Email Writing

Useful English tips for writing

Here is a list expressions and phrases. The first column be used in business English writing and the second column is more informal English, but the phrases can also be used in the busines enviornment.

Name
  • Dear Sir/Madam
  • Dear Sirs
  • Dear Dr. + surname
    Dear Mr / Mrs / Ms + surname
  • Dear + first name
  • To whom it may concern
  • Hi/Hello + first name, Mary, …
  • (or no name at all)
Previous contact
  • Thank you for your e-mail of…
  • Further to your
  • My last most recent e-mail
  • Further to your  message of the 12th May,…
  • I apologize for not getting in contact with you before now, but…
  • Thanks for your e-mail. I was really pleased to get your message.
  • It was great to see you / hear from you.
  • Re your e-mail, …
  • Sorry I haven’t written for ages but I’ve been quite busy.
Opening
  • In reply to your e-mail,
  • here are…
  • Your name was given to me by…
  • I hope you are well.
  • I hope all is well.
  • How are you?
  • How are things?
  • How’s it going?
Reason for writing
  • I am writing in connection with…
  • I am writing to enquire about…
  • I am writing in response to…
  • I am writing to inform you that…
  • We would like to point out that…
  • Just a short note about…
  • Just a quick note to say…
  • Here’s the… you asked for / asked about.
  • I’m writing about…
  • Just to let you know…
  • I got your name from
  • Please note that…
Informing
  • We are able to confirm that…
  • I am delighted to tell you that…
  • We regret to inform you that…
  • We can confirm that…
  • Good / Great news!
  • Unfortunately… I’m sorry but…
Attachments
  • Please find attached my report.
  • I am sending you… as a pdf. file / word document etc.
  • I’ve attached…
  • Here is the … you wanted.
Asking for information
  • Could you give me some information about…?
  • I would like to know…
  • Can you tell me a little about…?
  • Tell me…
Requesting
  • I would be grateful if you could…
  • I wonder if you could…
  • Thank you in advance for your help in this matter.
  • Please accept my apologies for…(+ing).
  • Please… Could you…?
  • I’d appreciate your help with this.
Promising action
  • I will investigate the matter.
  • I will contact you again shortly.
  • I’ll look into it.
  • I’ll get back to you soon.
Offering help
  • Would you like me to…?
  • Let me know whether you would like me to… Do
  • Do you want me to…?
  • Let me know if you’d like me to…
Final comments
  • Thank you for your help.
  • Do not hesitate to contact us again if you require further information.
  • Please feel free to contact me again if you have any further questions.
  • My direct line is… I look forward to…(+-ing)
  • Please keep me informed regarding…
  • I can be contacted at the address above or on (number).
  • Thank you in advance for…
  • Thanks again for…(+-ing)
  • Let me know if you need anything else.
  • Just give me a call if you have any questions.
  • My number is… Looking forward to…(+ing)
  • Let me know when you are free so we can get together.
  • It would be great to hear from you.
  • Please let me know about…
  • Give me a ring /
  • Drop me a line and let me know…
Closing
  • I look forward to hearing from you (in due course).
  • Thank you for your kind attention.
  • Please pass on my regards to…
  • Yours faithfully,
  • Yours sincerely,
  • Yours truly,
  • Best wishes,
  • Regards,
  • Say hi to … for me.
  • Hope to see you / speak to you soon.
  • Write soon.
  • Keep in touch.
  • Speak to you soon.
  • See you soon.
  • Bye (for now),
  • All the best
  • Best wishes,
  • Take care
  • Love
  • Lots of love
  • Kind regards

Source: https://mls-college.co.uk/useful-english-online-resources/

@minithinkpieces

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Presenting Graphs and Visuals

Useful English tips for speaking 

Below you can find useful phrases and vocabulary:

 

Presenting visuals
    • As you will see from this graph …
    • I’d like to show you this chart on which you will see …
    • Let me draw your attention to this part of the graph.
    • Let’s look more closely at this month’s figures.
    • This figure refers to the sales in Toledo only.
    • This pie chart shows our share of the European market today.
    • As you can see, our main competitor has an even bigger share.
    • The bar chart represents sales in our Asian outlets.
    • Here you can see a comparison between …
    • On the line graph you will note :

    A strong upward trend in the sales of product A …
      • Despite occasional fluctuations …
      • with a slight drop during the holiday season …
      • with occasional variations due to …

      The overall performance of product B is good. 
        • The initial surge in sales was followed by a period of slower growth in the second half of the year.
        • The instant success of the product was followed by a  period of stability in the level of sales.

