Abstract
With the further development of economic globalization, business correspondence has played an increasingly important role in promoting economic communication and cooperation of all countries. Thus more and more profound study of all kinds of principles and strategies used in business correspondence has been made by a great number of scholars and businessmen.
This thesis mainly analyzes and studies the application of passive voice in English business correspondence from the perspective of Polit- eness Principle. Based on different strategies of politeness in business correspondence, it studies the important functions of passive voice in helping negotiating parties achieve their goals through the concrete case analysis in business correspondence. Negotiators can realize the negotiating goals and obtain more benefits. Thus, negotiating parties should make full and concrete use of passive voice under the guidance of Politeness Principle in business correspondence.
Key words: business correspondence, Politeness Principle, strategies,
passive voice
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摘 要
随着经济全球化的进一步发展，商务信函对于促进各国之间的经济交流与合作发挥着越来越重要的作用。因此，越来越多的学者和企业家对商务信函中使用的各种原则及策略的研究也不断深入。
本论文主要从礼貌原则视角分析研究被动语态在英语商务信函中的运用，基于商务信函写作中所使用的各种礼貌策略，通过对商务信函具体案例的分析，探讨被动语态对商务信函中各方实现谈判目标所起到的重要作用。谈判者能够实现其谈判的目的，获得更多的利益。因此，在商务信函中，各方应充分、正确地运用礼貌原则指导下的被动语态。
关键词： 商务信函， 礼貌原则， 策略， 被动语态
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Introduction
In recent years, with the development of economy, business correspondence has become more and more important, many people begin to realize its importance. Business correspondence is an effective way to exchange information, build up and maintain harmonious business rela- tionships. Without business correspondence, business activities cannot go smoothly.
With the globalization of world economy, the popularity of the Internet, English business correspondence, including not only traditional letters but also emails and facsimiles is widely used. Politeness strategy is to be adopted in business correspondence so as to realize the maximization of profit and achieve other preplanned goals have been arresting the interest of scholars both at home and abroad.
Among all the politeness strategies studied in writing business correspondence, passive voice is one of the most important one, which is proved to be very useful and effective for the construction of friendly, harmonious and comfortable business relationships.
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Chapter 1
A Brief Introduction to Business Correspondence
As this world is becoming closely integrated, communication between all countries has been more and more frequent especially economic communication. With the development of economy and the prosperity of trade, business correspondence, as a means of economic negotiation, has gained increasing importance, and gradually people begin to realize its importance. So how to write business correspondence appropriately and tactfully appears extremely vital.
1.1 Writing Principles of Business Correspondence
Business correspondence is the written communication between two parties, a means through which views are expressed and ideas or in- formation is communicated in written form in the process of business activities. The principles of business writing are summarized by eight Cs: consideration, conciseness, correctness, courtesy, clarity, completeness, concreteness and credibility.
(1) Consideration. Consideration focuses on the reader instead of the writer, and it conveys the information that the most important person in the
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correspondence is the reader. You-centered writing is the key to successful business. Effective writers can make the reader believe that the reader plays the most important role in the business correspondence or in the business relationship.
(2) Conciseness. Conciseness means omitting unnecessary words and expressions so that the correspondence gets to the main point directly and effectively, which can save a lot of time for both the writer and the reader.
(3) Correctness. Correctness means giving accurate facts and figures and using the correct level of language, using acceptable writing mechanics and applying to correct all other C qualities.
(4) Courtesy. Courtesy means being sincerely tactful, thoughtful and appreciative, omitting expressions that irritate, hurt, or belittle the reader. (5) Clarity. Clarity means being clear by choosing short and con- versational language, constructing effective sentences and paragraphs and being straight-forward. The writer had better avoid using jargon and buzz words so as to achieve appropriate readability.
(6) Completeness. Completeness means answering all questions asked so that the writer accomplishes his/her goal in one letter without needing following letter. It also means giving all necessary information.
(7) Concreteness. Concreteness means using specific facts and figures. There are many ways to achieve concreteness, such as using specific facts
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