Luận Văn An analysis of cohesive devices in writing application letters

Khóa luận tốt nghiệp
Đề tài: An analysis of cohesive devices in writing application letters

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale . 1
2. Aims of the study 1
3. Methods of the study 2
4. Scope of the study . 2
5. Design of the study . 2
PART II: DEVELOPMENT . 3
Chapter 1: Theoretical Background . 3
1. An overview of Business Letters . 3
1.1.The Business Letters format 4
Sample of business letter format 5
1.2.Several types of Business Letter 6
2. Cohesion . 16
2.1.The concept of Cohesion . 16
2.2. Cohesion vs Coherence 16
2.3. Types of Cohesion 16
2.4. Grammatical Cohesion . 18
2.5 Lexical Cohesion . 19
2.6. Cohesive Devices 20
Chapter 2: An analysis of cohesive devices in writing application
letters.
1. Application Letters 26
1.1. Definition 26
1.2. Some characteristics of Application Letters . 26
1.3. Letter format 27
1.4. Types of Application Letters . 30
1.4.1. Solicited Letter 30
1.4.2. Unsolicited Letter 31
2. Structure of Application Letter 34
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2.1. Kinds of sentences . 34
2.2. Length of sentences . 34
2.3. Paragraphs 34
2.4. Sentence order . 35
2.5. Vocabulary . 35
2.6. Tense, aspect and mood . 35
2.7. Voice 36
2.8. Modal Makers 36
3. Grammatical Cohesion in English Application Letters . 37
3.1. Reference markers . 37
3.2. Substitution 39
3.3. Conjunctions 40
4. Lexical Cohesion . 41
4.1. The class of “General Nouns” 41
4.2. The element of cohesive devices . 42
Chapter 3: Suggestions for improving application letter writing
1. Application letters . 45
1.1. The characteristics of application letters in English . 45
1.2. Cohesion in English Application letters 46
1.2.1. Grammatical Cohesion . 46
1.2.2. Lexical Cohesion 47
1.3. Suggestions for application letter writing 47
PART III: CONCLUSION 49
References 50
Appendixes 51


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Business letters are one of the ways for any business to communicate
with all of its stake holders. These stake holders may include customers,
suppliers, employees, shareholders, management, government and the
public in general. There are many types of business letters in use.
Application letter is a special kind of business letter. Of all the different
kinds of letter, perhaps none is more important for one‟s personal career
than those letters he writes to apply for a job. Especially, application letter
becomes more and more important in the current global situation.
As I see it, there is a need for young people graduating from
universities to be prepared for job and future that the majority of the
students can master. With application letter, I wish to stress the importance
of cohesive devices in writing and realize the role and contribution of
cohesive devices to successful application letter. Moreover, cohesive
devices can make application letter which is clearer and more logical.
Basing on the above facts and other acquired information I made the
decision to study more in detail about cohesive devices in writing
application letters for my graduation paper, hoping that it can help me and
other learners understand and practice it properly in our future working life.
2. Aims of the study
This subject is to improve the using cohesive devices in writing
application letters properly by:
- Analyzing words, phrases and some cohesive devices in writing
application letters.
- Discussing some possible problems occurring in writing
application letters such as: presenting without a purpose, not informing
enough detailed information for company .
- Giving suggestions to get an effective writing application letters.
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3. Methods of the study
The combinations of quantitative and qualitative approaches are applied:
- To search for what the cohesive devices in application letter are.
- Then to work out the links how such cohesive devices can help to
improve the application letter writing.
I have collected theories from another sources, from reference books,
websites, sample application letters sent to international companies by both
English speakers and Vietnamese.
The data are described in the form of figures and then analyzed by data
transforming. Attention is focused on the frequency of cohesive device s
usage in application letters.
4. Scope of the study
The study focus on the analysis 15 collected application letters sent to
international organizations or companies abroad or in Vietnam. The other
types of cohesive devices listed into grammatical and lexical cohesion are
focused in the paper.
5. Design of the study
The study is divided into 3 main parts:
- The first part is the introduction which gives out the reason for
choosing the topic, point out the aims of the study, the scope of the study as
well as the methods applied.
- The second part is the development which consists of three chapters
1. The first chapter deals with the theoretical background which
provides readers with the knowledge of business letter, cohesive devices in
writing business letters, application letters.
2. The second one focuses on the performance of cohesive devices.
3. The third chapter provides readers the findings and appropriate
suggestion in using cohesive devices properly in application writing.
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- The last part is the conclusion of the study. All the information from
the previous parts of the study is summarized in this part and some
suggestions are offered for further study.
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1. An overview of business letters.
1.1.The business letters format.
Bertha J. Naterop (1978) considered: “Business Letters is intended
for students of commerce, for all those people working in business, and for
those in other walks of life too. It is clear that an executive, a department
manager, a salesman, a secretary or a specialist in business and technology
has to write English letters, but also many people will want to buy
something abroad, accept an invitation, or congratulate a friend in
English.”