Business English Certificate (BEC) Higher Level C1 / writing / Part 2 / Practice test
Questions 2 - 4
• Write an answer to one of the questions 2 – 4 in this part.
• Write 200 – 250 words.
• Write the question number in the box at the top of the page.
Question 2
Sample 1
Your manager would like to improve the level of staff motivation in the company and has asked you to write a report giving details of current levels of motivation and suggesting ways to improve it.
Write the report for your manager, including the following information:
explaining how you assessed current motivation levels
stating the reasons for the current levels
suggesting ways to improve the situation.
Sample 2
Your manager is keen to introduce new practices into your company. He has asked you to write a report which includes details of two practices from another company which you would suggest adopting in your own company.
Write the report for your manager, including the following information:
what you admire about the other company
which two of its practices you would adopt
why your company would benefit from them.
Question 3
Sample 1
Your company employs a maintenance company to look after the computer system. However, their service has been unsatisfactory and your boss has asked you to write to the maintenance company to express your dissatisfaction.
Write the letter to the maintenance company, including the following:
explaining why you are not satisfied
saying what you expect the maintenance company to do
informing them what will happen if nothing changes.
Sample 2
Your company has employed an outside consultant to organise an exhibition of your products, to be held next month. His work is unsatisfactory, and your boss has now decided that you should take over full responsibility instead. Your boss has asked you to write to the consultant to explain why he has been replaced.
Write a letter to the consultant, giving two reasons why he has been replaced
telling him he will be paid for this work
asking him to brief you on the current situation
Question 4
Sample 1
Your manager would like to improve the administration system in your company and has asked you to write a proposal which includes details of two systems you would suggest adopting.
Write the report for your manager, including the following information:
explaining what each system does
saying which system would be most suitable for your company
describing how your company would benefit.
Sample 2
Your company has decided to conduct an investigation into the possibility of increasing the number of ways in which technology is used throughout the organisation. You have been asked to write a report about technology in your department for the Managing Director.
Write your proposal, including the following:
a brief outline of the current uses of technology in your department
a description of what technological improvements could be made
an explanation of the benefits these changes might bring
recommendations for the kind of training that would be necessary.
sample answers
QUESTION 2 / Sample 2
CANDIDATE E
Report on the introduction of new practices.
The report sets out to describe the most attractive features of the Olive Garden chain restaurants Staff Management policies and to suggest introduction of several items into the restaurant department of the Hinton Firs hotel. The presented information has been obtained during the Assistant Manager’s visit to the former company.
It was found that one of the American chain restaurants is exposed to an exceptionately innovative management that has recently developed a new policy in order to maintain high standards in all aspects of the service provided to their guests.
It seems that two of its recently introduced practices may be well borrowed and implemented in our business.
Firstly, all the waiting staff are exposed to a check-up before starting their lunch and dinner shifts so as to ensure maintenance of hygene and compliance with the company’s dress code.
Secondly, the evening briefings conducted on a regular basis in order to inform the staff about the basic changes in the menu and wine supplies have proved effective, and therefore could be applied in our restaurant department as well.
It is clear that a successful introduction of the two procedures is sure to reflect on the quality of such service in issues of the waiting staff’s better awareness and an improvement in the hotel’s image.
EXAMINER COMMENTS
Good organisation and realisation of the task set; all content points are included. Natural use of language with a wide range of vocabulary and reasonably accurate use of structure and cohesive devices.
Band 4
CANDIDATE F
The purpose of this report is to established which practices should we accept in our company from company “Johnson”. The company Johnson is well respected company in Europe. They own their succes to inovation and team work. This is a well organised company with 300 employees. All their employees know what is expected from them. The company is devided in to departaments; Production, finances, marketing and salles.
They have strict behavior rules which includes non smoking and clothing polici. Inspite of this strict rules there is an open-level management. Every two weeks the main director receves employees that come with new ideas and they are reworded if the idea is accepted. Johnson has also an complain service in which pesonel can come to express their dissatisfaction.
In our company I would strongly sugest that we also adopt open-level management where we could widen our prospectives and get new ideas.
I also reccomend complain service center where we could find out how to motivate our staff.
EXAMINER COMMENTS
Inadequate attempt at the task set. All content points addressed but not always adequately dealt with. Errors (particularly of spelling) are numerous and sometimes obscure communication.
Band 2
QUESTION 3 / Sample 2
CANDIDATE G
Dear Mr Putin,
My name is Donald Trump, I am an employee of a company Ardo, where you were employed. I have been given this unpleasant job of contacting you and explaining why you have been replaced. Another reason for writing you is to inform you that I will take over your responsibility and to ask for your help.
