"How to Write a Proper Email" Video Lecture | Learn and Master: Business Writing - Communication

do people respond to your emails in the
way you want them to or do they seem to
ignore them or miss important
information and are you sure that you're
making the best possible impression with
your emails when you compose an email
message there are some simple rules that
you can follow to ensure that your
emails make a positive impression and
get you the response you want in today's
session we're going to learn how to
write a proper email by following some
simple steps let's get started one
do you have an informative subject line
email subject lines are like newspaper
headlines therefore you should be as
specific as possible
one word such as high 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 for example
marketing meetings scheduled for
Thursday December 2nd a good and
informative subject line is about five
words but no more than 7 to do include a
formal greeting salutation is always a
good idea to start your email the
salutation will discuss three good
practices to follow the first practice
is to when in doubt address someone more
formally to avoid offending them for
example do your professor Smith or hello
ms McMahon or even hi Mary 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 such as to whom it may concern or
dear members of the selection committee
or hello everyone
the second good practice is to stay away
from using sir or mister unless
absolutely certain that your
correspondent is a male and when it
comes to addressing females it is safer
to use MS rather than miss or misses in
certain settings such as academia and
your doctor should be used rather than
gender specific citations the third good
practice is to be careful to regard
cultural differences for example in the
United States you can usually get away
with the first name but Germans are
quite formal 3 do write separate emails
or separate paragraphs for multiple
topics you need to address
miscommunication can occur if an emails
disorganized or just too long and
complex for readers to easily follow
here are 3 easy steps to create clear
and organized emails first briefly state
your purpose for writing the email in
the very beginning of your message
second use paragraphs to separate
thoughts or consider writing separate
emails if you have many unrelated points
or questions after each paragraph add a
line of white space by clicking enter
two times to visually separate
paragraphs and do separate blocks of
texts and third use bullets to note
important details so that they are easy
to pick out
for right with formal spelling grammar
and punctuation email communications are
a reflection of who you are and emails
with excessive spelling and grammar
errors may come across as you being lazy
uncaring by your image and
unprofessional here are three tips for
maximizing your email writing first
avoid using text message abbreviations
especially for a professional context
second avoid using multiple punctuation
marks such as two or three exclamation
points or a combination of multiple
exclamation points and question marks
lastly reread messages before you send
them to demonstrate that you put time
and thoughtfulness into your email
always check for proper grammar spelling
capitalization and punctuation 5 do
write with a proper tone tone is a
difficult thing to explain it is easy to
change your tone when you're speaking
however when you're writing it's very
hard to do your email tone should come
across as respectful friendly and
approachable not Curt or demanding here
are a few tips to ensure you write with
a proper tone first you should always
avoid language that could be perceived
as blaming instead of saying you didn't
post my exam score think about writing
I'm having trouble locating my exam
score second if you're writing to
someone you've communicated with before
you might want to begin by saying I hope
you are well this starts the email off
right demonstrating concern for your
email recipient and third well some
people regard email as a rapid and
informal form of communication others
view email assembly a more convenient
way to transmit a formal letter such
people may consider an informal email
rude or unprofessional
six do you provide context when asking
or responding to questions it's
important that you add context to your
email content when asking or responding
to questions why well because not doing
so can lead to reader confusion here are
two good tips to add context to your
emails first if you're asking a question
cut and paste any relevant text into the
email so that the reader has some frame
of reference for your question and
second when replying to someone else's
questions it can often be helpful to
either include or restate the sender's
message it is not a good idea to simply
respond with a one-word answer such as
yes or no additionally if the questions
are too complicated to answer by email
then request a face-to-face meeting or
phone call with the sender 7 do not
attach unnecessary files you should send
attachments only when absolutely
necessary otherwise it demonstrates a
lack of courtesy to those you are
emailing when sending attachments you
should consider the following issues
first know your receiver and consider
whether it is okay to send a file then
if you must send a file only attach
files in a format that you know the
other side has the software to view 8 do
not use bold read texts or caps
generally bold read text and caps should
be avoided the reader may be unable to
accurately detect which parts of the
message are especially important and
thus may be confused as to what you want
him or her to do with your email you
should only use boldface type or capital
letters to highlight critical
information such as due dates in summary
