RE: General Manager vacancy
Dear .....................................................1
Following your interview for the above position on August 25, I regret to ......................2 you that you were ......................3 on this occasion. The standard of ....................4 was extremely ......................5 and while the panel were very ......................6 with your resume and interview, it was felt that you did not have the necessary ......................7 for the ......................8.
However, I ......................9 like to .......................10 this opportunity to ......................11 you for your interest in Slim Gyms and to......................12 you every ......................13 in your future career.
Yours ......................14 .
1.9 Study the Useful language box below. Use a dictionary to check the meaning of any words or phrases which are unfamiliar. Add three words or phrases to each column.
| A Personal qualities | B Skills/activities | C Useful phrases |
| creative | communication skills | I can work / perform well under |
| dynamic | interpersonal skills | pressure. |
| efficient | organisational ability | I am willing to take the |
| energetic | I was responsible for | initiative. |
| methodical | ... co-ordinating | I have a proven track record in... |
| perceptive | ... developing | I have extensive knowledge of... |
| responsible | ... implementing | I have extensive experience |
| well-organised | ... initiating | in/of... |
| ... liaising | I am able to delegate... | |
| ... monitoring | I can work effectively in a team. | |
| ... negotiating | I am fluent in... | |
| ... organising | I have a good knowledge of... | |
| ... reviewing | ||
| ... setting up |
1.10 Complete the letter using suitable words and phrases from the Useful language box. The letter in brackets indicates which column you should check to find the correct word or phrase.
Dear Ms Walker
I am writing to apply for the position of Managing Director which you advertised in the International Herald Tribune, dated 22 April.
I am currently employed as Marketing Director in a medium-sized cosmetics company. However I am seeking a position which will offer a greater challenge and more responsibility.
In my last job, I was responsible for ……………………1 (B) a sales strategy for the firm and for ......................2 (B) the work of the advertising, sales and marketing personnel. I was also involved in......................3 (B) contracts with overseas agents and distributors, setting their sales targets and ......................4 (B) their performance. In the last six months, I have been engaged in ......................5 (B) franchising networks in Eastern Europe.
I have ......................6 (C) in the cosmetics industry, having worked for three companies dealing in health and beauty products. I think that I work well ......................7 (C) as I have organised several product launches when I had to meet tight deadlines. Although I never avoid responsibility, I am able to ......................8 (C) authority when necessary.
As for my personal qualities, I am a......................9 (A) person, with many ideas for exciting new products which would interest your company. Most people say that I am very ......................10 (A), with the ability to motivate staff and get results. I consider myself to be extremely ......................11 (A) because I always make the most of the resources available to me.
Since you are an international company, it may interest you to know that I am......................12 (C) in English and Spanish, and I have a working knowledge of Portuguese.
I would welcome the opportunity to meet you to discuss my application at greater length.
Yours sincerely
Gabrielle Gerard
(Ms) Gabrielle Gerard
1.11 Responding to job applications. Read the letter and fill in each blank with an appropriate passive form of the verbs below.
appoint issue pay set out
Mr Andrew Harris
77 Dunham Road
Bolton
Lancashire BL3 2FK
14 March
Dear Mr Harris,
Re: Assistant Project Manager, Kazakhstan
Further to your application for the above post, I am pleased to confirm that the Selection Board which met on II March recommended that you 1______________________ to the above post, subject to medical clearance.
Your salary 2____________________ at the rate of £25,000 per annum. Other benefits 3_____________________ in the particulars of post attached.
I should be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you wish to take up the post by Wednesday 20 March.
The proposed start date is on 8 April and your contract, which is for a period of one year, 4_____________________ after we receive written confirmation of your acceptance.
If you have any queries on the terms and conditions of service of the appointment in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me on the above number.
I look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Yours sincerely,
Karen Poulson
Karen Poulson
Recruitment Officer
1.12 Write Andrew's reply to Karen Poulson.
I should be grateful if you could confirm in writing that...
Your prompt answer would be appreciated.
I am delighted to have been selected...
I would like to confirm that I do wish to accept the post.
I enclose a copy of my medical report.
If you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact me.
Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you should require additional details, please write to me.
To have to complain is annoying, but to complain without good reason will also annoy your correspondent. If you complain, make sure you get your facts right. And if you have to answer an unjustified complaint, be polite and restrained, and remember that we can all make mistakes.
Below are two examples of unjustified complaints, with the replies to them. Notice how restrained the replies are.
Dear Sir,
I strongly object to the extra charge of £9.00 which you have added to my statement. When I sent my cheque for £56.00 last week, I thought it cleared this balance. Now I find…
Dear Mr Axeby,
We received your letter today complaining of an extra charge of £9.00 on your May statement. I think if you check the statement you will find that the amount due was £65.00 not £56.00 which accounts for the £9.00 difference. I have enclosed a copy of the statement and...
Dear Sir,
I could not believe it when I read that your prices have now been increased by £7.00. To have to pay £12.00 for an article that was £5.00 only a few months ago is outrageous! The government is fighting inflation...
Dear Mr Richardson,
Thank you for your letter. I checked the item you referred to, which is in fact the Scriva Pen catalogue No. G14 on our price-list. The pen has been increased to £7.00, not by £7.00, and I think you will agree that for a fountain pen this is not an unreasonable increase considering that the price of our materials has doubled in the past few months.
Do not delay and do not apologize. Complain as soon as you realize a mistake has been made; delay not only weakens your case, but can complicate the matter as the people you are dealing with might forget the details. And there is no need to open your letter by apologizing for the need to complain ('We regret to inform you ...','I am sorry to have to write to you about...'); this also weakens your case. Begin simply:
We would like to inform you…
I am writing to complain about…
I am writing with reference to Order No. P32 which we received yesterday.