The reasons for your replacement are, as you can assume, that you didn’t know our products well enough. You obviously didn’t quite understand which are the features of our products that attract potential customers and what our marketing strategies are. This led to the lack of ideas that you had. We know that you introduced a few ideas, but we think you would agree that none was satisfactory. We hope that you understand why we decided so.
We confess that your failure to succeed is also our fault. We should have introduced you to our products better and we should have let you know what the objectives of our company are and which market strategies we use to achieve them. Taking all these factors into account, we agreed that we should pay you the work you have done.
I would like to ask you if you could brief me on the current situation. You probably know that it is extremely hard to start a project when someone was working on it before you, so I honestly hope that you will be prepared to assist me with your help.
I am looking forward hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely, Donald Trump
EXAMINER COMMENTS
Good achievement of the task set, mainly due to tone and content, which would have the desired impact on the target reader. However, there are some non-impeding errors and an occasional awkwardness in expression.
Band 4
CANDIDATE H
Dear sir,
Thank you for the work you have done to organise an exhibition. Most things are kept in order in the initial stage of the whole process and your job is confirmed and phrased by our boss to some extent. However, there still remains some shortcomings. As is known to all, you are a very excellent consultant in many respects. You have lots of experience in advising. But that it is based on outside conditions does not fit us very much. The policies, the strategies seem a bit different from what we own. And that causes some barriers among our people. So with the development of the process, the organising work may not be well done. To avoid such shortcomings, we may appreciate someone with local experience in the next stage of the process. Probably he will be helpful to the co-operative work, and accepted by the inside ones. He may not be as creative as you but somehow suits the situation now.
We will pay you according to your creative work and helpful advice and you will be thanked for your favour in our company.
As I will take your place and hopefully I intend to get some help from you. If you could brief the work on the current situation, I shall be very grateful. Thank you very much again.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards.
Angela Merkel
Company Adviser
EXAMINER COMMENTS
All content points are included. Reasonable register and Band 2 format. However, an ambitious attempt at language results in frequent impeding errors and lack of clarity.
Band 2
QUESTION 4 / Sample 2
CANDIDATE I
Purpose
As requested, the purpose of this proposal is to describe and analyse the possible use of technology in the Marketing Department.
Current use of technology Up to now the members of our department have taken advantage of technological equipment i.e. computers, in order to launch our products most successfully. Not only have we arranged promotional and advertising campaigns but we have also conducted market research via the internet so as to meet our consumers growing demands.
Technological Improvements In our work we have used computer software and hardware which has already become obsolete and urgently needs modernisation. Therefore, the purchase of up-to-date programmes and equipment is of prime importance.
Benefits There is no denying that these improvements will bring vast profits to the company. Our team will be able to work faster, more effectively and make greater use of technological innovations. Moreover, our company will be more likely to easily overcome fierce competition in the market.
Training It seems obvious that our staff does not possess the knowledge of how to use new software. Thus, training on the use of modern programmes would be recommended as necessary.
Conclusion To sum up, it seems obvious that the introduction of new technology into the Marketing Department will enable the company to gain huge profits. Our position in the market will be strengthened.
EXAMINER COMMENTS
Very good realisation of the task with good use of structure and vocabulary. Well-organised and cohesive with natural use of language.
Band 5
CANDIDATE J
The purpose of the proposal is to explain why our Design Department need to improve technology in our department regarding the introduction of more portable PCs and laser printers, and recommend some necessary training.
As designers in Design Department, it is our routine job to design our product consistent with the requirement of our clients. With the expanding of our company, we receive more orders. Most of our equipment, fax machines, color boards, etc. perform less help to us with our heavy workload. Our efficiency was affected.
There is therefore an urgent need for us to buy some more computers. Because, so many things can be done by computers, you can choose colors, textile types, etc on them. And it is amazing to see the whole process on computer. Furthermore it is faster and quality is improved too.
We usually attend some seminars or shows abroad. And we feel it is very inconvenient to take many design papers, and documents with us, and sometimes they are in a mess. So I think we should buy some portable computers for our designers, if possible.
Besides that, it is paramount for us to get the latest information from all over the world. We could get them through internet with our portable computers anywhere, any time.
As our routine work has little connection with computers and internet, most of us can’t use them freely. So it is necessary for us to bring in some training courses of computers and internet.
EXAMINER COMMENTS
Reasonable achievement of task set. All content points are included and the organisation is satisfactory. However, an ambitious attempt at the task results in errors of structure and vocabulary, although these are mainly non-impeding.
Band 3