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English business letter has been an important and indispensable tool for us to exchange information in global economy. Therefore, writing the efficient letters will determine the success of business communication. In order to find out the effective ways to write business letters, the study intended to analyze inquiry letters and collection letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies. The study began with the literature review on speech acts and politeness strategies. Then both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in data analysis to answer two research questions. The findings of the study presented speech acts used in two kinds of letters and indicated the most dominant speech act. Besides, tone and appeal which were two aspects of politeness strategies were investigated carefully. From that, the suggestions for writing effective letters were drawn out. This study hopefully makes a contribution an effective approach to the business correspondence study.
ABSTRACT English business letter has been an important and indispensable tool for us to exchange information in global economy Therefore, writing the efficient letters will determine the success of business communication In order to find out the effective ways to write business letters, the study intended to analyze inquiry letters and collection letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies The study began with the literature review on speech acts and politeness strategies Then both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in data analysis to answer two research questions The findings of the study presented speech acts used in two kinds of letters and indicated the most dominant speech act Besides, tone and appeal which were two aspects of politeness strategies were investigated carefully From that, the suggestions for writing effective letters were drawn out This study hopefully makes a contribution an effective approach to the business correspondence study i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Method of the study Organization of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW Speech acts 1.1 Definition of speech acts 1.2 Classification of speech acts 1.3 Direct and indirect speech acts Politeness 2.1 Definition of politeness ii 2.2 Face 10 2.3 Politeness strategies 11 2.3.1 Lakoff and Leech’s politeness theory 11 2.3.2 Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory 13 Business letters in English and its properties 16 3.1 Business letters as special texts 16 3.2 The parts of a business letter 17 Inquiry letter 18 Collection letter 19 Related studies 19 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 20 Selection of subjects 20 Research instruments 21 Data collection procedures 21 Data analysis methods and procedures 21 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 An analysis of inquiry letters and collection letters in terms of Speech acts 23 1.1 Realization of Speech acts used in inquiry letters 23 1.1.1 Directives in inquiry letters 23 1.1.2 Representatives in inquiry letters 25 1.1.3 Expressives in inquiry letters 26 1.1.4 Commissives in inquiry letters 27 1.2 Overview of the use of Speech acts in inquiry letters 27 1.3 Realization of Speech acts used in collection letters 30 iii 1.3.1 Representatives in collection letters 30 1.3.2 Directives in collection letters 32 1.3.3 Expressives in collection letters 35 1.3.4 Declarations in collection letters 37 1.3.5 Commissives in collection letters 38 1.4 Overview of the use of Speech acts in collection letters 39 An analysis of inquiry letters and collection letters in terms of politeness strategies 41 2.1 Application of politeness strategies in inquiry letters 41 2.1.1 Tone 41 2.1.2 Appeals 43 2.2 Application of politeness strategies in collection letters 45 2.2.1.Tone 45 2.2.2 Appeals 48 PART III: CONCLUSION 50 Summary of findings 50 Implication of the study 51 Limitations of the study 52 Suggestions for further studies 52 REFERENCE 54 APPENDIXES APPENDIXE 1: Inquiry letters APPENDIXE 2: Collection letters iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES List of figures Figure 1: Flowchart of politeness strategies ordered against estimated threat to face (Brown and Levinson, 1987:60) Figure 2: Percentages of some Speech Acts used in the INQUIRY LETTERS Figure 3: Percentages of some Speech acts in the COLLECTION LETTERS List of tables Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts (following Searle 1979) Table 2: Basic types of direct speech acts Table 3: Leech’s maxims Table 4: Data of forty INQUIRY LETTERS Table 5: Percentages of some Speech acts in the INQUIRY LETTERS Table 6: Data of forty COLLECTION LETTERS Table 7: Percentages of some Speech acts in the COLLECTION LETTERS v PART I: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter states the rationale for the study, together with objectives, scope, significance and method of the study Also, an overview of the rest of the paper is provided to orientate the readers throughout the study Rationale of the study Vietnam is on the path of global integration in terms of science, education, tourism, trade and other fields Obviously, English