Writing Powerful Heading For Your Business Letters
WRITING POWERFUL HEADING FOR YOUR BUSINESS LETTERS
Grammar Pattern
Warm-up
Talk about these questions with your teacher.
선생님과 이야기해 보세요.
- When you receive a business email or letter, how much does the subject line or heading affect whether you read it right away or skip it?
업무 이메일이나 편지를 받았을 때, 제목이 바로 읽을지 나중에 볼지 결정하는 데 얼마나 영향을 미치나요? - Think of a recent business document you wrote. What heading did you use, and how could you make it more specific and powerful?
최근에 작성한 업무 문서를 떠올려 보세요. 어떤 제목을 사용했고, 더 구체적이고 강력하게 바꾼다면 어떻게 쓸 수 있을까요?
Vocabulary
Listen and repeat after your teacher.
선생님을 따라 읽어보세요.
Reading
Read the passage with your teacher.
선생님과 함께 지문을 읽어보세요.
Grammar Pattern
Writing Powerful Headings for Your Business Letters
Can you imagine reading a newspaper or magazine without any headlines or headings? Headlines and headings help us find our way around, decide what to read, signal what’s coming next and highlight key points. Looking at today’s financial pages of the newspapers, we found these examples:
Banking code outlaws obsolescence for savings accounts
Electronic banker offers taste of the future
Euro-fish out of its depth
FT-SE falls on foreign woes
Kingfisher flies in the face of retail gloom
Masters sells pub chain
Whitbread stops 5,000-job plan
In most business documents, the headings are much weaker. At best they cover the subject matter; at worst they sound academic and tedious.
You can learn to write good headings and subheadings that transform your business letter writing and organise the information to help your reader. Compare these headings.
Typical Heading Action Headings
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First-time Mortgages Helping you Buy your First Home
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Re: Account Arrears Repaying the Money you Owe
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Job Application Appraisals for the Position of Research Officer Selecting a Research Officer Shortlist
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Headings often fail because they stick too rigidly to the subject matter. The key to writing powerful headings is to use a strong verb and specific words. Because each heading has a strong verb, we call these action headings. You can also use direct questions as headings as they have an added impact. For example:
Why Have an Annual Review?
Why Invest Your Lump Sum?
Are You Paying Too Much Tax?
Korean Trap! / 한국인 실수 교정
Common mistakes Korean speakers make.
한국인이 자주 하는 실수를 알아봅시다.
한국어 비즈니스 문서에서는 '~에 관하여', '~의 건'처럼 주제만 나열하는 제목이 일반적이지만, 영어 비즈니스 레터에서는 핵심 내용을 구체적으로 담은 제목이 훨씬 효과적입니다. 'About~'이나 'Regarding~'으로 시작하는 제목은 모호하고 약한 인상을 줍니다. 읽는 사람이 제목만 보고도 핵심 내용을 파악할 수 있도록 구체적인 정보를 포함하세요.
Discussion
Share your thoughts with your teacher.
선생님과 의견을 나눠보세요.
- How would you apply what you learned today?
오늘 배운 것을 어떻게 활용하시겠어요? - What was the most useful part of this lesson?
이 수업에서 가장 유용한 부분은 무엇이었나요? - Can you think of a real situation where you would use this?
이것을 사용할 실제 상황을 생각해 볼 수 있나요? - What would you like to practice more?
더 연습하고 싶은 것은 무엇인가요?
Lesson Summary / 수업 요약
Today's Topic: WRITING POWERFUL HEADING FOR YOUR BUSINESS LETTERS
Level: Business (BIZ)
Review this lesson before your next class! / 다음 수업 전에 복습하세요!