English for academic correspondence and socializing

320 Pages·2011·1.81 MB·English

by  Adrian Wallwork (auth.)

Adrian Wallwork
English for Academic
Correspondence
and Socializing
123
AdrianWallwork
ViaCarducci9
56127Pisa,Italy
[email protected]
ISBN978-1-4419-9400-4 e-ISBN978-1-4419-9401-1
DOI10.1007/978-1-4419-9401-1
SpringerNewYorkDordrechtHeidelbergLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011928674
©SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,LLC2011
Allrightsreserved.Thisworkmaynotbetranslatedorcopiedinwholeorinpartwithoutthewritten
permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York,
NY10013,USA),exceptforbriefexcerptsinconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysis.Usein
connectionwithanyformofinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,
orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdevelopedisforbidden.
Theuseinthispublicationoftradenames,trademarks,servicemarks,andsimilarterms,eveniftheyare
notidentifiedassuch,isnottobetakenasanexpressionofopinionastowhetherornottheyaresubject
toproprietaryrights.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Contents
PartI Email
1 SubjectLines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Writethesubjectlineimaginingthatyouaretherecipient . . . 5
1.2 Combineyoursubjectlinewiththepreviewpane . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Usethesubjectlinetogiveyourcompletemessage . . . . . . 5
1.4 Considerusingatwo-partsubjectline . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Bespecific,nevervague. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 Includepertinentdetailsfortherecipient . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7 Examplesofsubjectlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 BeginningsandEndings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Spelltherecipient’snamecorrectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Useanappropriateinitialsalutationandbecareful
withtitles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Avoidproblemswhenitisnotcleariftherecipientis
maleorfemale,orwhichistheirsurname . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 Beasspecificaspossiblewhenaddressinganemail
tosomeonewhosenameyoudonotknow . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Remind the recipient who you are when previous
contacthasonlybeenbrief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 Usestandardphrasesratherthantranslationsfromyour
ownlanguage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.7 Beginwithagreeting+recipient’sname . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.8 Iftherehasbeen noprevious contact, give reason
foryouremailimmediately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.9 Indicatetomultiplerecipientswhoactuallyneedsto
readthemail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.10 Makeitclearwhoshouldreadyouremailandwhat
itisyouarerequesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.11 Avoidtemplatesforbeginningsandendings . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.12 Ifindoubthowtoendyouremail,useBestregards . . . . . . 19
2.13 Don’tuseasequenceofstandardphrasesinyourfinal
salutation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.14 Ensureyoursignaturecontainseverythingthatyour
recipientmayneedtoknow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.15 AvoidPSsandanythingunderyoursignature . . . . . . . . . 20
3 StructuringtheContentofanEmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1 Planyouremailandbesensitivetotherecipient’spoint
ofview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 Organizetheinformationinyouremailinthemost
logicalorderandonlyincludewhatisnecessary . . . . . . . . 23
3.3 MinimizemistakesinyourEnglishbywritingshort
andsimpleemails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.4 Beconciseandprecise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.5 Useshortsentencesandchoosethebestgrammaticalsubject . 27
3.6 Usethecorrectwordorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.7 Bearinmindthatlongemailswillbescrolled . . . . . . . . . 31
3.8 Uselinkwordsinlongemailstoshowconnections
andtodrawattentiontoimportantpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.9 Avoidambiguity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.10 Whenusingpronounsensurethatitis100%clear
totherecipientwhatnounthepronounrefersto . . . . . . . . 34
3.11 Ensure that recipients indifferent timezones will
interpretdatesandtimescorrectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.12 Beawareoftheimportanceofanemail—notjustfor
youoryourrecipient,butalsoforathirdparty . . . . . . . . . 35
3.13 Checkyourspellingandgrammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.14 Don’trely100%onyourspellchecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.15 Ifthemailisveryimportant,haveitcheckedbyanexpert . . . 38
4 RequestsandReplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1 Decidewhetheritmightbebetterjusttomakeone
requestratherthanseveral. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 Givetherecipientalltheinformationtheyneed . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Consider not sending an attachment to someone
withwhomyouhavehadnopreviouscontact . . . . . . . . . 42
4.4 Includealltherelevantinformationthattherecipient
needstoassessyourrequest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.5 Makeallyourrequests100%clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.6 Layoutyourrequestclearly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.7 Avoidblocksoftextanddon’tforceyourreaderto
