INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY WRITING
It is a short piece of writing in prose produced by a learner of a language. In this exercise the leaner (man or woman) attempts to express him/her freely in the language he/she is learning, paying special attention to grammar, vocabulary, idioms…
He/she aims at making him/herself understood by the reader of his/her text. As a part of the English paper, it is the essay which helps the examiner to assess how far a given candidate has mastered the mechanisms of the English language. So writing essays regularly is a good way to make progress in the process of language learning.
Types of essay
There are many different types of essay topics, but they generally fall into five categories; discussion narrative, factual, descriptive topics and letter-writing.
Narrative topics:
“To narrate” means “to tell” (a story) or “to give an account of”. So narrative topics are first concerned with story telling, but they can also consist in giving an account of certain situations or events.
Examples
- Give a short account of your first day at school, the happiness or misery of your childhood; your first visit to a firm.
- Tell a short story about how traders unscrupulously cheat customers, a happy marriage
- Say how you view your future career.
In this kind of essay, it would be advisable to organize the sequence of events in a logical and chronological order. The candidate should pay special attention to the tense of the verbs he is using. If the topic of the essay is situated in the past, the present or the future tense of the verbs should also be in the past, the present or the future.
Discussion topics:
This exercise is intended to develop in the mind of the student a critical appreciation of things. It also enlarges the horizon of his reasoning. The candidate is expected to argue a case (to give arguments “for” an “against” the subject matter). Discussion topics not only help the young student to distinguish between wrong and right but they also show him (to his own benefit) the danger of developing an obstinate mind.
Examples:
- Money brings happiness
- Marriage is a burden
- Machines are dangerous for mankind.
- Sciences are harmful for mankind.
Factual topics:
In general, these topics are focused on something that has happened or that has been done, but also on something known to be true or accepted as true.
Examples
- The development of transport in Gabonese trade, foreign trade in Ivory Coast, industry in Congo.
- The consequences of the 1929 economic crisis, drought in Africa.
- The division of labour in a modern firm. The best way of tacking this type of topic would probably be to arrange the collection of facts in a coherent, sensible and logical order. The content of the essay should prove that the candidate is well informed as far as the subject matter is concerned. (He/she should avoid distorting the facts since they are common knowledge).
Descriptive topics:
The aim of this exercise is to say what somebody or something is like to give a picture of them in debate may be asked to describe what he/she or somebody else sees, imagine or knows (a lands-cap, a person, a ceremony…) in fact, descriptive topics combine reality with imaginations: while describing what he sees, the candidate can compare it to many other things which exist or not and can show the impression it makes on him. Very often he may be asked to describe something he has never heard of or come across; in that specific case, he is obliged to create the thing himself, to imagine it at leisure. Once more things should be arranged in orderly sequences.
Examples:
Describe your school, a market scene in your village or town, your English teacher, the activities at the railway station.
Dialogues:
A dialogue is a text written in the form of a conversation. In this kind of essay, since many characters speak in turn, the candidate should first of all endeavour to state who each character is at the beginning of his/her essay. It would also be better to adapt the characters’ language to their education, their social condition, their mood…each speech of the dialogue is preceded by a dash, but its end can be punctuated in different ways.
Examples: write a dialogue between
- a customer officer and a smuggler
- a wholesaler and a retailer
- a price-controller and a dishonest trader.
Letter writing:
This matter will be treated later on.
The structure of an essay
An essay normally falls into three parts (except letters and dialogues): the introduction, the body and the conclusion.
The introduction:
It is the opening paragraph of an essay. It should contain three fundamental elements:
- the candidate must either look for a suitable context for the topic of the essay or make a general statement on it.
- At this stage the topic must be clearly presented and explained so as to show the reader how the candidate comprehends it;
- The last stage of this introduction should show, but very briefly, the main ideas which will be developed in the body of the essay.
The body of the essay
It should contain many paragraphs. A paragraph is the development of one main idea announced at the end of the introduction. All the paragraphs taken together should be coherent and logical. The progression of ideas in different paragraphs must follow a certain order.
CONCLUSION:
It is the closing paragraph of the essay. At this stage the candidate must sum up all the ideas he/she has developed in the body of the essay. If he/she feels it necessary, he/she can give his/her opinion about the problem. He can also end his essay by suggesting a new debate.
GROUP WORK
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
- Some economic planners claim that small scale industrial units are more suitable for Africa. Do you think that they are right? Why?
- Modern production methods are believed to destroy the worker’s human dignity. How far is this true?
- Farmers are more important to a developing nation than civil-servants, but they earn less. If you share this point of view, how could things be put right?
- African countries were not affected by the 1929 economic crisis. Discuss.
- African agriculture is more modern than American or European agriculture. Discuss.
CHAPTER I
LETTERS, MARRIAGES, MEMOS
Read the letter and then complete the text.
A) LETTERS
Dear all,
Sorry I haven’t written for a few weeks. I’ve been too busy. I’m having a great time; I’m going to parties every night. I’m doing a bit of work too. We had an exam last week. I hope I will get good marks.
I only have one shirt-I’ve lost the others. Mum, can you buy me six more? And I can’t find my rain coat. It is at home?
My room here isn’t very nice-I’ll have to look for a better one. And the food here in college isn’t much good, so I’m living on hamburgers. I’ve spent nearly all my money. Dad, can you send some more?
Can you give me aunt’s Ellen’s address? And I haven’t heard from Sarah. Where is she living? And does John want to come and spend two or three days down here with me?
That’s all for now. Love to everybody
Joe.
In his letter Joe said he was sorry that he hadn’t written for a few weeks. It was because he 1.-----------------too busy. He 2------------------------his family that he --------------------------- a great time, but he 4------------------- some work too. He said he 5---------------------- an exam 6------------------------------week-------------------------and he hoped he 7-------------------------------------get good marks. Joe 8--------------------------------that he only ---------------------------------one shirt, because he 10-------------------------------the others. He asked his mother’-----------------------------------him six more. And he asked 12-----------------------------his rain coast 13--------------------------at home.
His room 14----------------------------not very nice, he said, so he 15------------------------ have to look for a better one. And because of the bad college food he 16-----------------------------on hamburgers. He said he 17----------------------------------nearly all his money, and asked his father 18---------------------------------him some more.
Joe also asked his family 19--------------------------------him his aunt Ellen’s address. And he 20-------------------------them that he 21--------------------from Sarah, and asked 22----------------------------------------she 23------------
At the end of the letter, Joe asked 24-------------------------------------John ----------------------------to go and spend a few days with him.
INCREASE YOUR WORDS POWER.
Study this table carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Means Medium conductor Mode
Ship sea/ocean Captain said
Horse/bicycle land rider ride
Car land driver chive
Train rail pilot travel
Aeroplane air pilot fly
1. Name three other means by which we sail.
2. Name three things on which we ride
3. Name three things that we drive
4. Name three other means by which we fly
Adverbs of frequency
Study the chart below with your teacher
I Seldom Receive letters from my son there days
I Rarely Have time to read newspapers
Ebai Scarcely Attends maths classes
They Barely Have enough money to pay rents
The highlighted words in the diagram above are known as adverbs of frequency. They however, do not say exactly how often the action is done
Examples
a) I seldom eat in the morning. This I almost never eat in the morning.
b) I was scarcely able to move my leg after the accident. This means that I almost could not move my leg after the accident. The above examples are indefinite adverbials of frequency.
Look at some adverbs of frequency below. They are arranged in frequency order.
Always most frequency
Nearly always, almost always
Usually, normally
Often, frequently
Sometimes
Occasionally
Scarcely
Hardly least frequently
Exercise: use the words in the box to complete the sentences below.
Scarcely, rarely, barely, seldom
1. They have--------------------------------------------------------enough money to buy food.
2. She was --------------------------------------------------------nine when she entered form one
3. I ----------------------------------------------have time to watch films.
4. Inoni was-----------------------------------------------------able to eat after the malaria attack.
5. we ---------------------------------------------receive CRTV mages in our town
6. Anu was ------------------------------------------sixteen when she had the first children.
7. -------------------------------------------------have I seen a beautiful sunset
8. I could----------------------------------------believe it when she promised to Mary me.
9. He had----------------------------------------left the house when the rain started.
HOMEWORK 1
WORD POWER
Exercise: aids, small pox, malaria and typhoid are all diseases that affect human beings. Copy and complete the diagram above with other diseases that you know.
AIDS
SMALL POX DISEASES TYPHOID
Some words have completely different masculine and feminine versions.
Masculine feminine
Bachelor spinster
Husband wife
Bridegroom bride
Boy girl
Uncle aunt
Gentleman lady
Monk num
Brother sister
Nephew niece
Hero heroine
Master mistress
Some animals have different names for males and females
Masculine feminine
Bull cow
Boar (pig) sow
Fox vixen
Ram(sheep) ewe
Cock hen
Billy (goat) nanny (goat)
Dog bitch
Stallion (horse) mare.
HOMEWORK II
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Lists as many words as you can from the puzzle above.
D P E G Q L O R
T O P I N K E Z
U D E X Z M W T
B Y E S O J A I
I E R C O O X M
T S L E G O T E
S E E N J O T S
W Q U I E H N
K L O G T E V E
Word square
HOME WORK III
Find 14 words from the word square below.
E R B F S O U R
J U I C E Z N C
R X T A S T E S
I W T E A G D W
C H E W L R G E
E Y R V T O E E
A O N L Y A S T
L J M O U T H S
Read the passage below and answer the question that follows
B) ETHNIC MARRIAGE.
Ngwa put his bag down and sat beside his father ‘here is some tobacco and kola nut papay Ngwa said, as he gave his father the items ‘and this is my friend. We bring you greetings from the city.’
‘Thank you my son’
‘Father I have seen a petty birth in pa Ntoko’s home. I would like to have her,”
Ngwa told his father.
‘Have you talked to the girl?
“Yes father.
“I’ll tell you something, my son traditional marriage is not easy. It will need a lot of preparations.
‘what is your friend saying?” asked Ngwa, father”
“he won saying that we could contribute towards the marriage”
A few days later, Ngwa’s father and three other elderly men arrived in Ntoko’s compound early in the morning. They sat on stools in the shade of a mango thee. Shortly afterwards .Ntoko’s brothers joined the visitors.
‘ Elders of Epen, I greet you all’ Ngwa’s father, che said. “I have seen a small fowl here that I want very badly.”
“I have many fowls in my compound. I don’t know which one you want, a cock or a hen?”
“it is a hen that I want,” che smiled.
“do you want it for yourself or for someone else?”
“I have a little boy who wants it”
A day was fixed for the marriage. After a long time when a go-between from the bride’s side and the one from the bridegroom’s side spoke, Dione’s father knelt on one knell. Dione stood behind him. Che did the same with his son standing behind him. A cock was brought between the two men. Each held a wing and took an oath. And the knot was tired.
Questions level I
Answer the following questions in your book and complete the sentences.
1) What are the main difficulty Ngwa’s father raises in the passage and how is this difficulty overcome?
2) How many times did Ngwa’s family go to Ntoko’s home? State exactly what they did each time they went there?
Question level II
discuss the following and write your opinion in your exercise book
1) if you were Dione’s father, would you have accepted this marriage with your daughter?
2) How is the marriage in the passage different from the one performed in your tribe?
WORD POWER.
Christian
Traditional Marry
Kinds Verbs Engaged
MARRIAGE
People Events`
Bride Wedding
Groom Reception
A D
Bridesmaid E
B Honey moon
Fiancé
C
Question: Complete the diagramme above by giving the answers from A to E
Practice 1
Read the map below and give instructions or direction to a stranger. Tell the shortest way to get to the following:
a) From main street to the zoo
b) From track D to lake Ura
c) From Samba street to the zoo
d) From lake Ura to Main street.
C) MEMOS
1) Punctuation
2)
Read the following text decide where to add punctuation and to start new paragraphs you’ll also need to add some Capital Letters
To departmental manager from human resources manager date September subject overseas trainee: placement scheme as requested I enclose a copy of the scheduled programme for the trainee initiation week it will be held from the 23rd following your secretary telephone call I have set aside a session for you to speak to the participants I have scheduled this for Monday 23 October starting at 3.00pm I am now completing the final arrangements for the week accordingly I would be grateful if you could confirm that the proposed time on Monday will be convenient for you in addition I would also appreciate receiving any comments you may have on the programme by Friday of this week if possible.
2) Correcting spellings mistakes
Find the mistakes and correct them.
Dear Madame,
Thank you very much for your letter and the enclosed literature, wich we received on Thursday 7 July,
The information it contained was quiet interesting ad we would like futher details on several produks in the catalogue
No. 44/77 Is this available in white? What is the diskount
No. 78/612 price of this for orders of over 500 prices?
No. 34/009. Is this compatible with your 55/88 device.
3) The extract has several punctuations mistakes. Find the mistakes and correct them.
I am afraid, that we have not been able to contact you by telephone. My secretary called throughout the year yesterday at half hourly-interval’s but was told that you were not available; please contact me personally as soon as possible. Because we need to check a member of details I your order?
You can reach me by telephone at any time this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Our office hour’s are 8.30 to 5.00 pm you can leave a message for me, to call you back if necessary.
There are two mistakes in the title too. Did you spot them?
Getting it down on paper
Vocabulary.
Add the missing words to the puzzle.
1. Put the name of the ……………………..at the top of the memo.
2. When it is finished send or……………………the report to the person who asks for it
3. When you take a massage try to keep it…………………..
4. A top manager is an ………………..of the company.
5. Only ……………..the main points of a message.
6. First……………..or put in a particular order the things you want to say, before you start.
7. Make a first…………..of anything you write and then correct it.
8. ……………..should only contain one main idea.
9. The …………….is a punctuation mark with two dots.
10. Remember to ………………your spelling before you type the report.
11. The punctuation mark that looks like a ‘flying comma’ is called the …………………
12. When you report facts make sure you are……………..
13. A letter used inside a firm is called a……………………….
14. …………..is another word for full stop.
15. A………………….is something that gets around to many people.
Space strictly reserved for homework and shall be part of the students’ evaluation.
NAMES:
CLASS:
SUBJECT ____________________________ MATRICULE
SERIAL N°_____________________________ GROUP__________________________
SUMMARIES. (Use pencil only)
CHAPTER II
MANAGERS, MARKETING.
A) A SUCCESSFUL MANAGER
Mr Ntonme’s success in business results from his patience, ability, human contacts and his hardihood in business.
When he was still a young pupil in the Baloumgou primary school, his teachers unanimously predicted that he would have a good business carer. At that time, Mr. Ntonme used to keep sweets in his school beg and sell them during break. Some of the teachers were his regular customers because he was the only seller of sweets in the whole village.
He soon gave up studying, moved on to Bafoussam where he started selling tomatoes, salad and other vegetables along the Famla Street. After two years of problems with the police, he opened a shop and started selling second-hand cloths and other shop-soiled articles he bought at auctions. After two years of hardship, he had saved enough money and branched out into ready-made clothes he imported from francs. From then on, Mr. Ntonme media: radio, newspapers, leaflets, folders, magazines, cars-cards, the local cinema, etc. he even hired some jobless youngs-ters as sandwichmen, but he soon gave up the idea because it seemed ridiculous in the new town.
