A Study Of Negative Information Conveyance In Business Letter Writing From The Perspectives Of Cooperative Principle And Politeness Principle

The world needs more and more communication; the business field is not an exception. Business writing plays an important role in building and developing business relationships, cooperating with business partners, dealing with transactions, and maintaining goodwill. However, not all of the business letters can fully serve their purposes---some of them may fail in playing their functions. This is especially the case when conveying negative information in the business letters. The main reason is that people usually pay more attention to "what to express" than "how to express". Improper communication sometimes may cost the company the potential customers,which in turn will bring economic losses. In light of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle, the two important principles in pragmatics, the author analyzes by cases how to write polite and effective business letters conveying negative information.The author first reviews the research and achievements in Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle, then combines the principles with the nature, functions and characters of business letters, along with the analysis of sample letters, finally gets the conclusion: the two important principles in pragmatics are important guides in business letter writing, which deserves much more attention and should be flexibly exercised in daily practice.