PART ONE
Introduction
RATIONALE
Writing business reports is one of the fundamental business writing skills. Business
reports here are understood as "documents that present information on a specific topic for a
specific business purpose" (Boone, 1996: 308). Nearly all business activities involve
writing business reports, from analyzing the status of projects, summarizing business trips,
to investigating an arising problem or suggesting a change in an organization. Writing
reports sometimes becomes professional services which are provided for a fee. The job of
market research companies, for example, is to write reports on the results from their
researches on consumers' demands for a particular product or service. Writing effective
reports is an essential skill for office workers and should be taken into consideration in
language education in colleges, especially for language students who are likely to be office
staff after graduation.
The teaching of business reports in English is a part of courses of English for
business communication, a branch of English for Specific Purposes. English-major
students, however, have to face a number of problems when studying English as a means
of business communication. First, most of the students are not familiar with business
knowledge. Most of them have never taken part in any business activities so far. Business
courses, if any, provide just general theories of economics. Second, the materials used for
the courses are not usually tailored for language students to learn to write business reports
in English intensively. In Vietnam, some intensive courses of English for Business
Communication have to use materials for low-intensive courses and/or those written for
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English native speakers to study business communication with English as the first
language. Those materials can neither provide a thorough understanding of the subject nor
anticipate the lack of language competence of foreign language learners.
The knowledge of writing business reports in English is considered a need for
English-major students who will soon graduate and might have to use the knowledge in
working life. However, as a newly established non-state university, Thang Long has a
remarkable number of problems in dealing with the matter. Firstly, the university staff,

audience, and ability to create effective summaries, headings, subheadings, lists and short
paragraphs. Lastly, reports must be expressed in accurate, appropriate and effective
sentence structures, lexical items, orthography and styles.
It is surprising that although business reports in English are used frequently in most
foreign offices in Vietnam, there have not been many studies on this aspect of business
writing or business communication. This study attempts not only to look into the existing
methodologies but also to find out distinctive features of the teaching context at Thang
Long University and language students to apply these methodologies appropriately.
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SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study focuses on the teaching process of the section of writing business reports
in the course English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University. It tries to
suggest effective teaching strategies that can be used in the course. A strategy can be
understood as "a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, or the art of developing
or carrying out such a plan" (Encarta Reference Library 2004). Teaching strategies,
therefore, can be understood as plans of action in order to achieve a goal in teaching. In
this language content-based course, the language teacher also plays the role of an instructor
who teaches skills. The strategies, therefore, are for teaching both language and skills. The
subjects of the study are language students who major in English, not students with
business major.
The study does not deal with other kinds of reports apart from business reports used
in business activities, i.e. activities performed in organizations operating in order to
provide goods or services. English is used in these activities to facilitate communication
involving people speaking English as the first, second or foreign language. The study only
tries to find out teaching strategies to help students learn how to write business reports with
the aspects including language, research methods, visual aid design, writing process and
organizational structure. It does not try to suggest the needed changes of other aspects of
the course and curriculum designs, such as time allotted for the course, facility settings,
class size, and student assessment.
METHODOLOGY

will trace down the approaches of teaching writing as well as analyze writing tasks and
activities in a classroom. Lastly, the chapter presents features of business reports as a genre
with analysis on its classification, rhetorical patterns, linguistic features and the writing
process.
Chapter 2 describes the study of needs analysis and the error analysis of the
students' writing samples. In Chapter 3, the data of the two researches are analyzed to draw
useful conclusions and implications. Firstly, the needs analysis questionnaire responses are
put together and evaluated. The results will review the students' needs on the course
content, methodologies, and their recommendations. Secondly, the results of the error
analysis are presented to see the weakness of students' writing skills.
Based on the review of literature and the data analysis in the Chapter 1 and 3,
Chapter 4 will present key points of the studies: implications for teaching to write business
reports. The chapter will follow the teaching process from presenting the knowledge in the
content-based course including analyzing sample reports, giving practice exercises, and
managing errors in these writing exercises.
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PART TWO
The Study
CHAPTER I
Literature Review
I.1. ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES (EBP) IN AN ENGLISH FOR
SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) CONTEXT
I.1.1. DEFINITIONS OF ESP
Despite appearing first in as far as the 1960s, ESP has not had an agreed-upon
definition so far. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) emphasized, "ESP should probably be
seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching which
is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning." English language teaching with
ESP approach, therefore, becomes more targeted to the learner's needs and creates more
motivation to the learner.
Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) have modified a definition of ESP by

