English for Professional and General Business

This section aims to cover the following:


 * 1) Preparing to get a job (developing professional skills and experience that will augment your CV)
 * 2) Applying for a job (CVs, personal statements, application forms, cover letters)
 * 3) Professional writing skills (emails, reports, formal letters)

Specific Professions
English for Specific Purposes often refers to professional English such as English for Pilots or English for Accountants. It is intended that there will be links to particular professions in the future.

English for Lawyers

Professional Skills
Professional skills, or competencies, tend to be those transferrable skills such as team work that employers look for in addition to technical skills such as computer programming or knowledge of particular software.

It is important to analyse job specifications in adverts, paying particular attention to skills they require e.g. confident communicator. You then need to analyse those skills to identify micro-skills. You would then want to ensure you can think of examples from your life e.g. studies or work experience to demonstrate the most important micro-skills as you see them. The following websites can be useful in analysing skills:

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/employability-skills.html

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/employability-skills-list-and-examples-4143571

Analysis of team work

Applying for a job (CVs, personal statements, application forms, cover letters)
There is a very useful overview with links to more detail on most aspects of job finding here at University of Kent.

NB It is important to be aware of national and cultural differences. For example, you can find some comparisons of USA and UK style for business letters [https://www.dailywritingtips.com/yours-faithfully-or-yours-sincerely/#:~:text=Yours%20truly%20is%20the%20American,it%20with%20%E2%80%9CYours%20truly.%E2%80%9D&text=Now%2C%20of%20course%2C%20Sincerely%20is,close%20for%20American%20business%20letters. here].

Cover letter examples
https://www.grb.uk.com/careers-advice/graduate-cover-letter

https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/free-cover-letter-template/

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/cover-letters

CVs
Monster.co.uk is a thorough resource on job applications: https://www.monster.co.uk/career-advice/article/revamp-your-cv-for-the-new-year

More specific advice on CVs with useful tips, again with a focus on the UK job market and expectations include:

https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/applications-and-cvs/271451-the-6-step-guide-to-perfecting-your-graduate-cv

https://www.cv-library.co.uk/career-advice/cv/how-to-write-a-cv-tips/

https://www.cv-library.co.uk/career-advice/cv/10-power-verbs-supercharge-cv/

https://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/seven-ways-to-improve-your-cv

Reports
Reports are common in business, are usually addressed to someone e.g. a manager and follow a clear structure with headings, bullet points, numbered lists etc.

https://www.lexico.com/grammar/structuring-a-business-report

Emails
Whether you are a student writing to your tutors, or you are in a job and writing to colleagues, customers, etc, emails are a minefield i.e. there are many risks in attempting to write in an appropriate style. Of particular importance is getting the right level of formality (register). If you are too formal with someone you know, this can appear rude and equally if you are too familiar in your style, e.g. writing Hi John, to someone you don't know, this would also be rude.

A good starting point for understanding the style of business emails is provided here with the Plain English Campaign.

This website https://themanifest.com/digital-marketing/how-write-formal-informal-business-emails provides some key areas to think about when writing an email, as does https://www.instructionalsolutions.com/blog/business-email.

The British Council has this page on how to open and close emails, considering the different levels of formality. Here https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-write-a-formal-email--cms-29793 you will find a guide to business emails with some examples of language that are a good idea and a bad idea.

Examples are always useful. Here are some templates providing lots of useful language for different email purposes https://templatelab.com/professional-email-examples/.

Reflective writing
Reflective writing is increasingly used on educational courses and also in professional contexts such as vocational training. It broadly involves

1 Looking back at something (often an event, i.e. something that happened, but it could also be an idea or object).

2 Analysing the event or idea (thinking in depth and from different perspectives, and trying to explain, often with reference to a model or theory from your subject).

3 Thinking carefully about what the event or idea means for you and your ongoing progress as a learner and/or practising professional.

Some links for further information

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/learning-by-thinking-how-reflection-improves-performance

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1080569913478155

https://student.unsw.edu.au/examples-reflective-writing

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/writing/writingtasks/reflective.aspx

http://www2.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/student-support-services/ask/downloads/Reflective-writing---a-basic-intro.pdf

Interviews
Recommendations in a video from University of Glasgow including how to prepare such as researching the company you are applying to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFMy1XZpTU