Improving Business Communication Skills: An Invitation Email and Letter Example

This article provides an example of an invitation email and letter for a business dinner party, a progress report on the preparations for the party, and an academic reflection on improving business communication skills. It includes tips on effective oral and written communication, and the importance of communication in personal and professional life.

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
University’s Name
Date

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Part A
Invitation Email
To: Staff
From: Communications Manager
Subject: Invitation for an end of Year Dinner Party
Dear Colleagues,
It is with much appreciation that you are all warmly invited to an end of year dinner party to
celebrate the successes that we have achieved so far as well as interact with each other so as to
promote teamwork and increased cohesion among workers in the company.
The festive event will be hosted on 15 December 2018 and will last only for a limited timeframe
so as to give time for any other personal activities. It will be held from 6 pm to 11.00pm at the
Westin Hotel at Martin Place, Sydney. Eternal guests and other company clients are invited and
therefore a formal dressing code is encouraged. As part of the overall entertainment,
attendants will be merrily served with a three-course meal.
A variety of issues will be discussed and the invited and staff members will get a chance to
directly interact with the invited guests, who are knowledgeable in various fields and will,
therefore, impart you with important skills. In order to portray a good picture to the external
invites, all staff members are kindly requested to attend this dinner that will promisingly make
you feel adored.
Appreciation and regards,
Communications Manager,
Commonwealth Bank.

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An Invitation Letter to a Special Guest
Commonwealth Bank,
27 May 2018
Dear Denzel Washington,
323 Smithson,
Chicago.
Invitation
I hopefully believe this letter finds you well. The management and the overall Commonwealth
Bank fraternity cordially invite you as a special guest to our end of year dinner party that will be
held on 15 December 2018. The event will take place from 6 pm to 11.00pm and will be hosted
at the Westin Hotel, Martin Place in Sydney. The main audience in the party will be the general
company’s staff and clients.
The Commonwealth Bank is a multinational bank that has opened a number of branches across
the country as well as in some numbered foreign countries. We provide economic services to
our clients. Among the most commonly offered services in our organization include banking
services to independent businesses and institutions, financial management services, insurance,
broking services among others.
The main aims of the party are to facilitate cohesion in the company’s workforce, through
holding a discussion about the importance and benefits of employee cooperation and
teamwork at the workplace. Any topics and knowledge that contribute to the named aims will

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be of great importance and appreciation. I believe this will be an easy task for you considering
you have been involved in management practices and you have given even more talks relating
to the same topics.
For your information, your talk in our previous meeting where you were invited as the main
guest speaker was such a great success and the whole organization fraternity marked a
significant improvement after following the adoption of your directions and instructions.
Similarly, your attendance will be of great value to the company.
Please let me know if you will be available to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Richard
Communications manager.
Progress Report
Date: May 27, 2018
From: Communications Manager
To: Chief Executive Officer
Subject: Progress report on preparations for the dinner party
Work Completed
A five-people committee has been formed that takes care of all the duties that will facilitate the
success of the dinner party. Among the responsibilities assigned to the committee include
ensuring that the selected venue of the event will have all the required facilities and amenities.
Moreover, the committee will provide assistance and answers to any individuals such as clients

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during the actual party, and ensure that there will be an orderly organization of events in the
party. Events and activities that will take place on the occasion such as speeches by special
guests are required to be allocated specific time to avoid overlapping.
Additionally, successful bookings have been accomplished. Westin Hotel has allocated us
specific meeting room that we will use as our venue and has also given details about the
services that they will offer us during that specific day, which include security services. A
deposit has been repaid and the rest of the payment is to be made on that actual day of the
party. Invitation emails have been sent to all the organization’s staff and invitation letters to the
special guests.
Work Scheduled
Invitation confirmation and acceptance letters are yet to be received from the special guests
and therefore any special preparations that cater for them are still impending. Additionally, the
pending payment amounts have not been collected. To facilitate effective communication
processes between the staff, the expected clients and special guests, a new email group chat
will be created a few days before the named party date. Through the group chats, the named
groups will be able to interact freely and remain in touch before and even after the event.
So far, the preparations have not been facing any critical challenges and problems and they are
being successfully launched.
A Report Structure
Dinner Party Event Report
Commonwealth Bank
Author
Date
Executive Summary- Summarizes the whole event into a short story of a paragraph length
Table of Contents

