E-mail Writing

• By studying this chapter, students will be able to:

Learning • Learn the rules of writing emails.
Objectives • identify different parts of an email.
• Recognize and analyze the formal and informal emails.
• Spelling and grammar mistakes, abrupt tone, overreacting or
simply not answering questions can all make readers judge your
e- mails in a negative light.

E-mailWriting • Therefore, take the time you need to get it right.

• Below are some key distinctions between formal and informal

writing, as well as some guidelines to follow when composing a
formal email or someone who does not know you:
• Informal:
• Written to friends and family.
• Accuracy and grammar (spelling and punctuation) are not
important.
• You can make up your own rules
Informal vs.
• Example:
Formal E- mails
• Hi Arifa, I miss you so much! Can't wait to see you on Friday!! We
haven't hung out in so long! I miss my bestie! Maybe we can go
to the movies or dinner or just chill and watch TV and catch up...,
whichever you want. Love ya, Jamila
2. Formal
• Written to a professor, colleague, boss, etc.
• Accurate grammar, punctuation, and spelling
necessary

Informal vs. • Must always be professional

Formal E- • Example:
mailsCont. Dear Professor Ahmadi,
I was unable to attend class today due to a doctor's appointment.
When you have a moment, could you please let me know what I
missed and what homework I need to have completed for Friday?
Thank you,
Farid Kamal
• If you email someone for the first time (i.e. a new contact), s/he will
open your email on the basis of:
1. your email address
2. how your name appears in their inbox
3. your subject line
Choose a
Suitable Email • Your Email Address
• Your email address reflects your level of professionalism.
Address Avoid any of the following types of address:
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected] (i.e.VeronicaWhite)
• Instead, clearly differentiate your first name from your last name.
• Here are my personal and work
addresses:
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
Choose a
suitable email • On the other hand, if I wrote my address as follows (i.e. not
given name + family name), it might be much more difficult for
address Cont. my recipient to locate me:
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
2. Check how your name will appear in your recipient’s inbox

• If your recipient uses Gmail, then the first time your recipient receives
an email from you, the first two words of how you choose your email
name will appear, in my case Hekmatullah Morshidi.
Choose a • In future emails, it will appear with just the first word.
suitable email • This means that if you have chosen the name Prof. Adrian Wallwork,
address Cont. then in future emails your recipient will just see the word Prof.

• Consequently, when choosing your name as it will appear in your

recipient’s inbox, do not add any titles.
3. Avoid a spam-friendly email address

• Before choosing an email address and name, look through your

spam.
Choose a
•
suitable email Note the kinds of addresses that are found there.

address Cont. • Make sure that yours does not look similar in type.

• Not having a suitable email address will increase the likelihood

that your email will end up in your recipient’s spam
• Email has different sections that each part should be composed
according to some rules.
How to write
an e-mail? • In the following slide, we shall discuss how to compose a well-
organized email.
• Email, like any written communication, has a specific audience.

• The "To line" is reserved for the primary audience of the email,
those who are directly affected or need the information contained
in the message.
The ‘To line’
• Sending email to people who do not need the information
creates unnecessary email traffic if someone responds who
should not respond, or if someone creates a fuss over receiving
the email unnecessarily (Martinez 2008. p. 34).
• This stands for "carbon copy’”

• When you want to send a copy of your email to other people,

you keep their email addresses in the “CC” field.

• By doing this, you are keeping those people in the loop of your
email communication.
CC or cc:
• Anyone who is kept in the CC loop can see the email address of
the person who is kept in the “To” field, and as well as the email
addresses of all other persons who are kept in the CC field.

• Also, when the main recipient in the “To” field replies to your
email, he has two options: 1) Either reply to you only or 2) To
reply to all, keeping everyone in the CC loop informed.
• As the name suggests, Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) is a way to send
a copy of email to your recipients without letting any party
know who else is in this loop.

• It means that the Copy of the e-mail message is sent to a recipient

BCC or bcc whose address cannot be seen by other recipients.

• This is useful where confidentiality is required.

• The subject line is often the most overlooked or dismissed part of
email.

• A subject line establishes priority in an inbox.

Subject line • As a reader scans over the list of numerous emails every day, the
subject line often determines what will be read now versus later,
or maybe never at all.

• A good subject line is specific, clear, which tell the reader

exactly what the email contains, matches to the contents of
the email.
Poor choice of words: Better choice of words:

Project A Update on Project A at end of week 30

Subject Line New Process

New Hiring
implementation
Process immediate

Cont.
Request for information Request for software development update

(Martinez et.al, 2008, p. 21).

