Professional emails

Professional emails

Lady Susan M. Holman

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1. Types of emails

7. The body

2. Parts of an email

8. The closing

9. The signature

3. Confidentiality

10. Attachments

4. The subject line

5. The greeting

11. Revise

6. The opening

12. Example emails

4 Types of Emails

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No-Reply Email

Open-Ended Email

Action Email

Inquiry Email

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parts

CC & BCC

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Confidentiality

• Your e-mails are not private.

Therefore:

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subject

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The Subject Line

• The subject line is the first thing the target receivers see when sorting through their in-boxes.

Therefore:

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greeting

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The Greeting (Salutation)

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Always open your email with a greeting. For formal or business e-mails, use the first name or initial and the surname:

If you’re contacting a company, or don’t know the individual’s name, you may write:

If you’re contacting someone you know well, such as a colleague or coworker(s), you can be less formal:

opening

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The Opening

• Begin with a line of thanks.

• Find any way to thank target receivers. This will put them at ease and it will make you appear more courteous.

For example:

purpose

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State Your Purpose

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• State your purpose in the opening sentence.

• Don’t write a long introduction; don’t tell a story. Skip the niceties.

• People are busy and just want to know what you want, so state that in the first sentence.

body

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The Body

• Be brief but polite. Tell them exactly what you want, in as short an email as possible.

• If your message runs longer than two or three short paragraphs, reduce the message or provide an attachment.

• Remember to say "please" and "thank you," and mean it.

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Write About Only One Thing

• If possible, don’t overwhelm the target receiver.

Because…

• If you write about multiple things, with multiple requests, it is likely that:

• Stick to one subject, with one request. Once that’s done, you can send a second email.

if...then

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Use “If …Then” Statements

• To avoid back-and-forth exchanges and save time, anticipate possible responses to your email.

• Give a desired action for each possible response.

For example:

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Keep It Professional

closing

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Professional Closing

• How do you properly end an email? It’s a simple question, yet so many people are not sure about what is proper email etiquette.

• In the business world, ending an email professionally is just as important as perfecting the rest of the message.

• Simply follow a few basic rules of professional email conduct.

remarks

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The Closing Remarks

• Courtesy is always important, no matter how short the email is. Before you end your email, write something like:

In addition…

• Include an accurate follow-up statement:

• If a response is required, specify what & when.

closing

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The Closing

• Use a professional closing:

• For more casual emails:

• For more formal emails:

sign

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The Email Signature

• Your email account can automatically add these data to the bottom of the email:

• A professional signature makes it easy to contact you.

• Steps to creating an email signature in Gmail:

attach

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Attachments

• If there are any attachments, mention them in the email so that the receiver knows to look for and open the files.

• Appropriately name the attachments so that the receiver knows what each document is just by reading the file name.

revise

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Review

• CLARITY: Once you’ve written an email, take a few seconds to read over it before pressing the Send button. Read it as if you were an outsider — how clear is it?

• AMBIGUITY: Are there any ambiguous statements that could be interpreted the wrong way? If so, clarify.

• LENGTH: As you review, see if you can shorten the email, remove words or sentences or even paragraphs.

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Check ... and then check again

• Before you hit the send button:

• Edit and proofread. You may think you're too busy to do the small stuff, but your reader may think you're careless, unqualified, or unprofessional.

• Review and spell-check your email one more time to make sure it's truly perfect.

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Finally

samples

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Email samples

• Sample #1: Job interview thank you

• Sample #2: Job application cover letter

• Sample #3: Request for an update

elf info

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For more information:

www.elprograms.org

@ELPrograms

English Language Programs

English Language Programs

elprograms@georgetown.edu

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