When he opened his seventh shop, Mr. Ntonme organized a memorable party presided over by the government of the Western province. But people were jealous of his success and accused him of belonging to the “Famla” sect. nevertheless; he carried oh his business so well that he started buikding modern houses all over the town and firms throughout the country. His efforts were rewarded by public encouragement from the government because he employed more than 8,000 citizens.
The secret of his success was that Mr. Ntonme was fair in his transactions; he cleared all his goods legally through the customs and refused smuggling of any kind. He gave his employees a fair salary and always encouraged them to invest in small businesses. He spent most of his time travelling or reading business reports to be informed about new articles, changes in fashion, new ideas and everything which could enable him to better his investments. He was in permanent contact with great businessmen in America, Europe and Asia.
Mr. Ntonme was never afraid of running a risk, he spent large sums of money on products which appeared to be trivial, but he always managed to create a flourishing market for them, because the staff of his marketing department was highly qualified. Every article from his shop or firm was considered by consumers as precious and rare. People who worked with him were pround of having such a good boss. He was very demanding as far as professional qualities were concerned, but when an employee had a problem he would do everything to help him. At regular intervals, he would pay visits to certain families of his employees with lots of gifts.
Mr. Ntonme was often presented by the trade unions as a model employer.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
Read the text carefully and then answer the following guide questions
- draw the moral and professional portrait of Mr. Ntonme
- what is the reason for this success in business?
- Can you name seven other advertising media different from the ones mentioned in this text?
- From tis text or from your personal experience, can you show the economic importance of certain businessmen for the whole country?
- In your opinion, why were Mr. Ntonme’s articles considered by consumers as rare and precious?
- Why did his primary school teachers predict that Mr. Ntenme would be a businessman?
- Show from the text that Mr. Ntonme is patient, hardworking and intelligent
- What is the importance of travelling for a businessman?
- Why do you think the presence of sandwich men appeared ridiculous in this African town?
- Write a short summary on this text (6 sentences).
WORD STUDY
Hardihood: boldness, audacity
Unanimously: all in complete agreement
To predict: to say, to tell in advance something that will happen in the future.
Career: profession, way of earning a living.
Second-hand clothes: clothes that have already been worn by people.
Hard ship: suffering. In Africa the police chase and arrest street traders and take their goods because their business obeys no law or structure.
Youngstars: children young boys or girls.
The ‘ ‘Famla’ sect: in Cameroon, it is believed, but without evidence, that people from Bafoussam or from the Bamileke area get rich by entering a secret organisation named “Femla” where they “sell” their relatives.
To clear goods through customs: to pay for the customs duties and get the goods into or out of the country legally.
To smuggle goods: to get them secretly and illegally into or out of a country through the customs or through other secret ways.
To run (or take) a risk: to do something with the possibility of meeting danger or suffering a loss.
Trade-union: an organized association which aimed at defending the rights of workers against employers.
GRAMMAR
MODAL AUXILIARIES: USED TO, OUGHT TO, NEED, DARE.
Verbs such as dare, need, ought to, use to be called modal auxiliaries because they express various modes. This is to say attitudes of mind. They have no-ing, -s, -ed ending.
-travelling used to take a long time in Africa.
- tourists used not to visit Africa forests.
- white traders never used to buy yams
If we carefully consider the three example above, we shall notice that these actions happened in the past but they no longer happen now. We use did in negative and interrogative statements:
- Africans didn’t use to sell their foodstuffs.
- Did African girls use to work in offices?
Used to may be adjectival as in: she is used to typing when something is right, advisable, we recommend it with the help of ought to:
- citizens in developing countries ought to work harder (obligation)
- oughtn’t Africans to invest more in industry?
- Ought Sahel countries to fight deforestation?
Look at this table and make as many sentences as you can.
Dare Foreign Finances risky projects?
Need
African countries Needn’t
Daren’t Nationalize foreign banks to develop
African countries need not nationalize foreign banks to develop: those countries are not obliged, it is not necessary to take over the capital of these banks in order to achieve progress but they can do so if they want to.
Dare foreign investors finance risk y projects. They daren’t. Are those investors afraid of financing risky projects? They need courage for that because it is dangerous.
EXERCISES
In the following conversation, use the modal auxiliaries (ought to, dare, need, used to) in their appropriate forms to fill in the blanks.
DAOUDA: good morning, Ali! You………………. Have come earlier ! I have been waiting for two hours!
Ali, you ……………………. Be so angry ! before independence, we ………………………… have good roads but now they are narrow and cause traffic jams.
DAOUDA: some traders even ……………. Sell their goods on the street itself.
Ali: the police…………………..punish them but nowadays they are bribed and …………………. Chase them away. In fact, it is the politicians who ………….. build better ones !
DOUADA: I ……………….. not criticize the government because it is dangerous. Furthermore, it………………….wait for our complaints before making new roads.
Ali: my economics teacher………………….to us that development follows roads. Our leaders …………… listen to these wise words . let’s forget about roads. Are you still planning to set up a small business?
DOUADA: I have changed my mind; i…………………. ask a bank to lead me some money since I have no guarantee.
ESSAY TOPIC
How to set up a small business
A successful modern businessman may tell the story of his success (narrative approach) or two persons may examine in a dialogue the necessary conditions to start a business. It is easier to take this topic as a factual one about the preparations leading up to the creation of a small firm.
Introduction
- The world of business is attractive. Doing business may help develop my country.
- But it is not easy to start a scheme in agriculture handicraft or trade.
- Preparations must be made and certain conditions fulfilled.
- After examining them in this essay, we may discover that things are not so easy.
Development
- What is my project? In which sector of the economy? What is the present situation in that sector (competition)? Where is my project situated?
- What do I need (capital, land, professional experience, knowledge, personal qualities, help from friends or families, favourable economic context, good location of the premises, employees, etc)?
- Which steps or strategy shall I follow? Why?
- How shall I manage my business? What are my short plans? Shall I expand my project?
CONCLUSION
- is it therefore easy to start a small business? Why? What are the most important problems to be solved?
- Isn’t its management more difficult than setting it up?
HOMEWORK!
- why are small firms easier to manage?
- African firms are mismanaged. Discuss.
- Industrial firms are more difficult to manage than commercial ones. Discuss.
- Would you like to be a manager? Why?
BEWARE!
- Reduction in income tax can offset the effect of inflation: to compensate.
- This second-hand car was bought for a song: its price was very cheap.
- A blanket insurance cover: a policy covering everything.
- South Africa is stock piling goods in order to minimize economic sanctions: to store stock/warehouse/keep large quantities of good
- The stock exchange is a securities market a place where share, bonds, debentures are sold and bought.
POINT FOR DISCUSSION
- Success in business depends on luck. Discuss.
- Taking risks is not rewarding as hard work. Can you apply this to a successful businessman in your town? What other factors helped him?
- It is difficult for an African to do business in Europe or in Africa. Discuss.
- Unemployment is hitting Africa more than Europe. Discuss.
- Do you hold with those who maintain that prostitution is an economic activity?
B) MARKETING
Article on marketing for small business
WHAT IS MARKETING?
Two shoe salesmen find themselves in a rustic backward part of Africa. The first salesman wires back to his head office, “there is no prospect of sales. Natives do not wear shoes”! The other salesman wires: “No one wears shoe here. We can dominate the market. Sent all possible stock”.
- Akio Morita, Sony
Simply state, marketing is everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers. The purpose of marketing is to make sales of your product or services. Sales are only a part of marketing, however. while sales is simple the act of converting a prospect from prospect to customer, marketing is the process that makes sales possible including brand development, partnership creation, publicity, and advertising those prospects to lifetime customers.
The cause of the failure of many businesses is a breakdown in or lack of marketing. You can develop a wonderful product or provide a high value- add services, but if the marketing is not there, your business will not succeed.
There are two different types of marketing. The type you’ll learn in most business schools can be generally defined as corporate marketing, in a business school class on corporate marketing, you’ll learn about things like branding strategy, demographics and positioning statements. While these subjects are important to know they will not be great benefit to the bootstrapping entrepreneur who does not have a million dollar budget, ten ad designers, and a sales force of one hundred.
The other type of marketing is entrepreneurial marketing. In entrepreneurial marketing, instead of concentrating on brand recognition you concentrate on sales. Without much money to spend, the return on investment (ROI) of every ad, of every campaign is that much more important, in this chapter, I will present both the basics of marketing, the core of much of what corporate marketing is based on, as well as a complete step-by-step marketing strategy to launching your business and building it to one million dollars in sales, without spending a dime in upfront costs.
One of the most basic and most important concepts in marketing is known as the four Ps. The four Ps are product, price, place and promotion. If you can develop a good product at the right price, position it in a place where buyers are, and promote it well to create desire in the customers; mind, you’ll quickly succeed in making a lot of sales.
Product
As we talked about before, your product is crucial to your success. If you have a good product, getting the other three Ps right will be that much easier. The product’ includes both the actual physical product as well as product decisions such as function, appearance, packaging, labelling, and warranty. The word product’ also encompasses any services you may provide. The service you provide is your product.
Price
If your price is too high, not enough people will be able to afford it. If your price is too low, you will not make any profit. On the other hand, if your price is too low, many people not buy it because they may see it as an inferior good. To best manage these forces and optimize your net profits, you will have to test many different prices of your product(s)
Place
Place is essential to building sales. Place essential rests on positioning- the positioning of your marketing message and the positioning of your product.
In both retail stores and online, how to properly position your product is a very important skill. Without proper positioning, no one will know you exist. If you are hidden in the back corner of a store on the bottom shelf and your web site is number 3425 in the search engines for your targeted keywords, you likely will not make many sales, no matter how good your product is. We’ll talk more about how to position your product both online and off later in this chapter.
The positioning of your product is also known as your distribution strategy. A distribution strategy is developed by determining where on the value chain you want your business to be positioned, and who the buyer will be. You may sell your product to a retail store who then resells it to the buyer, a manufacturer who sells exclusively to jobbers and regional representatives, or directly to your end consumers, we’ll talk more about distribution models and strategies later in this section.
Promotion
Promotion is an essential part of the marketing process. Promotion decisions include those related to communicating your messages, advertising and publics relations.
B2B- Business to Business, B2C- Business to Consumer
Brand- the aggregate representation and reputation of your business across all those who interact with it. Includes much more than supply the logo and corporate identity
CRM-Customer relationship Management
Demographics – data on customers and prospects such as gender, location, birth date, past purchases, income level, marriage status, and birth date. A marker ca better target their promotions with good demographic data.
Direct-to-consumer- selling a product directly to the buyer without any middlemen
Distribution Model- the levels of companies through which a product is sourced, manufactured and then sold
Distribution strategy – where and how a company positions itself in the value chain, including what type of distribution model it follows
LTV- the lifetime value (of a customer)
Market research- research about a market including the competitors and competing products, its size and growth rate.
Retail-selling a product to an end buyer
ROI- returns on investment
Target market- who your business will be targeting with the promotions for your product. Those are most likely to buy.
USP- unique selling point, also known as the value proposition, what you do that differentiates you from your competitors.
Value Chain- a representation of the distribution model based on his value added by each type of business at each level.
Wholesale- selling of a product to another business who will later resell it.
Read this article and answer the questions below.
ARE BRAND NAMES BEING PUSHED OFF THE SHELF?
Article.
According to the wall street journal, ‘more and more shoppers are bypassing household names for the cheaper, no-name products one shelf over. This shows that even the biggest and strongest brands in the world are vulnerable.
It has been clear for some time principally since recession began to be felt in the major economies of the world that the strength of brands has been under fire. During the second half of the eighties, the Japanese, for example, showed themselves willing to pay a huge premium to buy goods with a smart label and image to match; they were fashion victims par excellence, be it in choosing their luggage (Louis Vuitton was much favoured) or in buying their booz, where a 20 year old version of a good malt whisky could fetch the equivalent of 60 or more. Over the past year or two, that enthusiasm to spend big money on a classy label has warned markedly.
But we may be witnessing the death of the brand.
First every story that now appears about the troubles being experienced by makers of luxury goods triggers wise nods and told you so drowns.
Two days ago, LVMH in France, which owns Moet et Chandon champagne, Louis Vuitton and the Christian La Croix fashion house, reported lower earnings for the first half of 1993 than it did a year ago. As David Jarvis, in charge of the European operation of drinks company Hiram Walker, puts it; “A few years ago, it might have been considered smart to wear a shirt with a designer’s logo embroidered on the pocket, frankly, it now seems a bit naff.”
This conclusion fits with one’s instincts. in the nearly 3 million out of working and 425.000 people officially classed as homeless in England alone, conspicuous consumption now seems vulgar rather than chic.
But just because flashy, up market brands have lost some of their appeal, it does not follow that all brands have done so. Cadbury’s dairy Milk is just as much a brand as Cartier watches. Tastes may have shifted downmarket, but that does not mean that they have shifted from flash-brand to o brand.
The second strand of the brand argument is tied intimately with the effects of recession. No one yet knows to what extent the apparent lack of some brands appeal is merely a temporary phenomenon. It may well be that deep down, we would still love to own a Louis Vuitton suitcase rather than one from Woolworth’s but while w are out of work or fearing that our job is at risk, we are not of work or while we are not prepared to express that our job is at risk, we are not prepared to express that preference by actually spending the cash.
Third, the example of Narlboro is an extreme one. The difference in price between premium brand cigarette and budget rivals in the US had become huge during the 1980s; a packet of Marlboro or Camel might cost 80 percent more than a budget variety . Few brands I any area of consumer goods could hope to maintain so great a premium indefinitely.
And fourth in looking at the brand argument globally, it is too easy to become misled by what is happening in an individual market. I the UK as a whole, about one third of groceries is under super-market. In the USA the proportion is only 20 percent but it does seem that the gradual shift from manufacturers-branded to retailer-branded goods is worldwide.
As David Jarvis of Hiram Walker says; we believe that brands will retain their halo, but people are less inclined to pay for something just because it’s a fashion accessory. They need to be reassured that the product is intrinsically better.
Reports of the death of the brand have been exaggerated. Reports of the death of the de luxe brand may be premature, but sound much more plausible.
Questions.
1. Consumers often prefer to buy…………………under branded products rather than more ………………. Branded goods. The reason for this seems to be the worldwide
2. In Japan consumers are less likely to buy goods with a fashionable …………………….
3. In the present economic climate it seems…………………….to spend money on expensive designer producers
4. ……………………brands are less popular, but ……………..brand are still important
5. Maybe, when the recession is over, designer brands will regains their………………….
6. In the 80s, famous brand cigarettes cost …………………..percent more than cheap brands. This differences is no longer so……………………..
7. in the USA proportionally……………own label brands are sold than in Britain
8. The consumer won’t buy branded goods unless they are…………………………………
HOMEWORK IV
Add the missing words to the puzzle
1. Please take one of these……………………describing our new product.
2. There’s full description of the product on the……………………
3. We are about to …………………. A new product
4. you can see the trend that these figures show by looking at this….
5. The average……….is unaware of marketing.
6. this……shows that our sales are rising
7. I think you’ll like our new ……..on the wall outside.
8. Retail outlets are being encouraged to use this window……..
9. Coca cola and pepsi are both famous……..
10. I think you’ll agree that this new budget-price product is a real…
11. Which of the…….should we place our advertisements in?
12. Our product compares very well with nationally advertised……
13. According to a recent….., 45.9% of consumers prefer not to buy imported goods.
14. The motor is exactly the same, but the case is a completely new…..
15. Which …..do our products sell in best
16. demand for many product may ……according to the season
17. It’s important that our…..don’t find out about our new process.
18. I saw the product………in a magazine
19. You can buy this product in any supermarket or……..
20. Consumers must be fully aware of the…………..of a product.
Everyone who works for a company must think marketing. Thinking marketing means to have a clear idea of….
