Letter 2

Dear … ,

I wish to express my deep gratitude to you for your invitation to parti­cipate in the XIX International Symposium on … to be held in … in early June 2005.

I very much regret to inform you, though, that I have to decline your invitation because our experiment is in full swing and cannot be de­layed. I am sure you can understand it.

With kind regards,

Sincerely,

Name

Letter 3

Dear Prof …,

I very much appreciate your kind invitation to participate in the VII Conference on … to be held in Oxford. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend.

Had your invitation reached me a little earlier, I would have been able to attend the Conference and meet my colleagues. But I am now com­mitted to giving a series of lectures to graduate students and cannot change the schedule.

All best wishes for a successful Conference.

Sincerely yours,

Name

Letter 4

Dear Dr. … :

I was very glad to receive your letter of March 17, 2005 and to know about your intention to establish a new journal. May I wish you good luck and great success with your journal I am grateful to you for your kind suggestion to collaborate with your journal but I am afraid I will not be able to submit articles as my field of activity has nothing in com­mon with the issues being raised in it.

However, as you requested, I have contacted some researchers who deal with these problems. They informed me of their willingness to publish their papers in your journal. Attached you will find a list of their names and addresses.

If I can be of any further help to you, please contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Name

Enclosure: list of names and addresses

Here are some more samples how to decline an invitation:

Thank you for your invitation to … but I regret that I am unable to accept it as … .

I am sorry to decline your kind invitation … .

It is with great regret that I have to decline your invitation to … .

I regret to inform you that I am not in a position to accept your invitation to … .

I regret that I will be unable to attend the conference because of my illness.

I regret to inform you that I will be unable to attend the conference due to

personal circumstances.

I regret that I cannot … .

I regret I must … .

I am sorry to inform you that … .

TASKS

1. Write a letter in which you:

a) express your gratitude for the invitation to …;

b) express your regret for declining the imitation because of some circumstances.

2. Write a letter in which you:

a) inform the sender that you have received the letter of (the date)

b) express gratitude for the invitation to …;

c) express regret as you have to decline the invitation because … .

III. Letters of Request

A request usually consists of a request phrase, a reason for the re­quest and an expression of gratitude.

TASKS

1. Read the samples and notice phrases and sentences that express a request.

Letter 1

Dear Professor... ,

I would be pleased to accept a 200-word abstract of your article ‘Bio­logical Nitrogen Fixation’ for publishing in ‘Chemical Abstracts’.

We look forward to receiving this abstract as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Name

Editor-in-Chief

Letter 2

Dear Madam,

‘Physical Abstract’ carried an abstract of … . I would very much ap­preciate having a reprint of this paper and kindly ask you to send it to me at your earliest convenience.

With best wishes,

Name

Letter 3

Dear Professor … :

Dr. … has shown me your letter requesting reprints of papers on fluo­rochemicals. This is within my area of active research, and I am keenly interested in the developments of electrochemical fluorination. I am eager to know what research has been done in your country in recent years.

It would be a great honor for me to correspond with you and other researchers in your country and to exchange reprints.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Name

Laboratory of Fluorination, Chief