        Increases

         
        • a slight/constant/marked/substantial/increase in sales
        • an increase of about/roughly/approximately/in the region of … %
        • a little over/above what we predicted
        • the recovery/upturn began in (month)
        • an overall increase in …
        • an upward trend in the demand for …
        • sales reached record levels / reached a peak in (month)
        • a strong surge in the sales of …
        • by (month), the figure had risen to …
        • we predict that sales will soar in the coming year / over the next … months

        Decreases
        • just under our target
        • way below our expectations
        • a slight / notable / significant decrease in …
        • the downturn began in (month)
        • the situation began to deteriorate in (month)
        • the number has continued to fall

        Fluctuations
        • a slow start developed into steady progress in sales
        • an initial upward trend was followed by ..
        • we note slight fluctuations through the year
        • normal seasonal variations are the cause of occasional downward trends
        • sales have been (rather) irregular
        • the level / the rate has been unstable since …
        • you will note a certain instability in the rate of …

        Conclusions
        • We must focus our attention on …
        • What I suggest is …
        • There is a necessity for …
        • We need more …
        • We have no choice but to …
        • Appropriate measures must be taken
        • The only option we have is to …
        • These changes are inevitable.
        • We will have to revise our estimation.
        • The result/outcome will be …
        • I strongly recommend …
        • To conclude, I am happy / I regret to announce that …

        @minithinkpieces

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        Signposts

        Useful English tips for speaking 

        ‘Signpost language’ is the words and phrases that people use to tell the listener what has just happened, and what is going to happen next. Signpost language is usually fairly informal, so it is relatively easy to understand.

        Function

        Signpost

        Handing Over

        If you are not the only speaker, you can hand over to somebody else by using one of these phrases.

        • Now I will pass you over to my colleague ‘Mark’.
        • ‘Susan’, the floor is yours.

        Introducing the Speaker
        • The level of formality of your welcome address will also apply to how you introduce yourself. Customize it to match your audience.
        • Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am delighted to be here today to talk to you about…
        • First, let me introduce myself. My name is “John Miller” and I am the “Position” of “Company X”.
        • I’m “John” from “Company Y” and today I’d like to talk to you about…

        Introduce a new subject
        • Today I am here to talk to you about…
        • What I am going to talk about today is…
        • I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about…
        • I am delighted to be here today to tell you about…
        • I want to make you a short presentation about…
        • I’d like to give you a brief breakdown of…
        • Regarding
        • With regard to
        • As regards
        • Concerning
        • Turning to

        Starting a point
        • Let me start with some general information on…
        • Let me begin by explaining why/how…
        • I’d like to give you some background information about…
        • Before I start, does anyone know…
        • As you are all aware
        • I think everybody has heard about…, but hardly anyone knows a lot about it.
        • Moving on now to …
        • Turning to…
        • Let’s turn now to …
        • The next issue/topic/area I’d like to focus on …
        • I’d like to expand/elaborate on …
        • Now we’ll move on to… 
        • I’d like now to discuss… 
        • Let’s look now at…

        Sequence ideas
        • Firstly
        • The most important reason
        • Another reason
        • Finally

        Explanation of goals
        • The purpose of this presentation is…
        • My objective today is…

        Introduce a contrasting idea
        • However
        • In contrast
        • On the other hand Nevertheless Although
        • Yet

        Introduce a similar idea
        • Likewise
        • Similarly

        Add another idea
        • Also
        • Moreover
        • Furthermore
        • In addition
        • Besides

        Give an example
        • For example
        • For instance
        • A good example of this is…
        • As an illustration,…
        • To give you an example,…

        Graphs and images
        • To illustrate this point…
        • I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you…
        • Let the pictures speak for themselves.
        • I think the graph perfectly shows how/that…
        • If you look at this table/bar chart/flow chart/line chart/graph, you can see that…

        Give the cause
        • Because of
        • Due to

        Give the effect
        • Therefore
        • As a result
        • As a consequence
        • Consequently
        • For this reason

        End a section
        • That’s all I have to say about…
        • We’ve looked at…
        • I’d like to recap the main points.

        Linking 
        • As I said at the beginning,…
        • This relates to what I was saying earlier…
        • Let me go back to what I said earlier about…
        • This ties in with…

        Conclusions
        • In conclusion
        • To sum up
        • In summary
        • Let’s summarize briefly what we have looked at.
        • Here is a quick recap of the main points of this section.
        • I’d like to recap the main points.
        • Well, that’s about it for this part. We’ve covered…
        • I’d like to conclude by…
        • In conclusion, let me sum up my main points.
        • Weighing the pros and cons, I come to the conclusion that…
        • That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening/your attention.
        • Thank you all for listening. It was a pleasure being here today.
        • Well, that’s it from me. Thanks very much.
        • That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thanks for your attention.
        Questions
        • Does anyone have any questions or comments?
        • I am happy to answer your questions now.
        • Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.
        • If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
        • Please stop me if you have any questions.
        • Do you have any questions before I move on?
        • If there are no further questions at this point, I’d like to…
        Unknown Answers
        • That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an answer.
        • I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps, I can get back to you later.
        • Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?
        • That’s a very good question. However, I don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.
        • Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.

        Other sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/unit3presentations/expert.shtml

         

         

        @minithinkpieces

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