Business Communication Portfolio

By Heidi Hernandez A01242143

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Written Evidence 3, Corrections

On the Reading Test Part 2 (Section 4), there are 6 sentences with multiple choices of words or phrases which complete the sentence, but only one does it correctly. On exercise number 13, the use of the word "away" is incorrect, since most of the time, the phrase "to turn away" means to physically move something from its initial position. The correct word would be "down", since "to turn down" means to reject, or decline.

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Written Evidence 2, Corrections

To complete the exercise, the gap must have been filled with an article, pronoun, verb, preposition, or other. 9 out of the 10 exercises the sentences were filled correctly, but number 2 was not. The sentence reads "The consultancy firm Brace and Nichols has put - blank - a plan for a complete restructuring of the company." Initially, I had used the word "out", but "put out" usually means to discourage. "Forward" was the word to use. It means a plan has been put into motion.

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BULATS

A reflection 

To say my BULATS performance was not what I expected would be an understatement. Though I would not say I was overly confident, I did believe I had a firm grasp on all three sections of the test, and felt that preparing beforehand was unnecessary. If I had the chance to retake the test, I would probably study a whole lot more, especially for the speaking section. 

Writing wasn’t particularly difficult, but I did struggle keeping up with the word count on the second part of the test. Speaking, however, was a completely different story. I began the test with a false sense of security, given the fact that it began with a set of personal questions, such as “Where are you from?” and “How do you spell your name?”. A simple pronunciation exercise followed, but the test soon turned more complicated, when the time to analyse graphs finally came. Reading and listening was easy though, and I managed to get a C2 grade. 

I did appreciate the test greatly, since it allowed me to see those areas in which my English could use more practicing. One can never get too confident when it comes to learning a new language. It’s a never-ending process.

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Speaking Evidence 3, Quiz  In order to complete the quiz shown above, the following questions needed to be answered:

- Why is it important to improve staff’s working conditions?

- How can working conditions be improved without increasing costs? 

The main ideas were expressed clearly, with cohesion and coherence, but something to take away from the video is how redundant my answers were, particularly the one about improving staff’s working conditions without increasing costs. By the very end of the video, the word “company” was used twice in a short period of time, making the speech sound repetitive and sloppy. The words “enterprise”, “business”, and “corporation”  could have been used instead.  

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Speaking Evidence 2, Chart Analysis

On the exercise shown above, several charts are presented for discussion. There are 6 questions regarding the sales department and its change in travel budget, income, and amount of visits provided to costumers. On the audio file, the first three questions will be answered, in order to demonstrate the correct use of introductory, descriptive, and linking phrases (relating to the information on a chart or graph).

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Speaking Evidence 1, Pronunciation 

The second exercise of our second partial exam consisted of reading an article about whether it is possible to train to be an entrepreneur, and to answer several questions regarding the text. For this portfolio, however, I decided to read paragraphs A and B of said text, as an exercise in pronunciation.  

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Written Exercise 1

During Reading Test Part 2 (Section 4): Exam Practice, exercise number 3 instructed we read the email shown above, cross out the wrong word in each line, correct it on the right side gap, or put a tick instead, in case there were no mistakes. The majority of my answers and corrections were spot on, but on line number 9, the word possible should have been replaced with "possibility" instead of "possibly", since the man writing the email intended the reader to know, that in case she still found the prospect (possibility) of distributing her products across Europe interesting, to let him (the writer) know.