1. State 4 ideas involve when we are thinking marketing.
2. While proceeding by a dash on the margine, state the marketing strategies you know?
Write in Full: (i) DDU (ii) F.O.B (iii) C.F.R (iv) DEQ
Space strictly reserved for homework and shall be part of the students’ evaluation.
NAMES:
CLASS:
SUBJECT ____________________________ MATRICULE
SERIAL N°_____________________________ GROUP__________________________
SUMMARIES. (use pencil only)
CHAPTER III
INDUSTRIALIZATION, TRADE.
A) CASE OF AFRICA.
Most if not all African nations still buy foreign manufactured products such as motor vehicles, iron and steel, natural and artificial textiles, rubber and plastic items, locomotives, foodstuffs, medicines, photographic, electrical and musical equipment. This dependence stems from a lack of technology since those goods are practical applications of science in all kinds of human techniques. All over the continent, businessmen, consumers and politicians are aware of the nuclear engineering, electronics, aeronautics and the car industry.
Industry is a know how, cleverness in exploiting mineral resources and energy. Are we going to learn or buy industrial techniques in order to change our raw materials into finished consumer’s goods? Africa is not industrialized because she is poor and was colonized. Since the formal independence, our political leaders have not put enough stress on technical education; an industrial base could have helped agriculture by employing school leavers today. Continuing domination is forcing Africa to rely on exports of minerals (copper, diamonds or gold from Zaire), timber and rubber (Congo), banana, palm oil and tea (Cameroon Development corporation), cocoa and coffee (Ivory Coast), groundnuts (Senegal); uranium and cotton (Niger).
Even if our colonial masters prevented our industrialization in order to promote European goods, one should not overlook existing industries which are mostly agriculture-based. Prominent industrial units in Africa are oil refineries (Port Gentile in Gabon), textile plants (CICAM in Cameroon), fisheries (Senegal), sugar refineries (Congo and Cameroon), processing and canning of coffee, cocoa and pineapple (C.A.P.R.A.L. in Ivory Coast), breweries (Benin), pharmaceutical factories (S.I.P.O.A. in Dakar, Senegal), and cigarette manufacturers (S.I.T.A.B.A.C. and Bastos in Cameroon).
Buying patents from foreign inventors is too expensive; learning technology is feasible but would take a long time. Peak industries such as biotechnology, aero-space and electronics may be useful but what is urgent is the promotion of technical education in our schools and colleges. This is a prerequisite and the next step would be saving and investing in small and medium size industries. These should be protected and ready to benefit from a transfer of technology. Africans must b prepared to improve the quality of home goods which must b given preference
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1. After reading carefully the text and the word study, answer these questions in your own words.
- Supply definitions for science, technology and industry.
- Which goods do Africans import? Why?
- Why is Africa not industrialized?
- What are the main exports and industries of your country?
- How best can industrialization be achieved?
- Which industries are priorities in Africa?
2. Choose the most suitable alternative and justify your choice.
Export earning have been Technical education has been…………………… in Africa
Dropping, Stressed
Increasing Neglected
Both Introduced
Stagnating Rejected
Engineering is African economies depend on…………………..
An aspect of science Agriculture
An aspect of technology Raw materials
Both Both
An industry Industries
WORD STUDY
Iron: hard grey metal School leavers: people who have completed their
studies, are no longer students
Steel: strong mixture (alloy) of iron and carbon. To rely on: to depend on something or
Somebody for help, to trust
To stem from: to originate from, have something as it source. Diamond: brilliant colourless precious stone used in industry, it is the hardest substance
Application: result, consequence of an action in industry Timber: wood prepared for use in carpentry or building
To be aware: to know, to feel, to be conscious of the necessity To prevent: to make impossible
Civil engineering: building of roads and houses To overlook: to neglect to consider as not important
Chemical engineering: making new products in industry, using chemistry. Prominent: important, big.
Formal: having only the name, not real To patent: protecting for an invention or process.
To put stress on: to insist on, to give a great deal of importance to something
Feasible: that can be done, possible
Fishery: place in the sea where fish is caught, cleaned and packed. Peak industries: advanced and sophisticated industries
To process: to transform, to change into a finished product Biotechnology: manufacture of plants and animals in laboratories
To can: to put tins or metallic containers Prerequisite: required as a condition of something else, that should first take place
Pineapple: tropical plant with sweet juicy fruit A brewery: factory where beer and other drinks are prepared
GRAMMAR
THE CONDITIONAL SENTENCES.
Grammarians distinguish three types of conditional sentence: the probable condition, the improbable condition and the impossible condition. There are two main parts in a conditional sentence: the if-clause and the main clause.
1. The probable condition
If-clause + present tense main clause + future tense
IF It Rains Toto Will not go To school
Her mother Refuses Her food, Amina will cry For two days
Make Dies He Will go To paradise
You Come Late, i Shall lock The door
Africans Don’t work Hard, they Will always depend On others
You Go out At night, you Will see A ghost
The classroom collapses Every pupil Will die
- In each of these seven sentences, indicate the if-clause and the main clause.
- What is the tense of the verbs used in:
• The if-clause,
• The main clause?
• In these seven sentences, it is probably that the action will be performed.
2. Improbable condition:
If-clause + simple past tense main clause + conditional tense
IF Toto knew Where the teacher’s house was, he Would call on Him for his marks
The classroom collapsed Now, we Would all die
This pagan Dies Today, he Would go To hell
Aminata saw A ghost now, she Would faint
it rained Toto Would not go To school
The hare were A burglar, he Would break into The lion’s den
students had The means and power they Would punish Teachers every day
- What is the tense of the verbs used in the different clauses,
- Notice that the past tenses in the seven if-clauses refer to the present or future time, so they are false past tenses. For example, the time of the action is in fact expressed in the second, third, fourth sentences by the adverbs of time now and today.
3. The impossible condition:
If-clause + past perfect tense main clause + perfect conditional.
IF
Our teacher had not been lazy We would not have failed the exam
Njan ja had been able to swim She would have saved her child
You had had money to pay back your debts You would have saved gone to prison
The doctor had come on time The patient would not have died
Toto had known that the exam is so difficult He would have studied his lessons very hard
Christianity had not destroyed the African empires Africa would have stood up to colonization
Socrates had not been forced to drink the hemlock He would have had time to write one or two books
The world had ended in 1914 There would have been no crisis in 1929
In all these sentences we can notice that the condition was not fulfilled in the past; so the action in the main clause did not take place. As a consequence these sentences express a great (the six first sentences) or an unreal fact, the two last sentences).
EXERCISES
PUT THE VERBS IN BRACKETS IN CORRECT TENSES.
- If you come late again, the teacher (punish) you.
- If I had known his name, I (tell) you.
- If a Christian died now, he (go) to paradise.
- If my father (give) me money, I would buy a brand new pair of shoes.
- If Antonio (be) mature, he would have paid his father’s debts.
- If you had paid attention, you (not be) in trouble
- Toto would not care if he (fail) his exam.
- I shall send you to prison if you (tell me lies
- If I (be) rich, I would buy a farm
- Your wife would not have been so fat if she (be) on a diet.
- If Baba (eat) snakes he will have stomach pain
- You would be sentenced to death if you (break) into my house
- Africa would not have been exploited if she (colonies) Europe
- If she succeeded in her exam, she (look) for a job
- Sounkalo (faint) if he sees a ghost.
ESSAY TOPIC
Technical training in your country
This factual topic requires on the part of the student certain knowledge of the reality of his country. To avoid semantic misunderstanding, it would be advisable to give a clear definition of the phrase ‘technical training’.
Definition
“Technical training” means the teaching and practice given to people in order to bring them to a desired standard of qualification of know-how. This teaching and practice must be connected with mechanical and industrial arts and methods.
Some main ideas for the development
1. What are the main fields of technical training in your country,) (from the three sectors, the student will select the types which exist in his country). In the primary sector
- Agriculture, fisheries, animal breeding, extractive industries, forestry, horticulture.
In the secondary sector.
- Mechanical engineering industry: metal manufacturing.
- Metallurgical engineering industry
- Electrical engineering industry: manufacture of electrical transformers, radios, T.V., air conditioning units, domestic water heaters…
- Chemical industries: fertilizers, soaps, detergents, paints, varnishes, plastics, sulphuric acid, concrete oils…
- Rubber industry: tyres, balloons, cellular mattresses…
- Wood and timber industry: work on wood for joinery, cabinet-making, decoration and many other purposes.
- Electronics.
- Aeronautics
- Car industry
- Shoe-making industry
- Petroleum products industry: refined petrol and its derivatives
- Oil and fats industry: palm oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, soya oil, butter…
- Textile and clothing industry: yam, woven cotton, dyed and printed materials, synthetic fabrics, men’s, women’s and children’s wear…
- Food industry: tinned food, canned juice…
- Nuclear engineering industry: nuclear power-stations, war weapons…
In the tertiary sector
- Post and telecommunication
- Education
- Insurance
- Transport
2. What are the objectives of this technical training?
3. The trainees are they
- Students?
- Workers?
Are they trained?
- In the country?
- Abroad?
- In schools?
- In training courses?
4. The trainers are they
- Natives?
- Foreigners,
- Qualified?
- Willing to develop the country?
5. Equipment
- Quality (brand new, second hand, strong, well made…)
- Cost (ca, the country afford to buy it without suffering?)
- Is it adapted to the needs of the country,
- Is it sufficient?
- Can it last for a long time?
6. The result of the training
- Is it efficient? Is it worth it?
- In what way does it contribute to the development of the country?
CONCLUSION.
Good technical training depends on how its objectives, its structural organization bring a solution to the urgent problems the countries face in different fields of activity.
HOMEWORK V
Group work
Are you for or against technical assistance?
Which urgent field of activity would you like your country to develop first? Why?
Has imported technologies brought good results in your country?
Why are African industries inferior to others?
BEWARE!
- South-East Asian industrialized nations are the countries most likely to help South Africa in its Sanctions-busting: to make sanctions ineffective, to violate.
- Shoplifting considerably cuts down retailers profit margins, stealing goods while shopping
- To extend and modernize a company, it is advisable to plough back a part of the profits into the business to invest in the business, to add to the capital.
- African industries should rely on modern promotional weapons: means, techniques used to promote, to push the sale of goods, such as trading stamps, free gifts, coupons, lottery tickets, etc.
- Nowadays, rival firms vie with one another for customers: complete by trying to sell cheaper than one another.
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
- New industrialized nations have emerged in South-East Asia: how did they achieve their level of development? Can Africa adopt the same strategy? Explain.
Japanese industrial products are flooding African markets: how can we account for that situation? Should African industries aim first at conquering the local markets? Why? What would the implications be?
- Industrialization always introduces pollution: can African countries solve that problem? Should Africa pay such a high price to become an industrialized continent? Have developed countries succeeded in solving the pollution problem?
- The proportion of the working population employed in agriculture is very high in Africa. Does this pose any problem? Why?
- If Africa stopped exporting its raw materials, European, American and Soviet union manufacturers would suffer. Discuss.
B: Aids TO TRADE.
In the world of commerce trade has become a flourishing activity today because it relies on many auxiliaries or aids which include the post, telecommunications, advertising, insurance, the banking system, the stock exchange, transport… buying , selling goods and services, making trade transactions is such an intricate system which cannot function well if all its component parts are not harmoniously linked.
Let’s consider a businessman from Ferkessedougou (in Ivory Coast) who imports the goods he sells from abroad. The very first step of his business transaction begins in the town where he lives; at first, he has to send a money order, a letter of enquiry, a request for quotations, business messages, orders for goods… through the post office. He may place his order by telex, telegram, or by telephone. Once the supplier receives the message, he may use the same means of communication to send him catalogues, credit or debit notes, consignment note, invoices, statements of account, reminders… extremely important documents (contracts, plans, legal documents…) will need the electronic service of the telecom “for immediate delivery”.
All these operations are conditioned by money: goods ordered, the services offered by the telecom, the post office, the transport agencies… must be paid for with the money coming from banks. It is very risky for a trader to carry large sums of money on him or keep money at home; so he is obliged to open an account with a bank that will safeguard his money. He is thus given a cheque book for his daily transactions. If he reliable enough the bank can even grant him credit to increase the volume of his business, overdraft when he doesn’t need a lot of money, a credit transfer system to pay his employees wages or to pay some debts to his creditors directly into their accounts. It is quite impossible to imagine a business which could do without the banking system.
Besides keeping his money in safety, our trader from Ferkessedougou will insure his good, his equipment and his store through an insurance broker or directly through an insurance company. In the event of his store being burnt down by fire or his equipment and goods destroyed, flooded, or stolen, the insurance will give him financial protection up to a certain extent, depending on what kind of insurance policy he has chosen. For his business only, he has the possibility of choosing marine insurance, fire insurance ad accident insurance. For himself, there is life assurance.
Without transport, goods cannot be carried to Ferkessedougou, and trading is not possible. Since our businessman is an importer he can have his goods carried by air or by sea from the exporting country to Abidjan (which is at the same time an airport). From Abidjan, he can choose either rail transport or river transport (Abidjan-Agboville-Bongouanou-Bouake-Ferkessedougou) road transport or river transport (Abidjan-Grand-Lahou-Yamoussoukro- Ferkessedougou). By sea transport, he can have his goods sent F.O.B, F.A.S, C.I.F, or F.O.C. to Abidjan, in tramp ships, cargo liners, passenger cargo liners, liners, bulk carries… by road or by rail from Abidjan to Ferkessedougou, these goods can be sent carriage forward ‘C.F) or carriage paid (C.P). it would be better for him to have the goods sent at the company’s risk (C.R), even if this procedure is more expensive; because if the goods are damaged, he can claim compensation from the insurance.
But trading does not only consist in buying and transporting foods; these goods must be sold to enable businessmen to make profits. To achieve this purpose, traders rely on advertising which has developed many techniques to incite people to buy goods and services.
The only purpose of advertising is to serve as an auxiliary to trade, since it attempted to create as many needs as possible in people by means of psychological and psychical techniques. In a word we see that this passage is just a rapid survey of the most important auxiliaries of trade. So may others such as wholesaling and retailing, warehousing (public or private), stock exchange, accounting, and clerical work have been left out?
WORDS STUDY.
Flourishing: prosperous.
Stock exchange: place where stocks and shares are publicly bought and sold.
Intricate (adj): puzzling, complicated, difficult to follow or understand.
Component (adj): helping to form (a complete thing).
Money order: money sent to somebody or a company through the post office.
Reminder: a business letter sent by a supplier, for example to a customer, to remind him (to recall in his mind) that he has not paid his debts yet.
Telecom: ‘telecommunications): communications by cable, telegraph, telephone, radio and other electronic methods of communication such as the Intel post (electronic messages sent are reproduced in written and drawing form at the receiving office).
A reliable person: a person on whom somebody can count or have confidence because he is trustworthy.
