Business writing sample

WRITING FOCUS
Unit 8: Appointments
Dear Mr. Jacob,
Thank you to inform (1) for informing me. I’m afraid Wednesday is not (2)
good for me because I meet (3) am having an important meeting with
another client that day. I can do you on (ugh ugh, be careful!)(4)
Thursday 9
th
, (period) Does that work for you (5) are you ok on the 9
th
?
If that’s not good for you (6) (great), what is about (7) the 10
th
?
Regards,
ABC
Notes:
1. Thank sb for V-ing st Remember the famous song by Bon Jovi
“Thank you for loving me” !!?
2. After ‘to be” must be either a Noun, Adjective, or V-ing. Other phrases
with similar meaning are:
I’m afraid I can’t do
make Wednesday 8
th

am tied up/pretty busy
have got plans/something on
3. When you talk about definite plans for the future, you should use the
present continuous (be+V-ing). In this case, your plan of meeting
another client is already fixed, therefore you can’t say “I meet client
that day” .

4. “To do somebody” alone can mean “to have sexual intercourse with
sb”. Try not to scare your client away with such a fatal English mistake
:P.
Similar phrases are:
I am available
am free Thursday 9
th

can make
Thursday works for me
Suits me
5. You are asking about someone’s state of health when you say “are you
ok”, and should be used in informal writing only. Instead you should
say “does that work for you/ does that suit you”
6. Good job for using this phrase. You can also use: If that doesn’t work
for you
Suit you
7. What is…? Is to ask for description/explanation of something. Here you
want to raise a suggestion of a date to the client, not asking them to
explain/describe that date for you.
You should say: How about/ What about the 11
th
?
How does the 11
th
sound?
Word power
1. Appointment(n)
Make/break/keep an appointment
By appointment

2. Organize (v)
3. Organization (n)
e.g.: WTO, WHO, FAO
4. Schedule (N,v):
To be ahead of/behind schedule
To schedule something for somebody
5. Decide (v)
To decide to do st
To decide on st
6. Cancel (v)
To cancel a reservation/an order
E.g.: The flight was cancelled because of bad weather.
7. Suggest (v)
To suggest V-ing/ that sb V
8. Happen (v)
St happen
To happen to do st
9. Postpone (v)
Shall we postpone the meeting?
10. Plan (v,n)
Make plan to do st/for st
11. Delay
e.g.The train was delayed for 2 hours.
12. Apology (n)
to offer/make/accept an apology to sb
13. Apologize (v)
To apologize to sb for st
14. interview (n,v)