Writing an effective Email

Emails are an important tool in all business and professional communications.

Emails allow you to communicate with people and transfer files from one place to another rapidly.

Professor William Strunk Jr said, “An email should contain no unnecessary words, and no unnecessary attachments, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”

When to use an Email?

The following situations/conditions are appropriate for an email communication:

• When trying to contact a person who is difficult to contact through a telephone, or is not working in office premises.
• The person to be contacted lives in other geographical area of the country or world.
• The type of information being passed on is not time-bound, as it may not be necessary that the response to email is instantaneous.
• An electronic file has to be sent such as files for training course, a proposal or report, data for analysis etc.
• Information that has to be sent quickly to large number of people such as an internal mail to employees of the company.
• Information for which documentation is needed such as receipt or product, email communication that can be referred back to etc.

When not to use an Email?

•      The information is elaborate and requires explanation and discussions, which are best done in a meeting or a face to face interaction.
•         The information is not to be shared with a third person. Confidential matters are better discussed in a meeting and not through emails.
•       The information is emotionally charged and can be misunderstood.

      A backup copy of your email is always stored on a server and easily retrieved when required; even deleted emails can be retrieved. 

 Structure of an Email

 E-mail ID:

• Person’s included in the “To field” are intended recipients, and should reply if the message requires them to reply.
• Persons in the “cc field” are not the intended recipients and the email is meant only for their information. They are not expected to reply to the email. If response from a particular recipient is needed, it should be made clear in the mail itself.
• When the email has been marked to many recipients, there is a possibility that nobody replies thinking that the other person might have already replied. In such cases, it is better to use “reply to All”, so that everyone knows that the reply has been sent and therefore does not duplicate the information.

Subject Line:

• Subject line should be clear and concise because when someone scans through a new mail, the only thing he/she read is the subject line. What’s written in the subject line will make the recipient read, forward or trash the mail.
• Subject line should be a summarized one liner of your email message.
• Subject line should be short.
• Emails should not be sent with empty subject lines.
• Do not write ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ in the subject line, unless the whole intent of the email is to say hello.

Greeting:

• The first line of the email should be an appropriate greeting. It should be followed by an empty line and then the message body.
• When emailing someone for the first time, use hello followed by name instead of dear (name). Dear should be used for people you already know.
• Be careful with salutations When sending emails to people in different countries or of different cultures.
• Use “Ms.” Instead of “Miss” or “Mrs.” if you are not sure.

Opening of an email:

• The first paragraph of the mail is very important in setting the context and also makes the reader decide whether to read ahead or not.
• Inverted Pyramid Style approach is followed in writing the mail, which means that the most important information should feature first and the less important information should come secondary based on the order of their importance.
• This approach helps to keep the email short and to the point.

Attachments

•       Attachments should be sent only when necessary
•        Large attachments should be compressed
•        All attachments should be scanned for virus before sending

Signature

• They are used at the end of the email to indicate the sender’s name, position and contact details.
• The signature should be updated
• Use of artwork, philosophical sayings, jokes and/or quotations is permissible, but should not be overdone
• Signature should be kept under or at five lines
• The signature should be changed every once in a while

Replies

•        Emails should be replied to promptly at least within 24 hours or the same working day.
•        For complicated emails, acknowledge the receipt of the mail, and convey that you would get back to them within a short time.
•       When you reply an email with an attachment, and want the attachment to go along with your email, it is better to ‘Forward’ the message than to ‘Reply’ or ‘Replying all’ button, the attachment would not be included in the email.
•        Do not forward or reply to virus hoaxes and chain letters.
•         If you reply to spam or unsubscribe, it means that your email ID is live, it would promote more spasms. Therefore, you should delete these rather than replying to them.
•        Before replying, evaluate if email is the right medium. Emotionally charged situations should not be handled through emails, a one to one meeting is better.

Page layout

The page layout should be such so as to make an email easy to read.

§  Paragraphs should be kept short, limited to few sentences a piece.

§  Two paragraphs should be spaced with blank lines.

§  Use short and easy to read sentences. The sentences should be kept to a maximum of 12-15 words.

§  Messages should be short enough to be displayed on one page or one screen (approx. 20-30 lines)

Personal use of emails

When using emails for personal matters, you should be careful as it is not a secure medium. If you don’t want to make your persona information public, then don’t include the details in the email.

Using appropriate language while writing effective emails

• Do not use smiles when addressing seniors, it indicates a casual attitude.
• Abbreviations should be used with caution.
• Non-standard punctuation and spellings should not be used in business communications.
• Do not use all caps, it means that you are shouting, even if you don’t intend to do so.
• Active voice should be used instead of passive voice. 

Proofreading your message

Before sending out your emails, take an extra minute to proofread your email.

Proofread for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Poor spelling and grammar indicate a lack of attention to detail, throwing negative light on you and the way you do business.

Emails with incorrect spellings and grammar mistakes create a bad impression about the sender and his company.

Do not rely on spell checkers, it may catch a few typing errors but not all spelling and grammatical mistakes.

The right tone of your email

A professional yet conversational tone is mostly effective and appropriate for business emails. The tone of the email should be based on the position and level of the recipient in the organization.

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      The emails should be polite and positive. An email with criticism, disrespect or negativity may generate resistance in the reader. Impolite and negative mails tend to sound abrupt and angry.