The overdraft: is the amount of money a customer is allowed to withdraw over the money he really has in his account
Insurance broker: is a person who doesn’t insure, but deals in insurance. He serves as a middleman between a large number of insurance companies and people who want to be insured. Certain companies pay them a commission when they bring a new customer, even though they are not employed by these companies but by the clients.
Insurance policy: a legal document which is sent to the person insured by the insurer within thirty days (from the day he pays his insurance premium) to prove that the latter has the financial protection of the former.
TRANSPORT CONTRACTS
(BETWEEN THE SELLER AND THE BUYER)
1. By idea, goods can be sent:
F.A.S. (free alongside ship): this means that the seller of goods only agrees to pay for the carriage and handling charges to bring the goods to the ship’s side. It is the buyer who will pay for the loading charges, the freight (the charge for carrying cargo) and insurance when the goods reach the port of destination.
F.O.B. (free on board): besides the carriage and handling charges of the goods to the ship’s side, the seller agrees to pay for the loading charges. It is the importer (buyer) who will pay for freight and insurance. The equivalent term in rail transport is F.O.R. (free on rail).
In these two cases, goods are carried at the O.R. (owner’s risk) because the buyer cannot claim for any compensation in case of damage, theft, loss… there is more security and guarantee when goods are carried at (C.R) company’s risk because this contract obliges the company to pay for damage, loss, fire, theft and deterioration…
C.I.F. (cost, insurance, freight): when fixing the loco price (the spot price or ex-firm price), the seller included the carriage and handling charges to the ship’s side, the loading charges, the freight and insurance. So the buyer does not have to pay anything at the port of destination, except the customs, duties.
F.O.C. (free of charge): this means that the loco price includes the carriage and handling charges to the ship’s side, the loading charges, the freight, the insurance, the customs duties and the cost of carrying the goods to the warehouse.
2. By rail, road or air, goods can be sent:
C.F. (carriage forward): the loco price does not include the transport cost which will be paid at the destination point.
C.P. (carriage paid): the loco price includes the transport costs.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
- What are the auxiliaries of trade you know,
- By means of concrete examples show how advertising, banking, telecommunications and transport can help trade.
- Name some transport contracts
- What is the role of an insurance broker?
- Why cannot a businessman do without banks,
- Why is it important to insure goods,
- Name four types of insurance
- Is it safe to walk about with large sums of money, why?
- What is the advantage of credit transfer?
GRAMMAR
The passive: whenever we feel that the object of an active verb is more important than its subject, we put it at the beginning of the sentence by using a passive. The verb “be” is then combines with a participle.
Subject verb object
1. Active: Secretaries usually file documents
Subject verb agent
Passive: Documents are usually filed (by the secretaries).
The agent can be left out if we know who is performing the action or wish to sound impersonal.
2. As indicated in the examples below, most verb tenses (simple, continuous, perfect, and modal) can be
Converted into passive forms:
- A new accountant is to be chosen (infinitive).
- By now he ought to have been chosen (perfect infinitive)
- Seeds are chosen during the dry season (simple present)
- Seeds are being chosen by experts now (present continuous)
- Two thieves were arrested yesterday (simple past)
- The thieves were been imprisoned (present perfect).
- Malaria is being defeated in many countries (present perfect continuous)
- One of the thieves was executed yesterday (past perfect)
- The bank was being attacked by an angry crowd (past perfect continuous)
- Discipline will be reinforced in this firm (simple future)
- By next year, many roads will have been built (future perfect)
- Lazy workers may/must/can/should/ought/to/be sacked (modal)
- They would not have been sacked if they had worked hard (conditional perfect)
- Having been found guilty, he was punished (perfect participle).
3. “To have” and “to get” are frequently used in making passive statements:
- Crops got destroyed during the last drought
- The manager had/got his letter typed this morning
4. When people are not willing to reveal their identity, they use the impersonal pronoun “it” with a passive:
- This morning it was agreed to cut down wages
- It is believed that this firm is not doing well.
EXERCISES
1. Rewrite the sentences in the passive, omitting the agent with by:
- We are making arrangements to increase the output.
- Farmers receive their money long after the harvest
- The new managers will engage new clerks by next Friday
- Owing to a lack of funds, they did not build a new canteen
- Workers have set up many trade unions recently.
- The sales manager ought to have met his agents
- Why must we execute orders early?
- Thieves assassinated the chief storekeeper last night
- Having modified the lay-out of the factory floor, we are obtaining higher production figures
- The manager has just sacked his drunken secretary.
2. Rewrite the sentences in the active voice.
(The numbers indicate how many active verbs should appear.)
- in the past, many African workers were exported to America by Europeans (1)
- A speech to the striking employees was to have been made by the manager but he resigned and it was postponed (2)
- It is hoped by the civil-servants that they will be granted more days off by the president (2)
- After having been pursued for many days, the dishonest cashier was arrested by the police (2)
- The new plans for the factory ought to have been discussed at the annual general meeting, but the shareholders were refused entry by the angry strikers (2).
- Having been warned and relieved of his duties, Mr. Diouf was later sent to prison by the government for misappropriation (3)
- Magne must have been given an electric typewriter (1)
- The late treasurer of our trade-union will have been replaced by the time we are called to register it (2)
- Ethiopians would not have been struck by drought if they had been informed by their government (2)
- Two more staples could have been used to hold these sheets of paper together (1)
ESSAY
TOPIC: inflation is promoted by haggling. Discuss.
The student will examine both sides of this statement after explaining what inflation is and how it may affected by this typically African bargaining method.
INTRODUCTION
- The selling prices of goods keep changing because of the increasing prices of raw materials.
- In Africa, most sellers, since they know that the buyer will bargain, increase their prices
- It may prove interesting to point out that price increases do not all originate from the customer’s tendency to beat down the selling prices.
BODY
- What is inflation?
- What are its main causes?
- What does haggling consist of? Why do Africans often try to cut down the selling price? How are prices agreed upon in African markets?
- How do African traders fix their selling prices? Why do thy inflate them?
- Is haggling the sole origin of high prices?
- Does haggling always have a negative/positive impact on the trader, buyer or producer of the goods?
CONCLUSION
- Are there numerous selling and buying techniques?
- Do prices increase only because traders fix them too high?
- Who benefits from haggling?
- What are the advantages/disadvantages of haggling compared with the other selling and buying methods?
HOMEWORK VI
1) How can insurance contribute to the development of your country?
2. African countries should nationalize foreign banks. Discuss.
3. Means of transport in your country’s development.
4. The role of advertising in the promotion of goods and services.
BEWARE!
- Transport by road is subject to the whims of nature: the fickleness, the caprice, the sudden and unreasonable change.
- Our new product will maintain a grip on the Gabonese market: to be in good position
- The pinch will be felt when we have to pay higher taxes; the difficulty will come when…
- To take a kickback on the profits: a percentage.
- These products sell at eye-popping prices: as astonishing prices; they are too expensive.
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
(Group work.)
- The development of a country depends on its means of transport. Discuss
- The most expensive transport contract caries the highest risk for the buyer. Discuss
- Containers have reduced risks in trade. Discuss
- Are there many foreign banks in your country? Do they actively participate in the development of your country? Why?
- A great many people do think that insuring their goods or property is a waste of money, and that insurance companies are gangs of thieves. What is your opinion about this point?
TEXT:
Buying and selling techniques in Africa.
Price tags have become so meaningless in Africa that most traders, whether in shops or along streets, just display them for price controllers. Africans too appreciate high quality luxury goods but since they are generally poor, they prefer cheap items. As a consequence, any deal is preceded by a heated argument.
Haggling cannot be avoided. The seller, having that in mind, usually sets a high price which will, through bargaining, be reduced. This step by step process goes on until a mutually accepted price is agreed to. Sometimes, a public sale is organised and potential customers bid against one another. The offers climb until only one bidder can afford the final price. Such a competitive sale, known as auction, is usually supervised by a legal auctioneer who prior to the sale, advertises the articles. In some areas, some traders, standing on a rostrum, may repeatedly shout “auction” inviting passer-by to purchase items which may not be so cheap!
In hard times, established shopkeepers may hire peddlers who walk along streets or knock at doors when hawking is not profitable enough. The peddlers are often crooks or even part of a black market network. Their goods, having been smuggled or stolen, are sold so cheaply that they are snatched up and many shopkeepers are forced out of business.
Equatorial Africa still provides isolated examples of barter. Skilful hunters or fishermen, who are usually pygmies, exchange meat and fish for groceries and cloths. Modern wages earners are aware of the drawbacks of barter. They prefer the services of banks ad post-offices.
If a banker cannot grant a loan to enable his customer to pay his goods cash, the latter will resort to credit. His supplier, having made sure that he is reliable and solvent, will offer deferred terms. The goods may be delivered after the deposit or after the last of monthly instalments. Mail order businesses also adopt this strategy which helps Africans to solve the problem of limited purchasing power.
Auxiliary verbs Affirmative sentences Negative tags Negative sentence Affirmative tags
Can I can speak English Can’t I? I cannot speak Chinese Can i?
Ought to Children ought to obey their parents, Oughtn’t they? Children ought not to play with knives, Ought they?
Shall… We shall go home, Shan’t we? We shall not go home, Shall we?
Will… They will come, Won’t they? They will not come Will they?
Ordinary verbs
To eat Sidi eats snakes, Doesn’t he? Moukoko doesn’t like yams, Does he?
To drink Amina drinks too much Doesn’t she? Nana doesn’t go to school, Does she?
TABLE 2 : PAST TENSE
Auxiliary verbs Affirmative sentences Negative tags Negative sentence Affirmative tags
To be You were late, Weren’t you? You were not late Were you?
To have We had to go home, Hadn’t we? We hadn’t to go home Had we?
To do They did like cake, Didn’t’ they They didn’t like cakes, Did they?
To need I need to know his name, Didn’t I ? I didn’t need to know his name, Did I?
To dare Bineta dared criticize her mother, Didn’t she? Bineta dared not criticize her mother Did she?
Must I had to keep quite in class, Hadn’t I? I hadn’t to keep quite in class, Had I?
May Toto might forget his book, Mightn’t he? Toto might not come to school, Might he?
Can You could speak English, Couldn’t you? You couldn’t speak Chinses, Could you?
Ought to She ought to have gone to church, Oughtn’t she? She ought not to have gone to church, Ought she ?
ESSAY
TOPIC: is price control efficient in your community?
This topic gives each candidate the liberty of answering yes or no, depending on the particular position of his community. Let us look for some main ideas which might help to develop such a topic.
1. If the answer to the question is no.
- Maybe there is no legal control policy in the community.
- if there is any, you should show its weaknesses:
• The case of street trade in Africa. Since they have no shop, sellers of goods and services run away as soon as they see the price controllers or the police. Even if a buyer who has been cheated calls for the price controller, he is never sure that he will find the dishonest seller because street traders move from place to place in a town. Moreover, these street markets create a serious problem as far as price policy for many reasons:
- Most of these sellers are just thieves who steal articles they sell from other stores; so their aim is to get rid of these stolen articles as quickly as possible. They thus sell at rock bottom prices.
- Since they have no shop and don’t suffer from any overhead expenses, they can sell at very low prices with a small profit margin.
• The price controllers
- Their morality: some are corrupted by dishonest sellers, instead of fining them for breaking the national law; they just look for money to satisfy their self-interest. All this comes from poverty and social inequality in undeveloped countries.
• Traders in general
In Africa they are used to making false invoices to deceive honest price controllers.
Those who are involved in smuggling, import illegal goods, with the connivance of customs-officers, at very low prices. But when they fix the price of these goods, they behave as if they had paid for the customs duties.
The problem of price is very complicated in African countries. The price controllers face the problem of bargaining: no seller of goods or services tells the buyer the exact price because by habit they have to argue about the price till they come to a final agreement.
• sellers of second-hand clothes
It is impossible to control them because they purchase a bundle of clothes and they are just given an invoice which doesn’t state the price unit. In that case, they are free to fix arbitrary prices.
• Agricultural produce
They are difficult to evaluate in terms of prices. How to fix an objective price for:
- A bunch of banana or plantain?
- A heap of cassava, yams, coco-yams, avocados…?
The price of these products varies from place to place and from season to season.
CONCLUSION
Controlling prices is hindered by the morality of the controllers, the structure of the African markets, the buying techniques, smuggling and the kind of product sold.
2. If the answer is yes.
Here the student is expected to show why controlling prices is efficient in his community.
• the controllers:
- good morality
- patriotic behaviour
- high standard of living
- good education
• traders:
- honesty
- patriotism
• the government policy:
- a good structure of markets
- a penalty for traders or controllers who are guilty of corruption
CONCLUSION
An efficient price control depends on three factors: the controllers, the traders and the government policy.
HOMEWORK VII
2) Make suggestions about how to control agricultural produce on the market.
3) Is it possible to stop smuggling? If yes, how? If no, why?
4) A bargaining scene
5) Would you like to be a price controller? Why?
6) The drawbacks of street trade in your country.
BEWARE!
- Their sales are ebbing away: decreasing.
- The recent tax cuts were biased towards the rich: they favoured the rich.
- Shop-soiled articles are sold at rock-bottom prices: articles which have remained unsold in the shop for too long are sold at very low prices
- Fashionable goods are snapped up like sweets: bought quickly
- My neighbour sold his house at a loss: below the purchasing price.
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
Group work.
- Saving is less useful than borrowing. Discuss.
- The stock exchange is not a perfect market. Discuss.
- Barter can help African countries to solve their foreign debt problems. Discuss
- African businessmen do not help the development of their continent when they invest in Europe or in America. Do you agree with this statement?
- Money doesn’t bring happiness. Discuss.
HOME WORK. VIII
Sales and delivery
Vocabulary
Fill the gaps with suitable words from the list below.
1. The profits made on a product vary according to the ………….of sales and there is not normally a fixed profit………………….on the unit price.
2. If you buy something by mail order it’s normal to pay CWO (………………………….), rather than COD (……………………….)?
3. What’s the difference between a B/L (………………….) and a B/E (………………….)?
4. The ………………. Price of this product at the ……………………(i.e. in the shops £13.99, incl. VAT (………………………………) about 60¨% more than the ……………………price.
5. As we have been carrying out a(n)………………………..control, there is a ……………….. in processing orders. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this……………………..
6. As part of the consignments is very urgent, we’ll be making a………………………… of two of the twenty………………………….you have ordered.
7. We once supply ……………………….one products of ……………………quantity. Very ……………………… consignments are shipped by sea. There is no …………………….for small orders.
8. They submitted a …………………………….in……………………….., in accordance with our instructions, but it arrived after the ……………………………………..
Backlog, bill of exchange, bill of lading, bulky, cash on delivery, cash with order, crates, deadline , grade, hold-up, inventory (US/stock (GB) margin, point of sale, premium, retail, special delivery , surcharge, lender, triplicate, value added tax, volume, wholesale.
Documentation: Vocabulary.
Fill in the blank spaces with the appropriate words.
1. After receiving their enquiry, we sent them a……………
2. We have just received an………….for the goods we wanted.
3. Another word for “buy” is…………………
4. A bill of lading and a letter of credit are both…………used in foreign trade.
5. Please inform us when the cargo arrives at it’s……………………..
6. We send a …………… before making up an order.
7. Our agents will ……………..the goods to you when they arrive.
8. It’s important to state the ………….. of each package on all the forms.
9. I’ve just heard that………….charges are going up.
10. That firm is our sole………………of these components.
11. They have added 550 for ……………and handling.
12. When will you be able to ……………… the goods to us.
13. The ………..price is 30% higher than the wholesale price.
14. Doing business on the phone with companies…………..is very costly.
15. Before we can accept your order, we require a……………………of 5% of the total price.
16. When fixing a price for an export order, the…………………..are very important.
Space strictly reserved for homework and shall be part of the students’ evaluation.
