Lina Mathlouthi

Middlesex University

Tutor: Jennifer Rizwan

CML2130

Portfolio 2

Title: Personal and Professional Communication

Summary: This example shows my understanding of the differences between personal and

professional communications. The exercise has three sub-tasks. The first task consists of writing

a personal letter to a friend about a frustrating workplace incident. In the second task, a formal

protest/complaint letter is written to the required authority in the workplace about the same

incident. In the third task, a detailed comparison of the writing styles of the two letters is

presented. The two letters are compared based on their language, lexical choices and syntactic

structures.

1. Write an e-mail style text where you explain to a friend what has happened to you,

and how it makes you feel.

Hi Minnie mouse,

Howwizit goin…did you get those Manolos you were eyeing? I’m sure you did, polka dots,

bows and pink and you’re done…and you tell me not to call you Minnie mouse…as if!

Anyways i’m in gripe mode today…remember that ‘Sales Manager’ position that want

‘mine’ as per my dear darling boss jodie, turns out it is not! make a wild guess, who got it?

CANDY!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!! I mean what she knows about interior design is

limited to saying ‘how cute’ over and over again to anything even remotely revolting!! Her

talents, aha, now here we are, her talents are cooing and blinking and saying yes to whatever

Mike says. I mean c’mon how can anyone forget about that 3k triple losses she did cos she

didn’t know the differene between sales form and vendor from. Its UNFAIR thats what it is.

Im going to write a letter to the HR, meanwhile tell me am I just grmbling all for nothing.

Would it be better if I just looked for nother job instead of correcting the errors of Miss

‘ooohh im sorry, can you do something’ and watching her get promotions?

Tell me when we meet tomorrow at Matthews

Lina

2. Write a formal letter to your employer explaining what has happened, and how you

think the matter should be resolved.

Dear Ms Lorna,

I am writing to express my disappointment about the appointment to the ‘Sales Manager’

position. I have been in the company for 4 years now and my sales performance within the

company has always been described as ‘exemplary’ and ‘outstanding’. These comments have

been a part of my official review ever since I have been with the company. The last year, I was

specially commended for my managerial abilities and my candidature was under active

consideration for a managerial position. I was given to understand that nothing had changed in

this regard in the half yearly review conducted the last month. However, I suddenly find that

Miss Newman has now been promoted to the position. As her entire experience comprises of the

two years she has been with this company, I must confess that I am surprised about the decision.

I am sure everyone in the office is aware of the recent ABC projects, where the company had to

reimburse almost $8,000 as a direct result of negligence on the part of Ms Newman. Her

promotion to the position in light of all these facts is baffling, not to mention demoralizing to

other hard workers in the company.

I do not wish to comment negatively on the decisions made by the management and bring

negativity into the company culture, but the decision has left me concerned about my future

prospects in the company. I would like to have a discussion with all those who are concerned to

get clarity in the decision regarding promotion to managerial positions within the company.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Lina Mathlouthi

3. Write a third piece comparing the two texts in the same way done in task 1 this

week. This time, structure your answer in an essay like manner (not as a list of

bullet points).

The two letters above written on the same subject serve to emphasize the differences between

personal and professional communications. In the personal letter, the language is relaxed and

idiomatic. There are several allusions to unrelated issues and effort get a personal closeness with

the subject of the letter, to make her more sympathetic to the writer’s plight. The writing has

several grammatical and spelling errors and several terms are capitalized unnecessarily, which is

a taboo in formal letter writing. The request to meet together is obviously a plea to ‘gripe’ more

about the issue and possibly discuss future career prospects.

In contrast, the formal letter stick to the subject. The language is grammatically correct and the

tone of the letter formal, even if dissatisfied. The professional experience of the writer is

emphasized to gain empathy of the reader (in this case HR and possibly managers). The

unsuitability of the rival candidate is highlighted formally and clearly (unlike in the personal

letter, where the allusion is more like a personal grudge). The rival candidate is formally referred

by her surname, making the tone of the letter polite and impersonal. No allusion to personal

grudges with the rival candidate is mention; in fact the candidates are deliberately compared

based on their professional capabilities and experience. The request to meeting is polite and is

clearly an effort to understand the policies of the company and discuss the future of the writer’s

career within the company.

The two letters also differ greatly in terms of the lexical phrases and syntactic structures used. In

the formal letter, the opening begins with a standard polite salutation e.g. Dear Ms X, the

informal letter in contrast refers to the addressee using a nickname. Similarly the closing part of

the formal letter asks politely for an update on the issue and end with a courteous ‘sincerely’,

with the name of letter writer in full. The informal letter in contrast urges the friend to meet at a

place. Further there is neither a formal salutation nor does the writer use her full name.

The language used in the formal letter is courteous with standard polite phrases like ‘I was given

to understand’, ‘I would like to have a discussion’ etc. The language used in the informal letter

has several intended (modern lingo) and untended grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Capitalization of phrases, strictly considered to be a sign of being disrespectful and rude, is used

in the informal letter to express anger and frustrate; the formal letter uses extremely rational and

polite tone to express the same sentiment. The repeated and frequent use of exclamation marks to

express surprise and disappointment is another feature in the informal letter that is avoided in the

formal letter. In the formal letter, the writer uses polite and formal phrases like ‘I am writing to

express my disappointment’ and ‘I must confess that I am surprised’ to express similar

sentiments.