1 Preface

This book was originally written for students of Foreign Trade University and was first published by the Educational Publishing House, Hanoi in 1992. Since 1998 it has been adopted, adapted and developed by the Faculty of English, and then, by the Faculty of ESP of the Foreign Trade University. And as time passes, it has become a familiar textbook for commerce students throughout the country and a manual for business persons in all economic sectors of Vietnam.

During the past decades, I have received, with special sincere thanks, many letters from readers suggesting improvements, corrections and inclusions of up-to-date information and exclusion of out-of-date aspects of letter writing. I am, therefore, very delighted in making efforts to meet the needs of students, business persons and other readers.

In this edition, the book has been simplified to suit the actual needs of commerce students in terms of content, format, time, energy and money. Besides fundamental essential parts: inquiries, offers, orders, and claims, payment, transportation, the book provides the reader with a new chapter: e-mail. This is an old and odd thing given as a small part in the previous editions but the content is new in that all the examples given are concerned with students’ future day-to-day jobs: cover letters, thank letters, greeting letters, congratulation letters, condolence letters and others,

On this occasion, I would like to thank the teaching staff of Faculties of English of the Foreign Trade UnIversity, Hanoi University of Business and Technology, Dongnai University of Technology; and all those who have been giving my book their very warm welcome, and expressing their love for and interest in my book by making constructive contributions to its further improvements.

Hanoi, Early Autumn, 2016

Prof-Dr. Nguyễn Trọng Đàn