NAMES:
CLASS:
SUBJECT ____________________________ MATRICULE
SERIAL N°_____________________________ GROUP__________________________
SUMMARIES (use pencil only)
CHAPTER IV
ADVERTISING.
A: TEXT
In the world of business, advertising is a selling technique which aims at attracting the attention of the number of prospective customers and enticing them into buying goods and services. Advertising can just inform people about the appearance of new goods and services on the market, their quality, their use, where to find them, but it can also try to persuade people to buy these goods and services.
It would be quite impossible to enumerate all the advertising media which overwhelm our modern business world. Here are the most common ones: radio, television, posters, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, folders, booklets, leaflets, business publications, motivation signs, car cards roadside signs, painted walls, postcards, tee-shirts, sandwich men, wall calendars, ashtrays, memo books, combs, pens, cinema shows, loud-speakers, carrier-bags… every advertiser chooses the medium which is likely to attract the greatest number of people.
By means of refined techniques, photographers, copywriters, artists and psychologists gather around the advertising manager of a firm to elaborate catch-phrases, pictures and drawings in order to give a certain image of a product. So that the product is not bought for itself, but because of the poetical unreal dream which emerges from the comments made on it. To advertise a simple bottle of beer, a poster will create a fairy-like environment with richly-coloured objects; for example a fantastic house with a heavenly garden, a mild blue sky, a happy sunny day, a modern, healthy, well-to-do family with a brand new car… all this magical atmosphere gives the middle class consumer the impression that he can better his social condition if he uses that beer. He might even feel very satisfied to use the same product as richer people.
The psychological message hidden behind persuasive advertising is so subtle that consumers are rarely aware that they are being cheated: let us analyse these slogans:
“Salvia for people who know”
“Bata for real ladies and real men”
“Coco-nut oil for a happier and healthier life”
In every consumer society, such catch-phrases have become as popular as the refrain of a well-known song. Every lip is familiar with them at every moment, even at night. All the media use their magical power (repetitive music, drawings, poetry…) to focus the attention on them. People’s sub consciousness is constantly tortured and manipulated by their imperialistic invasion. The purpose of these senses, when they do not use the articles advertised, they unconsciously suffer from a lack and from doubt about their human identity, their tastes, their health and their happiness. On the contrary, some people will unwillingly rush to buy these articles in order to enjoy a happy life, good health and to persuade themselves that they are real men or real ladies, or that they “know”
Today, firms spend large sums of money on advertising because of its numerous advantages, but it is consumer who pays for its cost.
WORD STUDY
Prospective customer: a person who is not a customer yet, but who might become one in the near future.
To entice somebody into buying: to persuade him to buy.
To overwhelm: to submerge, to invade completely by flowing over or pouring down on.
Leaflets: printed but unbound sheets with announcements.
Sandwich men: men who walk about the town with advertising boards hanging over their chests and backs.
Ashtray: a small metal, glass or wooden saucer in which people who smoke keep the ash of their tobacco so as not to dirty the place.
Comb: a piece of metal, plastic, rubber, wood with teeth for arranging the hair in order.
Fairy-like: enchanting unreal.
Well-to-do: rich
Subtle: ingeniously made, refined, difficult to perceive
Catch-phrases: slogans.
Sub consciousness: the part of our mental life which escapes our vigilance, which doesn’t depend upon our will.
Longings: earnest desires.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
- What are the two main kinds of advertising named in this text?
- Among the advertising media, which one is the most efficient in your country? Why?
- Does advertising tell the truth about goods and services? Why?
- In your opinion, is it possible to be indifferent to advertising?
- How can a consumer pay for the cost of advertising?
- What are the advantages and drawbacks of advertising?
B: GRAMMAR
PREPOSITIONS
- Should farmers spend money on fertilizers?
- Businessmen travel by plane to save time
- Prices are rising in the market
- A typewriter is of great benefit to office clerks
- Employers often disagree with trade unions.
The short words in italics are prepositions. They express relations or attitudes inn the first example, the preposition on links the verb spend to the noun fertilizers and indicates an object. The second preposition by refers to a means (of transport), the third indicates the place, whereas the fourth shows purpose, helpfulness. In the last example, with reveals opposition and conflict.
Only usage enables us to know which preposition governs a given adjective, noun, verb, etc. the common relations which prepositions show and place, direction, time, price, movement, means and communication, description, possession. Those relations are not always quite clear, especially in idiomatic expressions. The same word can select different prepositions and thus have different meanings.
EXERCISES
Supply the missing prepositions in the following sentences:
The meeting will start ………………ten o’clock. The payment was made…………………the arrangements. The butcher’s shop is just……………. The street. We are ………granting him a loan. A dispute has arisen……….the workers. They will employ him……a foreman. Most letters are sent………….air-mail. He married her……….His parents’ objections. I have received letters………………..my friends………………several years. He owns a car………………..mines. The secretary has been absent…………October. The motorway runs…………………our village. Candidates……………..twenty years of age should not apply for that post. The porter left…………….permission. The thief made his way……………the factory premises. The boss drafted the letter…………………….pencil. Ali was sold a hat………….five thousand francs. Businessmen often travel……………..the world. Did you talk……………him ……………….the telephone? Is she well qualified…………………shorthand? The foremen are responsible…………………………the managers…………………………strikes. The boss was angry………………….the secretary’s laziness. He is not worth…………………his salary. I shall remain faithful………………………my firm. She is skilful…………………typing but not expert………………….writing reports. It is impossible to prevent firms……………competing……………one another. My company is dependent……………….state subsidies. Diallo is looking…………………a new job although he is good…………………farming. This firm is incapable……………………increasing its output. Can Amadou agree…………………you after objecting……………….your terms? A letter was attached ……………..the application forms. The expenditure will amount…………….one million and this is not advantageous……………………..me. When a firm amalgamates…………………..another, its capital in increased. The manager promised to attend……………………the meeting because he no longer believed…………….market research. Workers should not be blamed……………………mis-management. Do you care……………………the plight of the farmers? How much do you charge……………..the trip? My parents will never be compensated……………..the destruction of their crops.
C: ESSAY
TOPIC: The consequences of advertising
A good understanding of advertising, its aspects and goals will make this topic easy. The manufacturer of producer, the consumer, the natural environment can be positively or negatively affected by informative/or persuasive advertising.
INTRODUCTION.
- Nowadays advertisements, designed to attract our senses, have pervaded all the aspects of our lives.
- Does the aggressive promotion of goods and services have an impact on the consumer, the producer, society and the environment?
We can only answer this question by considering the positive and negative effect of publicity on its
Victims/beneficiaries.
BODY
- What is advertising?
- What techniques and media does it use?
- Who is affected by advertisement? To what extent?
- Why may we be influenced by those repetitive messages?
- Who or what benefits from advertising? (Industrialist, consumer, environment…) how does he/it take advantage of advertising? (Profit, satisfaction, alienation, destruction, loss of beauty…)?
CONCLUSION
- Not all the influences of advertising are negative so……
- How can we protect ourselves and our natural environment from its negative aspects?
HOMEWORK IX
- compare the effectiveness of persuasive and informative advertising
- High quality is more impressive than advertising. Discuss.
- Do African farmers advertise their products? Why?
- Which advertising medium is most effective in your country?
BEWARE
- Advertising pays in the long run: not immediately, later on.
- Our advertising department intends to branch out into sandwich men advertising: to expand its activities into…
- Screaming headlines: flashy titles, which attract attention.
- Electric spectacular: illuminated sign-board.
-
POINT FOR DISCUSSION
Group work
- Quality promotes sales more than advertising. Discuss
- The selling price is the most effective advertising medium. Discuss.
- Advertising is an expensive investment and a waste of money. Discuss.
- Small African companies should not spend money on advertisings.
- Since it does not tell the truth, advertising should be abolished. Discuss.
Space strictly reserved for homework and shall be part of the students’ evaluation.
NAMES:
CLASS:
SUBJECT ____________________________ MATRICULE
SERIAL N°_____________________________ GROUP__________________________
SUMMARIES (use pencil only)
CHAPTER V
MONEY MATTERS.
A) WHAT IS MONEY?
The advance learner’s dictionary of current English defines money as “metal (gold, silver, copper or alloys) stamped into coins, printed notes with values stamped on them, given and accepted when buying and selling”. Many urgent questions emerge from this rich definition, for example: how did people buy and sell before money was invented? Are coins and notes the only forms of money today? Is money only used when buying and selling?
Long before a full monetary system was invented, trade was based on barter which was the exchange of one article for another. A person who had a calabash of palm wine could exchange it for a bunch of banana or for a yam. There was no correspondence in the value of things exchanged and no correspondence in the tastes of people. Moreover, large items could not be cut into smaller articles.
As these problems arose, people tried to solve them: they first used stones and shells as money; these stones and shells were supposed to have a fixed value agreed upon by all the members of a community and everybody was expected to accept them in the transaction of goods. So, instead of exchanging a whole calabash of palm wine or a cow for a yam, people measured the size of an article by its counterpart in shells or stones and, later on, in bars of metal. They soon discovered that metal was too heavy to carry, to store, and could easily attract the attention of thieves. So bank-notes were created because of the advantage of being light.
Money was first of all invented to serve as a medium of exchange of goods and services. People are obliged by law to accept this money in payment of any debt anywhere and at any time. Apart from being acceptable, this money should be durable, but also difficult to imitate because counterfeiting might ruin the economy of some countries. By circulating, money favours transactions between men at any level.
Apart from the legal tender (coins and bank-notes), there are many kinds of representative money. We can name cheques, bills of exchange, cheque guarantee notes, letters of credit…
WORD STUDY
Alloy: mixture of metals.
To stamp: to put down with force on to press on.
To store: to stock, to keep
Medium: a means by which something is done.
Counterfeiting: forgery, illegal making of bank-notes or coins
To favour: to permit, to enable.
Legal tender: a method of payment law obliges people to accept, that is bank-notes and coins issued by the central bank. Cheques, bills of exchange and other documents representing money are not legal tender and nobody is forced to accept them.
Cheque guarantee card: it is a commercial document given to the owner of a current account by his banker to serve as a guarantee of payment.
Standing order: an instruction given by the owner of a current account to his banker to deal with the payments of certain sums of money at regular intervals. He must fill in a form given the names of creditors, the amount to be paid and the date of payments. Standing here means permanent. This method is used to pay rent, bills, hire purchase…
Direct debit: here it is the creditor who sends an invoice to the debtor to ask for a payment mentioned in this invoice. If there is no objection to that payment, the creditor then sends the debtor’s bank a direct debit form. The money is the transferred to the creditor’s account.
Credit cards: they are issued by banks large stores and chains, financial companies. They are also called “plastic money” because they enable people to buy goods and services without the use of cash.
Promissory note: a note conveying a promise. A person signs a document promising to pay a certain amount of money stated on that document to a specific person or to the bearer at a specified date or on demand.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
- How many kinds of money in this text?
- What is the role of money in the text?
- In your opinion, are all the characteristics of money mentioned in the passage? Can you name any others?
- What is the importance of money in undeveloped countries?
- What can the economies consequence of forgery be for a country?
- How are counterfeiters punished in your country?
B: GRAMMAR
THE POSSESSIVE CASE
1. Koffi’s shop
2. The farmer’s needs
3. The women’s jewels
4. The baker’s is on the street corner
5. Thomas’ car
6. A month’s salary should be important
7. A ten kilometres’ journey
8. Mr. Fotso is a fifty-year-old businessman
9. A thirty-minute trip to Maroua
10. His brother-in-law’s son is a pedlar
11. The sufferings of farmers living in villages.
The apostrophe before indicates possession. The owner is a single person or animal. With plurals, the apostrophe follows. The shops belong to Koffi as well as the needs to the farmers. The possessive form is used only with living creatures.
Example 3 : shows that irregular plurals are followed by the apostrophe and s. shop and cathedral do not always appear in possessive forms (example 4). Thomas, James, Charles, Jonas are proper apostrophe and s.
Example 6 and 7 include phrases of time and distance but 8 and 9 the compound adjectives, with hyphens cannot take a possessive form even if they refer to time and distance.
A compound noun (example 10) takes the possessive form after its last element. The last example is an exception: we use of because the noun farmers is followed by a describing phrase/clause.
EXERCISES
Use possessive forms in the following sentences
- The shares of Quattara and Kounkou.
- The cathedral of St.Paul.
- The addresses of Biloa and Fadimatou
- The time of a fortnight
- Kazadi completed the work of a whole day
- The grievances of the men
- The hat of my step-father
- The shop of Charles and James
- The success of somebody else
- Kwame and Kakou own one shop
- Monayong owns a workshop and Doutoumou also owns one
- The masterpieces of two secretaries.
C: ESSAY
TOPIC: The role of banks in your country’s economy
The role of the bank depends on its natural (type) and original function. By issuing currency, looking after savings, lending funds and facilitating commercial transactions, banks may help a country’s economy.
INTRODUCTION
- Individuals and nations always seek the security and the increase of their wealth.
- Monetary institutions may also help them achieve these goals by…
- The services banks render to individuals and states are numerous and affect the productive activities in many ways.
- What types of bank we find? (Central, commercial, postal savings bank, merchant bank like PARIBAS).
- What are the services of banks? (Accounts, loans, discounting bills of exchange, savings accounts, payments, advice to investors, issuing currency…).
- How useful are these services in promoting economic activities?
- Can they endanger the economy or bring foreign domination? How?
CONCLUSION
- What positive services can banks render to the working population of a country?
- Is a governmental control necessary to ensure that banks actually promote a country’s economy?
HOMEWORK X
- How does a stock exchange function? Does your country need one?
- How do you open an account with a bank?
- How does a bank make its profit?
- What is the role of the international monetary fund in Africa?
BEWARE
- Money-market: body of bankers, financiers, etc, whose operations decide the rates f interest on borrowed capital.
- To ask for security: to ask for a guarantee.
- To audit an account: to verify it.
- The terms of a loan: the conditions.
POINT FOR DISCUSSION
(Group work)
- A short supply of money is an incentive for economic development. Discuss
- The international currency market reflects the economic weakness of Africa. Discuss.
- If all African countries used the same money, there would be no economic difference between them. Discuss.
- African countries should not share the same currency with European countries. Discuss.
THE CO-OPERATIVE BANK
Read this article and then fill each gap below with one word.
Help cut off the money supply from oppressive regimes.
Countries that deny their citizens human rights have to get their money from somewhere if they are to survive. But deprive them of the ability to borrow, attract international investment or process cash and they simply cannot function.
Because the hard fact is that money really does make the world go round. And stopping the money from getting to these types of countries can help exert pressure for change. Which is why the co-operative Bank has taken stand? We now refuse to invest in such regimes.
With the co-operative Bank you know you won’t be supporting them.
The co-operative Bank believes a financial institution should do more than simply express concern about such countries. We believe we should activity support those involved in combating these unacceptable regimes.
Which is why our Ethical Policy clearly states that we will not invest in any country that oppresses tortures or takes away human rights, nor will we finance the manufacture of weapons for such regimes?