Economics (EBE).
Dudley-Evans and St John, on the other hand, suggested the use of a continuum
with degrees of specificity, in which the higher the level is, the more specific the course
becomes, accompanying with the levels of English. Martin (1992: 40) also gave a thorough
description of several degrees of specificity, from more specific courses to more general
courses, and no restrictions on the language levels, as presented in Figure I-1.
The use of degrees of speficity of ESP course helps clarify English courses.
Courses in type V will not be considered ESP courses due to the far too indirect link to the
professional areas. On the other hand, type I courses are the most specific courses and can
be applied to learners with clear professional target.
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Degrees of
specificity
Targets Objectives Text-types
Type I
very specifiable /
predictable / routine
narrow skills (content
secondary)
specific, routine
Type II
specifiable / predictable in
term of types
skill and some content can be identified as
genres, routine and non-
routine
Type III
half specifiable, half
unpredictable
content and skill balanced a wide range of definable

Register analysis is the special language that is considered suitable for a specific
situation. For example, the English used in computer science must be different from that in
psychology. Swales (1988, as cited by Dudley-Evans and St John 1988:21) assumes that
while the basic grammar is not different in different circumstances, certain forms of
grammatical and lexical forms occur more frequently than other forms in one circumstance
and than the same forms in other circumstances. The concept of register or a special
language has been applied in language teaching in that some registers are emphasized in
the materials and syllabuses of language courses.
The analysis of those registers has been considered to be of little value as it is not a
reliable basis for ESP courses to just focus on simply teaching the linguistic elements that
are special in the context. However, with new computerized methods, for example, the
development corpus analysis, register analysis is now coming back.
I.1.3.2. Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis
The next stage of development in ESP accompanies the development of field
discourse analysis. Discourse analysis examines language in a higher level than the
sentential level in register analysis, the text. The key factor of discourse analysis is the
rhetorical patterns and the linking devices in a text. The ESP textbooks written based on
discourse analysis concentrate on the rhetorical functions of different forms of language
and the coherence and cohesion of the text.
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The later phase of discourse analysis is genre analysis. According to Swales (1990:
58) as cited by Nelson (2000), "genre comprises a class of communicative events, the
members of which share some set of communicative purposes." In fact, genre analysis adds
cultural and social settings into discourse analysis.
I.1.3.3. Needs Analysis
Needs analysis is neither special to language teaching nor, within language
teaching, to LSP. Needs analysis include analyses of the target situation - the situation in
which learners will use the language they are learning, the language/genre/discourse, the
subjective needs, the learning needs, and the present situation of the learner's current skill
and language use (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998). The needs analysis will provide

