Choose one of the bad news situations below and work together to think of as many different emails as you can to announce that thing to a member of the academic staff. Try to use a different reason and as different language as possible each time. When you have run out of ideas, decide on the best of those emails and then do the same with others below.
Changing someone’s duties (= someone’s responsibilities)
Changing someone’s office
Changing someone’s terms and conditions
Cutting someone’s hours
Documents only available in Japanese
Expecting unpaid overtime
Lots of deductions from salary
No annual bonus
No response to an email
No students coming to a lesson
Not paying national insurance (= social insurance)
Not renewing a fixed-term contract
Paying salaries late
Rooms being changed
Salary lower than usual
Turning down a holiday request
Turning down a sabbatical request
Turning down a request for funding
| Useful language
Giving bad news We regret to inform you that… I’m sorry to tell you that… I’m afraid… I’m sorry, but… Unfortunately,…
Giving reasons This is/ was due to… This is/ was because of… The (main) reason for this is… As you may be aware…/ As you probably know…
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Which of the situations above are most realistic for you? What other things do you sometimes need to say no to?
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PDF for easy saving and printing: Bad news emails to academic staff
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