has been becoming the effective and indispensable means of communication among different countries in almost these fields Besides, with the development of international trade, business transactions are conducted across borders, business partners communicate more often than ever Business communication can be taken in the form of face-to-face meetings or of written communication known as business correspondence English business letter has been widely recognized as a typical written representative of communication and an important tool in business dealings Business correspondence brings quick transactions for people in different distance places and for people who are unable to frequently travel a long way for business discussions Politeness principle and speech acts are vital in writing business correspondence because they determine the effectiveness and success of the communication purpose of a business letter In Vietnam, there are a few studies in the area of business letters analysis Therefore, this investigation may be considered as a contribution to this field Moreover, Vietnamese people need to have necessary knowledge of writing business correspondence to maintain and develop the international trade relationship between Vietnam and other countries in the world In the hope of finding how to write business letters effectively, I have chosen the subject for my thesis: A study of language used in business correspondence in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies Objectives of the study Firstly, the research is expected to present, describe and analyze business letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies Secondly, the researcher will give out the most dominant types of speech acts and politeness strategies which are used Thirdly, from findings and discussion, the study makes some suggestion for better writing business correspondence Research questions The study was carried out with an aim to answering the two following questions: i What are types of Speech acts that writers use in inquiry letters and collection letters? ii What are politeness strategies that writers use in inquiry letters and collection letters? Scope of the study Due to time limit and within the limitation of a graduation thesis, the research cannot deal with all aspects of business correspondence Therefore, it only concentrates on speech acts and politeness strategies in business correspondence The object of this study focuses on two kinds of business correspondence, each type has 40 letters: Inquiry letter Collection letter Significance of the study With theoretical background and data analyses based on language aspects, the research is designed with a view to partly contribute to the better understanding of business letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies Besides, the researcher expects to provide some suggestions for writing business letters for people whose jobs or studies related to international business correspondence Also, the researcher hopes that this thesis would be a useful source of reference for further studies on related topics Method of the study This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze two kinds of business correspondence The main data used in this thesis are accumulated from the book “A Handbook of Commercial Correspondence” by Oxford University Press in 1993, authentic English letters from banks and from trading companies Organization of the study The study is divided into three parts: Part I (Introduction) highlights rationale, objectives, scope, significance, method and organization of the study Part II (Development) includes chapters: Chapter I (Literature review) provides the theoretical framework of the study, including discussions of the theory of speech acts, politeness as well as the related studies Chapter II (Methodology) describes the way the study is conducted, including the research setting, participants, instruments of data collection as well as the procedure employed to carry out data analysis Chapter III (Findings and discussion) presents and discusses the results that the researcher found out from the collected data Part III (Conclusion) summarizes the key points, states the limitations and suggests further studies PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides the literature review including the notions of speech acts theory, theory of politeness strategies, business letters in English and its properties, the definition of inquiry letter and collection letter and it explains how the researcher fulfills some related studies Speech acts 1.1 Definition of speech acts Speech acts theory has been studied and differently defined by different theorists such as: Austin (1962), Grice (1975), Hymes (1964), Searle (1969), Levision (1983), Brown & Yule (1983) and others In Hymes’s definition (1964, p 13): “Speech acts are defined as the acts we perform when we speak” such as giving reports, giving advice, agreeing, complaining, apologizing… A speaker in saying, for example: “I’ll help you whenever you need me”, in fact, is making a promise or an act of promising One may talk to her friend: “Why don’t you tell him the truth?” This question, in certain contexts, may be