makesenseofeverything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.8 Formultiplerequests,includeaminisummaryatthe
endoftheemail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.9 Ensure that your layout and organization give the
recipientapositiveimpression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.10 Inrepliestorequestsconsiderinsertingyouranswers
withinthebodyofthesender’semail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.11 Don’t experiment with your English, instead
copy/adapttheEnglishofthesender . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.12 Insertfriendlycommentswithinthebodyofthesender’stext . 53
4.13 Givedeadlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.14 Motivatetherecipienttoreplybyempathizingwith
theirsituationorbypayingthemacompliment . . . . . . . . 55
5 BuildingaRelationshipandDecidingtheLevelofFormality . . . . 57
5.1 Usecommonintereststoestablishandcementarelationship . 59
5.2 Maintainafriendlyrelationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Adoptanon-aggressiveapproach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.4 Becarefulofyourtonewhenaskingpeople
todosomethingforyou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.5 Useappropriatelanguageanddon’tmixlevelsofformality . . 63
5.6 Showyourrecipientrespectandmotivatethemtoreply . . . . 64
5.7 Becarefulhowyouusepronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.8 Noteanydifferencesinstyleandlevelofformality
betweenEnglishandyourlanguage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.9 Addafriendlyphraseattheendofanemail . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.10 Judgewhethertheemailyouhavereceivedisformal
orinformalandreplyaccordingly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.11 Anexampleofhowasimplerequestcanleadtoa
possiblecollaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
PartII WritingandRespondingtoReviews
6 Requesting and Writing an Informal Review of a
Colleague’sWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.1 Giveexplicitinstructionsabouthowyouwantthe
recipienttoreviewyourwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.2 Carefullyconstructandorganizeyourcommentson
yourcolleague’smanuscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.3 Usethefirstlinestosaysomethingpositive . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.4 Beconstructiveinyourcriticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.5 Bediplomaticandmakedetailedcommentsratherthan
unspecificobservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6.6 Avoidbeingtoodirectwhenaskingforclarification
andmakingsuggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.7 Concludeyourreportbysayingsomethingpositive . . . . . . 86
6.8 Re-readeverythingbeforeyouhitthe“send”button . . . . . . 87
6.9 Bediplomaticwhensendingreminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.10 Beappreciativewhenthankingsomeonefordoingan
informalreviewofyourwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
7 WritingaPeerReview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
7.1 Beclearaboutyourroleasareviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.2 Readyourjournal’sreviewguidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.3 Howtostructureareferee’sreport:(1)acceptance
subjecttorevisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.4 Howtostructureareferee’sreport:(2)completerejection . . . 96
7.5 Howtostructureareferee’sreport:(3)acceptanceasis . . . . 96
7.6 Bearinmindtheauthors’expectationsofyouasareviewer . . 96
7.7 Before you begin your report, put yourself in the
author’sshoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.8 Usethesandwichapproach:beginandendon
apositivenote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.9 Useasoftapproachwhencriticizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7.10 Don’tjustuseshouldtomakerecommendations . . . . . . . . 100
7.11 Useseparateparagraphstooutlineyourcomments. . . . . . . 101
7.12 Makesureyourcommentsareexplicitandexplain
howtheycouldbeimplemented . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.13 Useyoutoaddresstheauthors,andI(i.e.,thefirst
person)tomakereferencetoyourself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.14 Don’tmakeindiscriminatecommentsaboutthelevel
ofEnglish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.15 BecarefulofyourownlevelofEnglishandspelling . . . . . . 105
7.16 Mypleatorefereeswithregardtoauthor’slevelofEnglish . . 105
8 WritingaReplytotheReviewers’Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
8.1 Structureyourreplytotherefereesinawaythatwill
keeprefereesandeditorshappy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8.2 Present your answers to the reviewers using the
clearestpossiblelayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8.3 Bebrief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.4 Callyourselveswenottheauthors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.5 Don’tbeembarrassedtosayyoudon’tunderstandthe
referee’scomments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.6 Use the present and present perfect to outline the
changesyouhavemade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
8.7 Justifywhyandwhereyouhavenotmadechanges . . . . . . 112
8.8 Ifyoudisagreewiththereviewers,alwaysbediplomatic . . . 113
8.9 Don’tfindthingstocriticizeinthereferee’sworkorin
theworkingsofthejournal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
8.10 Be aware of what might happen if you ignore the
referee’sadvice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
9 CommunicatingwiththeEditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
9.1 Focusonlyonwhatyouneedtoachieve . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
