PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The event that Vietnam joined WTO this year is so meaningful. Vietnam had been waiting for this for a long time before it was officially a member of this organization. This event will help our country to develop more quickly and it helps Vietnam to catch up with the speed of economic development of other countries. It also eases the international business transactions, which are becoming more important than ever before. International business transactions are an effective way of communication as they enable the communication of every country in the world. The international business communication is very important. Lockers (1992:14) states: “Good communication is worth every minute it takes and every penny it costs”. Business communication can be taken in the form of face-to-face meetings or of written communication known as business correspondence. Business correspondence takes a very large share in business communication as business associates who desire transactions quickly are in different distance places and are unable to frequently travel a long way for every single business discussion. Every businessman would like their business to run smoothly without any troubles as company closed down, orders are refused or complaints are made. However, it is too perfect business. In business transactions, it is common for businessmen to write business letters that convey bad news. Bad news certainly displeases readers and may cause destruction in relationship between business partners. Therefore, knowing how to write a good letter conveying bad news is essential for the survival of a business. With the hope of finding out how English writers write bad-news letters, the writer does hope that her findings will be very useful for everyone who cares about bad-new business English letters. 2. Aims of the study The study aims at - Studying the ways to convey bad news in English business correspondence; - Finding out some strategies in conveying bad news in English business correspondence; - Studying the way to convey bad news in some kinds of letters: letter of rejecting a complaint, turning down a credit and refusing an order to help the teaching and the learning of commerce English - Finding out how to create goodwill in conveying bad news in English business correspondence. - Giving some implications in writing a good bad-news letter. Research Questions: 1. How do English writers convey bad news in English business correspondence? 2. Which strategy is preferred in conveying bad news in business letters? 3. How do they write to create goodwill in their bad-news letters? 3. Methods of the study This thesis uses the methods of description, analysis, and statistics in linguistic study. A number of materials on applied linguistics, notably on speech acts and politeness strategies are studied to build up a theoretical background for my thesis. Data used in this thesis are mainly collected from textbooks and authentic English written by native English speakers. The writer also uses a plenty of business letters in the book Oxford Handbook of Commercial Correspondence published by Oxford University Press in 2003, written by A. Ashley. 4. Scope of the study This thesis focuses on how to convey bad news in English business correspondence only. It describes common goodwill techniques in writing English business letters. Three kinds of bad-news business letters are analyzed are: - Letters of refusing a complaint - Letters of turning down a credit - Letters of refusing an order From the writer’s point of view, these kinds of letters are the most likely to cause Face Threatening Act (FTA) to readers who may have negative attitude towards the messages sent. However, during everyday business transactions, bad-news messages are always available in the three kinds of letter. What is more, time and reference constraints are also the barrier for the extension in the scope of the study. For the reasons above, the writer only focuses on the above-mentioned matters in her research. 5. Design of the study Part A is an introduction presenting the rationale of the study, the aims, the scope, the method and the design of the study. Part B consists of 3 chapters: Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of this work. Firstly, the notion of, and the background of speech acts are provided. The emphasis will be on dimensions and types of speech acts, face and politeness and the act of breaking bad news. Chapter 2 is the study which deals with how to convey bad news in English business correspondence. Some strategies are employed in direct and indirect approaches and some findings are given out. Chapter 3 provides implications to write bad-news letters. Part C is the conclusion, the summaries of the whole thesis.