The text itself

Ending emails

Starting emails

Emails

However, there are no standard formulas for starting or finishing emails. Only one thing is clear. Emails are invariably of an informal nature, so informal language tends to be the norm. To give you taste of netiquette, here are some highlights to consider:

1. Keep your message brief and to the point and make sure you clear up any spelling slips or grammatical gaffes before shipping it out.

2. Make sure the Subject lines of your message are detailed enough so they explain what your message is all about.

3. Don’t bother other people by sending them test messages. If you must test a program, send a message to yourself.

– Hi, Roger, Hello Roger, Dear Roger

These seem to represent an informal norm, as far as there is one.

– Roger, Dear Mr Woodham

These formats are used more in business correspondence. Note that using the given name alone, as above, is reminiscent of business memos among colleagues within the same organisation.

But there and other opening formulas:

– Good morning Sarah,

– Hey Ann,

– Hey you guys

– Best wishes, Regards, Best regards, Good wishes.

These seem to represent the informal norm, followed by the given name (David/Dave/etc) of the sender.

Sometimes, a pre-closing formula is used instead of or in addition to the standard closure, e.g.

– Let me know if you need more information,

Dave

Look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Dave

There is also a trend, particularly in informal emails, to dispense with capitalisation, punctuation and to use shortened forms and shortened words as in text-messaging. This is a slightly extreme example, but you might one day get an email looking something like this:

– Hey babe

b4 u leave b'ham pls spk 2 NG & tell her we'll b @ r hse in sth ldn till nxt weds. Ta v much. C u soon. Luv ND

Translated into more standard English (the opening here is slightly old-fashioned), this would read:

– Dearest

Before you leave Birmingham, please speak to Angie and tell her we'll be at our house in South London until next Wednesday. Thanks very much.

See you soon.

Love,

Andy

Learning English BBC

E-mailers make use of symbols called smileys (or emoticons) which can be written using standard letters and signs.

:-) Your basic smiley. This is used to mean I’m happy.

;-) Winking smiley. I’m flirting or being ironic.

;-(Frowning smiley. I didn’t like something.

8-) I wear glasses.

:-| I’m indifferent.

:-{) I have a moustache.

:-~) I have a cold.

C=:^) Head cook, chef-de-cuisine.

Q:^) Soldier, man with beret, boy scout.

*:O) Clown face; I’m feeling like a buffon.

:^9 Licking the lips; very tasty or delicious.

WRITING PRACTICE (writing informal e-mails)

Ask students to write three informal e-mails and submit them for the class consideration. Choose several students and give them 10 minutes for preparation:

You have visited the Internet and explored there the most interesting places:

- sites for cooking

- free software sites

- sites for learning English

You are full of information and want to share this information with your best friends. Write three informal e-mail messages to your friends. You know who of your friends is interested in what. You should be able to arouse interest in them.

- Use an appropriate format and a chatty style. Try to use at least one smiley.

- Calling the sites in your e-mail messages, try to invent interesting names.

- Remember that e-mails should be brief.

In this task you can assess creative approach and usage of the section vocabulary and grammar.

GROUP DISCUSSION

Ask students to work in groups. Give them 15 minutes for preparation.

During last several decades minds of scientists in the sphere of information technologies are concerned with the “immortal” questions:

What are the advantages of IT?

and

What are the disadvantages of IT?

You are a participant of the 5th international conference on IT.

You should act in one of the following three roles:

1. a scientist who delivers a report about advantages of IT

2. a scientist who delivers a report about disadvantages of IT

3. an uninterested in IT person

Scientists should prepare reports for a conference and be able to convince their opponents.

An uninterested person should follow the arguments of scientific opponents and in the end represent pluses and minuses of IT.

In this task you can assess speaking skills and usage of vocabulary and grammar of the section.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23