9.2 Ensureyourcoverletterisclearandaccurate. . . . . . . . . . 122
9.3 Ifyou’veonlymadeafewchanges,describethemin
thelettertotheeditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
9.4 Bediplomaticinanyemailstochecktheprogress
ofyourmanuscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
PartIII TelephoneandTeleconferenceCalls
10 PreparingforandSettingUpaPhoneCall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
10.1 Decidewhetheranotherformofcommunicationmight
bemoresuitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
10.2 Prepareandpractice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
10.3 Considerusinganemailasapreliminaryinformation
exchangebeforethecall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
10.4 Bepreparedforwhattheinterlocutormightsay . . . . . . . . 132
10.5 Thinkaboutthetimeandtheplaceofthecall . . . . . . . . . 132
10.6 Bewareofringingpeopleontheirmobilephone . . . . . . . . 132
10.7 Giveyournameandthenameofthepersonyouwant
totalkto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
10.8 Helpthepersonthatyouwanttospeakto . . . . . . . . . . . 133
10.9 Speakslowlyandclearly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
10.10 Don’t be afraid to interrupt and make frequent
summariesofwhatyouthinkyouhaveunderstood. . . . . . . 134
10.11 Compensateforlackofbodylanguage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
10.12 Avoidbeingtoodirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
10.13 Takenotesduringthecallandsummarizetheimportant
pointsattheendofthecall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
10.14 Ifyoureallycan’tunderstand,learnawaytoclosethecall . . 136
10.15 Followupwithanemail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
11 LeavingaTelephoneMessage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
11.1 Learnthestructureandtypicalphrasesofatelephone
message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
11.2 Speakclearlyandslowly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
11.3 Makethecallasinteractiveaspossible . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
11.4 Spell names out clearly using the International
Alphabetorequivalent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
11.5 Practicespellingoutaddresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
11.6 Whenspellingouttelephonenumbers,readeachdigit
individually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
11.7 Considersendingafax,ratherthananemail,
confirmingwhathasbeensaid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
12 ConferenceCalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
12.1 Prepareforthecall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.2 Announceyourselfwhenyoujointhecall . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.3 Checkthateveryonecanhear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.4 Establishrulesforthecall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.5 Allowtimefor“tuningin” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
12.6 Remindparticipantsabouttheagenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
12.7 Checkthateveryonehasallthedocumentsrequired . . . . . . 149
12.8 Getthemeetingstarted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
12.9 Bepreparedforwhattodoandwhattosayifyou
“arrive”late . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
12.10 Ensureyouareclearwhenyouaretakingparticipants
throughapresentationordocument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
12.11 Don’tbeembarrassedtoadmitthatyouarenotfollowing . . . 150
12.12 Announcethatthecallisreachinganend . . . . . . . . . . . 150
12.13 Anoteonvideoconferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
PartIV DealingwithNativeEnglishSpeakers
13 HowtoImproveYourUnderstandingofNativeEnglishSpeakers . 155
13.1 Acceptthatyouwillnot,anddonotneedto,understand
everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
13.2 Beawarethatnotunderstandinganativespeakermay
havelittletodowithvocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
13.3 Understandwhyyoudon’tunderstand . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
13.4 Learnhowtorecognizekeywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
13.5 Listenratherthanfocusingonwhatyouaregoing
tosaynext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
13.6 Improveyourlisteninghabits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
13.7 Don’t immediately blame cultural differences for
misunderstandings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
14 WhattoDoifYouDon’tUnderstandWhatSomeoneSays . . . . . 163
14.1 Be reassured that even native English speakers
sometimesdonotunderstandeachother . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
14.2 Raiseawarenessinyourinterlocutorofyourdifficulty
inunderstanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
14.3 Identifythepartofthephrasethatyoudidnotunderstand . . . 166
14.4 Identifythekeywordthatyoudidnotunderstand . . . . . . . 168
14.5 Avoidconfusionbetweensimilarsoundingwords . . . . . . . 169
14.6 Turnyourmisunderstandingintosomethingpositive . . . . . . 170
15 HowtoImproveYourPronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
15.1 Avoidthetypicalpronunciationmistakesofpeople
whospeakyourlanguage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
15.2 Learntolistentothecorrectpronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . 173
15.3 Wordstress:twosyllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
15.4 Wordstress:compoundnouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
15.5 Wordstress:threesyllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
