Dear Dr. Jef Verschueren, I have received your letter dated November 15,1997, inviting me to attend the 6th International Conference on Pragmatics to be held in Reims, France, July 19 — 22,199.8. Thank you for your kind invitation. I am pleased to accept your invitation and will send my paper entitled Pragmatic Features on International Academic Conferences to the Paper Committee before the required date. Thank you once again for your kind invitation and for your effort in making the conference a successful one. I am looking forward to meeting you soon in Reims. Faithfully yours, (signature) printed name
2) What to Correspond about ,

Pre-/post-conference correspondence may vary greatly in terms of their contents. The usual contents of the correspondence are, however, not beyond the scope of making inquiries, explaining reasons, specifying requests, seeking possibilities, and t letter of inquiry for the deadline of submission Dear Professor Smith, I am the Deputy Director of the Zhong-yuan Institute of Acoustics in Zhengzhou, China. Since we have been undertaking researches on underwater imaging and ultrasonic non-destructive testing ' for many years, we are very much interested in attending the Twelfth International Symposium on Acoustical Imaging,2 which is to be held in London, dated 5 — 11th July, this year. We should be very much obliged if you could kindly give us information on the deadline for the submission of abstracts, papers, and other written materials. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely yours, (signature) printed name
1) Letters for Inquiry
To get information about a conference, or to know what one particularly wants to know, the potential participant may write a letter for inquiry. Letters for inquiry usually contain the following elements: the formal name of the conference (or the information source); the specific inquires or requests; and the closing of the letter.

Theme Presentation 1. Pre-conference Correspondence
1)
Whom to Correspond with Before a conference, whom to correspond with is dependent upon the purpose and content of correspondence.
Unit 2 Keeping up Pre-/ Postconference Correspondence
Topical Highlights

Pre-conference Correspondence: whom to correspond with, what to correspond about, and how to correspond Issues for Correspondence: letters for inquiry, letters for invitation, letters for acceptance of invitation, letters for declination of invitation, etc,
3) Letters for Acceptance of Invitation

Whether or not the invitation is accepted, the invitee should give timely response, so that the inviter can go on with further arrangements.
Financial Application: possible sources for financial support, tactics of writing letters applying for financial aid Cover Letters: pre-print intention, revision requirement, presentation mode, delayed submission, photo delivery, etc. Post-conference Correspondence: letter of thanks, etc.
A letter of acceptance for invitation usually includes the following:
Restating the main content of the invitation, and expressing thanks to the inviter; Expressing acceptance of the invitation, including the invitee's personal plans; Expressing good wishes for the conference. The following is a sample letter of acceptance.
2) Letters for Invitation
A letter inviting someone to attend a conference should be written with warmth and courtesy. The inviter's purpose, the status of the invitee, the specific arrangement of the conference, etc. should be clearly stated in the letter.


Dear Professor Wang, On behalf of the Ohio State University and the IEEE Computer Society, I am very pleased to invite you to attend and chair a session of the forthcoming '98 International Conference on Parallel Data Processing to be held in Bellaire, Michigan, from August 25 to August 28, 1998. You are an internationally acclaimed scholar and educator. Your participation will be among the highlights of the conference. We sincerely hope that you can accept our invitation. As you know, this is the 10th anniversary of the First Conference on Parallel Data Processing and we plan to make it a truly international meeting. We have accepted many papers from several foreign countries, including two from your country. We enclose a copy of the advance program 4 of the conference. If you can come, please let us know as soon as possible, since we have to prepare the final program soon. We look forward to your acceptance. Sincerely yours, (signature) printed name and title