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Emails are a written form of communication using the internet. Using this form of communication to achieve the desired result in an optimum manner forms the crux of this article.
Fact 1. There are 3.9 billion email accounts (and counting).
The email writing process involves a code of conduct that guides behavior when writing or responding to emails. Formal emails at the workplace are meant to project professionalism and efficiency.
Fact 2. Employees spend a third of their work time processing the inbox.
Good email writing practices help develop an individual’s interpersonal skills, increase accountability at work, bring clarity in the workflow and help in better understanding of the sender.
Here is a simple thought process that could help you achieve what you want:
Have you pondered the purpose of composing this email?
Do you practice writing emails giving a background?
Are you genuinely reasoning out the current situation?
Do you come forward to seek help?
Have you offered any help or additional information?
As an email user, are you following the best practices in email writing?
Emails should be written in a way that they are read and not trashed. The practices that we use to write such emails can be divided into pre-email writing, the actual email writing process, and post-email writing.
Pre-email writing
As the name suggests, it involves understanding the context or the reason why an email is to be written. Keeping oneself updated about the context of the previous conversations or the discussion related to the topic is important. These relevant conversations could be written in any instant messaging tool or spoken over a coffee. Keeping these insights in mind can help to avoid ambiguities and confusion later.
Classification of some types of emails based on the reason why they are written:
Instructional example: An induction or welcome note email sent by an employer to a new employee.
Request example: An employee requesting a particular software installation in his computer to the IT department of his company.
Planning example: In the leave application, reroute the tasks while you planned to go on leave.
Complaint example: A complaint email was sent to HR as the employee’s access card is not functioning properly.
Email writing
Case study: Leave Application email sent by the employee “Sujeet Manohar” to his manager raghavan.s@abcmail.com” with a cc to the HR personnel “ Divya_HR@abcmail.com” and team member “Vivek.Gupta@abcmail.com” working for company ABC.
1. It is good to have professional names as your Email address as it is the first glimpse of the professional YOU. Sometimes, the addresses are auto generated by the system or the employer.
“Reply All” is used when everyone in the email thread needs to see the sender’s response.
CC i.e, “Carbon Copy” is used when the sender of the email wants the current thread recipients to know others are looped in.
BCC or “Blind Carbon Copy” is when the recipient is sent an exact copy of the message, but their email is hidden from others.
In the “Reply” And “Reply All” options the original message is included but not the attachments.
The “Forward” option is used when the sender wants to reply along with the attachments from the original message. It allows the sender to type in a whole new set of recipients.
Case study illustration:
To: raghavan.s@abcmail.com
Cc: Divya_HR@abcmail.com, Vivek.Gupta@abcmail.com
2. Subject line should explain in a couple of words the reason for writing the email. It should be able to intrigue the interest of the reader to an extent where he opens the email to go through the details.
Case study illustration:
Personal leave application from 02.11.22 to 08.11.22
Fact 3. After 24 hours, the chance of an email being opened is 1%
3. Email opening includes addressing your recipient by their preferred name and setting the tone for the email by using professional greetings and introducing the reason for writing the email in a concise manner.
Case study illustration:
Hi Raghavan
4. Email body should have clarity about the topic and should not be confusing. Keeping in mind that the recipient may have a busy schedule, the explanation should not beat around the bush resulting in the main idea getting lost in the long explanation. It should be concise and to the point.
Ex. Use of bullet points is a good practice, use of shorter blocks of text to make the explanation visually appealing and improving readability is also recommended.
Case study illustration:
I appreciate you connecting with me today.
As we had discussed, I would like to go on a leave starting from Wednesday, Nov 2nd to Tuesday, Nov 8th to take care of my personal activity.
As mentioned, Vivek has come forward to be the point of contact during the time of my absence. Just so you know, Vivek and I have been working closely for the last four (4) months and he has complete knowledge to handle escalations. Also, he has developed a good rapport with our client and will take care of the weekly status update as well.
I am copying Vivek as well in the email if you need any additional support.
In case of any emergencies, you may reach me at +91- 12345 67890. Please expect some delays in my response to emails.
5. Email ending is the end of the email with a brief salutation. You can either invite your recipient to reach out for more questions, wish them success, reiterate a question, or make a request to which you want the recipient to revert to.
Case study illustration:
Looking forward to your approval. Thank you for your time.
6. Email Sign-off should be appropriate to your email content and your recipient. It is the logical end to the email.
Case study illustration:
Best Regards
Sujeet Manohar
7. Email signature/footer(optional) is your professional email signature and/or links to the social media sites you are most active in.
Post-email writing
1. Double-check attachments while sending and receiving emails. Check for viruses when receiving emails and make sure you have attached the right document and informed the receiver about the same in the email before hitting the send button.
2. Proofread the email for spelling and grammar. Reading aloud sometimes helps the ears to catch errors that the eyes have missed while reading. Avoid using emojis. Double-check on the alignment, fonts (font style, color, size), and the highlighting of the quotes.
3. Word the emails in a manner such that if the same email was addressed to you, would you be able to read and act on it accordingly? Would you like to be the recipient of such an email?
4. Before I type the address of the recipient, I type the email completely and proofread it so that if I do press the send button mistakenly while typing it is not sent partially. I also follow the same practice in case I have some documents to be attached to the email.
5. Avoiding shortcuts instead of using complete words is highly recommended.
Example.
⛔S ✅Yes
⛔U ✅You
⛔Btw ✅Between
⛔2moro ✅Tomorrow
⛔Defn ✅Definitely
⛔YW ✅You’re welcome
⛔Dunno ✅Do not know
⛔IDK ✅I don’t know
⛔LMK ✅Let me know
Practice makes perfect. Good email writing practices will help effective and efficient workplace communication
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Now that we have a glimpse into the window of email writing, what have been your main takeaways from this article?
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