How To Write An Email | Communicaid - Communication Skills Blog

Need Communication Skills Training? Click Here.

Jan 15

Email Etiquette 4|Did you Get My Email?

One of the downsides of email as a form of business communication is that we hit the send button and then are never quite sure what happens next. Has the message gone through? Has it been read? What does your reader think? Are they going to get back to you? And the all important – when?

Email Etiquette 4 – Did you Get My Email? business writing, professional email writing, email writing skills

As the use of email has developed rapidly and is now used by practically everyone, users, both for business and personal reasons, do not always know how to behave as senders and readers. Common courtesy would suggest we should respond to emails in a reasonable timeframe. A general rule of thumb is that if you are unable to respond within 24 hours, you probably need to send a holding email to let the sender know when you will be able to provide a full answer. Obviously if it is an email from a customer it is in your interest to impress them with your rapid response times and demonstrate your competitive edge.

What is acceptable etiquette for follow up or chase times when communicating by email? We have all been frustrated by those ‘Did you get my email?’ telephone callers or colleagues in the office that break your train of thought, usually as we have just started reading the same email or are trying to finish off something we consider to be more important.

When sending an email we need to remember that our priorities are not always the same as our readers’ and we need to be sensitive to their schedules and workloads. Of course, there may be times when you just need a quick yes or no response but in this case why not just call or speak to the other person in the first place?

If you really need an urgent response an apologetic ‘I know you’re really busy but…’ will help but you should generally give your reader at least a couple of hours if not the whole 24 hours to respond to your email. At that point, it is always worth following up; apart from anything else, emails do occasionally get lost in the ether or stuck in spam filters. Your recipient may not have been at their desk and might need to ask another team member to respond to you or may not have realised the urgency of your request. But, perhaps before you chase, consider how urgent your email really was, you may want to tick the task off your list and move on but if you don’t need the information urgently then allow your reader more time to respond.

Here are some quick email writing rules that should help you navigate the minefield of the now ubiquitous email:

1. Be Clear and Concise
Before you start, decide what you want to say and be very clear and unambiguous.

2. Be Polite
Just because you need to be clear and unambiguous does not mean you should forget your manners. A polite “Hi” and “Best wishes/All the best”, etc. at the beginning and end of the email can make a world of difference to how your email is received and how you are perceived.

3. Pick up the phone!
It’s far easier, gets you the answer you need more quickly and helps enormously to build goodwill and rapport with the person on the other end. Try it – it works!

4. Read up on the subject or get some training
There are lots of useful websites that go into more detail on the subject of email etiquette and how to get your message across. Professional Email Writing training courses are also another avenue organisations use to develop the interpersonal skills of their employees.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2011

Share|

Tagged with: business writing • communication skills • effective email writing • how to write an email • professional email writing • writing skills for professionals

Nov 18

Business Email Etiquette 3|Structure Matters

Email Writing Skills, Writing Skills No Comments »

We use email as a quick and immediate form of communication and often neglect the rules of structure that we would apply to a more formal professional document. How we structure and format our professional emails has a real impact on our audience and can make our messages much more readable and digestible for the recipient.

Business Email Etiquette 3|Structure Matters, email writing, professional email writing, how to write an email, email etiquette

A well laid out and structured email is much easier to follow and is more likely to have the desired effect than a message that is a stream of text with no white space or clarity of structure. Following the simple tips below will help you to improve the structure of your emails making them more readable and manageable for your audience.

1. Use paragraphs in the same way you would in any other professional document and make sure you have a clear beginning, middle and end with a line space between each paragraph. Ideally each paragraph should have two or three sentences.

2. Open and close your emails just as you would a professional letter. You can be slightly less formal but still need to address your reader and sign off at the end – a simple “Hi” and “Thanks” will produce a remarkable response from the recipient of your email.

3. If your message is longer than a couple of lines use headings to add clarity. Avoid using all capitals or underlining but use bold to make your heading stand out. Questions often make good headings, particularly if you are giving instructions. What do I need to do next? or What does this mean for me?

4. If you are listing documents or instructions bullet points will improve the clarity of your message and make it easier for your reader to digest. Use simple bullet points and make sure you are consistent with their format

5. Use attachments for detailed information rather than making your email any longer than a page. Your recipients can then read the key information but come back to read the details in the attachment at a later stage if they need to.

