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English for Personal Assistants The essential handbook for doing business internationally

:	Annie Broadhead, Ginnette Light
:	English for Personal Assistants The essential handbook for doing business internationally
:	Gabler Verlag
:	9783834992376
:	1
:	CHF 49.70
:

:	Sonstiges
:	English

:	223
:	Wasserzeichen
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	PDF

This book is specifically aimed at German-speaking secretaries, PAs, and management assistants who need to speak English in their daily work. This book enables you to deal with a range of challenging situations in the most effective and efficient way. It provides guidelines, models, and expressions contextualised in realistic situations that you can dip into on a need-to basis.

Annie Broadhead is an English language teacher at a language school in Cambridge and a lead examiner at the University of Cambridge.
Ginni Light is a trainer in language, communication, and intercultural skills for major companies across Europe.
They have both published numerous books on English as the international language of business.

6 Proposals and reports (S. 58-59)

There are many similarities between writing a proposal and writing a report. Both require the use of formal language, clear structuring to guide the reader, and careful revision. In this chapter, proposals are dealt with first and then reports.

Proposals
Businesses can fail or thrive depending on how they communicate their ideas and a cleverly developed business proposal can make all the difference. The term proposal can refer to a wide range of documents, from a bid for a contract to a proposal to increase the budget for the office coffee. Proposals that are seeking funding or an alliance can involve millions of Euros whereas a proposal to give a temporary worker a permanent position has limited financial consequences. No matter what it is, the proposal must make a favourable impression and explain all aspects of the proposed concept clearly and quickly.

First and Foremost/The concept
When you have received the information for a proposal from someone else, i.e., you are not the original author of the proposal, it is imperative that you are clear as to what the concept is. Start off by summarising the concept in 2 or 3 sentences and then show it to a lay person. If they are not absolutely sure what the concept is, rewrite it until they are. Doing this, even when you are the original author, helps clarify the message you want to get across.

Task 1
Your own proposal: You want to propose to the HR department in your company that a full-time permanent post be created in the Accounts Department. A permanent employee did not return from maternity leave and she has not been replaced. At the moment when a crisis occurs, for example, salaries are in danger of not being paid on time and agency staff are brought in at considerable expense. You believe that a person in a permanent post would save money in the long run and allow the Accounts Department to operate under less stressful conditions. Write a brief outline of your proposal. You may like to use the following headings to guide you.

- The problem
- The goals
- The solution

Know the target reader Even if your proposal is an internal document, think carefully about who will read it. A proposal is written for the readers not for the writer. When you write a proposal in English, you’ll need to know the readers’ competence in the English language. Writing for a global audience means avoiding local assumptions and using neutral language rather than overly formal or, conversely, idiomatic phrases. Similarly, find out how conversant the readers are with the jargon of your business or the abbreviations that you use in your line of work. There’s nothing worse than ploughing through someone else’s gobbledygook.

	Contents	6
	1 Communicating with clarity	12
	Writing clearly	12
	Use short sentences	12
	Sentence and meaning	13
	Writing a good paragraph	14
	Effective paragraphing and linking	14
	Linking words/expressions	15
	Telephoning in English	16
	Leaving a voicemail	16
	2 Best-practice emails and working in multi-cultural teams	22
	Advantages of emails	22
	Dos and don’ts	22
	Common abbreviations	24
	Common e-mail acronyms	25
	Emoticons or Smilies	26
	To email or not from your work computer	26
	Giving negative feedback by email	27
	Working in multi-cultural teams	27
	The Challenges of Multi-Cultural Teamwork	28
	Raising awareness of different communication styles	29
	3 Building business relationships	33
	Small Talk – Big Problem	33
	Why make small talk at all?	34
	Be an active listener	34
	Making small talk	34
	Building on small talk	35
	Safe topics to talk about	36
	Use open questions when you make small talk	37
	Active listening	37
	Minimal responses	38
	Helping a corporate visitor with problems	39
	Writing an email to a new acquaintance – formality vs informality	39
	4 Delegating	42
	Know your team and the task requirements	42
	Vocabulary	43
	Excellent communication skills	44
	Expressions for getting something done	44
	Sample sentences	44
	Empowering and ongoing support	45
	Expressions for ongoing support	46
	Organising a conference	47
	Linking words and phrases/Describing a process	47
	Speaking in chunks of meaning	50
	5 Complaints	51
	Complaining by telephone	51
	Key factors in complaining whilst maintaining the relationship	53
	Letters of complaint	56
	Opening and closing salutations	56
	Linking words and phrases for comparing and contrasting	58
	6 Proposals and reports	59
	Proposals	59
	First and Foremost/The concept	59
	Know the target reader	60
	Let’s get writing	61
	Title Page	61
	Introductory paragraph	61
	The main body of the proposal	62
	The conclusion	62
	The language	63
	Revision of first draft	64
	Reports	64
	Purpose sentence	65
	Creating the report	65
	The reader(s)	65
	Collecting information	66
	Organising the report	67
	Writing a rough draft	67
	Final report	67
	7 Meetings	68
	Ineffective meetings	68
	How to make meetings more effective	68
	The agenda	69
	Chairing a Meeting	69
	Participating in a meeting	72
	Expressions for agreeing/disagreeing and giving opinions	72
	Giving opinions	73
	Minutes	73
	8 Writing promotional copy	75
	What’s the purpose of the text you’re writing?	75
	Two types of advertising	75
	Getting the reader’s attention: Headlines	76
	9 Apologising	83
	Accepting apologies	84
	Your voice	85
	Dealing with tricky situations	86
	Written apologies	86
	The language of apologies	89
	10 Giving presentations with impact	90
	Checklist	90
	Using slides	90
	Ordering a presentation	94
	Structuring a presentation	94
	Recycling key information	96
	The Q	96
	97	96
	Delivery	98
	Voice warmers	98
	Final tips	99
	11 Team building and giving/receiving feedback	100
	Team roles	100
	Dealing with different team players	102
	Feedback	103
	Giving feedback	105
	Writing a Memo	105
	12 Deadlines and Reminders	107
	Asking to have deadlines extended or workload reduced	107
	Setting deadlines	108
	Getting people to stick to deadlines	108
	Written reminders to clients	110
	13 Saying “no”	114
	Saying ‘no’ politely	114
	Saying ‘no’ more firmly	116
	Saying ‘no’ assertively	118
	Reporting unacceptable behaviour	119
	14 Writing CVs with impact, covering letters, a