the context is the subject matter presented in the target language, resulting in meaningful
communication, “rather than isolated language fragment.” Another benefit is the coherent
and systematic content of the subject matter allows students to refer to their prior language.
Moreover, in content-based learning, learners learn the language to express the unknown
and challenging content, which creates “intrinsic motivation.” Besides, content-based
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instruction develops students’ learning strategies because the dual purposes require
students to have suitable strategies in various learning tasks. Also, the activities and
curriculum in these courses can be flexible and adaptable. Lastly, content-based allows
student-centered activities.
I.1.3.7. ESP Today
Few changes have been recorded since the work of Hutchinson and Waters (1987).
However, there can be two factors that make the character of ESP today. One is the rise of
English for Business Purposes (EBP), which is seen as "currently the area of greatest
activity and growth in ESP" (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998:53). The other is that ESP is
now experiencing an "eclectic period" (Nelson, 2000) in which the courses are designed by
mixing up different elements to fit the learners' particular situation.
I.1.4. ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES (EBP): A DEVELOPING BRANCH OF
ESP
With the globalization of trade, Business English or English for Business Purposes
(EBP) has become the fastest growing field in ESP. EBP has been researched thoroughly
by a number of authors. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998:53) summarized Pickett's
argument that EBP has a lot in common with everyday language of the general public. He
also suggests two aspects of business communication: communication with the public and
communication within a company and between companies (Pickett, 1986: 16).
Brieger (as cited in Nelson 2000) defines that Business English consists of
language knowledge (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.) and communication skills
(giving presentations, meeting, telephoning, report writing, etc.) This definition puts an
emphasis on the language and skills in a business context not business knowledge. Nelson
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takes place with
intermediate interaction and
feedback
Organization well organized, edited improvising
Slowness of production
speed of reception
slower to produce, but
quicker to read
quicker to produce but
listening speed is decided by
the speed of speaker
Standard language standard may be in regional, or
limited-context dialect.
A learnt skill must be taught and learnt mother tongue is acquired
Sheer amount and
importance
used less used more in life
Source: Adapted from Ur, 1996: 159-160.
Figure I-2: Comparing Spoken Language and Written Language
The summary gives several suggestions for the study. Firstly, the teaching of
English writing should make students aware of the discourse, grammatical and lexical
features (appearing in the table under the categories Organization, Standard language and
Dense) of written texts. Secondly, besides linguistic features, the teaching of writing
should also focus on developing the writing skills (under A learnt skill). Thirdly, in order
to teach writing effectively, the teacher must understand the difference between students’
knowledge and the Standard language, and their difficulties in learning to write in English.
I.2.2. APPROACHES IN TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING
I.2.2.1. The Product Approach
The product approach concentrates on the final product that writer has to produce.
Teachers following the product approach often begin the lessons with a presentation of a

using of samples for learners to imitate in the product approach, can combine different
approaches. It provides the textual input as in the product approach, emphasizes the
importance of building reader-friendly texts as in the process approach, and acknowledges
the reader's expectations on what the text will look like as in the genre approach.
Harwood, 2002 also distinguishes between models and samples to argue against the
criticism to the use of models in writing classroom. Firstly, models have the potential to
intimidate students because they are of certainly high quality. According to Harwood
(2002), models are ideal compositions for students to look at to know what should be done
in writing the required texts of the genre. Models are considered to contain no errors on
genre and structure. On the other hand, samples are texts specially prepared for the writing
class to analyze both what should be done and what should be avoided. Hence, samples are
not perfect and contain both strong points and weak points. In prepared samples, there
could be some “traps” of common mistakes that should be discovered when students
discuss the samples. Secondly, there are arguments that models are often inappropriate
with the learners' needs of length and types. However, samples can be specially prepared
for each type of required text genre. Thirdly, some believe that imitating models limit
learner's work in a process. However, as samples are not perfect and need to be analyzed,
they will promote interaction and criticism. Lastly, one concern is that the use of models
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leads to students copying; however, the examining of samples requires more skills than
copying and the task is far from being boring.
I.2.3. MICROSKILLS OF WRITING
According to Brown (1994: 327), writing involves the microskills as presented in
Figure I-3. Brown's list of microskills of writing includes sufficient aspects required by a
writer, yet, it does not have a clear balance for application. Ur (1996: 163) emphasizes the
balance between the importance of expressing the ideas and that of formal aspects.
Accordingly, the content or the message should be of fair balance with the form, i.e. the
correct spelling and punctuation, acceptable grammar and careful selection of vocabulary.
1. Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
2. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.