And that’s why all our customers know their money is not being used to back them. Who are and what we stand for. The co-operative Bank has always stood for socially responsible values since it was first formed in the early days of co-operation back in the 1870’s. Our Ethical Policy was formally announced in 1992, but this was simply following our Bank’s traditional outlook and values first established over 100 years ago.
In addition to refusing investment in oppressive regimes, it also makes clear:
• We will not finance companies that needlessly damage the environment
• We will not invest in business involved in animal experimentation for cosmetic purposes
• We will not support any organisation involved in blood sports or companies using exploitative factory farming methods
• We will not provide financial services to tobacco product manufacturers
• We will not use our finances to speculate against the pound
• We will actively seek out individual commercial enterprises and non-commercial organisations who has complementary ethical stance.
Where your bank can really make difference.
Switching your current account to the co-operative Bank is simple. And it won’t just give you the service of knowing exactly where your money goes.
It will give us the support to challenge many accepted-but unacceptable-financial practices for the first time and exert a real pressure for change.
Time to stand up and be counted.
The co-operative Bank believes … time to take a stand. We’re making our ethical stance clear. We’re making our principles plain. If you would like to do the same, simply return this request form or phone us on 0800 828 00 to find out what could gain by banking with us.
Questions:
1. Government which can’t get money will not …………………………………………
2. The Co-operative Bank will not ……………………… in countries with oppressive governments.
3. The Bank intends to ………………………… people who oppose such governments.
4. The Bank was found in the ………………………, but its new ethical Policy wasn’t made public until…………………
5. the Bank refuses to invest in companies whose products it considers to be ………………………
6. The bank tries to invest in companies that share its………………………………………
7. The Bank’s funds are not used to ………………………. Against the pound.
8. When you put your money in ……………………….banks you don’t know …………………. Your money is going.
HOME WORK XI
1. VOCABULARY.
Fill in the blank space with suitable words chosen from the lists below. Copy and
Underline the right answer
- Exporters have to know about trade restrictions, such as federal or governmental ……………. And ……………..
- The …………………… will be find by …………………… on a RORO ferry. If there is any damage to the ……………….., we will send a …………….. on your next order.
- If any ……………..., is faulty the buyer can ……. ………. It and demand a ………………..
- Due to unforeseen …………………….., we couldn’t clear the goods through customs, so we paid a ………………… change while they were held in a bonded warehouse.
- Our own technicians can carry out ………………. Repairs or adjustments. But call the supplier’s service engineer if a ……………. Repair or ……………………..is required.
Boycotts, cash against documents, chamber of commerce, circumstances, claim, compensate, document against payment, expired, load, major, merchandise, minor, modification, quotas, rebate, refund, reject, storage, transit, truck, void.
Space strictly reserved for homework and shall be part of the students’ evaluation.
NAMES:
CLASS:
SUBJECT ____________________________ MATRICULE
SERIAL N°_____________________________ GROUP__________________________
SUMMARIES (use pencil only)
CHAPTER VI
THE OFFICE
A: TEXT
Accountants and secretaries may spend up to half of their lives in offices because most of the business is carried out there. They have to keep books, obtain information, arrange it, store it or disseminate it among the various departments. These clerical workers can be efficient only if they like the place where they perform heir duties.
A manager will select furniture, equipment and space according to the size of the firm, its capital and the type of work to be done. In widespread use is the general office which is seen as practical and economical because all the office tasks can be performed there. Comfort does not depend only on desks and chairs but also on many factors such as the location and features of the office itself.
Most secretaries like the wide “L” shape desk provided with soft revolving chairs. They also like having easy access to the boss’s office. A separate room enables them to filter off visitors to avoid disturbing him with typewriter noise and to maintain privacy. Modern offices have additional features which include decoration, safety, lighting, heating and ventilation.
The sitting of the offices far from the noisy road creates a telexing and quiet environment. a clean ventilated and air-conditioned room with soft lights is beneficial for all office workers. He/she may give their office a personal touch by decorating it with flowers or pictures.
COMPREHESION QUESTIONS
Answer these questions after reading both the test and the word study
- name the purpose of an office
- is office work more important than manual?
- why is the selection of equipment affected by the capital and size of a firm
- how important is each of the features of a comfortable office?
- what factors can explain bureaucratic inefficiency in your country?
- why is information important in a firm?
- on what comfort depend in an office?
- a wide ‘”L” shape desk: maintains privacy, prevents access to the typewriter, gives extra working space, stops noise. (Choose your answer.)
- revolving chairs, can increase height, facilitate movement, both, and make a secretary inefficient. (Choose)
- a roadside office is well ventilated true or false? Why?
WORD STUDY
To cut a stencil: to type a text on a stencil.
Classmate: someone with whom we studied in the same classroom
Scheduled: to schedule = to make arrangements to do something in the future
To show somebody round something: to escort him, to walk with him in order to show him the interesting parts of (a factory, a town…)
Subsidiary: a firm which is under the authority and supervision of a bigger one
Computer: an electronic machine which uses supplied instructions in order to make calculations or manage and control a firm.
Dictating machine: a type recorder, machine which can keep and reproduce a voice
Telex machine: a tele-printefr which receives and transmits messages automatically, in written form
Microfilm a small size photograph of a written document.
Appliance: any machine which performs a specific task (example a refrigerator, a typewriter).
Unemployment: a qualified person who has not found a job is unemployed, he is in a state of unemployment
Headquarters: place from where a firm is managed or controlled.
Drawbacks; negative aspects, disadvantages.
Payroll: list of employees’ names getting wages from a firm.
Ledger: a book where the accountant writes, list the firm’s transactions.
To l ease: to obtain by contract, in order to use for some time (a machine, land…)
wastepaper basket (bin): dirty and useless pieces of paper are put in such a box.
Tray (in and out): utensil or receptacle in which incoming or outgoing messages or letters are placed in an office.
Stapler: a small office machine using U-shaped pieces of metal (staples) to hold sheets of papers together.
Desk diary: a calendar used on an office desk to show a programme of activities.
Rubber stamp: a plastic object for printing with ink, addresses or names
Shorthand pad: small copy book in which a secretary takes shorthand notes.
Pencil sharpener: this object makes the tips (end) of pencils tinner so that they can write better.
Paper clip: a piece of Meta which office workers use to hold documents together
Correcting fluid: liquid substance for erasing written mistakes.
Telephone directory: book containing telephone numbers and addresses
Headed paper: sheet of paper on top of which information about a firm is printed.
Plain notepaper: ordinary sheets of paper for writing or typing.
Adhesive tape: stricking material for holding papers together, like scotch tape.
Pin: short pointed piece of metal used for holding documents together.
To retire: to stop working because of old age.
B: ESSAY TOPIC
The inflation of the office on the secretary’s work.
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE TOPIC
The main problem of this particular topic is to know how the office can affect the secretary’s daily task.
Question: what in an office can affect the secretary’s work?
Answer: The geographical situation.
The lighting.
The acoustics.
The Furniture.
The equipment.
The office materials.
The ventilation.
The development should consist in showing in detail how these realities listed affect the secretary’s works.
Suggestions for the development
1. The geographical situation of the secretary’s office.
If it is too far from the boss’s office:
A day’s works will overtire and discourage him/her since he/she has to go to this office many times a day.
If he/she shares the same office with the boss:
He/she will have to go out whenever a visitor comes to see the boss on confidential business and this will slow down his/her work and even annoy her at times. Furthermore, he/she will have no possibility of convincing intrusive and undesirable visitors that they cannot meet the boss.
A secretary’s office should be adjacent to the boss’s office and near a waiting-room for visitors. If there is no waiting-room, the visitor will queue up in front of him/her and disturb him/her.
2. The lighting
The electric light should not be dull or too brilliant because it can damage the secretary’s eyes and make it difficult for him/her to read. There must also be a small light fitted above his/her desk for evening work when he/she does not want too much light in the room. This can help her/him concentrated on what he/she is doing.
3. The ventilation
The windows should be large enough to enable the air to move in and out freely ; curtains and panes should prevent the dust from entering the room. The office should be fitted with an air conditioner and a heating system for cold and hot weather. All this will enable the secretary to work in a good atmosphere.
4. Acoustics
It will be quite impossible for a secretary to work in a noisy room; so his/her office should be fitted with morden acoustic materials (on the door, the ceiling, the floor, the walls) to absorb the internal and external noise.
5. The ornaments
An office with one or two pots of flowers will put the secretary in a good mood. Moreover, its walls should have some interesting pictures. Dirty, bare walls will give a very repulsive impression and make life unpleasant in the office.
6. Equipment
A firm should buy all the necessary equipment to facilitate the work of the secretary. When it is possible, this equipment should be selected so as to suit him/her better. For example, instead of an ordinary chair, he/she will work better on a revolving armchair with a comfortable backrest. This will enable him/her to swing himself/herself round easily to work either on his/her typewriter or on documents without wasting time. A comfortable position increases efficiency
A large desk with a set of drawer, a metal cupboard and a couple of filing-cabinets to keep documents will reduce the risk of losing some of the documents or office materials. The secretary will waste no time looking for them when they are needed.
Apart from the telephone, an office should have a press-button intercom for internal communication. This will save the secretary going from office to office when he/she is needed or when he/she needs to give some information to a department. He/she should also have some reference books and a telephone directory at hand.
7. Office materials
It will be a shame and a waste of time for a firm to oblige a secretary to walk about the office begging for indispensable office materials such as pencils, pens, ball-point pens, felt-tipped pens, staplers, papers knives, drawing pins, a bottle of glue, a bottle of ink, a correcting fluid, a ball of string, a pencil sharpener, a ruler… a secretary should have a good supply of carbon paper, headed note paper, letterheads, envelopes, copy-papers, stencils… if not he/she cannot perform his/her task in due time.
CONCLUSION
The general layout, organisation and equipment of an office is extremely important if the secretary is to be efficient. Since the boss usually depends on his secretary, it is as much in his interest as in his/hers that the office should be pleasant and well fitted out.
HOMEWORK XII
- Which brand of typewriters do you prefer?
- Describe e the type of office you would like to work in.
- How can a secretary go on working when his/her typewriter has broken down?
- Does it pay to invest money in expensive office equipment?
Space strictly reserved for homework and shall be part of the students’ evaluation.
NAMES:
CLASS:
SUBJECT ____________________________ MATRICULE
SERIAL N°_____________________________ GROUP__________________________
SUMMARIES (use pencil only)
TOPICAL VOCABULARY
Economics: This subject is concerned with the why’s and therefore of production and distribution; in other words the study of the system of money, industry, employment etc used in various countries.
Competitive: concurrentiel, bien place
Profit-margin: marge bénéficiaire
Prospects : 1° perspective 1° clients potentiels
Foodstuff : produits alimentaires
Miltiples : succursalistes
To be at stake: constituter l’enjeu, être en jeu
To keep in touch: rester en rapport
Affluent society: société de l’abondance
Average returns: rendements moyens
Boom : prospérité, essor
Booming : en expansion, en plein èssor, prospéré
Capital goods : biens d’investissement
Capitalistic system : système capitaliste
Capital investment : investissement des capitaux
Consumer goods: biens de consommation
Crisis = slump : crise, dépression, récession
Excess demand : gonflement (excès) de la demande
Free market economy : compétitive system = économie de libre concurrence.
G.N.P : ( gross National product) = P.N.B. (produit national brut)
To improve the living standard = améliorer le niveau de vie
Income policy : politique des revenus
Increase in productivity : accroissement de la productivité
To lay off : licencier (par compression du personnel)
Per cpita consumtion : consommation individuelle
To restrain competition : freiner le libre jeu de la concurrence
Runaway inflation : inflation galopante
Self-sufficient economy : économique fermée, autarcique
Surplus production : production excédentaire
Unemployment : chômage
Standard of living : niveau de vie
Market value : valeur marchande (vénale)
Recovery-upturn : revival=reprose, redressement
Tariff policy : politique douanière
Tax (ation)=(fiscal policy): politique fiscale, fiscalité
BUYING AND SELLING
Installent : acompte, versement
Immediate delivery : livraison à terme
To trust someone : faire confiance à quelqu’un
To allow a discount : accorder un rabais, faite une ristourne
To appoint an agent : nommer un agent
The launching stage : la période, l’étape de lancement
Actual price : prix réel, bargain price : prix d’occasion.
To be well stocked with: être bien approvisonné en
To buy wholesale: to buy in bulk: acheter en gros
To be out of stock: manquer au magasin
To velar the stock: liquider le stock, solder
To conclude (=sign, enter into) an agreement: conclure un contrat
Contract price: prix contractuel (fortaitaire)
Current (ruling) price : prix du jour, en vigueur
Door-to door selling: (vent) Porte à Porte
To draw on (dip into) the stocks: puiser dans les stocks
To increase (raise) prices: augmenter les prix
Low-priced-inexpensive-cheep: bon marché
To go window-shopping = faire du lêche-vitrine
To grant a rebate, to allow a discount = accorder un rabais, faire une ristourne
High-priced-expensive: cher, coutaux
Exhaustion of stocks: epuisement des stocks
To price something: fixer un prix pour quelque chose
To cut (reduce) prices : deminuer (reuire) les prix
Retail dearler : marchand au détail
Wholesaler : grossite, marchand en gros
Self-service store : ‘magasin) libre service
To store : (em) magasiner, entreposer
Storekeeper : (chef) magasinier
Wholesale price : prix de gros
Retail price : prix de détail
Stock in warehouse (in trade, in hand) les stock disponibles (en magasin).
