Business Writing 5

When you receive last-minute requests, you should reply in an email saying:

• "I apologize, but I will have to say "No" to this request as it is a very short notice and I have already committed myself to other requests"

• "I would love to help you out, but I already made commitments to other requests to be completed today"

• "Sorry, but this is a short notice for me, can you please plan ahead the requests next time?"

When you’re given a short deadline for a project delivery, you should reply in an email saying:

• "We all know that this is a high priority project. I was wondering who else can you consider to deliver it?"

• "I understand how important this is, but I am afraid that quality will be affected due to the short deadline"

• "I know this project is a high priority. If I could have a few more time, I could deliver something of higher quality"

When asked to do something optional that you can’t commit to right now, you should reply in an email saying:

• "Thanks! But I think you would benefit from finding someone who can devote more time and energy to this project”

• "I appreciate you thinking of me. But unfortunately, I don’t have the time to give this my best right now"

• "I am really honored by the request! But it is not of a high priority for me right now, please consider someone else"

The sentence "Due to the fact that" can be replaced with a much more simple word like:

• By means of

• Because

• As a result of

When giving feedback you should choose a positive and constructive tone instead of a destructive tone.

• True

• False

To make the word "Ascertain" more familiar, you could use a word like:

• Answer

• Follow Up On

• Find out

“The project is not going as planned and it is very perplexing.” If you will re-write this sentence to make it more familiar, you could say:

• “The project is not going as planned and it is very troubling.”

• “The project is not going as planned and it is very complicated.”

In any email communication, all-caps/upper case words come across as:

• Stressing on an important idea

• Highlighting the urgency of the message

• Shouting/Yelling

Exclamation Points (!)

• are used after statements expressed with strong emotions.

• are used after statements expressing an inquiry.

• are used after statements expressing more clarification to a point.

Semicolon (;)

• is used to separate independent clauses from a coordinating conjunction.

• is used to elaborate a previous sentence and link it with another sentence.