PORTFOLIO WRITING 2: Sales and marketing messages (after Chapter 8)

Preparation: Find a sample sales letter and analyze the letter according to the AIDA (Attention-Interest- Desire-
Action) frame.

Your writing task: Write a sales letter (about 250-300 words) about a spa service or a summer tour for students.
You should apply the AIDA frame in your letter.

Don’t count your chickens: proverbs in English (2)

Let’s start with some warnings. A good one is ‘Don’t count your chickens (before they hatch/before

they are hatched)’. This means that we should be careful not to rely on something that we may not get or

that may not happen. A very similar proverb is ‘A bird in the hand (is worth two in the bush)’, meaning

that something we already have is more valuable that something we think we may get in the future.

A bird in the hand (is worth two in the bush): ” thả mồi bắt bóng” – ” đứng núi này trông núi nọ”

There are a few proverbs relating to being careful before you act. A simple one is ‘Look before you

leap’. Similarly, we say ‘Better (to be) safe than sorry’, meaning that it is best to be cautious if risk-

taking could have a bad consequence. If we want to warn someone not to try to do too much, we often

say ‘Don’t bite off more than you can chew’. We might warn someone to be strict with a child,

employee, etc., by saying ‘Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’, meaning that if you give them a

small amount of freedom, they will try to get much more.

Cẩn tắc vô ưu: ‘Look before you leap’. ‘Better (to be) safe than sorry

Được voi đòi tiên: ‘Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’

tham thực cực thân:  ‘Don’t bite off more than you can chew

Proverbs can often sound critical, especially if they are directed at the person you are talking to. For

instance, if someone justifies a bad action by saying that it was a response to another bad action, we

might tell them sternly that ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’. Similarly, when we say ‘People (who live)
in glass houses (shouldn’t throw stones)’, we mean that people shouldn’t criticize other people for bad

qualities they have themselves. And if someone complains that the poor quality of their work was caused

by substandard equipment, we sometimes show cynicism by saying ‘A bad workman always blames

his tools’.

Proverbs aren’t all moralistic; some of them are designed to make us feel better. For instance, if someone

is disappointed because they are making slow progress, we can say ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’,

meaning that worthwhile things often take a long time. Similarly, if someone is frustrated because they

can’t work out how to achieve something, we can say ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’, meaning that

if they want it enough, a solution will be found. And if someone is worried because something has gone

wrong or they have upset someone, we can say ‘You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs’,

meaning that it is impossible to achieve things without some bad effects.