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If you work in an office, you probably
write emails every day
–
to
colleagues, to your boss,
to clients.
Even if you’re still at college, you’ll need to
email your lecturers once in a while
(maybe to plead for an essay extension,
or to ask for help)
–
and
many employers now
expect resumes and
cover letters to be sent by email.
So,
being able to write a professional, business-like
email is a crucial skill. Daily Writing
Tips has already covered the
email subject line
, but the
body of your message also matters.
1.
Start with a salutation
Your
email should open by addressing the person you’re
writing to. Sure, you can get a
way
with leaving out the salutation when
you’re dashing off an email to your friend, but
business-like messages should begin
with:
?
?
Dear Mr
Jones,
or
Dear Professor
Smith,
(for someone you
don’t know well, especially if
they’re
a superior)
Dear
Joe,
or
Dear
Mandy,
(if you have a working
relationship with the person)
It’s fine
to use “Hi Joe”, “Hello Joe” or just the name
followed by a comma (“Joe,”) if you
know the person well
–
writing “Dear
Joe” to one of your team
-mates will
look odd!
2. Write in short
paragraphs
Get straight to
the point
–
don’t
waste time waffling. Split your email into two to
four short
paragraphs, each one dealing
with a single idea. Consider using bullet-points
for extra
clarity, perhaps if you are:
?
?
?
Listing several
questions for the recipient to answer
Suggesting a number of alternative
options
Explaining the steps that
you’ll be carrying out
Put a
double line break, rather than an indent (tab),
between paragraphs.
3. Stick to one
topic
If you need to write
to someone about several dif
ferent
issues (for example, if you’re giving
your boss an update on Project X,
asking him for a review meeting to discuss a
payrise, and
telling him that you’ve
got a doctor’s appointment on Friday), then don’t
put them all in the
same email.
It’s hard for
people to keep
track of different email threads and
conversations if topics are jumbled
up.
4. Use capitals
appropriately
Emails should
follow the same rules of punctuation as other
writing. Capitals are often
misused. In
particular, you should:
?
?
?
?
Never write a
whole sentence (or worse, a whole email) in
capitals
Always capitalise “I” and the
first letter of proper nouns (names)
Capitalise acronymns
(USA,
BBC, RSPCA)
Always start
sentences with a capital letter.
This
makes your email easier to read: try
retyping one of the emails you’ve
received in ALL
CAPS or all lower case,
and see how much harder it is to follow!
5. Sign off the email
For short internal company emails, you
can get away with just putting a double space
after
your last paragraph then
typ
ing your name. If you’re writing a
more formal email, though,
it’s
essential to close it appropriately.