it is better to simply avoid using bold
caps or read text rather than to risk
the negative consequences
9 do not use emoticons in business
communications although the use of
emoticons to do smiley faces has the
potential to make the emotional meaning
of an email clearer the reality is that
these symbols are not well accepted in
business communication
this means emoticons have the potential
to reflect poorly on the sender besides
have you ever sent a smiley face only to
realize it was received as the letter J
or some weird symbol emoticons can
produce another layer of confusion they
don't always read the same way across
different technical interfaces therefore
it is not a good idea to use emoticons
to express yourself when sending emails
especially when communicating with
anyone other than your close friends and
family such as business professionals
work colleagues or professors it is
always important to be professional 10
do include a closing statement and email
signature your closing is extremely
important because it lets the reader
know who is contacting them there are
two parts to the closing your closing
statement and your email signature first
let's discuss your closing statement
prior to signing your name you should
include a brief but friendly closing
statement some common examples include
thank you
best wishes see you tomorrow and regards
for a very formal message such as for a
job application use the kind of closing
that you might see in a business letter
such as sincerely or respectfully yours
okay so now let's discuss your email
signature your email signature includes
your name and any relevant identifying
information at a minimum always sign off
with your name at the end of your email
if you know the reader well then your
first name only is appropriate if you
don't know the reader well you might
consider not only
including your first and last name but
also including your title and the
organization you belong to 11 do not
overuse the high priority and reply all
features there are two features in an
email in particular the high priority
and the reply all features that you
should use sparingly and only when
necessary if you overuse the high
priority option it will lose its
function when you really need it
meaning if you flag many of your emails
as high priority your readers will come
to believe that that's just how you
write emails and not all them are truly
priorities so before you fly in emails
high priority ask yourself is this truly
urgent or do I just prefer a quick
response now let's discuss the reply all
feature when you reply all it should be
because every single person who received
the original email needs your reply this
will eliminate receiving excessive
unnecessary emails to filter through in
most cases replying to the sender alone
is most appropriate when you're in doubt
as to whether or not to use the high
priority or reply all function your best
option is to not use them at all 12 do
use blind carbon copy or BCC when
sending email to many recipients who
don't know each other
blind copying emails to a group of
people can be useful when you don't want
everyone on the list to have each
other's email addresses the only
recipient address that will be visible
to all recipients is the one in the to
field you should use BCC when sending
email to many recipients who don't know
each other such as when you're sending
mass distribution emails here's what you
should do if you don't want any of the
recipients to see the email addresses in
the list first put your own address in
the to field then put everyone else's
address in the BCC field
13 do not carbon copy or CC to eat a
ttle he tattling is the act of
intentionally copying several people on
an email that should be meant for their
shipping it alone in order to point out
a mistake or wrongdoing in business
correspondence that people copied are
usually managers supervisors or clients
in an academic setting the people copied
are usually teammates and professors
this approach will most likely cause
problems with ongoing relationships
teamwork efforts cause embarrassment and
hurt feelings eat idling will do nothing
but reflect negatively upon you and your
ability to communicate in a professional
manner so how do you handle eat idling
at work if you do not get the response
you desire then simply pick up the phone
first or meet personally with the
individual involved to resolve the issue
14 do you have a professional email
address
while acute or risk a email address can
seem clever among a group of friends it
can send the wrong message to admissions
offices hiring managers potential
colleagues or partners and other
business professionals meet when
creating a professional email address
keep it simple and straightforward use
variations of your first middle and last
name if you're really attached to your
current address and don't want to change
it consider adding a second one for
professional use only and finally 15 do
not use email for sensitive or
confidential matters you should know
that email is never never never private
any email including those claiming to be
private is often compared to a postcard
in that anyone who comes in contact with
it can read it it is important to 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
we can be easily retrieved by interested
parties even when you have deleted the
message and think it is gone forever
instead of putting sensitive information
into an email it is better to make
contact either by phone or in person
regarding your confidential matter we
hope you have learned that writing
proper emails is an important and
necessary skill to learn the
consequences of writing poorly written
emails are always the same
that is a poorly written email leaving
equally poor impression
you