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1. Introduction-Covers the onset of the event by explaining the aims of the event, any
important background information that might be useful to readers and any
acknowledgements being addressed.
2. Opening remarks by the Organizing Officer.
3. Remarks forum-Discusses the remarks made by the following audience by highlighting
briefly on the keywords and phrases.
1.1. Clients remarks
1.2. Staff remarks
1.3. Management remarks
4. Special guests remark and recommendations-Addresses the guest's remark and frame
them under theoretical context.
5. Chief Executive Officer Remark-Addresses the major points that were rise by the officer
briefly.
6. Entertainment report-Reflects back on the entertainment served and gives a short
description that gives the reader a glimpse of the actual entertainment as enjoyed as at
that day.
7. Problems and challenges-Explains any challenges that were associated with the event
8. Recommendations-Provides a solution to the identified challenges so as to prepare for
any future events.
9. Conclusion-Draws together all the key activities addressed and tries to prioritize
activities.
10. Reference list
11. Appendices

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Part B
Academic Reflection
At the beginning of this unit, I was very poor in expressing myself through oral
communication in discussions as well as written communication when writing such items such
as letters and emails. I could hardly differentiate the difference in format and structure
between various writings. Moreover, I was unable to express my ideas in a logical order and as
a result, understanding my key points and arguments proved to be even harder. This unit has
improved my academic progress by equipping me with the important abilities I needed in order
to be able to communicate effectively. Comparison and contrasts between my Turnitin report,
the feedback from the lecturer and the Studiosity submission show a clear progress and
improvement. The progress ranges from the logical arrangement of my points, my level of
argument as well as the correctness of the formats and structure used when writing the
different essays.
Communication is very essential and its need inevitable in the life of every human. An
individual’s ability to communicate effectively and efficiently will have a great influence on both
his personal and professional lives (Atkinson, 2012). Friends are very important and they make
a person’s social life to be bright and credible. Communication abilities and skills determine the
effectiveness of a person in making new friends as well as retaining old friends. The ability to
communicate effectively with other people helps a person to create a positive environment
around his friends as well as other people who he might interact with (American Speech-
Language-Hearing Association, 2016). Communicate may take different forms such as verbal
and nonverbal communication, written and nonwritten communication (Bhatia, 2014). Through
learning how to communicate effectively using the various forms of communication has helped
me to significantly be able to express myself using the various identified methods of
communication.
Business communication ensures that there is a constant information flow and feedback
is received at the appropriate time and immediacy (Bridge & O'Neill, 2012). Throughout the
learning, I have gained critical knowledge about how to keep the information relating to

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businesses in a constant flow through the application of effective and efficient communication
methods. Both oral and written communication methods can be employed to facilitate the
essential delivery of quality information from one worker to the other and from one
department to another in the same organization (Bovée & Thill, 2012). Memos are commonly
used to convey information to different individuals such as staff in a common business
organization. I have learnt how to formulate effective internal memos that are well detailed yet
short and brief. The effectiveness of memos in their function highly depends on their
composition. The knowledge that I have gained in this learning has helped me to figure out and
evaluate any available information, and as a result, I am able to include those details that are
only essential, and express them in a shortened form. Comprehensive memos are boring to
read and they are inefficient in conveying urgent information.
Additionally, I have greatly incorporated oral communication abilities, that have in turn
enhanced my efficiency my general communications skills are required during group discussions
and presentations. Oral communication abilities enable individuals to be clear when holding
arguments and discussions in classes (Byrne, Flood & Shanahan, 2012). I can now argue my
points out clearly without causing any unnecessary alarm which often arises when individuals
use sensitive languages. Moreover, the knowledge that I have gained in this unit has enabled
me to be an active listener in meetings and interviews. For interviews to be successful, both
parties involved must be knowledgeable in the application and use of oral communication
abilities. I have learnt important concepts such as the need and importance of maintaining eye
contact during oral communication. Apart from improving the engagement of individuals in the
communication process, eye contact enhances one's understanding since they are able to
identify any other non-verbal cues and expressions that might be used by the other party when
communicating (Daymon & Holloway, 2010).
On the other hand, written communication focuses on the formal and informal
communication that include writing and reading of materials (Guffey & Loewy, 2010). Written
communication in business encompasses a variety of writings such as agendas, letters, reports,
memos, among others (Guffey & Loewy, 2012). This signifies that most of the business written

