Business english writing - Masterclass International School 2020

Companies trends

Pre-reading activity A

A trend is a tendency. The word is very common in business to describe downward and upward directions of the economy, sales, profits and other elements. Before reading the article below, have a look at what linguists call strong collocations, i.e. combinations of words which are often associated to one another:

Market trend(s)

Business trend(s)

Economic trend(s)

Price trend(s)

Employment trend(s)

Trend analysis

Inflationary trend

If something is unclear you can easily search for information on the net. Now move on to the glossary and afterwards read the article given below.

GLOSSARY:

Groundhog Day is a day celebrated in America and Canada on 2 February. On that day the small animal is said to get out of its burrow if the day is cloudy and to retreat back inside if it is sunny, as in this case it would be frightened by its own shadow. From the groundhog’s behaviour people would be able to know whether the spring will come early or if winter will still continue. The 1993 American comedy starring Bill Murray and Andy McDowell is about a self-centred weatherman who covering the Groundhog Day event, relives a single day over and over again. So, when you say "It's Groundhog Day" you feel a sense of deja vu, as though the exact same thing had happened before.

Reading activity A

Inflation stands at 2.7%. Again

It's like Groundhog Day over at the Office for National Statistics. Inflation has remained unchanged for the third month in a row.

Ah, inflation. Every month, just like the last, on her ship tied to the mast. According to the ONS, the consumer prices index in December remained at 2.7%.

Why is it not falling, you ask? Ah, it’ll be those pesky hikes in energy prices. Electricity prices were up 3.9% compared with December 2011, while gas prices were 5.2% higher. Without those extra pounds added to the cost of living, falling petrol prices (down 0.2% - hat tip to the Coalition for cancelling that fuel rise) and air transport costs (down 6.8%), could have taken inflation down a notch or two.

These inflationary doldrums are bad news for the Bank of England. We’re still no closer to the mythical target of 2%, promised to us since late 2009. And we’ll be in the same boat come January if the price of food and drink keeps on rising. Still we’re a few leagues away from that terrifying inflationary peak of 5.2%, so that’s something.

Your average Brit is still out of pocket however. According to the latest data on average earnings, released in October, wages have risen just 1.3%. This leaves the consumer-led recovery looking less and less dependable. MT wonders if the Office for Budget Responsibility will be forced to rethink its forecast that household consumption will account for 0.5% of the UK’s 1.2% economic growth this year…

If you can raise the deposit, it’s a good time to buy a house though. In real terms (CPI-adjusted) UK house prices are 22% lower than they were in August 2007 (just 10% lower in London, however).

So what do the wise heads from the worlds of economics and finance predict for inflation in the coming months? Sarah Hewin, head of research at Standard Chartered, says: ’The outlook I think is probably for inflation falling, rather than inflation rising.’ Victoria Clarke, an economist at Investec, counters with, ’Inflation will rise above 3% over the coming months.’ Commerzbank economist Peter Dixon adds, ’It's entirely possible that by mid-year we'll get a very sharp spike in inflation back above 3%.’

So, nobody really knows, then? If inflation remains stubbornly high, policy makers at the MPC will shy away from further quantitative easing. With our economy wedged firmly in a growth rut, that leaves us all, just like Bill Murray, stuck in Groundhog Day.

Post-reading activity A 1 (Comprehension)

Answer the following questions about the article:

1.Has inflation increased or decreased in the last three months in Britain?

2.To what does the author attribute the current situation of inflation?

3.Why should the Bank of England be unhappy with the situation?

4.Have British wages risen more than inflation?

5.Why does the author think it is a good moment to buy houses?

6.Are the forecasts for inflation in the next few months contradictory?

7.Why does the author compare British stable inflation to the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray?

Post-reading activity A 2 (Speaking)

Have a look at the verbs below. They describe upward, downward and steady trends. Then work on the chart about UK inflation rate and describe the phenomenon based on the data given:

Verbs describing general upward movement

Go up — increase — rise — ascend — grow 

Verbs describing rapid upward movement

Rocket — soar

Verbs describing general downward movement

Go down — fall — drop — descend — decline

Verbs describing rapid downward movement

Plummet

Verbs describing steady trend

Stay the same — remain constant — stagnate (negative)

Verbs describing the reaching of a stable trend

Flatten out — level off

Verbs describing a very high level

Hit a peak — peak

Verbs describing a very low

level

Hit a low — bottom out

Verbs describing trends may be modified by adverbs that can adjust the meaning of the verbs used. For ex. We can say profits fell last year but we can be more precise by saying profits fell dramatically last year. Of course we can also use prepositions to talk about figures, such as in profits fell by 5.3% last year.