1. A good subject line should be written from the recipient’s perspective

2. be pertinent to the recipient ‘not just to you’

3. encourage the recipient to open the mail itself
Subject Line 4. indicate to the recipient whether s/he needs to open it
immediately or later
Cont.
5. easily searchable and retrievable by the recipient
6. concise
7. give a very clear indication of the actual message
❖ Ensure that your subject line is not spam friendly

• Very generic subject lines often cause an email to end up in the spam.

• This is particularly true if they are combined with a generic salutation

at the beginning of the email.
Subject Line • Below is an example of a mail from a teacher in Iran that was marked
Cont. as spam by Gmail.

• Subject line: kindly appreciate your help

• Dear sir,

• I’m an English teacher and for a writing course I have been asked to
teach your precious book on writing papers (English for Writing
Papers). I deeply appreciate your kindness if you could guide how I
can teach this book.
❖ Ensure that your subject line is not spam friendly Cont.

• Interestingly, the email address of the sender was an academic

one (@alumni.ut.ac.ir), which highlights that Gmail focuses on
the text of the mail rather than the address of the sender.
Subject Line
• A more effective email that would not have ended up in my trash,
Cont. would be:

• Subject line: English for Writing Papers – help with

methodology

• Dear Adrian Wallwork,

• I’m an English teacher and …

• The salutation of a formal email is similar to the salutation of
a letter.

• When writing to someone you do not know by name, you put

"To Whom it May Concern."

Salutation
• When applying for a job. you would address the person by,
"Dear Hiring Manager."

• You should write the last name "Dear Mr./Ms. Smith." For a
formal salutation, you should not use the recipient's first name
or the informal greetings "Hello" or "Hey"
❖ Avoid gender titles (e.g., Mr. Mrs.) in first email to new contact

• It may be difficult to establish someone’s gender from their

first name.

• In fact, what perhaps look like female names, may be male

names, and vice versa. E.g., Kenta, Kota, Yuta are all male names
Salutation in Japanese.
Cont. • In addition, many English first names seem to have no clear
indication of the sex e.g. Saxon, Adair, Chandler, Chelsea.

• And some English names can be for both men and women e.g.
Jo, Sam, Chris, and Lesley.
❖ Avoid gender titles (e.g., Mr. Mrs.) in first email to new contact

• So be careful how you use the following

Salutation titles:
Cont. • Mr – man
• Ms – woman (marriage status irrelevant)
• Mrs – married woman
• Miss – unmarried woman
• If you really consider it essential to use a title, then the safest
option is to use Mr. or Ms. for males and females respectively.

Salutation • In some cases, it may not be clear to you which is the person’s
Cont. first and last name, e.g., Stewart James.

• In this particular case, it is useful to remember that Anglos

put their first name first, so Stewart will be the first name.
❖ Use ‘Dear + first name + last name’ only in the first contact

• If you were writing to me (the author of this book) for the first time you
would write:

• Dear Adrian Wallwork

Salutation
Cont. • But you would not use this formula for every subsequent email that
you write, i.e. you would not write Dear Adrian Wallwork in your
next email.

• Depending on the level of formality that you wish to maintain and

also depending on how I sign myself in my reply to you, then you
would probably write:
❖ Be careful of PunctuationYou can punctuate the salutation
in three ways:
• Dear Adrian Wallwork,
• Dear Adrian Wallwork:
• Dear Adrian Wallwork
Salutation
• i.e., with a comma, with a colon, or with nothing. Whichever
Cont. system you use, you always begin the first line of the body of
the email with an initial capital letter. Example:

• Dear Adrian,

• Thank you for getting in touch with me

…
• It is important to remember that an email needs to be concise.

• The first sentence, known as the opening sentence, can be a

Body greeting if the situation allows it.

Paragraphs • I hope all is well with you.

• Thank you for your prompt response.
❖First of all, in American style, the bottom line should be up front.
Different information can be included in the bottom line of an
email such as:
Body
Paragraph/s • State what is expected as a result of the email.
• Tell what information the email contains and how it should be used.
• Ask for specific information.
• The second thing according American style is that they also
expect pertinent details to follow, explaining the initial bottom
line statement.

• Depending on the subject, you should have a maximum of four

paragraphs and each paragraph should contain a single point.
Body • At the end of your last paragraph, you should provide a "thank
Paragraph/s you" or call to action" depending on the subject of your email.
• Thank you for your assistance with...
• Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing back from
you.
• Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions.
• I would appreciate it if this could be taken care of promptly.
• Like the salutation, the closing of a formal email can be the
same as the closing to a letter. However, unlike the salutation,
there are more options for a closing.
• Thank you
• Best regards
• Sincerely Yours

Closing • The closing is then followed by your full name. It is also

beneficial to add your job position (if applicable) and phone
number under your name in the 4th paragraph. Example:
• Sincerely,
• Jawid Karimi
• Student Kabul University
• (0093) 789553135
❖ If in doubt how to end your email, use Best regards

• There are many ways of ending an email in English, but the simplest
is Best regards.

