Simon’s letter
20 September 200X Mr Robert Roman 13/F 151 Gloucester Rd Wan Chai Hong Kong Dear Mr Roman HSBC CREDIT CARD 5411 8001 7633 8766 Thank you for your letter dated 18 September 200X. We would advise that the card fee would be automatically billed to your card account annually despite your renewed card is remained uncollected. However, annual fee can be refunded provided that the card is uncollected within a certain period and is returned to the Card Centre for cancellation. Please therefore pick up your renewed card at your earliest convenience. We are pleased to be of service. Yours sincerely S TSE Simon Tse Customer Service Officer Card Centre
which verbs can you use to state your purpose? In the box below are 12 verbs. You can use 9 of them to indicate why you are writing.
3.2 Reader's Response
Answer
To explain how annual fees for credit cards are charged To ask Mr Roman to collect his credit card
Analysis
Did you find it difficult to identify Simon's purpose for writing?
PLANNING STRATEGY #2: READER'S RESPONSE
To determine the reader's response, you need to ask yourself another important question.
What would I like my reader to do?
What does this show about the importance of stating the writer‘s purpose?
Your readers need to know why you are writing to them. Therefore, you should state your purpose for writing very clearly at the beginning. You can do this by writing a sentence which begins with a set phrase followed by a verb.
2 things
Simon probably wanted to do two things: • to ask Mr Roman to collect his credit card and • to explain how the annual fee for credit cards is charged.
3.3 Rቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱader's Information
PLANNING STRATEGY #3: READER'S INFORMATION
To determine the reader's information, always ask yourself an important question. What does my reader need to know?
The Writing Process : A Quick Review
Do you remember the 5 stages of the process?
1.Planning: Why Do It
You begin the Writing Process by planning. “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So you need to plan your writing ... and then write according to your plan. If you plan well, your writing is more likely to get the results you want.
Diagram
When you use this method to state your purpose, the verb you choose is very important. Why? Because it helps your reader understand why you are writing.
2.Planning : How to do it
How can you plan your writing? Effective writers use 3 strategies. * WHY are you writing? * WHAT do you want the reader to do? * WHAT does the reader need to know? These 3 questions provide a good framework for planning.
Reader’s response
To determine what Mr Roman needs to know, you need to refer to the writer's purpose and reader's response. So... If Simon wrote (writer's purpose) * to ask Mr Roman to collect his card and * to explain the charges
Chapter 1
Overview In the introductory chapter “Getting Started”, you learned about the Writing Process. In this chapter, you're going to look at the first stage of the Writing Process: Plan.
Mr Roman’s letter
Dear Sir or Madam I noted your charge on my bill of $220 for the annual fee of my MasterCard. Please note that I haven't picked it up yet since I was abroad until a few days ago. Please do not debit my account. Yours faithfully
activity
A customer, Mr Roman, wrote a letter requesting that his credit card account not be debited. Simon, an HSBC colleague who is learning English, wrote back to Mr Roman. Read Simon's letter below. Why do you think Simon wrote this letter (writer's purpose)?
Question
What do you think Simon's purpose was in writing to Mr Roman? To thank him for his letter To explain how annual fees for credit cards are charged To offer help To ask Mr Roman to collect his credit card To inform Mr Roman of his credit card number
Exercise
In his letter to Mr Roman, Simon was not very specific. He told Mr Roman what to do. He wrote: Please therefore pick up your renewed card at your earliest convenience. Try to rewrite Simon's sentence so that Mr Roman knows exactly what to do.
How can you decide what your reader needs to know? The answer depends on: *why you are writing and *what you want the reader to do. In other words, the writer's purpose and reader's response determine the reader's information.