To take stock: faire (dresser) l’inventaire
Shop-lifter : voleur à l’étalage
IMPORT-EXPORT
To apply for an import licence: demander une licence d’importation
Adverse trade balance: balance commerciale
Balance of payments: balance des paiements
Cash in advance: paiement d’avance
To clear the goods thought (the) customs = dédouaner les merchandises
Clearance-clearing: déduanemer
To commit oneself to: s’engager (à)
Forwarding agent : agent trasitaire
Ship-ment : envoi, expedition
For consignment abroad : à destination de l’étranger
Customs duty : droits de douane
Duty free : exempt de droits, admis en franchise
Expriey date : date d’expiration
Export trade : commerce d’importation
Favourable trade balance : balance commerciale excédentaire
Removal of tariff valls : suppression des barrières douanières
Restrictive practices : pratique portant atteinte à la libre concurrence (unfair practices)
Free trade : libre échange
To produce a document : fournir un document
Tariff barrier-tariff wal : barrière douanière
Trade agrement : accord commercial
To suggle : passer en contrebande
Indent : commande, ordre d’achat ; (en provenance de l’étranger)
Terms of trade: terme de l’échange
To subsidize: subventionner
Way-bill: lettre de voiture
World trade: commerce mondial
Home market: marché intérieur
THE FIRM
To pay one’s way: se suffir, être rentable
To be past recovery : être dans un état désespéré
Profit and lost account : compte profit et pertes
Loy proxy : par procuration
Special meeting : assemblée extraordinaire
In someone’s stead : à la place de quelqu’un
To be entiled : avoir le droit, être en droit de
To revoke a contract : dénoncer un contact
Chartered accountant: (G.B) certified accountant (U.S.) expert comptable
Balance-sheet : bilan
Joint-management : congestion
Overheads : frais généraux
Trading year : exercice (commercial)
To wind up : liquider, winding’up : liquidation
To enter into partnership : s’associer
Chain of command : voie hiérarchique
Shareholder : stockholder : actionnaire
Economic recovery : reprise économique
ACCOUNTANCY : COMPTABILITÉ
Bleak exem point : seuil de rentabilité, point mort
To draw up a balance sheet : établir un bilan
Bankrupcy : faillite, banqueroute
To audit account : vérifier les compte, faire un audit
Credit balance : solde créditeur, solde bénéficiaire
Asset : actif
Cash : espèces
accounts receivable : Compte client
Bad dedt : mauvaise créance
Auditon : commissaire au compte
Debtor : débiteur
Double entry book-keeping : comptabilité en partie double
Collection of debt : recouvrement, encaissement d’une créance
Accounts payable : Compte-fourniseur
Long term liabilities : Dettes à long terme
Working (operating) capital: fond de roulement
Financial year : exercice financier
Expenses payable : charge à payer
Current liabilities : passif exigible, dettes à court terme
Return on instment : rentabilité, rendement d’investissement
Bills receivable : effet à recevoir
Bills payable : effets à payer
PRODUCTION
The division of labour : la division du travail
Work station : poste de travail
By-product : sous-produit
Profitable / economical : rentable
Finished products : produit finis
Mass production : production en grande serie
Automation : automatisation, automation
Manufacturing process : procédé de fabrication
To take steps : prendre des mesures
Rav materials: matières premières
Production costs: coûts de production
To step up : augmenter le rythme de
CONSUMERISM : PROBLEMES DE CONSOMMATION
Consumerism : défense de fumer
Needs : besoins
To ban : to outlaw : interdire, bannir, mettre hors la loi (certaines pratiques ou certains produits)
Price tag : étiquette de prix
Label : étiquette de marque
Directions (instruction for use) : mode d’emploi
Packaging : conditionnement
Packing : emballage
Eye-catching : qui accroche le regard, qui frappe, accrocheur
POST OFFICE
Emergency : urgence
Poundage (droit de commission) : frais d’envoi
Telephone directory: phone book (U.S) annuaire du téléphone
Money order: mandat postal
Enclosures: pieces jointes
Return to sender: retour à l’expéditeur
Unknown at this address: inconnu à l’adresse indiquée
Please forward: prière de faire avancer
To register : mettre en recommandé
A subscriber : u n abonné (journaux, téléphone)
Savings bank: caisse d’épargne
Means of payment: moyen de paiement
ACCOUNTANCY
Clearance sales: soldes, liquidation
To do one’s shopping: faire ses courses
Cooling-off period: délai, période de grace
To attend to a customer: s’occuper d’un client
Household goods: articles ménagers
Mail order selling: vente par correspondence
Stock-taking: inventaire
Window-dresser: étalagiste
Department store: grand magasin
Shop-window: devanture
BANK
Current account: compte courant
Deposit account: compte de dépôt
Statement of account : relevé de compte
Overdrawn account : compte à découvert
Accrued interests : intérêts accumulables
To apply for a loan: demander un prêt
To ask for a security: demander une garantie
To audit an account: verifier un compte
Banking establishment: établissement bancaire
Bank of issue: banque d’émission
Bank charges: intérêts, commissions, agios, frais de recouvrement
To bear interest: rapporter (produire) des intérêts
Bill of Exchange : traite (effet de commerce)
Borrower : emprunteur
To carry interest : rapporter un intérêt
To charge interest : percevoir des intérêts
Clearing bank : banque compensatrice
Counter foil : talon, reçu
Credit balance: solde créditeur
Credit facilities: facilités de crédit
Deposit slip : bordereau de versement
Saving deposit : dépôt d’épargne
Term deposit : dépôt à terme
To deposit money with a bank : déposer de l’argent en banque
Deposit currency : monnaie scripturale
Discount credit : crédit d’escompte
To discount a bill: escompter une traite
To draw a bill: tirer une traite
Due date (maturity): date (terme) de l’échéance, échéance
To fall due : échoir, venir à l’échéance
To float a loan : lancer un emprunt
To grant an overdraft : accorder un découvert
To honour a bill : honorer une traite
To increase the interest rate: relever le taux d’intérêt
Deferred interest: intérêts différés
To lend on overdraft: prêter sur un découvert
Loan on mortgage: prêt, emprunt hypothécaire
To lodge money with a bank: to deposit money with a bank: déposer l’argent en banque
To make out a cheque: libeller un cheque
Merchant banque: banque d’affaires
To open an account (with) : ouvrir un compte (auprès de)
To overdraw (an account) : tirer à découvert
To raise a loan : obtenir un prêt
Rate of exchange : taux de change
To repay, reimburse, refund a loand : rembourser un emprunt
To run a deposit with a bank : avoir un compte en banque
Recured credit : prêt sur garanties (réelles)
Terms of a loan: conditions de prêt
To with draw money: retirer l’argent
Stale cheque: chèque périmé
Open cheque: chèque non barré
Crossed cheque : chèque barré
Port folio management : gestion de portefeuilles
Promissory note : billet à ordre
Ready money : argent comptant
Safe déposit : dépôt en coffre-fort
INSURANCE
Additional insurance : assurance supplémentaire
To assess the damage (loss) : évaluer les dommages (pertes)
To be insurred with a company : être assure auprès d’une compagnie
Beneficiary of a policy: bénéficiaire d’une police
All-in-policy : assurance tout risqué
To back date : mettre en vigueur avec effet rétroactif
Burglary insurance : assurance vol
Consequential damage : dommages indirects
The contract staes : il est déclaré sur le contrat que
Currency of the policy : duée de la validité de la police
To comply with the terms of the policy : se conformer aux clauses d’une police (d’assurance)
To cancel a risk : résilier une police
Bodily injury : prejudice corporel
Attachment of risk : mise en risque
At all hazards : quel que soit le risque
Accomodation line : acception de risque
Damage survey : expertise des dégâts
Dato, back : retroactif
Days of grace : délais de grâce
To establish the proof of a close : établir la preuve d’un sinistre
Unforseen circumstances : force majeure, cas de force majeure
Increase in the risk : aggravation du risque
Fortuitous event : évènement fortuit
Comprenensive insurance : all-in-policy : assurances tous risques
Life expectancy : probabilité de vie (longévité)
Notice of claims : déclaration, avis de sinistre
Property damage : dégâts matériels
Recorable sums : montant récupérable
Proof of claims : justification des prétentions
To renew a policy : renouveler une police
To underwrite a risk : souscrire un risque
Evaluation of a policy : fixation de la valeur à assurer
Total loss : perte totale
Total liability : responsabilité civile, engagements illimités
To substantiate a loss : justifier un sinistre
To settle a claim : régler un sinistre
Whole life insurance : assurance en cas de décès
Professional risk indmnity insurance : assurances contre les risques professionnels
To provide cover : fournir la couverture
To run aground : échouer, aller à la côte
Salvage costs : frais de sauvetage
Seizure : saisie
Prenium due date : échéance de la prime
ADVERTISING AGENCY
Advertising compaign : champagne publicitaire
Advertising charge : dépense publicitaires
Advertising costs (expenses) : frais de publicité
Bill board : panneau d’affichage
Circular (letter) : circulaire
Circulation (number sold) : diffusion (nombre vendu)
Clearance-sale : vente en liquidation
Closing date : date limite
Consumer advertising : publicité aux consommateurs
Electric sign : enseigne électrique
To entice into buying : pousser à l’achat
Free lance journalist : journaliste indépendant, pigiste
To give (a product, a brand) an edge over competition : donner l’avantage sur d’autres produits
To introduce an article : lancer un article
To inflate an event : grossir un évènement
Illuminated advertising : publicité lumineuse
Help wanted : offre d’emploi
Prime time: heure de grande écoute
Catch-phrases : slogans
To be help up : être bloqué
Overtime: heures supplémentaires
Leading article: article de fond
Market research : études de marché
Market survey : études de marché
Mail order business : vente par correspondance
Marchandising : techniques de commercialisation appliquées à un produit donné
Market forcast : prévision du marché
Point-of-purchase advertising : (U.S) = point of sale advertising : publicité sur le point de vente
Poster advertising : publicité par voie d’affiche
Press release : communiqué à la presse
Prospective customer : prospect = client éventuel
Radio announcement : communiqué publicitaire
Registered trade-mark : marque déposée
Rush hours : heures de pointe
Sales analysis : analyse de ventes
To size up a market : évaluer les possibilités du marché
To stick a bill: coller une affiche
Window display: étalage, materiel publicitaire d’étalage
Window dresser: étalagiste
To tamper with a book: falsifier les écritures
Profit-taking: prise de benefice
Leverage factor : facteur d’accroissement
Government bonds : titres de l’Etat
STOCK EXCHANGE
Security : valeur (terme général) titre
Preference shares : les actions de préférence (ont un rendement fixe)
Bond : obligation
Bid (to bid) : offre d’achat (faire une)
Cash / spot market : marché au comptant
Hard (soft) market : monnaie forte (faible)
Call-money = money on call: day-to-day money: argent au jour le jour
Foreign exchanges : cours des changes
Gold standard : étalon or
Exchange control : contrôle des changes
Reserve currency : monnaies de réserve
Prime rate : taux de base
Active market : marché animé
Bale account : compte à découvert
At a discount (to be) : être en perte (en parlant des actions)
Brisk market : marché actif, animé
Bonus share : action gratuite
Commodity market : bourse des marchandises
Decline in prices : fléchissement des cours
Buoyant market ≠ dull market : marché soutenu, ferme, actif ≠ marché terne, sans entrain
Price floor : prix plancher, cours plancher
Stockebroker : courtier en bourse, agent de change
Risks (venture) capital : capital de risque, (participation spéculative)
LEGAL MATTERS
To fail in a suit : perdre un procès
To enact : rendre (un arrêt) promulguer (une loi)
False pretence : escroquerie
Falsification of account : faux en écriture
To file a lawsuit : engager des poursuites
To go to law : avoir recours à la justice
Exertion of un due influence : intimidation (en justice)
Examing judge : judge d’instruction
To have a writ served on somebody: signer quelqu’un
Indictable offense : délit grave
Institute proceedings against someone : porter plainte contre quelqu’un
Mis appropriation of public fund : concussion, détournement de fonds publics
To charge with: inculper de
Misuse of authority: abus d’autorité
To serve one’s sentence : purger une peine
On probation : mise en liberté surveillée
To take legal action : engager des poursuites
To undertake proceedings : engager des poursuites
To utter worthless cheque : émettre des chèques sans provisions
To appeal (against a decision): faire appel
To beat law: être en process
To break the law: enfeindre la loi
Breach of trust: abus de confiance
Breach of contract: rupture de contrat
To call as a witness: citer comme témoin
Capital punishment : peine capitale
Contempt of court : outrage à la cour, au magistrate
STOCK EXCHANGE (suite)
Dwinling of assets : diminution de l’actif
Gross profit margin : marge bénéficiaire brute
Liquid assets : liquidités
Sinking fund : fonds (caisse) d’amortissement
Value of cost : valeur au prix d’achat, au prix coûtant
Redeemable : rachetable, remboursable
Turnover tax : taxe sur le chiffre d’affaires
Earnings per shares : bénéfice par action
Face value : valeur nominale, le nominal
Chartered accountant (G.B) : certified accountant (AM) expert comptable
IDIOMS FROM SPECIAL SITUATIONS
WORK AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
A man is wage-earning ie a wage-earner if he receives money for his work every week.
A man is salary-earning ie a salary-earner if he receives money for his work every month.
A man is self-employed if he works for himself ie without an employer
A man is a freelance if he has no regular employer but works independently wherever he can (ie writer or journalist)
A white collar worker: a man who does an office job
A blue collar worker: a manual worker eg in a factory
To be on the board: to belong eg to the directors of a company or to the governors of a school
A shop- steward: a man chosen by his fellow workers to represent them in their trade-union
To be overtime: to do overtime regularly for a longer period of time
To be on double time: to receive double the hourly payment for working at difficult times ie on Sundays or at night
Time-work: manual work paid for by the hour or the day.
To be on shifts / on shift work: a shift is a group of workmen who start work as another Group finishes, day shift : the group of workmen who work in the day time. Night-shift: works through the night. The shift: can also be the period of time which the men work usually eight hours thus: to be on the night-shift / to be on nights and to be on the day shift / to be on days .
A picked: a group of workers who are on strike (to form a picket line: to picket)
To strike: to go on strike, to come out (on strike) : to refuse to work; workers strike for (higher wages, better working conditions.)
A sit-in: a protest action by the workers. They sit in stage a sit-in /stage a sit-down strike in the factory ie they stay in the factory and refuse to move until their demands are considered by the employers.
(to be on) a go slow : To go slow : another king of protest action workers work more slowly than usual and do not do over time
(to be on) a work to rule : to work a rule : another form of protest, the workers follow strictly the rules which are laid down for the job. This leads to a considerable slowing down in the pace of work.
To make S.O redundant (of an employer): to end a worker’s employment because his work is no longer needed.
To lay someone off : employers lay workers off at time when trade is bad there is not enough work for them ie workers are temporarily dismissed from work (a laid-off)
To fire someone, to give someone the sack: to dismiss him from employment
If you want to have a wage or salaries increase you (as an individual) put in for a rise or (as a group) make a wage claim.
A work-in: a take-over by workers of a factory that is threatened with closure.
To be on short time: to work less than usual because there is not enough work.
To be / go on the dole to be on / to receive unemployment benefit / social assistance /welfare.
HOLIDAYS AND TRAVEL
You go on journey / trip / excursion / outing: you make a journey / trip / excursion: you have an outing: you make / do a sight seeing tour.
To go on a conducted / guided tour, you go on a coach / bus tour with a guide (to do the sights) with a guide.
You make / go on a world trip: you travel around the world.
You make / go on around-theworldtour.
To go touring: to travel- round a country
You stop off / over (at a place): to break a journey for a short period.
You travel non-stop: travel through
A package holiday: a holiday made with a group of people booked through a trvel organization
To sleep in the open: to sleep out of doors when you go camping you put up / pitch a tent
To hitch a ride: to thumb a lift – to hitch hike to stand at the road side to ask a card river or lorry-driver for a rid by giving a sigh with your thumb
To travel tight: to travel without much luggage
A dead end: a road which does not lead anywhere
To put someone up: to provide food and bed for him
A single ticket: a one-way ticket
A return ticket: a round trip ticket
When you cross a border / frontier to enter a country you must pass / go through customs.
TELEPHONING
To telephone someone: to ring someone, to ring someone up; to give someone a ring, to phone someone, to make a call to someone, to call someone, to call someone up, to give someone a call.
A trunk call: a long distance call
A telephone operator: works at a switchboard
To reverse charges: to make a reversed charge call: to charge the cost of the call to the person you telephone.
The line is engaged: the number is busy
You have a poor / bad line: you cannot heat clearly because of interference
To hang up / ring off: to end a telephone call
To hell the line: to hold on – to wait for a while
STOCK EXCHANGE
Memorandum of association: this provides the world at large with certain basic information about company
Article of association: sales governing the internal affaires of a company.
Nominal-capital: (authorized registered) capital: this is the total amount of capital the company may raise.
Issued capital: the proportion of the nominal capital that has actually been issued
Dividends: share of profits
Preference shares: owners of this type of share receive their dividends before other share holders.