understood as a suggestion and the speaker is performing the act of giving advice According to Searle (1969, p.24), language is a part of a theory of action, and speech acts are those verbal acts such as promising, threatening, requesting that one performs in speaking Austin (1962, p 52) originally uses the term “Speech acts” to refer to an utterance and the “total situation in which the utterance is used” In addition, Austin - Use friendly tone to remind the customer about the late payment - Adopt firm tone to indicate the consequences in case the customer does not response to letters many times - Express sympathy and offer solutions for the customer so as to resolve the matter in early time and in a polite way - Build goodwill by showing desire for cooperation in the future to maintain good relationship with the customer Limitations of the study Despite the writer’s effort, the research still bears a number of shortcomings Firstly, due to time limitation, the writer cannot cover all types of business correspondence and all aspects of politeness strategies Secondly, limited data resources with 40 letters in each type of letters are one considerable obstacle Therefore, the results cannot be as satisfactory as it might be Suggestions for further studies This research is only a partial investigation into two kinds of business correspondence which are inquiry letter and collection letter in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies (tone and appeals) Therefore, further studies might fulfill the following uncovered aspects - A study on language used in business correspondence in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies with subjects which are other business correspondence types - A study on positive and negative politeness strategies in business correspondence 52 REFERENCES Austin, J L (1962) How to things with words Oxford University Press 53 Ashley, A (1993) A Handbook of Commercial Correspondence Oxford University Press Brown, P & Levinson, S (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage Cambridge University Press Cottrill, L (1991) Face, Politeness and Directness University of Canberra George Yule (1997) Pragmatics Oxford University Press Hymes D H (1964) Language in Culture and Society Kasper, G (1990) Linguistic Politeness Journal of Pragmatics Lakoff, R (1983) What you can with words: Politeness, Pragmatics and Performatives Leech, G (1983) The Principles of Pragmatics Longman 10 Ngo, T.A (1997) Analysis of language often used in banking business letters in terms of structures and speech acts MA thesis Vietnam National University – Hanoi Vietnam 11 Nguyen, T.D (1993) The Language of Business Corespondence in English Foreign Trade University Hanoi – Vietnam 12 Richard, J C (1985) Cross-cultural Aspects of Conversational Competence Cambridge University Press 54 13 Saville – Troike, M (1982) The ethnography of communication: An introduction Language in Society 14 Scot, Ober (1998) Contemporary Business Communication New York: Houghton Mifflin Company 15 Searle, J R (1969) What is speech act Cambridge University Press 55 APPENDIX 1: INQUIRY LETTERS LETTER (Inquiry for a price list) ABC LIMITED 56 191 / N - Patricia Avenue Liverpool – 600 020 Phone: 0011 - XXXXXXXX Fax: 0011 - XXXXXXXX 3rd February 2000 XYZ LIMITED, 326 / H - Raman Nair Street, Maalyvalley – 682 016 Dear Sirs, We are interested in making purchases of various hosiery articles you deal in Since we are catering mainly to the middle class people of the walled city, we are especially interested in medium priced goods of good quality We, therefore, request you kindly to send us a price list together with business terms Yours faithfully, V RAJAN PETER SALES MANAGER LETTER (Inquiry for brochure and price list) 57 Dreamtime Movies Universal Ltd 54 Oxford Road, SK3 4RG Tel: 0223 123 4567 Fax: 0223 765 4321 Email: info@dreamtimemovies.com.uk Date May 5th, 2010 Lingua Services Galactic Ltd 69 Milk Street LONDON SW7 6AW Dear Sirs, We are currently developing our sales literature and websites Besides, we are interested in translating these into five languages apart from English I should be grateful if you would send us your brochure and price list about your translation services I look forward to hearing from you Yours faithfully Andrea Philips Marketing Manager LETTER (Inquiry for samples, price information) 58 P.L TRADING CORPORATION 13333 Wetland East Blvd, Houston, Texas 77041, USA Tel: 281894 5454 Fax: 281.984.0022 Email: pvle@PL.com H.V FOOD COMPANY LTD 108 K30 Pho Quang St., Tan Binh District Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 28th January 2000 Dear Sir or Madam, We have known your company’s name from the trade magazine “The Business World” We would like to have a long-standing relationship with your company We would be grateful if you could send us some samples of the Vietnamese White Rice Long Grain We would also appreciate your letting us have full information regarding FOB Ho Chi Minh City port price, terms of payment and earliest delivery date If the prices offered are competitive and the quality is of the standard we required, we shall place large orders with you in future We look forward to receiving samples and quotation from you soon