Friday, January 21, 2011

ESP: International Business Correspondence


International Business Correspondence: This is a topic that I do regularly teach as a required course over two twelve week semesters annually. I have been teaching this branch specifically for five years. Initially I was sanctioned for giving too much homework. I have since reduced the work load. Materials that I currently use look a lot like a beast of many sources. For example I use portions of these texts as presentation samples and classroom activities across a wide variety of specific letters patched and scrapped together.

Here is a sample of my syllabus from Spring 2008

March 5 - Intro. International Trade English
March 7 - Intro. International Trade English
March 12 - Establishing Business Relationship Letter
March 14 - Business Proposal Letter
March 19 - Credit Inquiry Letter
March 21 - Offer and Acceptance Letters
March 26 - Order and Acknowledgement Letters
March 28 - Agreement on General Terms and Conditions
Feb 2 - Remittance and Letter of Credit
Feb 4 - Remittance and Letter of Credit 2
Feb 9 - Shipment Letters
Feb 11 - Insurance
Feb 16 - Claim Letters
Feb 18 - Midterm Exams
Feb 23 - Midterm Exams
Feb 25 - Business Proposal Letter 2
Feb 30 - Credit Inquiry Letter 2
May 2 - Trade Inquiry 2
May 7 - Offer and Acceptance Letters 2
May 9 - Offer and Acceptance Letters 3
May 14 - Order and Confirmation Letters 2
May 16 - Agreement on General Terms and Conditions 2
May 21 - possible festival
May 23 - possible festival
May 28 - Remittance and Letter of Credit 3
May 30 - Remittance and Letter of Credit 4
June 4 - Shipment Letters 2
June 6 - Holiday
June 11 - Claims and Adjustments 2
June 13 - Review
June 18 - Final Exams
June 20 - Final Exams

It roughly repeats itself twice, twice over in both halves of the course with the second half a little deeper in terms of content. Coincidentally in compiling this brief list of texts below I noticed a majority of these books have gone missing from my shelves and seem to have "grown legs" over the years:


(Much better than you would think for an oldie)

Business Correspondence: A Guide to Everyday Writing, Intermediate (2002) Lin Lougheed (A little high level for my folks but can be simplified)

(Not cheap but useful)

A handbook of commercial correspondence (1992) A. Ashley
(Getting harder to find but useful)

These are a few websites which have proven useful to me:

www.alibris.com (good books for 99 cents)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is a run-away hit
Inquiry Letters