Abstract

With the expansion of globalization and fast development of china’s economy, business e-mail writing is playing an increasingly important role in china’s business area. Business letter is a kind of formal written tool used by business organizations to contact their potential customers and to do business negotiations etc. contemporarily，because of the wide spread of the internet, it is gradually represented by e-mail. Due to its cultural background and language differences, there are certain differences in English and Chinese business letters’ writing style. This paper first gives a clear definition of business e-mail writing and then explains the 5C principles in detail, second, the thesis introduces the common mistakes found in real business e-mail and analyzes the possible reason behind them under the guidance of functional theories. Then, it analyses the reasons that cause difference in Chinese and English business writing from the perspective of Hofstede and Hall’s dimensions of culture. Finally, the paper proposes some suggestions in how to write a good business e-mail from cross-cultural perspective.

Key Words: business e-mail writing; cross-cultural study; strategies

摘要

随着全球化的扩大和中国经济的迅速发展，电子商务写作的应用越来越重要。商务信函主要作为从事商业的组织之间，或者是商业组织和其服务的客户之间等，进行外部联系时使用的，一种较为正式的书面文体，其多被用于联系商业业务、进行商务洽谈、沟通商务事宜等;由于文化背景与语言特点的差异，英文商务信函与中文商务信函在写作模式(文体)上存在着一定的差异。本论文首先对商务电子邮件英语做了清晰定义并分析其主要的特点即5C原则，接着从霍夫斯泰德和霍尔德的文化维度论(高/低语境和集体/个人主义原则)入手分析中西方商务写作出现差异的原因，并举例介绍了在真实邮件中发现的常见错误，并分析了产生这种错误的可能原因和相应改正办法，最后得出商务信函写作的几点建议。

关键词： 电子商务写作  跨文化  写作策略