Yours faithfully William.J.Scheela (Mr.) Purchasing Manager LETTER (Inquiry for catalogues, price list and terms of payment) 59 Dixie Cleverelle SavbizCor Ltd 28 Green St., Suite 14 Upstate, NY 10947 18th November, 2010 Ms Margaret Edwards Barnelli Ltd 48 Stanstead Road London SE27 1FH Dear Ms Edwards, We have seen your advertisement in the internet regarding your mobile phone products The one that we are interested is LG products, especially GW-300 It is very fashionable and it suits to our needs Please send us your updates catalogues, price list and terms of payment We are waiting for your kind reply Yours Faithfully, D Cleverelle Purchase Manager 60 APPENDIX 2: COLLECTION LETTERS LETTER 61 Mr Will Grayson #342 Rosewood Avenue San Diego, CA 13th December, 2011 Dear Mr Grayson, This letter is in reference to the loan that you took from our financing company Anderson Finances Although you were paying your installments on time till September 2011, but we have not received any installment from October It’s been three months that you have not paid the money and you total outstanding amount due for payment is $2250 We have also sent you a notice last month informing you about your outstanding payment, but you did not correspond back Please consider this letter as the last notice, and visit our office within a week before 23rd December 2011 to clear all your due amount Otherwise, we would be forced to take legal actions against you and would have to file a complaint against you in the court I hope you will cooperate with us Yours sincerely John Miller, Collection Officer, Anderson Finances LETTER 62 July 20, 2010 Gold Times Savings and Loan Corporation Jacksontown, New Orleans companyemail@server.com www.url.com Mr Richard Prentiss 325 Privet Avenue Smithville, New Orleans Re: customer number 10-100 Dear Mr Prentiss, According to our records, you have an unpaid balance with us of $8,256.23 for the billing period June 15 to July 14, 2010 As this may be an oversight on your part, we urge you to settle your account with us by July 30 in order to avoid the inconvenience of legal action being taken against you If you have any questions, you may contact Dean Driver at 025-314-5302 If you have already paid your overdue balance, please ignore this notice Thank you for your prompt action on this matter Respectfully yours, Branson Smith Head, Collections Department Gold Times Savings and Loan Corporation LETTER 63 Mr Gold Smith, Credit Manager, Easy Solutions Company Inc 51 Brandreth Road, Tokyo – 477927, December 17, 2012 Mr Gerry Kristen, 23 Adam Street, Hall Mark, Tokyo - 597198 Dear Mr Kristen, Our record shows that you were supposed to submit an amount of $475 on your due date which was about three weeks ago Our recovery department has been trying to contact you but unfortunately it did not prove helpful That is why we are posting this letter as a reminder so that you make it a note and pay your due amount well in time If you have already cleared your debts then please ignore this notice If you have not paid that amount then we advise you to follow the procedure as your first priority Your cooperation in this regard will be highly appreciated Thank You Very truly yours, Mr Gold Smit LETTER 64 1st December, 2012 Martin Gleeson iPayroll Ltd PO Box 25216 Panama Street Wellington Reference: Late Payment Reminder: Invoice # 125987 Dear Mr Martin, Review of our records show that your past payment is due This letter is a reminder that you have an outstanding payment of $3000, on the invoice # 125897 which was sent to you on the 10th of June, 2010 We are yet to receive this payment from you We have enclosed another copy of the invoice with this letter for your reference We request you to please submit full payment for the overdue amount of USD 3000 by the 31st of June Please submit this payment promptly In case the payment is not made on due date, the company will be enforced to take legal action against you to recover the amount due by you Our acceptable payment methods are Visa, MasterCard, money order or check In order to facilitate proper processing you should include your account number If you have already sent your amount due to our processing center, then please ignore this notice otherwise please submit it by mail immediately We believe that legal action would be absolutely unnecessary and therefore, request you to make the payment as soon as possible 65 Thank you for your cooperation We hope that your association with us continues in the future Yours sincerely Audrey Chan Business Manager Note: Please disregard this letter in case you have already made this payment 66 ... (1969), Levision (1983), Brown & Yule (1983) and others In Hymes’s definition (1964, p 13): “Speech acts are defined as the acts we perform when we speak” such as giving reports, giving advice, agreeing,... and suggests further studies PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides the literature review including the notions of speech acts theory, theory of politeness strategies,... significance and method of the study Also, an overview of the rest of the paper is provided to orientate the readers throughout the study Rationale of the study Vietnam is on the path of global integration