Websites have lots of useful information on how to structure your emails correctly. Organisations also run business email writing courses for their employees as they seek to ensure that their employees protect the brand.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

Share|

Tagged with: Effective business writing • email etiquette • email writing skills • how to write an email • professional email writing

Nov 17

Business Email Etiquette 2|Do you Suffer from Ccitis?

Email Writing Skills, Writing Skills 1 Comment »

Email has become the default method of business communication for almost all organisations but many professionals will admit to having a love-hate relationship with their inbox. One thing that most of us would agree on is that we would like to receive fewer emails. An easy fix that would enable us to help each other to reduce the size of our inboxes is to use the CC function more sparingly and to consider more carefully if we need to copy other recipients into our professional correspondence. Having excellent professional email writing skills isn’t just the ability to write well but it is also about being courteous to your audience by observing simple rules of email etiquette.

Business Email Etiquette 2 – Do you Suffer from CC-itis?, email writing skills, how to write an email,

‘CC-itis’ has become a modern day malaise with many employees copying managers and colleagues into their correspondence whether through laziness, lack of consideration or a desire to cover or sell themselves.

You know you are suffering from ’CC-itis’ if you:

Copy in your recipient’s superior to show them you are annoyed or frustrated with the recipient
Copy someone into an email as a means of telling your recipient that this person is going to do something for them without having the consideration to check with them first
Copy in your superiors or peers to show that you are working
Copy in a number of parties that may or may not be interested parties

It is still ok to use the CC function to:

Let someone know that you have contacted the recipient as requested
Signal that you have dealt with something so that person in CC doesn’t need to
Inform the recipient that the person in CC will be looking after their concerns in your absence
Keep others informed of developments on projects they are involved in when they don’t need to do anything

Employees who remedy their symptoms of CC-itis either through their own personal development or through attending professional email writing training courses will find that they gain respect from their colleagues and are seen as efficient communicators.

Share|

Tagged with: effective email writing • how to write an email • professional email writing • Writing an email • writing skills for professionals

Nov 17

Business Email Etiquette 1|Be Concise

Email Writing Skills, Writing Skills 1 Comment »

A crucial element of professional email etiquette and an essential means of showing courtesy to your reader is keeping your messages concise and to the point. We all receive emails that ramble on, giving us more information than we need but often leaving us unsure of the actual message we need to digest and what the sender wants us to do. Writing concisely will not only save your reader time but will also save you time as you will be less likely to need to chase, clarify or follow up on your original email. Concise emails are read more quickly, actioned appropriately and appreciated by the recipient. Be warned – you risk irritating your reader by sending unnecessarily long and complicated emails.

Business Email Etiquette 1 – Be Concise, Email writing, business writing, how to write an email

Below are some simple tips to help you to keep your emails short and to the point.

Do…

Use the active rather than passive voice. The CEO will attend the presentation is better than The meeting will be attended by the CEO.
Remember that imperatives are ok. Please return this form by Friday close of business is better than I would appreciate if you could return this form to me by….
Use concrete examples rather than complicated explanations
Use shorter words where possible, e.g. use rather than utilisation, me rather than myself
Use one word rather than groups of words, now instead of at this point in time, quickly instead of with the minimum of delay, daily not on a daily basis and so on

Don’t….

Use too many long sentences – if you run out of breath when reading a sentence out loud it is probably too long!
Repeat your ideas
Give unnecessary back story – keep to the point
Use redundant words, e.g. advance warning, large in size

Being aware of the need for concise writing and editing your emails to remove redundancy are important steps towards more professional email writing. Many organisations run business writing skills courses to enable employees to improve their business email etiquette, saving time for the organisation and individual employees alike through more effective and efficient email communication.

Share|

Tagged with: business writing • effective email writing • email etiquette • how to write an email • Writing an email • writing skills for professionals

Email Etiquette 4|Did you Get My Email?

Business Email Etiquette 3|Structure Matters

Business Email Etiquette 2|Do you Suffer from Ccitis?

Business Email Etiquette 1|Be Concise

Communication Skills Training RSS

Pages

Categories

Archives

Email Etiquette 4|Did you Get My Email?

Business Email Etiquette 3|Structure Matters

Business Email Etiquette 2|Do you Suffer from Ccitis?

Business Email Etiquette 1|Be Concise

Communication Skills Training RSS

Pages

Categories

Archives

Tags