Vocabulary notes:

bottom line - 1) итоговая строка счета прибылей и убытков в годовом отчете;
 2) итог, практический результат

freelancer -  фрилансер, свободный художник, действующий на свой страх и риск

the commissioner of translation – заказчик перевода

block style - сблокированный стиль

modified block style - частично сблокированный

indented (modified block) with paragraph indentations - частично сблокированный с выделением параграфов красной строкой

letterhead - шапка на фирменном бланке

Lecture 5: Dispute Letter to a Collection Agency

A debt letter which comes out of nowhere is referred to as a "zombie debt" and it is something that you or may not have paid in the past. However, under the Fair Debt Collection agency Act, you have the every right to dispute about the debt. A formal way to dispute on it is by sending a dispute letter to a collection agency. This is done if you want to verify the debt or prove that you have already made payments to pay off the debt.

There are millions of delinquent accounts in the country and it is not uncommon for credit account records to get lost, deleted destroyed, misplaced or deleted. This is something that becomes difficult for collectors to validate a debt. And it is here when they are unable to validate a debt properly. They often sell this to other collectors without your prior notice. However, this is not a violation because the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCA) as the debt collectors do not require to dispute unless those are supposed to validate the debt or give any specified actions allowed by law.

If you find such letter but with a different collector, you can use the debt collection dispute with the validation letter sample given below to draft your own letter and inform the collector that you have disputed about the debt before. Meaning unclear........either delete or rephrase.

If a collection agency is coming after you for some zombie debts, the best way to handle this is by writing to them. A sample letter is given so as to show how you can write this letter.

Lecture 4. Translatology and Business English

What is R. Jakobson’s contribution into the theory of translation? What ideas of his classical piece "On linguistic aspects of translation” are related to the skills of translating business letters? What are the Translator’s options? What do they have to do with Grice’s maxims? What do you know about the ‘invisibility’ of the Translator?

1. R. Jakobson’s theory of language functions.

2. The concept of the audience design in translatology.

3. The theory of cooperative communication (Grice’s maxims).

4. Translator’s options (dichotomies).

5. ‘Invisibility’ of the translator (L. Venuti’s theory).

6. The strategy of ‘softening up’ – refusal and reproach in business communication.

What is a business letter?  A business letter is an important document that a writer uses to accomplish specific, measureable objectives in interaction with a specific audience.

• A business letter usually focuses on the reader's interests, needs, and concerns, often in order to get the writer's aims accomplished as well as the reader's. The strategy is to build rapport (a positive social relationship), offer needed information, and then ask for specific action. In some cases the writer may want to change the reader's attitude, which is also a kind of action.
• A business letter builds a bridge (rapport) in a number of ways: expressing shared concerns or objectives, sharing personal or social information or experiences, naming shared acquaintances or business contacts, etc.
• A business letter writer organizes the content of the letter to that it persuades the reader to agree with the writer's aims. The strategy is to construct "arguments" that the reader will accept as valid reasons for acting in ways that the writer has specified.
• A business letter writer employs some device or means to measure the effectiveness of his or her persuasive effort. For example, a direct mail sales letter may include a coupon that the reader can redeem; a letter of termination's effectiveness may be measured by the fact that the employee does not retaliate with a lawsuit; a letter of complaint achieves an adjustment or refund.
• A business letter is usually written in Business English and employs standard western styles of formatting and traditional letter parts or sections. For example, writers most often use block, modified block, semi-block, or AMS simplified styles for formatting content, and the letter parts most often included are the heading, inside address, salutation, body, close, signature, and reference section. (See your text for more information about format styles and letter parts.)

Business translation and the commissioner of translation.

There are freelancers and hired people in the world of translation. Business translation has no freelancers. Everything you are doing in the translation of business correspondence is commissioned to you by someone who places certain requirements to your work. If not instructed differently by the commissioner of translation you are expected to preserve meticulously the arrangement of the wording of the ST in the TT. Among the newcomers into the art of translation there are many those who dismiss preserving the vertical and horizontal arrangement of the material of the ST in the TT as a superfluous effort. With business correspondence this disregard for the format can be comparable to violation of the autonomy of the line in a stanza of poetry: apparently, no one would ever dream of remaking the column of verses into a prose text.

How to arrive at the best result

Lecture 1: Business and translation

1. The myths about business correspondence.

2. Business translation and the commissioner of translation.

3. Sample Business Letters.

4. Letter formats.

5. The component parts of a business letter.