Terms like 'disgusted', 'infuriated', 'enraged', 'amazed' have no place in business. You can express dissatisfaction by saying:
This is the third time this mistake has occurred and we are far from satisfied with the service you offer.
Unless you can fulfil our orders efficiently in the future we will have to consider other sources of supply.
Please ensure that this sort of problem does not arise again.
Do not be rude or personal. In most cases correspondence between firms takes place between employees in various departments. Nothing is gained by being rude to the individual you are writing to; you may antagonize someone who has probably had nothing to do with the error and, rather than getting the error corrected, s/he could become defensive and awkward to deal with.
| Therefore, do not use sentences like: | Use the passive and impersonal structures: |
| 'You must correct your mistake as soon as possible. | The mistake must be corrected as soon as possible. |
| 'You made an error on the statement. | There appears to be an error on the statement. |
| 'You don't understand the terms of discount. We told you to deduct discount from net prices, not c. i. f. prices. | There seems to be some misunderstanding regarding terms of discount. Discount is deducted from net prices, not c.i.f. prices. |
Do not use words like 'fault' ('your fault', 'our fault') or 'blame' ('you are to blame'); these expressions are not only rude, but childish. Therefore, do not write:
It is not our fault, it is probably the fault of your despatch department.
But:
The mistake could not have originated here, and must be connected with the despatch of the goods.
Never blame your staff, and finally, while writing the complaint remember that your supplier wants to help you and correct the mistake. He is not in business to irritate or confuse his customers but to offer them a service.
If you think you know how the mistake was made, you may politely point it out to your supplier. Sometimes when a mistake occurs several times, you may be able to work out why it is happening more quickly than the firm you are dealing with.
Could you tell your despatch department to take special care when addressing my consignment? My name is C. J. Schwartz, Bergstr. 101 Koln. But there is a C. Schwartz, Bergstr. 110 Koln who also deals in electrical fittings.
Could you ask your accounts department to check my code carefully in future? My account number is 246-642, and they have been sending me statements coded 642-246.
I think the reason that wrong sizes have been sent to me is because I am ordering in metric sizes, and you are sending me sizes measured in feet and inches. I would appreciate your looking into this.
If you think you know how the mistake can be corrected, let your supplier know.
If I send you a debit note for £18.00 and deduct it from my next statement that should put the matter right.
The best solution would be for me to return the wrong articles to you, postage and packing forward.
Rather than send a credit note, you could send six replacements which would probably be easier than adjusting our accounts.
Acknowledge that you have received the complaint, and thank your customer for informing you.
Thank you for your letter of 6 August informing us that…
We would like to thank you for informing us of our accounting error in your letter of the 7 June.
We are replying to your letter of 10 March in which you told us that…
Sometimes you cannot deal with a complaint immediately, as the matter needs to be looked into. Do not leave your customer waiting, but tell him what you are doing straight away.
While we cannot give you an explanation at present, we can promise you that we are looking into the matter and will write to you again shortly.
As we are sending out orders promptly, I think these delays may have something to do with the haulage contractors and I am making investigations at the moment.
Would you please return samples of the items you are dissatisfied with, and I will send them to our factory in Düsseldorf for tests.
If the complaint is justified, explain how the mistake occurred but do not blame your staff; you employed them, so you are responsible for their actions.
The mistake was due to a fault in one of our machines, which has now been corrected.
There appears to have been some confusion in our addressing system, but this has been adjusted.
Having acknowledged your responsibility and explained what went wrong, you must, of course, put matters right as soon as possible and tell your customer that you are doing so.
We have now checked our accounts and find that we have indeed been sending you the wrong statement due to a confusion in names and addresses. The computer has been reprogrammed and there should be no more difficulties. Please contact us again if any similar situation arises, and once more thank you for pointing out the error.
The reason for the weakness in the units you complained about was due to a faulty manufacturing process in production. This is being corrected at the moment and we are sure you will be completely satisfied with the replacement units we will be sending you in the next few weeks.
If you think the complaint is unjustified, you can be firm but polite in your answer. But even if you deny responsibility, you should always try to give an explanation of the problem.
Our engineer has examined the machine you complained about and in his report tells us that the machine has not been maintained properly, if you look at the instruction booklet on maintenance that we sent you, you will see that it is essential to take care of. . .
Our factory has now inspected the stereo unit you returned last week, and they inform us that it has been used with the wrong speakers and this had overloaded the circuits. We can repair the machine, but you will have to pay for the repairs as misuse of the unit is not included under our guarantee.
It is useful when closing your letter to mention that this mistake, error, or fault is an exception, and it either rarely or never happens, and of course you should apologize for the inconvenience your customer experienced.
In closing we would like to apologize for the inconvenience, and also point out that this type of fault rarely occurs in the Omega 2000.
Finally, may we say that this was an exceptional mistake and is unlikely to occur again. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.
The replacements of the faulty articles are on their way to you and you should receive them within the week. We are sure that you will be satisfied with them and there will be no repetition of the faults. Thank you for your patience in this matter, and we look forward to hearing from you again.
(Head Office), Nesson House, Newell Street, Birmingham B3 3EL
Telephone No.: 021236 6571 Fax: 021236 8592 Telex: 341641
SatexS.P.A. Your Ref:
Via di Pietra Papa Our Ref:
00146 Roma Date: 15 August 200-
Attn. Mr D. Causio
Dear Mr Causio,
Our Order No. 14478