Abstract: When China participates in the WTO, the economic exchanges between Chinese and other countries are becoming more and more frequent. Business letters play an important role in business communication, and politeness principles occupy a special position in business letter writing. This article mainly uses the face theory of Brown & Levinson. Face can be regarded as “something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction”. Positive face refers to our need to be accepted and liked by others, while negative face refers to freedom of action and freedom from imposition, essentially the want that your actions not to be impeded by other. The thesis elaborates positive and negative politeness in writing good-news and bad-news business letters, and hopes to improve people’s writing ability of different business letters and provides positive suggestions for the effective communication in business letters.

Key words: Business Letter Writing; Politeness; Application

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Literature Review..1

2.1 English Business Letters.1

2.2 Politeness Theories..2

2.3 Politeness in Business Letters..3

3. Application of Politeness to Business Letter Writing.3

3.1 Application of Politeness to Good-news Business Letter Writing3

3.1.1 Say Good-news First..4

3.1.2 Use Short Sentences5

3.1.3 Use Affirmative Sentence6

3.1.4 Use the “You-attitude”.7

3.2 Application of Politeness to Bad-news Business Letter Writing8

3.2.1 Use Passive Voice..8

3.2.2 Use Subjunctive Mood..9

3.2.3 Use Modal Auxiliaries9

3.2.4 Use Imperative Sentences10

4. Conclusion10

Bibliography..12

Acknowledgements..13