and do not require learners to understand the meaning. That is why these activities are
uninteresting for learners and should only be used for beginners. Another form is dictation,
which is more challenging to learners. This incentive activity helps develop both listening
and spelling. However, it does not really develop the writing skill in that learners do not
have to express ideas or find ways to construct sentences. Also, this is not an authentic
activity.
Controlled writing activities provide more challenges for learners but still limit
their creativity. Examples of controlled writing are changing a text from the present tense
to the past tense, completing a sentence by filling the blanks, writing sentences from clues,
and writing from pictures. Another form is dicto-comp, in which the teacher read the whole
paragraph at a normal speed, then puts key words from the paragraph on the board, and
learners are required to rewrite the paragraph from their recollection and the key words.
Freer activities include writing based on a text or on oral presentation. In the former,
learners are provided with a paragraph as a model, then are required to based on the
paragraph and write a similar paragraph giving their own information or information
provided by the teacher. Oral presentation begins with class activities when learners make
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suggestions and the teacher builds up an outline, or a list of key expressions, on the board.
In free writing, or self-writing, learners have a certain amount of choice of ideas, there may
be some few limitations like the length or the composition, or the topic.
This part is for suggesting the tasks and activities of a writing class. Writing teacher
must know when and how to conduct each activity or to give each task.
I.2.5. FEEDBACK
According to Ur (1996: 242), "feedback is information that is given to the learner
about his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving
this performance." He also notes that feedback includes both assessment and correction.
Assessment is when the teacher gives a learner's performance the comment or grade so that
the learner knows how well or badly is his/her performance. This will direct the learner
how to improve the performance to meet certain demands. In correction, the teacher tries to
make some aspects of the learner's performance right and appropriate to certain criteria.

affect understanding, they are more important than errors of forms.
Errors of organization are involved in texts that fail to follow the conventional
organization which makes it easy to follow and pleasing to read.
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Errors of language forms, according to Ur (1996), are mainly referred to when teachers
give their feedback, which make their students believe that these are what matters. The first
reason is that “errors in spelling or grammar catch the eye and seem to demand to be
corrected”. Secondly, students themselves also want their language errors to be corrected,
as can be seen from this study. And one more possible reason is that language errors are
much easier to be found out and corrected than errors of content and organization.
All the three above-mentioned errors should be paid attention to because writing
skills require a combination of elements. For the wrong pieces that can be identified as
mistakes, not errors, students should be encouraged to correct by themselves and
hopefully, the repetition of these mistakes may be avoided. As for fossilized mistakes,
there should be specially designed exercises to raise students' awareness of the knowledge.
For errors caused by the lack of necessary knowledge, the teacher needs to provide
students with the knowledge of right, expected items.
I.3. AN ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS REPORTS IN ENGLISH
Although business reports are commonly used and business report writing is one
popular subject in Business English courses, few theoretical documents analyzing business
reports have been found. This study, therefore, will look into the teaching materials and
conduct a simple primary research on the genre. This is an attempt to describe features of
the business reports so that the study can suggest for the teaching of writing the document.
I.3.1. BUSINESS REPORTS AS A GENRE
In linguistics the term genre refers to different types of communicative events
(Martin, 1984; Swales, 1990). Genres can be identified by their overall shape or generic
structure decided by the genre linguistic functions. That is why the generic structure can be
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predicted. Also, the communicative purpose can decide some of the grammatical and
lexical structures and other characteristics that make the discourse type distinctive. A genre

trip reports, investigative reports and trouble reports.
I.3.3. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS REPORTS
In her course book to business communication, Northey (1998: 144) suggests the
key elements of business reports including a statement of purpose, key points, a discussion
of findings. The statement of purpose clearly reveals the aim of the report and can be
considered the introduction of the report. The key points including conclusions and
recommendations are the most important information provided by a report. Some busy
readers only read this part instead of reading the whole report. The discussion of findings is
the most extensive part of the report. It can include several headings and can be organized
in various ways.
Northey also discusses the order of these elements. A direct organization is used
when the reader is pleased or interested because the report begins with a statement of
purpose, followed by the key points and the discussion of findings will end the report with
the explanations for the conclusions and recommendations in the key points. On the other
hand, an indirect organization is suitable for displeased or skeptical readers, building
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gradually towards the conclusions and recommendations by providing the discussion of
findings before the key points.
Locker (1997: 403) suggests seven basic patterns for organizing information in the
discussion of findings in a report:
1. Comparison and contrast: many reports are involved in making decision among
several alternatives and there will be criteria to be based on. The author can
organize the discussion of findings according to either each alternative or each
criterion.
2. Problem-solution: In problem-solution, the report writer identifies the problem,
explains its background or history; discusses its extent and seriousness, and
identifies its causes. Then the author discusses the factors that affect the decision,
analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of possible solutions. The author must
also give conclusions and recommendations
3. Elimination of alternatives: After discussing the problems and their causes, the