EMAIL WRITING

PART-1
 When is email the appropriate form of communication to use?

• Email is a good way to get your message across when:

• You need to get in touch with a person who is hard to
reach via telephone, does not come to campus regularly,
or is not located in the same part of the country or world
(for instance, someone who lives in a different time
zone).
• The information you want to share is not time-sensitive.
• You need to send someone an electronic file, such as a
document for a course, a spreadsheet full of data, or a
rough draft of your paper.
• You need to distribute information to a large number
of people quickly (for example, a memo that needs to
be sent to the entire office staff).
• You need a written record of the communication
WHEN IS EMAIL NOT AN APPROPRIATE FORM OF
COMMUNICATION TO USE?

• Email is not an effective means of communication

when:
• Your message is long and complicated or requires additional
discussion that would best be accomplished face-to-face.
• For example, if you want feedback from your supervisor on
your work or if you are asking your professor a question
that requires more than a yes/no answer or simple
explanation, you should schedule a meeting instead.
• The information is highly confidential.

• Email is NEVER private! Keep in mind that your message could

be forwarded on to other people without your knowledge. A
backup copy of your email is always stored on a server where it
can be easily retrieved by interested parties, even when you
have deleted the message and think it is gone forever.

• Your message is emotionally charged or the tone of the

message could be easily misconstrued. If you would hesitate to
say something to someone’s face, do not write it in an email.
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Example;
A message like this one might be OK to send your
friend, but not to your professor:
Hey Joan,
Do you know what the assignment is about? Can U help
me?
M
To ensure that your message has its intended effect,
use the following questions to help you think about
your audience and their needs:
• Who is your audience? How often does your audience use
email to communicate?
• What is your audience’s relationship to you—for example,
is the reader your teacher? Your boss? A friend? A stranger?
• How well do you know them? How would you talk to them
in a social situation?
• What do you want your audience to think or assume about
you?
• What kind of impression do you want to make?
IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE
EMAIL

• Subject Lines
• One-word subjects such as “Hi,” “Question,” or “FYI” are not
informative and don’t give the reader an idea of how important
your message is.
• If your message is time sensitive, you might want to include a
date in your subject line, like “Meeting on Thurs, Dec 2”.
• Think about the subject lines on the email messages you receive.
• Which ones do you think are most effective? Why?
GREETINGS AND SIGN-OFFS

When in doubt, address someone more formally

to avoid offending them. Some common ways to
address your reader are:
• Dear Professor Smith,
• Hello, Ms. McMahon,
• Hi, Mary Jane,
If you don’t know the name of the person you are addressing, or if
the email addresses a diverse group, try something generic, yet
polite:
• To whom it may concern,
• Dear members of the selection committee,
• Hello, everyone,

• If you don’t know the reader well, you might also consider including your
title and the organization you belong to; for example:
• Mary Watkins
Senior Research Associate
Bain and Company
• Joseph Smith
UNC-CH, Class of 2009
For your closing, something brief but friendly, or perhaps
just your name, will do for most correspondence:
• Thank you,
• Best wishes,
• See you tomorrow,
• Regards,
• For a very formal message, such as a job application,
use the kind of closing that you might see in a business
letter:
• Sincerely,
• Respectfully yours,
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE SENDING
AN EMAIL MESSAGE

• Is this message suitable for email, or could I better communicate the

information with a letter, phone call, or face-to-face meeting?

• What is my purpose for sending this email? Will the message seem important
to the receiver, or will it be seen as an annoyance and a waste of time?

• How much email does the reader usually receive, and what will make them
read this message (or delete it)?

• Do the formality and style of my writing fit the expectations of my audience?

• How will my message look when it reaches the receiver? Is it
easy to read? Have I used correct grammar and punctuation?
Have I divided my thoughts into discrete paragraphs? Are
important items, such as due dates, highlighted in the text?

• Have I provided enough context for my audience to easily

understand or follow the thread of the message?

• Did I identify myself and make it easy for the reader to respond
in an appropriate manner?

• Will the receiver be able to open and read any attachments?

A TYPICAL ORGANIZATION OF AN EMAIL IS SHOWN
BELOW;
• "From" Field (Sender)
• "To" Field (Recipient)
• Subject Line
• [Optional] Cc to some people and/or yourself
• Message
– Greetings
– Main Text
– Closing
– Signing Off with Your Name
• [Optional] Signature
• [Optional] Attachments
ELEMENTS OF AN EMAIL
Julie, Bob, and Rajiv
As I mentioned at our meeting last week, I want to get your response to an idea
about changing the way we distribute print docs with our systems. I’ll be meeting with
Ann in Marketing next week and I want to be sure I can represent our views effectively.
The idea is to stop including the Getting Started brochure and the User’s Guide
in the box. Instead we’ll include a post card that customers can use to request these
two docs, at no cost. Of course, the two docs will remain up on the site as PDFs. And
we’ll still include the setup instructions on the poster.
A recent thread on TECHWR-L on this technique suggests that it can reduce the
number of docs that we need to print by 70-85%. That’s good, of course, in terms of
print runs, as well as shipping costs. Before I run the numbers on cost savings,
however, I want to get a sense of what you think about the idea from the perspective of
the customer. Do you think that not including the docs will make a bad impression? Will
it increase problems when they set up the printers?
We won’t have final say on whether to adopt this idea, I’m afraid, but I want to
make sure our voices are heard. After all, we know more about the customer
experience than anyone else at the company.
Please respond by email to all of us by Friday at noon. Thanks very much.
Regards,
 Following Netiquette
• Stick to business
• Use the appropriate level of formality
• Write correctly
• Don’t flame
• Don’t forward a message to an online discussion forum without
the writer’s permission
FOLLOWING IS AN EXAMPLE OF AN EMAIL
THAT VIOLATES NETIQUETTE GUIDELINES.

• The writer is a technical professional

working for a microchip
manufacturer.
 EMAIL THAT ADHERES TO NETIQUETTE
GUIDELINES
THE FOLLOWING ARE GUIDELINES
ON EMAIL COMMUNICATION
• Consider how your email is viewed by its recipient by putting yourself in a
recipient's shoes.
– Make it sure that a recipient of an email can know who is its sender
immediately upon delivery of the email.
– For example, your full name should appear together with your email
address on the "From" field.
– You should also use an official email address unless the email is for
private communication.
– Have the full name of the recipient with her/his title (e.g., Sir, Dr. and Lt.
Commander) appear on the "To" field.
• Write an informative, yet concise subject of the email on the
"Subject" line.
• Focus on only one topic per email.
• Write a salutation at the beginning of a message in the email
and closing words at the end of the message.
• State clearly at least an objective of the email in the first
sentence.
• Proofread your email and double check it before sending it.
• Try to revise an email at least a few times.
• It would be better to fill a recipient's email address in the "To"
field after double checking.
• Use plain text.
• Do not write lengthy sentences, lengthy paragraphs and
lengthy email.
• Try to make them unambiguous, yet concise.
• Do not send an email when you are emotional.
• Review the email after you calm down and double checking
whether the email is objective.
• Do not attach too many files nor a large file.
• Do not write confidential information
• Do not use too casual words such as slangs and non-technical
abbreviations (e.g., "BTW" and "lol").