Requesting a meeting

Filed Under Business (ビジネス), letters | 1 Comment

Non-native English speakers often have a difficult time writing a business letter that sounds like a native English speaker. Yesterday’s post explained why you are writing the letter. Today, I will explain how to ask the reader to do something as shown in the second line of the sample letter below.

Dear Mr. Johnson,
I work for Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant and I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss your advertising requirements for the coming quarter. May I stop by on Friday, April 25 at 9 am to discuss it with you for 30 minutes? If this time is inconvenient for you, please suggest an alternative and I will adjust my schedule. Thank you.
Regards,
[Your name]

Unlike yesterday, where the letter used “would” instead of “may”, we will use “may” when asking the reader if it is ok to do something. The use of the word “may” is the equivalent of sasete itadaku させていただく in Japanese. The last sentence is added to explain to the reader that you will change your schedule to accommodate their schedule.

That’s it for today. We’ll talk about what you want the reader to do tomorrow.

Popularity: 35%

Apr

17

Requesting a meeting

Filed Under Business (ビジネス), letters | 1 Comment

Non-native English speakers often have a difficult time writing a business letter that sounds like a native English speaker. Yesterday’s post explained about identifying who you are. Today, I will explain why the letter is being sent as shown in the first line of the sample letter below.

Dear Mr. Johnson,
I work for Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant and I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss your advertising requirements for the coming quarter. May I stop by on Friday, April 25 at 9 am to discuss it with you for 30 minutes? If this time is inconvenient for you, please suggest an alternative and I will adjust my schedule. Thank you.
Regards,
[Your name]

The why of this letter is written in the second part of the first sentence as “I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss your advertising requirements for the coming quarter.” My Japanese students often ask me if using the word “May I” instead of “I would like to” can be used to politely state your request, but this is not necessary in this sentence. Tomorrow, you will see how to use “May I”.

That’s it for today. We’ll talk about what you want the reader to do tomorrow.

Popularity: 22%

Apr

16

Requesting a meeting

Filed Under Business (ビジネス), letters | 1 Comment

Non-native English speakers often have a difficult time writing a business letter that sounds like a native English speaker. Yesterday’s post explained how to use salutations. Today, I will explain the first sentence of the sample letter below.

Dear Mr. Johnson,
I work for Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant and I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss your advertising requirements for the coming quarter. May I stop by on Friday, April 25 at 9 am to discuss it with you for 30 minutes? If this time is inconvenient for you, please suggest an alternative and I will adjust my schedule. Thank you.
Regards,
[Your name]

First explain who you are. In this sample letter, it is “I work for Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant”. You can also say “I work at Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant”. You can also rearrange the sentence like “I work as a Global Advertising Consultant at Acme Corporation”.

That is it for today. Tomorrow, we will look at the why and explain what it means.

Popularity: 24%

Apr

15

Requesting a meeting

Filed Under Business (ビジネス), letters | 1 Comment

Non-native English speakers often have a difficult time writing a business letter that sounds like a native English speaker. Yesterday’s post explained the steps to create a letter. Today, I will explain the first line of the sample letter below.

Dear Mr. Johnson,
I work for Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant and I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss your advertising requirements for the coming quarter. May I stop by on Friday, April 25 at 9 am to discuss it with you for 30 minutes? If this time is inconvenient, for you, please suggest an alternative and I will adjust my schedule. Thank you.
Regards,
[Your name]

Start off the letter with Dear. If you personally know the person, you can omit this and use their first name only. Using only the first name is common in emails.
The proper salutation is Mr. for a man followed by their last name, followed by a comma. If it is a woman, the proper salutation is Mrs. if they are married and Ms. if the are single.

That’s it for today. We’ll talk about the first sentence in the letter tomorrow.

Popularity: 24%

Apr

14

Requesting a meeting

Filed Under letters | 1 Comment

Non-native English speakers often have a difficult time writing a business letter that sounds like a native English speaker. This week, I will explain how to write a proper business letter, each day discussing each sentence of the following letter. So, here is the sample letter:

Dear Mr. Johnson,
I work for Acme Corporation as a Global Advertising Consultant and I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss your advertising requirements for the coming quarter. May I stop by on Friday, April 25 at 9 am to discuss it with you for 30 minutes? If this time is inconvenient, for you, please suggest an alternative and I will adjust my schedule. Thank you.
Regards,
[Your name]

Now let’s look at the steps to create this letter. Explain