Writing for the Big Wide World

1
Writing for the Big Wide World

• by Roberta Wedge
• University of Westminster
• English Language Section
• London, UK
• wedger_at_wmin.ac.uk

2
Questions for yourself

• How would you describe yourself as an email user?
• What differences do you notice between sending
  email in your L1 and L2?

3
Questions for self or students

• Most formal emails?
• Least formal emails?
• Differences between these?

4
Questions for self or students

• Have you ever built up a working email
  relationship with someone you have never met?
  Maybe never even spoken to? What was easy or
  difficult?

5
A continuum of (business) communication

• Meeting in person
• Video-conferencing
• Speaking on the telephone
• Leaving a voicemail
• Writing a memo
• Sending a fax
• Composing a letter

6
Key features of email

• Asynchronicity
• Cost
• Attachments ( and -)
• Transience/permanence
• Conventions
• Email is a written medium
• that incorporates some features of speech.

7
Task One

• You are a senior civil servant, working for a
  regional development programme of a remote and
  poor province in your country. You want to
  enlarge the main regional airport to improve
  trade in your province. At an international fair,
  you met and chatted with a British architect
  whose firm specialises in large projects of this
  kind. Write her an email, asking her to provide
  examples of her firms work for you to show your
  colleagues.

8
Task Two --situation

• You are the British architect, at the beginning
  of your career. You work in London for an
  Anglo-German consortium of architects and
  engineers, with offices in several cities. The
  international fair at which you met this civil
  servant was your first trip for your company. You
  receive the above email. This exciting query
  could lead to a big project for the consortium,
  and a big success for you.

9
Task Two -- A

• Write to your boss, asking him what to do next.
  Hans Braun is much older than you, and a slightly
  old-fashioned German you have a good but formal
  relationship with him. Hes away on a business
  trip, so you cant just drop by for a chat.

10
Task Two -- B

• Write to your friend Melanie Street, who works in
  marketing in another building of your London
  offices, telling her your exciting news. She is
  the same age as you and also fairly new to the
  company you often go out to the pub together
  after work.

11
The Cs of correctness

• Clarity
• Context and circumstances
• Common sense
• Culturally embedded features

12
The advantages of scenarios

• In-house, you already have the scenario.
• An artificial one may be preferable if the
  situation is hot for whatever reason.
• It may be necessary if you are not teaching
  within a company, to create commonality.
• For pre-exp Ss, it also serves to teach them what
  is expected in business generally, not just
  English language.
• Thinking oneself into anothers skin (role
  playing by writing) is a business skill as well.