Write on: Writing Professional Texts in English

by David Kerridge

Lorsqu’un auteur français écrit en anglais, il se trouve confronté à de nombreuses questions : Faut-il utiliser la majuscule ( tuesday ou Tuesday ) ? Quel temps choisir ( the government signed ou has signed the treaty last year ) ? Quelle formule de politesse employer ( Yours faithfully ou Regards ) ?…
Il doit de plus trouver le mot charnière approprié ; savoir lier les idées d’une phrase ; former un nom composé élégant ; utiliser ou non l’article défini ( the )…
Dans toutes ces situations délicates, Write On aidera celui qui doit écrire des textes professionnels en anglais (courriels, rapports, mémos, lettres…) à faire le bon choix et lui permettra de faire un premier pas vers la résolution de tous les problèmes qu’il pourra rencontrer.

160 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2006

About the author

Following three years of pedagogical servitude in a well-known Paris language school in the early 1970s, I moved on to four years of its better-paid corporate equivalent at Renault, the car manufacturer. Then came a return to London, and an interesting though brief period with the British Council, followed by a stint in a factory.

I returned to Paris in 1982 to work for Language Training Services, which had just opened a French branch. A couple of years later I became the manager of LTS France. Finding classroom management far less frustrating than fellow-teacher management, I left LTS in 1988 to become a travailleur indépendant.

Being independent in France has occasional ups and many downs, mostly financial. An independent trainer of professional English can expect to work for eight or nine months of the year, which leaves time to starve or – in my case – to write ELT books. Apart from two other works (in 1988 and 1991) the first book of mine to be published by Delta Publishing was International Business Role Plays, in 1996. This was followed by Basic Business Role Plays in 1998 and Skills for Business English I in 2000, since when I have published four other books as well as a large number or articles and reviews.

I have always been interested in role plays and simulations, and one of my main aims has been to create patterns of “information-flow” which are as meaningful as possible to today’s professional world.