2. Email writing
• Email writing has become a large part of modern
communication, particularly in business. The world has
become much smaller now that we have the ability to send and
receive email messages over great distances at an incredible
speed. Due to the ease of use it has the potential to be abused
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
and you should try to keep the following points in mind when
writing email.
2
3. How much should I write in an email?
• Email is meant for quick, simple communication. As a
general guide that means roughly 4 or 5 paragraphs at most.
Due to the limitations of formatting and layout, anything much
longer than that is probably best sent as a separate attachment
such as a Word file.
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
3
4. Do spelling and grammar matter in email?
• We think it does. Poor spelling and grammar show a lack
of attention to detail and sends the wrong message about
yourself and how you do business. Most email programs today
have built-in spell checkers so there is no excuse! You wouldn't
send a letter that was poorly punctuated and uses no capital
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
letters - why not make sure your email messages look
professional too?
4
5. Parts of an e-mail.
• To:
• CC:
• BCC:
• Subject:
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
• Body of an e-mail:
• Attachment:
5
6. To:
• To is used for email address of recipient.
• Here , sender can put more than one address.
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
6
7. cc & bcc
• There is a certain etiquette with email, especially in the use of
the carbon copy (cc:) and blind carbon copy (bcc:) fields. It is
courteous to add addresses to the 'cc:' field if those people need
to know about the subject but are not required to act on the
contents.
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
7
8. The 'bcc:'
• The 'bcc:' field is useful where discretion is required. People in
this field are concealed from other recipients in the 'To', 'cc:'
and 'bcc:' fields. They can themselves see others in the 'To' and
'cc:' fields but not the 'bcc:' fields.
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
8
9. Subject Line
• A newspaper headline has two functions: It grabs your
attention, and it tells you what the article is about, so that you
can decide if you want to read further. Email subject lines need
to do exactly the same thing! Use a few well-chosen words, so
that the recipient knows at a glance what the email is about.
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
9
10. Body of an e-mail:
• The body of a message contains text that is the actual content,
such as "Employees who are eligible for the new health care
program should contact their supervisors by next Friday if they
want to switch." The message body also may include
signatures or automatically generated text that is inserted by
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
the sender's email system.
10
11. Attachment
• Attachments are optional and include any separate files that
may be part of the message.
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
11
12. An Effective subject lines
can make an effective e-mail.
• Clarity
• Descriptive
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
• Critical information
12
15. e-mail Content
Before you start writing, ask yourself…..
• Is this truly the correct person
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
to contact?
• What is my goal?
• Should this conversation be
held in person or over the
phone? 15
16. e-mail Content
Use a polite and respectful
greeting and closing
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
Professor Anderson,…….
Respectfully,....
Sincerely,…..
16
17. e-mail Content
• Brevity and clarity
• Try to keep each email short
• Use paragraphs (5 sentences each)
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
• Use topic sentences
• One topic per email
• Provide important dates or references
17
18. Poor Email Content
Sohail,
Hey, I was just thinking about the meeting we had about the new
workshop you were planning for next week about resume-writing. I
think that we may have forgotten to include all of the students who
might benefit from this workshop. There are several groups of students
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
at the School of Public Health that were not on your list. Of course you
may have added them to you list since our last meeting. Sara from the
School of Public Health contacted me to ask if the students from the
Epidemiology program were on our list of included students. She also
wanted a list of all of the included departments from the School of
Public Health. Can you send me a list of all of the included student
groups? I can then send the relevant information on to Sara because she
needs this information by tomorrow.
Thanks,
Aiman
18
19. Better Email Content
Sohail,
Can you send me a list of the students included in the
resume-writing workshop by tomorrow?
We may have forgotten to include all of the students who
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
might benefit from this workshop. There are several groups
of students at the School of Public Health that were not on
your list. Sara from the School of Public Health contacted
me to ask if the students from the Epidemiology program
were on our list. I will send her that information tomorrow
after I get the list from you.
Thanks,
Aiman 19
21. Professionalism
• Always spell-check before sending
• Set your email program to
automatically check before sending
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
• Re-read email for other spelling,
grammar and punctuation errors
• Always proofread at least once!
• Read it out loud
21
22. Professionalism
• Complete the “TO:” line last
• Set your email program to delay
sending
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
22
23. Remember…
• Emails are permanent
M.A English Literature
Sohail Ahmed
• Emails are searchable
23