Stock exchange : market where securities are sold and bought quickly, efficiently and under strict safeguard for the protection of investors.
Debenture: piece of paper given by a business firm as a sign that somebody has lent the firm some money
Debenture holders: are credits not shareholders
The stock broker: acts as en agent for the public and his paid a commission for his services. He is responsible not only for ensuring that the necessary paper work is done in connection with the share transfer: he has a duty to his client to ensure that he receives any dividends due to him.
Stock jobbers: are principals or wholesalers in securities; they are “risk takers” in the same way as any trader. They aim to sell at higher price than that at which they buy liabilities-debts-amounts owing
Assets: property which one owns
Assets ≠ liabilities
Nationalization: to nationalize: to take over private property for the state
A cooperative society: a business undertaking owned and operated by a voluntary association of persons or organisation in order to provide themselves with work and wages, or with goods.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
The retail trade: the section of trading involved in selling goods and services to the customer who is buying the for the personal use of his household
“Convenience” goods: (every day items like food, household sundries and newspapers)
FALSE COGNATES
In accord / in accordance
In accord with = in agreement with
In accordance with = carrying out, following, obeying
In accord with your plans, we shall leave at dawn
In accordance with your plans, we left at dawn
USED TO / TO BE USED TO
When used to is used with any form of the verb to be, it is, followed by a noun-equivalent.
When it refers to an action repeatedly done in the past but now no longer done, it is followed by the infinitive.
He used to play football when he was in primary school.
She is not used to doing her home work after 9 P.M
PAY / SALARY, WAGES
Pay is the most general term and can usually replace any of the other words listened here.
Pay is the money received for a person’s services and is a synonym for wages and salary.
Wages (often used in the plural) is the term used in referring to the payment of manual and mechanical workers, servants, shops assistants, clerks etc
Wages are usually paid weekly to even daily
Salaries are usually paid monthly to professional people, technicians, bank clerks, managers of companies.
Note, however that some professional people received fees
(eg : doctor and lawyers)
Therefore wages are paid for the work done, while salaries are paid for the post held.
ADVANCE / ADVANCEMENT
Advance: movement forward or money paid or lend before proper time
Advancement: development, progress, promotion
Mr John’s advancement of a country’s economic growth.
COSTUME / CUSTOM / HABIT / PRATICE
- Costume type of clothes worn at one time or in one area : clothes worn by an actor in a plan or in a film
- Customs taxes paid on goods brought into the country
- Customs practise of regularly buying goods from a certain shop : eg the greengrocer lost a lot of custom by charging high prices.
- A custom-an established usage of a group that is approved of
- Practises are established usages of groups of people, normally they are regarded with disapproval
- Habits are rather the usage of individuals, certain activities are established as habits eg habit of drinking, smoking, eating, habits.
DAMAGE / DAMAGES
Damage (uncountable noun) = injury, loss, destruction
The war caused much damage
Damages: money paid for loss or unjury
The court decided that the woman be awarded a thousand dollars damages
DELIGHTFUL / DELIGHTED
Delightful – bringing delight or pleasure to others
Eg a delightful book, experience girl etc
Delighted – highly pleased
I’m delighted you’re able to come
DEPENDANT / DEPENDENT
The word may be spelt either way when used as a noun
Students are advised to use ant
He is proud because he has many dependants
Dependent is an adjective
He is still dependent on his uncle
DEPRECATE / DEPRECIATE
Deprecate: express disapproval of
Eg Our English teacher deprecated our practice of completing our home work in the classroom.
Depreciate: speak slightly of, be little
It is very disturbing to depreciate someone’s efforts in a difficult situation
Depreciate: become lower in value
In recent months the value of the dollar has depreciated
DISEASE / DECEASE (d)
Disease (illness) is occasionally confused with deceased (death).
Decease (d) should be used only in legal
DISTINCT / DISTINCTIVE
Distinct: decided, positive, clear: eg the sear on his face is very distinct
Distinctive: showing the difference the distinctive features of a sound form a phoneme
DISTRUST / MISTRUST
To distrust a person means to have no faith in him, to be suspicious of him.
To mistrust a person means to have no confidence in him, to doubt him.
To distrust cannot have a reflexive pronoun as object
DUE TO / OWING TO
Due to is not a prepositional phrase because due is an adverb and must be linked to the noun or the pronoun it qualifies. The simplest rule is to avoid using due to at the beginning of a sentence and to check whether there is in the sentence a noun or a pronoun which due (to) eg the lateness of / the aeroplane was due to poor atmospheric condition
Owning to is used in other constructions to express the same meaning eg owning to her illness, she was absent.
EACH / OTHER (one another)
Each other should be used to refer to two people and one another should be used when the number is more than two why are you two girls always shouting at each other, the students were shouting at one another when the teacher entered the classroom.
BETTER: BEST
Better of two but best of three or more
Of the two girls, Jane is the better swimmer
John was the best swimmer in the village
CONSIDERABLE / CONSIDERATE
When considerable is used to describe persons, it means important, worthy of being considered; used to describe things and qualities, considerable means not a little, quite a lot
Considerate means thought of the feelings of others eg the old man is very considerate and gives his servants a holiday whenever their friend or relations come into the district.
Contagious / infectious, continuous
A disease is said to be contagious if it is spread by physical contact, eg leprosy
An infectious disease is one that spreads without physical contact eg influenza
- contiguous means adjoining, next (to)
- eg Cameroon and Gabon are contiguous
Continual / continuous
- continual : constant, perpetual is thought of as continuing without coming to an end eg there were continual interruptions
- continuous = connected without a break but having a definite debinnig and end A 737 Boeing is capable of five hours continuous flight
COUNSEL / COUNCIL
Council refers to a group of people who direct affairs or make plans especially of government
Eg a city council = general meeting of councillors
Counsel – advice eg the philosopher’s counsel
- a legal adviser
Eg the jury listened to counsel on both sides
Counsellor = a person who gives advice credible
CREDIBLE / CREDULOUS / CREDITABLE
- Credible : that can be believed likely
Eg the excuse for his long delay seemed very credible
- Credulous = too ready to believe things without proof easily deceived (by stories)
- Creditable bringing credit or honour upon
John’s rescueying of the little boy by night was a very creditable effort.
DESIRABLE /DESIROUS
Desirable: causing desire, very pleasing to be desired
Desirous: having a desire for
Most people are desirous of peace and happiness
Peace and happiness are most desirable
DEVICE /DEVISE
Device ( ) a plan, a design, a trick (noun)
Devise ( ) to plan, think out, invent (verb)
DISBELIEVE / UNBELIEF
1- Disbelief in : no belief in existence of : He disbelief in anything supernatural is indicative of this scepticism
2- Disbelief of : no belief in the truth of : The student’s disbelief of the teacher’s statement amazed us all.
Use unbelief in contexts relating to religion
Unbelief: refusal to believe; state of not believing in god
UNCOVER / EXPLORE / DISCOVER / INVENT
Explore: travel in an unknown country in order to find out what is there
Look carefully at something or consider something
Carefully in order to find out what is there
Discover: find something hidden or unknown
Columbus discovered America
Livingstone explored many parts of Africa and in so doing, he discovered the Victoria falls
Use to discover for a thing that was in existence but had now been found and use invent if something entirely new is found.
But the easiest solution for students is to remember that invent is connected with a new machine, tool or instrument, or a new method of doing something.
DISEASE / ILLNESS
The specific disease (often named) causes illness (state or period of being unwell). Thus, the disease is passed on, not the illness; the illness results from contracting the disease.
CHARACTER / CHARACTERISTICS / REPUTATION
Character – moral traits; eg he’s a man of good character
Reputation – opinion of one’s character held by others eg John is a boy of good reputation
Characteristic: special or distinctive traits eg one of is characteristics was a fear of publicity for his charitable deeds
PRIZE / PRICE / PRISE
Price: money for which a thing can be bought or sold, the price of a book.
Prize: something given to someone because he has shown that he is better than others. Eg win first prize in a race
Prise: open something by force. Eg I prised open the lid of the box
CHILDISH / CHILDLIKE
Childish – like a child: weak and foolish
Childlike – like a child: innocent, always the truth
CINEMA / FILM / PICTURE / THEATRE
A cinema is a place where films are shown
A theatre is a place for a dramatic performance
A film or picture is what is shown in a cinema
But picture = cinema; eg I’m going to the pictures (cinema)
COMPLEMENTARY / COMPLIMENT (any)
1) Complimentary – praising (eg a complimentary remark)
– given free advertising purposes eg : a complimentary ticket
2) In other cases. The word is complementary
REGARD / CONSIDER
Regard + object + as +being (usually omitted) + complement
Consider + object + to be (usually omitted) + complement
Eg. They regard him as (being) fit for promotion
They consider him (to be) fit for promotion
ADVICE / ADVISE
The noun is advice and the verb is advice
The mean opinion on how to behave or what to do
BESIDE / BESIDES
Besides, when used as a preposition, means in addition to, also, as well as : eg Have you other books besides these
Beside = next to, near, at the side of, compared with eg : you must sit beside your friend, here
Jane is only pretty beside Mary is outstanding beauty
BETWEEN / AMONG (ST)
The rule is that between should be used when two people or things are being considered, and among (st) when more than two are involved.
BORNE / BORN / TO BE BORN
She has borne him three children (p.p to bear)
She gave birth to twins but one was born deaf
BUY/ PAY / PAY FOR
When you are in town, buy me a pen. I’ll pay you when you come home. Or I’ll pay for it when I see you.
What is that you have bought? Have you paid yet? Or have you paid for it yet?
BURNED / BURNT
Use burnt as: the adjective: a burnt child, a burn her offering
The past tense (transitive) eg she burnt finger
The past participle eg have you burnt your lips
Use burned as: the past tense (intransitive). The fire burned all night
Figuratively: eg the desire for freedom burned in their hearts
CAREFREE / CARELESS
Carefree: without worry, any (antonym: careworn)
Eg The carefree little boy sang as he walked through the park
Careless: without close attention, negligent, indifferent careless.
Drivers are responsible for most accidents.
BETWEEN / AMONG / AMONGST
The rule is that between should be used when two people or things are being consider, and among (st) when more than two are involved.
UNEATABLE / EATABLE / EDIBLE (INEDIBLE)
Eatable : prepared satisfactorily as food
The yams have been so badly burnt that it is uneatable
Edible : capable of being prepared as food (the antonym is poisonous)
ECONOMICS / ECONOMICAL / ECONOMIC / ECONOMY
Economics: the science dealing with the production and distribution of wealth / economy = weath
Economic (adj) relating to economics: an economic crisis
Economic expansion, growth, system …
Economical = thrifty connected with the saving of money
Eg we must be economical in our house- keeping
EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT, EFFICACIOUS
Effective: having a striking or desired effect, bringing about the desired result. Eg he made an effective speech
The new measures to improve the discipline or the school have proved most effective
Efficient: working well, competent
She is an efficient (competent) secretary
Efficacious: producing the desired effect (usually remedy)
The use of the word is usually confined to drugs medicines
Eg The new drug has proved an efficacious cure for the disease
EMINENT / IMMINENT
Eminent: distinguished, important, highly respected of people
Mr Johnson is an eminent lecturer
Imminent: likely to happen soon, impending (of events)
It seemed that a danger was imminent
EXPENSE / EXPENSES
Expense = out lay, cost
The expense of running a car has risen in recent years
Expenses = (1) reimbursement for money paid in doing one’s duty eg car allowance, luncheous etc
The head clerk was offered eighty dollars a week plus expenses
Expenses = (2) money spent or needed in running a home: household expenses
Expenses = (3) money used or needed for bills
Doctor’s bills, school fees, club subscription and other similar
Expenses are often met by cheque
EXPERIENCE / QUALIFICATIONS / EXPRIENCES
Experience = practice in doing a particular job
Qualification = evidence (eg examinations passed) fitting a person for a particular job
Eg : details of qualifications and experience must be provided as soon as possible
Notes: a qualified teacher is one who has the necessary qualification to be recognized as a teacher, eg a teacher diploma, a university degree
An experienced teacher is one who has some years experience of teaching. A teacher may be qualified and have no experience or he may be experienced and have no qualifications
Well qualified and very experienced
Experience as a countable noun means occurrence, event : eg I had an unusual experience the other
Experiences (usually plural) means adventures
Experiences in the jungle have been exciting
EXTENDED / EXTENSIVE
Extended: lengthened, prolonged
Extensive: large, comprehensive
We have an extensive (large) garden
We are having our garden extended (made larger)
GENIUS / TALENT / SKILL / ABILITY
(1) genius = a very great and unusual capacity of the mind to create something new. A person with such a capacity
The more one studies Shakespeare, the more one realises that he was a genius
(2) talent a great ability or a particularly kind of ability Picasso showed great talent for painting
A genius contributes something great and lasting to human progress and achievement. His work is unforgetteable.
A talented man shows great competence and ability in doing something
Skill = the ability to do something well, the ability to be expert in doing certain work
Talent or skill? Most people can learn a certain degree of skill in one thing eg a hairdresser, a motor mechanic
Talent is much rarer and more valuable quality.
It is something which one is born with (grifted with) and cannot be cultivated. Skill, on the order hand, is a quality which can be shaped.
Ability: (innate) power to do something
Mr Dckfack has considerable ability, but he is lazy talent, skill genius, ability: ability is the word with the widest meaning
GIVE / PRESENT / GIFT
(1) give is the more common verb
Present ( ) is used to refer to formal occasions
You may give things to your friends or money to a beggar but an employer will present a valuable watch to an old employee who us retiring
Certificates and prizes are presented at a school speech day
The nouns gift and present are used in exactly the opposite way.
A person gives a present but presents a gift
A gift is reserved usually for more formal occasions
A present is given informally
GLANCE / GLIMSE
The words are frequently confused when they mean a “brief look”
Glance: a brief look at something. Glimse = a brief sight of
There is in sense, a passive element about glimse
A directs a glance at B A catches a glimse of B
INTENSE / INTENSIVE
These two words are synonymous only in certain contexts:
They are seldom interchangeable
Intense means very great, extreme
Intensive means concentrated deep and through
We say intense heat, intense pain, intense excitement but intensive study, an intensive programme, intensive preparation
LIE / LAY
Lay (laid – laid) is a transitive verb
Lie (lay – lain) is an intransitive verb
The hen has laid an egg
He has lain there dor and hour
LOOSE / LOOSEN
Loose = to unfasten to undo to release
He loosed the ropes that bound the prisoner
Loosen = make loose, to slacken
He loosened the ropes that bound the prisoner, thus allowing him to move his hands slightly
Lose = to cease to have, to mislay
I didn’t lose your book; I lent it to another person
You have to work harder in order not to lose your chance of success
LOSS / LOST
Loss : something that is lost (countable noun) the act of losing (an uncountable noun)
Lost : missing, no longest possessed (an adjective ; also the past tense and past participle of lose)
Your book cannot be traced, it is presumed lost
After the battle, the enemy suffered heavy losses.
LUXURIANT / LUXURIOUS /LEWD
Luxuriant means strong and abundant in growth, growing to excess (this term is frequently applied to vegetation, foliage, or hair and occasionally to language)
Luxurious means contributing to luxury splendid and comfortable.
Lewd – lustful, having strong sexual appetite
The hotel was very luxurious
The young poet had a luxuriant imagination.
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