Portfolio 2 - Personal and Professional Communication-2

Lina Mathlouthi Middlesex University Tutor: Jennifer Rizwan CML2130
Portfolio 2 Title: Personal and Professional Communication Summary: This example shows my understanding of the differences between personal and professional communications. The exercise has three sub-tasks. The first task consists of writing a personal letter to a friend about a frustrating workplace incident. In the second task, a formal protest/complaint letter is written to the required authority in the workplace about the same incident. In the third task, a detailed comparison of the writing styles of the two letters is presented. The two letters are compared based on their language, lexical choices and syntactic structures.
1. Write an e-mail style text where you explain to a friend what has happened to you, and how it makes you feel. Hi Minnie mouse, Howwizit goindid you get those Manolos you were eyeing? Im sure you did, polka dots, bows and pink and youre doneand you tell me not to call you Minnie mouseas if! Anyways im in gripe mode todayremember that Sales Manager position that want mine as per my dear darling boss jodie, turns out it is not! make a wild guess, who got it? CANDY!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!! I mean what she knows about interior design is limited to saying how cute over and over again to anything even remotely revolting!! Her talents, aha, now here we are, her talents are cooing and blinking and saying yes to whatever Mike says. I mean cmon how can anyone forget about that 3k triple losses she did cos she didnt know the differene between sales form and vendor from. Its UNFAIR thats what it is. Im going to write a letter to the HR, meanwhile tell me am I just grmbling all for nothing. Would it be better if I just looked for nother job instead of correcting the errors of Miss ooohh im sorry, can you do something and watching her get promotions? Tell me when we meet tomorrow at Matthews Lina
2. Write a formal letter to your employer explaining what has happened, and how you think the matter should be resolved.
Dear Ms Lorna, I am writing to express my disappointment about the appointment to the Sales Manager position. I have been in the company for 4 years now and my sales performance within the company has always been described as exemplary and outstanding. These comments have been a part of my official review ever since I have been with the company. The last year, I was specially commended for my managerial abilities and my candidature was under active consideration for a managerial position. I was given to understand that nothing had changed in this regard in the half yearly review conducted the last month. However, I suddenly find that
Miss Newman has now been promoted to the position. As her entire experience comprises of the two years she has been with this company, I must confess that I am surprised about the decision. I am sure everyone in the office is aware of the recent ABC projects, where the company had to reimburse almost $8,000 as a direct result of negligence on the part of Ms Newman. Her promotion to the position in light of all these facts is baffling, not to mention demoralizing to other hard workers in the company. I do not wish to comment negatively on the decisions made by the management and bring negativity into the company culture, but the decision has left me concerned about my future prospects in the company. I would like to have a discussion with all those who are concerned to get clarity in the decision regarding promotion to managerial positions within the company. Looking forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Lina Mathlouthi
3. Write a third piece comparing the two texts in the same way done in task 1 this week. This time, structure your answer in an essay like manner (not as a list of bullet points).
The two letters above written on the same subject serve to emphasize the differences between personal and professional communications. In the personal letter, the language is relaxed and idiomatic. There are several allusions to unrelated issues and effort get a personal closeness with the subject of the letter, to make her more sympathetic to the writers plight. The writing has several grammatical and spelling errors and several terms are capitalized unnecessarily, which is a taboo in formal letter writing. The request to meet together is obviously a plea to gripe more about the issue and possibly discuss future career prospects. In contrast, the formal letter stick to the subject. The language is grammatically correct and the tone of the letter formal, even if dissatisfied. The professional experience of the writer is emphasized to gain empathy of the reader (in this case HR and possibly managers). The unsuitability of the rival candidate is highlighted formally and clearly (unlike in the personal letter, where the allusion is more like a personal grudge). The rival candidate is formally referred
by her surname, making the tone of the letter polite and impersonal. No allusion to personal grudges with the rival candidate is mention; in fact the candidates are deliberately compared based on their professional capabilities and experience. The request to meeting is polite and is clearly an effort to understand the policies of the company and discuss the future of the writers career within the company. The two letters also differ greatly in terms of the lexical phrases and syntactic structures used. In the formal letter, the opening begins with a standard polite salutation e.g. Dear Ms X, the informal letter in contrast refers to the addressee using a nickname. Similarly the closing part of the formal letter asks politely for an update on the issue and end with a courteous sincerely, with the name of letter writer in full. The informal letter in contrast urges the friend to meet at a place. Further there is neither a formal salutation nor does the writer use her full name. The language used in the formal letter is courteous with standard polite phrases like I was given to understand, I would like to have a discussion etc. The language used in the informal letter has several intended (modern lingo) and untended grammatical and spelling mistakes. Capitalization of phrases, strictly considered to be a sign of being disrespectful and rude, is used in the informal letter to express anger and frustrate; the formal letter uses extremely rational and polite tone to express the same sentiment. The repeated and frequent use of exclamation marks to express surprise and disappointment is another feature in the informal letter that is avoided in the formal letter. In the formal letter, the writer uses polite and formal phrases like I am writing to express my disappointment and I must confess that I am surprised to express similar sentiments.

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Lina Mathlouthi Middlesex University Tutor: Jennifer Rizwan CML2130

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