Abstract: This study investigates the stylistic features of English business e-mails from three perspectives: character features, lexical features, and syntactic features. It is based on a sample of 80 English business e-mails chosen from a trading company in Nanjing, which include inquiries, offers, counter offers and some negotiation letters. The findings finally show that English business e-mails are colloquial and concise. And the writer also offers some advices for English business e-mail writing, so as to help people better understand English business e-mails, improve the efficiency of business communication and better promote china’s development of foreign trade. Meanwhile, this paper suggests that English business e-mails writing courses should be classified into college English writing course.
Key words: English; business e-mails; stylistic features
CONTENTS
Abstract
摘要:
1. Introduction...1
2. Literature Review..1
2.1 Introduction of Stylistics
2.2 Introduction of Stylistic Features
2.3 Previous Studies Abroad and at Home
3. Stylistic Features of English Business E-mails.3
3.1 Character Features of English Business E-mails
3.1.1 Non-standard Use of Punctuation
3.1.2 Non-standard Use of Letter Case
3.2 Lexical Features of English Business E-mails
3.2.1 Using Simple Words
3.2.2 Using Abbreviations
3.2.3 Using Network Language
3.2.4 Using Informal Words
3.3 Syntactic Features of English Business E-mails
3.3.1 Frequent Use of Elliptical Sentences and Short Phrases
3.3.2 Grammatical Errors in Sentences
3.3.3 Incompleteness of Discourse Structures
3.3.4 Attachments in E-mails
4. Conclusion.....9
Bibliography.10
Acknowledgements...11