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communication takes a formal perspective. Through this learning, I have become
knowledgeable in writing most of these formats correctly and expressing the required details
and information with a higher level of clarity which in turn enhances the ease of understanding.
Reports are written to give a detailed comprehension of an occurrence or an event (Kassim &
Ali, 2010). Through the writing skills that I have acquired in this unit, I am now able to give
reports of events as required, putting keen emphasis on the most critical areas. Different
writing styles require different formats (Hair, et al., 2015). For instance, the format and
structure of a report differ from that of a memo and vice versa (Mehra, 2016). I am now able to
use different formats while writing different item and this greatly helps to reduce confusion,
especially to the reader.
A number of activities will help me to improve my academic progress following the
results that I learnt from this unit. To start with, a continued writing experience will help me to
familiarize with the different styles and formats used when writing (O'Rourke, 2012). I will carry
out various writing practices so as to polish my written communication skills. I will ensure that I
consult with my lecturer when I find trouble in comprehending or applying the different styles
as learnt. Carrying out an extensive reading practice will, on the other hand, equip me with a
vast vocabulary and language literacy as required when writing the different skills (Samovar,
Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2014). I will also read those books that offer illustrations and diverse
illustrations relating to communication. Lastly, I will engage in the oral communication practices
so as to equip more practical skills in my presentations (Blume, Baldwin & Ryan, 2013). Among
those practices, I will actively engage in include group discussions, group meetings and group
presentations that rotate around most popular topics. Oral presentations and discussions are
the building blocks of effective oral communication (Turban, Sharda & Delen, 2010)

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References
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016. Scope of practice in speech-language
pathology.
Atkinson, D., 2012. Intercultural rhetoric and intercultural communication. In The Routledge
handbook of language and intercultural communication (pp. 132-145). Routledge.
Bhatia, V.K., 2014. Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Routledge.
Blume, B.D., Baldwin, T.T. and Ryan, K.C., 2013. Communication apprehension: A barrier to
students' leadership, adaptability, and multicultural appreciation. Academy of
Management Learning & Education, 12(2), pp.158-172.
Bridge, S. and O'Neill, K., 2012. Understanding enterprise: Entrepreneurship and small business.
Palgrave Macmillan.
Bovée, C.L. and Thill, J.V., 2012. Excellence in business communication. Pearson Higher Ed.
Byrne, M., Flood, B. and Shanahan, D., 2012. A qualitative exploration of oral communication
apprehension. Accounting Education, 21(6), pp.565-581.
Daymon, C. and Holloway, I., 2010. Qualitative research methods in public relations and
marketing communications. Routledge
Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2010. Business communication: Process and product. Cengage
Learning.
Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.
Hair Jr, Joseph F., Mary Wolfinbarger, Arthur H. Money, Phillip Samouel, and Michael J.
Page. Essentials of business research methods. Routledge, 2015.
Kassim, H. and Ali, F., 2010. English communicative events and skills needed at the workplace:
Feedback from the industry. English for Specific Purposes, 29(3), pp.168-182.
Mehra, P., 2016. Business Communication for Managers, 2/e. Pearson Education India.

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O'Rourke, J.S., 2012. Management communication. Pearson Higher Ed.
Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R. and Roy, C.S., 2014. Intercultural communication: A
reader. Cengage Learning.
Turban, E., Sharda, R. and Delen, D., 2010. Decision Support and Business Intelligence Systems
(required). Prentice Hall Learning Outcomes:.