get used to addressing people you don't know by their surnames - and with certain forms of words … which you'll learn about as you complete the Warm-Ups and Send-Ins.
Then the students practised putting the different components of a business letter into the right place in the letter. You'll find a description of that 'right place' in Module 1 on the Course Web Site. One of the questions which then came up is: when do you write 'Dear Sir' and when do you write 'Dear Mr Smith'? We did an exercise about that too, and you'll find a page called 'Salutations and Closures' in Module 1.
We ended with a tour of the course web site, and looked at the first Warm-Up and the way you don't have to do more than one Send-In out of the three on offer each time. You can follow the fortunes of three different (fictitious) companies on this course, but you don't have to stick with the same company all the time (though you can if you want to).
The main thing to remember is that you accumulate marks as you go through the course - when you've reached the 'magic' 50/100, you've passed!
When everyone else had gone home … I snook back to my office and made the Course Launch podcast … and wrote this post on the Course Blog. It's nice having you with us this term and we're all looking forward to helping you improve your ability to write good business English!
Then the students practised putting the different components of a business letter into the right place in the letter. You'll find a description of that 'right place' in Module 1 on the Course Web Site. One of the questions which then came up is: when do you write 'Dear Sir' and when do you write 'Dear Mr Smith'? We did an exercise about that too, and you'll find a page called 'Salutations and Closures' in Module 1.
We ended with a tour of the course web site, and looked at the first Warm-Up and the way you don't have to do more than one Send-In out of the three on offer each time. You can follow the fortunes of three different (fictitious) companies on this course, but you don't have to stick with the same company all the time (though you can if you want to).
The main thing to remember is that you accumulate marks as you go through the course - when you've reached the 'magic' 50/100, you've passed!
When everyone else had gone home … I snook back to my office and made the Course Launch podcast … and wrote this post on the Course Blog. It's nice having you with us this term and we're all looking forward to helping you improve your ability to write good business English!
Thursday 24 January 2008
Hello from foggy Valladolid
Hello
I'm Jon Clark and I live in the northern central part of Spain. When we have very foggy weather as during all this week, it usually means that it is very sunny and warm on the coast (over 200 km away). Here it is only 3ºC and dark.
I'm looking forward to being your tutor for this course and finding out about you.
Apart from working on this course, I also teach in a large language school here in Valladolid and am an examiner for various Cambridge exams.
When I get some free time, I like doing exercise with my family. Our latest interest is discovering 'vias verdes', which are disused railway lines which have been converted into cycling, walking and and horse riding routes. I prefer to cycle.
Here in Spain we have a general election on 9 March, in which I am very interested. it seems that the winner will be the political party which can reassure people most about the economy. I think this must be the same in many countries.
I hope to meet you soon and I will try to help you get the best out of this course.
Best wishes
Jon
Valladolid, Spain
I'm Jon Clark and I live in the northern central part of Spain. When we have very foggy weather as during all this week, it usually means that it is very sunny and warm on the coast (over 200 km away). Here it is only 3ºC and dark.
I'm looking forward to being your tutor for this course and finding out about you.
Apart from working on this course, I also teach in a large language school here in Valladolid and am an examiner for various Cambridge exams.
When I get some free time, I like doing exercise with my family. Our latest interest is discovering 'vias verdes', which are disused railway lines which have been converted into cycling, walking and and horse riding routes. I prefer to cycle.
Here in Spain we have a general election on 9 March, in which I am very interested. it seems that the winner will be the political party which can reassure people most about the economy. I think this must be the same in many countries.
I hope to meet you soon and I will try to help you get the best out of this course.
Best wishes
Jon
Valladolid, Spain
Thursday 17 January 2008
Welcome to the course
Greetings from your New Zealand tutor. I am looking forward to another interesting bunch of students. At the moment we are in full summer holidays, expecting peaches and nectarines to ripen, becoming acquainted with and sailing our new small boat, harvesting honey from our beehives and installing fans for record high temperatures. It feels as if our temperate climate is becoming tropical. I trust you will find the course fruitful. Beth
Welcome to the Business Writing Spring 2008 Blog
This blog is part of the materials for the Business Writing, 8hp Course at Högskolan i Kalmar in Sweden in Spring Term 2008. You can learn more about me, David Richardson, by clicking on my profile - feel free to get in touch if you want to know more!
I'll be using this blog to keep in touch during the course, and you'll be using it to post your Warm-Up Tasks. I'll give you feedback on your Warm-Up Tasks personally and confidentially, but I'll also use the blog to make some general comments on the way that everyone has handled the Warm-Ups. The idea is that you should get some direct feedback before the Send-In Task related to that Warm-Up is due.
Remember too that there are a series of podcasts relating to the various tasks on the course. The 'Pre-Course Podcast' link on the Course home page will take you to the page where you can find out how to subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes, and to another page where you can listen to the podcasts directly on screen. This link takes you directly to the Course home page:
Business Writing 8hp Course Home Page
Welcome to the course - the Internet tutors, Beth, Jon and Bruce, and I are looking forward to working with you this term.
I'll be using this blog to keep in touch during the course, and you'll be using it to post your Warm-Up Tasks. I'll give you feedback on your Warm-Up Tasks personally and confidentially, but I'll also use the blog to make some general comments on the way that everyone has handled the Warm-Ups. The idea is that you should get some direct feedback before the Send-In Task related to that Warm-Up is due.
Remember too that there are a series of podcasts relating to the various tasks on the course. The 'Pre-Course Podcast' link on the Course home page will take you to the page where you can find out how to subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes, and to another page where you can listen to the podcasts directly on screen. This link takes you directly to the Course home page:
Business Writing 8hp Course Home Page
Welcome to the course - the Internet tutors, Beth, Jon and Bruce, and I are looking forward to working with you this term.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)