The most common adverbs used to express trends are the following:

Rapidly — sharply — drastically — dramatically — slightly — gradually — slowly — moderately

The most common prepositions used to express changes and define them are the following:

By — at — of — in — from…to

Post-reading activity A 3 (Comprehension)

Read the following article and put the words in brackets into the correct form (verbs, adjectives and nouns). As for preposition decide which one fits best in the text:

Rents 'fall for third month in row'

Rents 1. (fall: verb) __________ by 0.3pc month-on-month to reach £732 per month on average, taking them back to levels seen in July last year, according to LSL Property Services. Recent lending figures have shown increases in first-time buyer numbers following the introduction of Government schemes aiming to give people a leg up onto the property ladder.

The rental dip seen for the last three months has followed 2. (soar: adjective) ___________ rents due to high numbers of would-be buyers who have found themselves trapped in renting because they have not been able to get access to a mortgage.

The number of mortgages on the market has increased 3. (preposition)______ around one third and lenders have been offering some of their lowest ever rates since the Government's Funding for Lending scheme to help borrowers was introduced last August.

The latest LSL study found that the South East saw the 4. (sharp: adjective) ________ monthly fall 5. (preposition)____ rents, with a 1.5pc drop taking average rents to £744. The East Midlands saw the strongest monthly 6. (increase: noun) _____________, with a 1.2pc 7. (rise: noun) __________ pushing typical rents to £547.

Rents dipped 8. (preposition)____________ 0.2pc month-on-month in London, although at £1,086 on average they are still 5.2pc higher than a year ago.

Overall, rents across England and Wales are 2.8pc higher year-on-year, and the rate of the recent spate of falls 9. (slow: verb) ____________ in January, suggesting that rents are poised for another upward march, the study said.

David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services, said: "An improving mortgage market in January helped take a little pressure off the limited supply of 10. (rent: noun) ____________ property, at a time when demand from tenants on the move is far from its seasonal peaks.

"But the dip in competition is not likely to last long.

"The pace of the fall 11. (preposition)________ monthly rents has slowed, and we're already seeing tenant activity pick up. "The private rented sector is coiled for a spring bounce."

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed yesterday that buy-to-let lending 12. (grow: verb) _________ by a fifth year-on-year across 2012 to reach its highest level since 2008.

The LSL study also found that tenant arrears had improved compared with the costly Christmas period of December.

Some 8.1pc of rent across England and Wales was late or unpaid in January, compared with 10.1pc in December.

Reading activity B

What went wrong in Greece?

After months of refusing to accept the idea of Greece leaving the euro, eurozone politicians are slowly beginning to acknowledge there may be no option but to let the country go.

Why is Greece in trouble?

Greece was living beyond its means even before it joined the euro. After it adopted the single currency, public spending soared. Public sector wages, for example, rose 50% between 1999 and 2007 - far faster than in other eurozone countries.

And while money flowed out of the government's coffers, its income was hit by widespread tax evasion. So, after years of overspending, its budget deficit - the difference between spending and income - spiralled out of control. When the global financial downturn hit, therefore, Greece was ill-prepared to cope.

Debt levels reached the point where the country was no longer able to repay its loans, and was forced to ask for help from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the form of massive loans. In the short term, however, the conditions attached to these loans have compounded Greece's woes.

Post-reading activity B 1 (Comprehension)

The list below contains synonyms of some words of the article. Read the text again and complete:

Expenditure_______________________________

Huge_______________________________

AdmitAcknowledge____________________

Slump_______________________________

To pay back_______________________________

Increased_______________________________

Exacerbated_______________________________

Extensive_______________________________

Resources_______________________________

Extravagance_______________________________

Torment_______________________________

Alternative_______________________________

Manage_______________________________

Treasury_______________________________

Salaries_______________________________

Post-reading activity B 2 (Speaking)

Discuss the following statement:

“I try not to borrow, first you borrow then you beg.” Ernest Hemingway, writer

Supplementary activity 1 (Listening)

Good exercises for practicing the language of graphs and trends are available on Youtube. One of them is “How to Describe Graphs and Trends in English”.