INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE BASIC CONCEPTS

I Information Theory

II Theory of Human Communication

III International Business Communication

IV Prerequisites for the Subject

CHAPTER TWO CULTURAL INFLUENCES

1 Different Cultures mean Different

Communications

1 Comparisons between Written and Oral

Communications

1 English,a Changing Language

IV English and Chinese as Common Business

Languages

CHAPTER THREE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES

1 Modes of Business Communication

1 Business Communication Principles( 1 )

Completeness ,Conciseness ,Consideration

B Business Communication Principles( 1 )

Concreteness, Clearness,Courtesy, Correctness

CHAPTER FOUR THE PREPARATIONS OF EFFECTIVE

MESSAGES

1 Importance of Good Planning

1 Five Planning Steps

B Basic Qrganizational Approaches

IV Composition of the Message and Its Completion

CHAPTER FIVE GENERAL TYPES OF BUSINESS WRITING

1 Domestic Business Letters

II International Business Letters

III The Job Application Messages

IV Other Main Types of Business Writing emos, Cables, Telexes and Faxes

CHAPTER SIX WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS IN ENGLISH

1 Direct Requests

1 Good News Messages

B Bad News Messages

IV Routine Business Letters

CHAPTER SEVEN SOCIAL AND GOODWILL MESSAGES

1 Some Guidelines

1 Thank-you Messages

III Messages for Joyous Occasions

IV Messages of Sympathy

V Invitations and Responses

CHAPTER EIGHT ORAL COMMUNICATIONS

1 Importance of Effective Oral Communication in Interna-

tional Business

1 Behavioral Variables Affecting

Oral Presentations

1 Main Types of Oral Communications and Their

Preparation

IV Listening

CHAPTER NINE TRANSLATION FOR INTERNATIONAL

BUSINESS

1 Newmark' s Dynamics of Translation

1 Communicative Translation

1 Some Suggestions for Communicative

Translating

IV Examples of Written Translations for Business

CHAPTER TEN A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE HI - TECHS

USED FOR COMMUNICATIONS IN INTER-

NATIONAL BUSINESS

1 Just a Few Words

1 Products Now Available

1 Things to be Available Soon

IV Possible Effects on Business Communicators

stitute of Foreign Trade-seeks to prepare people for a career in inter-

national business. In short, students from UIBE assume leading man-

agerial roles in China' s business and often go on to Chinese embassies

as commercial counselors.

Thus, central to Chinese students studying functional courses

such as finance, accounting, business law, computer and information

systems is the vehicle of business communication. In other words,busi-

ness communication for the Chinese focuses heavily on international

communication.

Our purpose is to offer a progress report on a project entitled "

Communication in Foreign Trade," suggesting a wider scope to the

traditional view of business communication held in the United States.

BACKGROUND

Currently, UIBE uses in their business communication courses a

small two-volume text entitled Business Correspondence①. A charitable

statement is that the work has been around, basically unchanged, in

China for nearly 30 years. Its examples are outdated; its language is ex-

cessively flowery;its main means of communication training is via the

mails, via rail and boat, far distant from the modernities of telexes,

electronic mail, and increasing use of air transport. Hence the first rea-

son for updating international business communication in China is to

include modern examples, in touch with international trade of today.

As can be expected, there is opposition to tampering with ideas

and pedagogical methods used by some instructors : some are content

to follow paths laid out previously, and to keep the definition of busi-

ness communication narrow. Contrastingly, several scholars now feel

that China has an opportunity to apply some of the theoretical under-

pinnings of traditional business communication to an international con-

text.

To borrow wholesale from American texts is impossible : for

Chinese students the examples in U. S. texts are not applicable. Conse-

quently,we have borrowed some U. S. organizational structure and

bonded that to the international business scene. ②

TENTATIVE STRUCTURE

A typescript copy of the project is currently being used at UIBE;

it is being reviewed by students,by faculty of the School,and by vari-

ous ministry committees. The venture is so seminal that the authors

spent several days in Beijing meeting with faculty groups, discussing

pros and cons,and refining the typescript edition. Currently, the sug-

gested contents for this first work on international business communi-

cation follow this format.

Part l-Communication Theory and

Application of the Theory

In 1983 the following statement appeared : "An absence of theo-

retical underpinning (in the old textbook Business Correspondence) is

noticeable. The old adage of "Practice precedes theory" may be operal-

ing here,but at the moment there is a prominent lack of concepts as to

what occurs between sender and receiver, and a host of other problems

which intervene in the communication process③. "