15.6 Wordstress:multi-syllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
15.7 Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
15.8 Sentencestress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
16 ExploitingAudiovisualResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
16.1 Thenews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
16.2 TED.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
16.3 TVseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
16.4 Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
16.5 Realityshows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
16.6 YouTube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
16.7 Subtitles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
16.8 Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
16.9 Audiobooksandpodcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
16.10 Giveyourselfaclearobjective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
PartV Socializing
17 PreparingforSocialEvents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
17.1 Exploit conferences for publishing your research
andfornetworking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
17.2 Identifytypicalconversationtopicsandpreparerelated
vocabularylists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
17.3 Learnwhattopicsofconversationarenotacceptable
forparticularnationalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
17.4 Think of other safe topics that involve cultural
similaritiesratherthanjustdifferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
17.5 Ifyouliveneartheconferencelocation,beprepared
toanswerquestionsonyourtown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
17.6 Prepareanecdotesthatyoucanrecountoverdinner . . . . . . 193
17.7 Practicebeingatthecenterofattentioninlow-risk
situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
17.8 Anticipateanswerstoquestionsthatpeoplemightask
youafteryourpresentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
17.9 Decideinadvancewhichkeypeopleyouwanttomeet . . . . 195
17.10 Emailyourkeypersoninadvanceoftheconference . . . . . . 196
17.11 Thinkofhowthemeetingcouldbebeneficialnotonly
toyoubutalsotoyourkeyperson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
17.12 Findoutasmuchasyoucanaboutyourkeyperson,
butbediscreet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
17.13 Encourage your key person to come to your
presentationorpostersession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
18 IntroducingYourselfandConductingOne-to-OneMeetings . . . . 199
18.1 Learn how to introduce yourself for both formal
andinformaloccasions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
18.2 Usepeople’stitleswhereappropriate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
18.3 Prepare strategies for introducing yourself
toapresenterafterhis/herpresentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
18.4 Learnhowtointroduceyourselftoagroupofpeople . . . . . 203
18.5 Exploitopportunitiesforintroductionsatthecoffee
machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
18.6 Be prepared for what to say if your proposal for
ameetingisnotaccepted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
18.7 Bereadyforsomeonewantingtosetupameetingwithyou . . 206
18.8 Preparewellforanyinformalone-to-onemeetings . . . . . . 206
18.9 Bepositivethroughoutinformalone-to-onemeetings . . . . . 207
18.10 Averbalexchangeislikeagameofpingpong:always
giveyourinterlocutoranopportunitytospeak . . . . . . . . . 208
18.11 Ensurethatyoufollowuponyourmeeting . . . . . . . . . . . 211
19 HowtoHaveSuccessfulSocialConversations . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
19.1 Analyzewhatmakesasuccessfulconversation . . . . . . . . . 215
19.2 Trytojudgehowformalorinformalyoushouldbe . . . . . . 217
19.3 Beawareofwhatisandwhatisnotinterestingforyour
interlocutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
19.4 Beginbymakingsmalltalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
19.5 Showinterest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
19.6 Askopenquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
19.7 Askfollow-upquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
19.8 Encourageyourinterlocutortocontinuetalkingonthe
sametopic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
19.9 Make“announcements”ratherthanaskingallthequestions . . 222
19.10 Offermoreinformationthanyouareaskedfor . . . . . . . . . 223
19.11 Avoiddominatingtheconversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
19.12 Feelfreetointerruptpeoplewhotalktoomuch . . . . . . . . 224
19.13 Involveeveryoneintheconversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
19.14 Avoidlongsilences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
19.15 Avoidsoundingrude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
19.16 Expressdisagreementdiplomatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
19.17 Bepreparedfordealingwithdifficultquestions . . . . . . . . 227
19.18 Direct the conversation to areas where you have
awidervocabularyorknowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
19.19 Havereadyexcusesforendingaconversation . . . . . . . . . 229
19.20 Have ready excuses for turning down invitations
forsocialactivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
19.21 Bearinmindculturaldifferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
PartVI CheckingYourEnglish
20 TenseUsage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
20.1 Useofthepresentsimple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
20.2 Non-useofthepresentsimple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236