Unit 9c Book

1. Introduction

Contracts are an integral part of our lives. There is a need for contracts whenever there is a commercial transaction between two or more parties, such as between a supplier and buyer, or a service provider and client. The contract gives a detailed proof (which can be used in a court of law if necessary) of what the parties have agreed to, and is especially important if something goes wrong, for example, if the supplier fails to deliver the agreed goods, and the dispute has to be settled by legal action.

Introduction from:

Bingham, C., Wright, L. (2013). Technical English level 4 teacher´s book. Pearson Longman, p. 94.

As the introduction above suggests, contracts are important. Therefore, Unit 9c deals with them from two perspectives: lexical, introducing the most important legal terms, and grammatical, explaining phrases used to express conditions. Before you immerse yourself deeper in the language of contracts, re-read the introduction and make sure you understand the words in bold. If not, look up their meaning in a good dictionary.

Contents

Vocabulary – Language of contracts: client, contractor, work, schedule, commence, terminate, etc.

Grammar – ways to express:

• conditions: if, provided that, on condition that, as long as, so long as, with the proviso that, should... fail...
• circumstances: in the event that, in case of
• precautions: in case
• the idea of “regardless of circumstances”: even if
• alternatives: otherwise

2. Forum 1: Contracts

What is your experience with contracts? Are they important or not? Answer at least two of the questions in this forum and respond to at least one contribution of one of your fellow students.

3. Reading and Vocabulary: Language of Contracts

As explained above, Unit 9c first deals with the language of contracts in terms of vocabulary. So, in the first part of this unit, you are going to come across a lot of legal terms either as part of some vocab matching exercises, or as part of listening/reading comprehension tasks.

First, complete this task to make sure you understand some basic legal terms. Then try to recall the context of Unit 9a. Do you remember? In that unit, the representative of Sigma Systems was offering a smart solution to a client, the company Widgett & Sons, which needs to have their company fully automated and secure. Before installing the automated system, the two companies need to sign a contract to make the terms and conditions clear. To prepare a draft contract, the Widgett director is now discussing its contents with the head of his legal team.  As you will see in this task, the contract terms are going to be full of conditions to be fulfilled, and you are simply asked to match each condition with its consequence. While completing this task, you can listen to the related recording, recording 25, if you wish.  Finally, you are going to see some extracts from the finished written contract in this reading comprehension task. This will give you an opportunity to compare formal legal terms with everyday language expressions. While reading, notice that the modal “shall” is used in legal documents where we would normally use “will”. “Shall” sounds more formal and adds a sense of obligation. However, “shall” in this context is not always used these days. For obligation, “must” is often used; for future time, “will”.

4. Grammar: Conditional Sentences

As contracts stipulate terms and conditions under which parties to a contract enter into a commercial relationship, it is logical that they are full of conditional sentences. Generally speaking, contracts say what will happen if a condition is/is not fulfilled. For example, what will happen if work is not completed in time. In order to revise this type of conditional and compare it with other types, study the first page of this grammar overview. Then revise the zero/first conditional by completing Task A and Task B.

5. Grammar: Expressing Conditions, Circumstances, Precautions, and Alternatives

In addition to if-clauses, there are also some other ways to express conditions. What is more, contracts do not stipulate terms and conditions only, but they often talk about other circumstances, specify some precautions and give alternatives. Therefore, some other expressions are also used:

• provided (that); on condition that; as long as; so long as; with the proviso that; should (not) + a clause
• in the event that + a clause; in the event of + a noun; in case of + a noun
• in case + a clause
• even if + a clause
• otherwise + a clause

The overview above gives these expressions in five groups based on their meaning. The problem is that not all of them can simply be replaced by the word “if”. This is because some of them do not express a condition, but a circumstance, precaution or alternative. Read about them in more detail on p. 3 of the same grammar overview mentioned in Section 4. Then do this task to see if you have understood this grammar point. After that, fill in the gaps in this follow-up task. Then, complete the follow-up memo from the Widgett director to the head of the legal team, confirming the six conditions discussed in Section 3 above. Finally, complete the gaps in this transcript and then check your answers by watching the video. The video deals with commercial disputes. However good your contract may be, when doing business, you may sometimes encounter disputes and of course, you wish to resolve them as smoothly as possible. This is what the video can help you with.

6. Grammar: Second Conditional

The sections above illustrated the language of contracts, which mainly uses the first conditional. But when general public talk about following or breaching the conditions stipulated in contracts, they may speculate a bit by using the second conditional: what would happen if… For example, what would happen if the work was completed late. Now revise the second conditional by completing these three tasks: A, B, C. Then think about some of the questions from Tasks B and C and answer them in this forum.

7. Word List

The key terms related to the topic of Unit 9c can be found:

• in the Excel format here.
• in the interactive flash card format here. This format is particularly good for drilling the new vocabulary.
• in a zip file here. This file is downloadable, so that after unpacking it, you can drill the new vocabulary on your desktop, laptop or any other portable device where you have a browser installed. Important: after unzipping the zip file, make sure to keep all the related files in the same directory at all times. Do not change any file names and do not transfer or delete anything.

Recommendation: Remember that the best way to learn new vocabulary is to see each new word in a context; that is, step by step as you complete all the tasks in the unit.

8. A printer-friendly version of Unit 9c

A printer-friendly version of Unit 9c exercises and the key to these exercises can be found here.