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 English native
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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, most

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

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
Strevens' into one including absolute and variable characteristics as follows:
Absolute characteristics:

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.
Degrees of Targets Objectives Text-types
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specificity
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
types
Type IV
primarily not predictable,
but with some important

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 useful and thorough
information so that the teaching implemented can meet these needs.
I.1.3.4. Analysis of Study Skills and Strategies
In the linguistic field, of discourse analysis, no special attention was given to the
necessary language skills. Then came the communicative language teaching movement

develops students’ learning strategies because the dual purposes require students to have
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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 (2000) argues
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that all the descriptions of EBP are much to simplistic of the broad scope of Business
English today.
According to Dudley-Evans (1998:53-54), because of its popularity, English is a key
to international business communications. It is spoken not only among people from English-
speaking countries, or between native speakers and non-native speakers, but more

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
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model text, which is then analyzed on the purpose, language, the organization, and the style.
The aim is to enable learners to produce similar texts. Learning is evaluated through the text
analysis of learners' work according to some criteria such as the standard of rhetorical style,
accurate grammar, and conventional organization (Brown 1994: 320). The value of this
approach is the use of models for text analysis and as a basis for thinking about the purposes

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 leads to students
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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.
3. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns.
4. Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g. tense, agreement, pluralization), patterns and
rules.
5. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
6. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
7. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.
8. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to

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 suggestions and
the teacher builds up an outline, or a list of key expressions, on the board. In free writing, or
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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. Those
aspects can be of grammatical, semantic, social characteristics.
Assessment can be of various forms from a word or a short sentence said to a learner
who has answered a question, to a comment on an essay, or a grade on an exam. Dudley-
Evans and St John (1998: 210) distinguish two forms of assessment, continuous assessment
and formal testing. Formal tests have been discussed in the previous part of evaluation on the
course so this part is devoted to classroom assessment only.
Correction and assessment, in fact, are not completely separate because correction
often follows assessment and both of them help the learner not only with how right or wrong

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
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 can be a
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general or large genre, that is when a genre consists of several different genres. For example,
journals include reportages, editorials which share some common distinctive features from
other genres, but each of the discourses has its own function and involves different linguistic
features.
The genre business report is part of the genre business writing which includes
business letters, business internal memos, business proposals, etc. as well. The purpose of all
these small genres is doing business. Business reports are also part of the general genre
reports which also include academic reports. Brown, 1994 (286-287) lists different types of
authentic writing in which reports are mentioned as a non-fiction type. Reports, in general,

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
gradually towards the conclusions and recommendations by providing the discussion of
findings before the key points.
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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
author discusses the impractical solutions first, showing why they will not be
effective. The report ends with the most practical solution.
4. General to particular or particular to general: Both ways are good when the
author needs to redefine the reader’s perception of the problem in order to solve it
effectively. In the former, the author starts with the problem as it affects the
organization or as it manifests itself in general then moves to a discussion of the
parts of the problem and solutions to each of these parts. In the latter, the author
starts with the problem as the audience defines it and moves to larger issues of
which the problem is a part.