• You can use this with practically anyone. Best regards is often
preceded with another standard phrase, for example Thank you in
ClosingCont. advance, or I look forward to hearing from you.

• Note the punctuation. Each sentence ends with a full stop, apart
from the final salutation (Best regards) where you can put either
a comma (,) or no punctuation.
• I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks in advance.
• Best regards, Best regards
• Adrian Wallwork Adrian Wallwork
• Don’t use a sequence of standard phrases in your final salutation

• Imagine you need to ask someone for a favor. When writing to

North Americans, British people, Australians etc, normally two
ClosingCont. phrases would be enough in your final salutation. For example:
• Thank you so much in advance.
Best regards
Syed
Hameed
Dear Naib,
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere
appreciation of any help you may be able to give me.

ClosingCont. I thank you in advance.

I remain most respectfully yours,
Best regards
Syed Hameed
• Ensure your signature contains everything that your recipient may
need to know

• What you include in your signature has some effect on the recipient’s
perception of who you are and what you do. It is generally a good
Signature idea to include most or all of the following.
• Your name
• Your position
• Your company
• Your department / division / branch
• Your phone number
• You email address
• Attachment should be referred to in the introduction.

• Generally, the attachment is supplemental to the email; however,

if the attachment is the document that is to be used, then the
email body should be brief and relied on only as an introduction
to the attachment. For example:
Attachments
• Attached is the new hiring process document, which contains the
new hiring form and directions for using this form. This process is to
implemented for all new hires beginning April 11, 2020.
• Please print or save this document for future use and reference.
• Many in- boxes have limits on the size of files that can be
submitted or received via email.

• As a rule of thumb, do not send attachments over five megabytes.

Attachments
Cont.
• When multiple files have to be sent as attachment, it might be
better to break up the delivery into several emails or use
compressed or zipped folders.
• Consider not sending an attachment to someone with whom
you have had no previous contact

• Some people do not appreciate receiving attachments from

Attachments people with whom they have had no previous contact.
Cont. • You can avoid sending attachments by giving the recipient a
link where, if they wish, they can download your document.
• Always tell your recipient when you have attached a document

• Be explicit in stating that you have attached a document, otherwise

your reader may not notice. You can say:
• Please find attached sales forecasts for next year.
Attachments • Attached are sales forecasts for next year.
Cont.
• Use the word attached rather than here is / are.
Example:
• Here is the sales forecast for next year.
• When replying only to the sender of an email, restrict information
in the reply to only that which pertains to the subject of the email.

Reply • Do not bring up a whole new subject because that person is

someone who is looking forward reading only response of the email.
• To use this feature when simply saying "thank you'", "will do",
or "sounds good", create unnecessary email traffic on a server
and clogs in-boxes with emails that have no value.

Reply All
• Even when welcoming a new hire, forward a response to only
the new hire and not the entire list.
1. Write a clear, descriptive subject line that encourages the
recipients to open and read it.
2. Make the overall purpose and message of the email clear in the
Rules to write first couple of sentences.
an effective 3. Break the email into extra-small, manageable chunks to support
email effective skimming.
4. Keep the email short and concise so it can be read quickly.
5. Use correct spelling, grammar, and parallel sentence structure.
6. Proofread and make sure the text says what is intended
7. ALLCAPS implies yelling
Rules to write 8. Don’t use contractions. For example, don't, haven't, I’m, isn’t…
an effective 9. Make sure the tone of the message is not too abrupt or offensive,
email especially for those who have a tendency to be direct.

Cont. 10.When replying to a request, provide enough context l ensure that

the response is clear.
11. To save the reader time, include information in the body of the
message rather than as an attachment. If attachments are included,
make sure the reader has the appropriate software to view the
content.
12. Verify you have included all attachments.
Rules to write 13. When using e-mail to send a cover letter and resume to a potential
employer, compose the e-mail, let it sit for an hour or so, have a
an effective friend read it, and then re-read it aloud before sending it.
email 14. E-mail content is subject to disclosure and is often forwarded beyond
the intended recipient. Never e-mail content that doesn't have
Cont. appropriate information.
15. Never use email when a face-to-face dialog is needed. Do not use it
when a formal document is required; it does not carry the status of a
formal report.
• Theprofessional world uses a variety of written forms of
communication.

• As a technical writer, we need to learn new techniques and get

familiar with the formats. The format of a technical document is
changed based on different situations.
Summary • In the form of information age, email has become the dominant
form of communication.

• Being able to write a polished, professional emails now a

critical skill both h and the workplace.
ThankYou! Questions?