Writing Skills by Anne Laws

Even though English is my 'best' foreign language I try to keep improving a bit every day.

I struggle sometimes when I have to write something in a formal setting. Fortunately I found a book in one of my local libraries. I like checking the space they devote to language learning and I find some times little gems.

This time the gem is a book called 'Writing Skills' by Anne Laws. It is designed to help non-native speakers to write business texts effectively in English. Even though you have a good level of English, it is still probable that some meaning gets lost in translation.

You can find reliable sentences/expressions about stating understanding, making references, generalising, explaining, giving opinions and recommendations, expressing obligation/necessity, expressing degrees of certainty, focusing attention, contrasting...

Here you have some examples from the book:

About focusing attention...

I should like to draw your attention to Clause 12 of the contract whiich has been ammended.

About emphasising...

It is worth noting/remembering that this is only a preliminary review.

This issue is of the utmost importance.

About expressing degrees of certainty...

There is some doubt as to whether Mr Schmidt will be able to attend the meeting.

I doubt wether they will agree to these conditions

As explained by Kató Lomb in 'Polyglot, How I Learned Languages' It is a good technique to learn vocabulary in chunks you have read from a reliable source. If writing letters, emails or any type of document is part of your work I think a book like this one - as well as a thesaurus - should be close to you.

I've got my own list of chunksfor writing, taken from different sources. In case you want it, send me an email!

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