If you want to practise and develop your knowledge of English vocabulary for Business and Administration, you will find that the exercises of this course will help you. They are particularly useful if:

- You work, or are planning to work, in or around an English-speaking business environment.
- Your work brings you into regular contact with English-speaking business people.
- You are planning to take a Business English examination such as BEC Vantage/Higher, TOEIC, or one of the LCCI (London Chamber of Commerce and Industry) International Qualifications, especially 2nd, 3rd or 4th level Business.
- You do not work directly in Business and Administration, but your job requires you to have a working knowledge of common business words and expressions.

If you want to make the most of the exercises of this course, you should note the following:

- This is not a course book, and you do not need to work through it 'mechanically' from beginning to end. It is better to choose areas that you are unfamiliar with, or areas that you feel are of specific interest or importance to you.
- Write down new words and expressions that you learn. Develop your own personal vocabulary 'bank' in a notebook or file. Review these words and expressions on a regular basis so that they become a part of your 'productive' vocabulary.
- Use a good general-English dictionary and a good business-English dictionary to check the meanings of new words and expressions (but try to do the exercises first before looking in the dictionary). Many of the examples in this course have been taken from the Macmillan English Dictionary (ISBN 978-0-333-96847-5) and the A&C Black Dictionary of Business 4th edition (ISBN 978-0-713-67918-2).
- The exercises of this course either focus on general business vocabulary (for example, phrasal verbs, formal words, words with similar meanings, etc) or topic-specific business vocabulary (for example, sales and marketing, recruitment, dispute resolution, etc). However, you should be aware that not all of the vocabulary is exclusive to business and administration, and not all of the topic-specific vocabulary is exclusive to that particular topic.
   For example, 'commission' appears in the section on Earnings, rewards and benefits, but it could also be applied to Sales and marketing.
- The keys not only have answers for all of the exercises, but also provide you with other relevant information. For example, they give you alternative answers, provide more words and expressions that are not featured in the exercises themselves, explain what some of the words and expressions mean, and elaborate on some of the topic areas.
- The course does not contain every single word or expression that you are likely to meet or to need. You should therefore try to develop your vocabulary further by reading from a variety of other resources, such as newspapers, magazines, journals and books. As a reference source, the author particularly recommends Business – The Ultimate Resource, published by A&C Black (ISBN 978-0-713-67509-2).

We hope that you enjoy doing the exercises of this course, and that they help you to practise and develop the Business and Administration vocabulary that you need.