Email

Naheed Haq
Writing
Lecturer/ Professional Trainer for Communication Skills
 Email: Introduction

Email is currently the most used communication channel in the business

environment, as businesses rely on it heavily for sending messages across
long distances in a short time.
Business email etiquette encompasses a set of rules indicating effective,
proper and polite ways to behave when sending and receiving emails. The
rules of etiquette are focused on how messages should look and on what they
should contain.
 Email Writing

Cross Cultural Communication

1. High Context Culture : More Formal & Indirect Communication

2. Low Context Culture : Less Formal & Direct Communication
 Style :Email Form

1. Email Address: [email protected]

2. Subject:
3. Salutations and Closings
4. Font
5.Paragraph Spacing
6. Signatures
IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN
EFFECTIVE E-MAIL:
Subject Line
E-mail subject lines are like newspaper headlines. They should convey the main point of your e-mail or the
idea that you want the reader to take away from your e-mail. Therefore, be as specific as possible.

meeting with Mr. Jenkins ( concise & Specific)

marketing meeting

Greetings/Salutation
Use some kind of greeting.. Don’t just start with your text..

Dear Mr Smithson, Dear Ms Stringer.

It is also becoming quite common to write the greeting without a comma,

e.g. Dear Miss Lawson
 Email Content

1. Language : formal ( subjective not objective , impersonal not personal, avoid

colloquialism , avoid abbreviations , avoid contractions)
2. Tone : formal
3. Attachments
 IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF
AN EFFECTIVE E-MAIL:
Endings
End the message in a polite way. Common endings are:
Yours sincerely, Best regards, Best wishes, Regards,
If you did not put a comma after the greeting at the beginning of the message, then do not put a comma
after the ending either,
e.g. Best wishes
e.g. Regards

Names
Include your name at the end of the message. It is most annoying to receive an email which does not include the
name of the sender.
Kind regards
Ram Kapor
Human Resources Manager
 IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN
EFFECTIVE E-MAIL:

Use Simple English

i. When the writing is too formal or uses irrelevant technical language, it is difficult for
laymen to understand..
ii. Use conversational English.
iii. Be authentic and realistic.
Font Matters
Fonts that are too small, too large, or otherwise hard to read (i e. 8 point, all bold.) makes
us not want to read the email as well.
Beware of your fonts in your ‘presentation’. Do not bold the entire email, use easy to read
fonts (ie. Arial), and use a standard size.
IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN
EFFECTIVE E-MAIL:

Closing remarks
Before you end your email, it's polite to thank your reader one more time as well as add
some courteous closing remarks.
1. "Thank you for your patience and cooperation." or
2. "Thank you for your consideration." and then follow up with,
3. "If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to let me know." and
4. "I look forward to hearing from you."
Sending emails

Salutations Signing off

1. Dear Mr/ Mrs/ Ms/ Miss Sita 1. Yours sincerely/ Yours
2. Dear Sir/ Madam 2. Yours faithfully
3. Dear Jay 3. (With) Best wishes/ Kind regards
 Sending emails

Opening phrases Closing Phrases

1. In reply to your letter ... . 1. Please contact me again if you need
any more information.
2. Thank you for your letter of May
14th concerning … . 2. If I can be of any further assistance,
please do contact me again.
3. Thanks for your email ... .
3. Let me know if you need anything
4. Following our telephonic else.
conversation ... .
4. I look forward to hearing from you.
Reason for writing
This letter/ email is to ... .
I am writing to ... .
I am pleased to ... .
Could you please ... .
Would you please ... .
Please email me ... .
Just a quick note to ... .
I am sorry to inform you ...
.
Unfortunately ... .
I’m sorry about ... .
I apologize for ... .
TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE E-MAILS

Think about your message before you write it.

Don’t send e-mails in haste. First, decide on the purpose of your e-mail and what outcome
you expect from your communication. Then think about your message’s audience and what
he/she/they may need in order for your message to have the intended result.
Jot down some notes about what information you need to convey, what questions you have,
etc., then organize your thoughts in a logical sequence.
Reflect on the tone of your message.
When you are communicating via e-mail, your words are not supported by gestures, voice
inflections, or other cues, so it may be easier for someone to misread your tone.
Strive for clarity and conciseness in your writing.
Miscommunication can occur if an e-mail is unclear, disorganized, or just too long and
complex for readers to easily follow.
TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE E-
MAILS--CONTINUED
Briefly state your purpose for writing the e-mail in the very beginning of your message.
Be sure to provide the reader with a context for your message.
Use paragraphs to separate thoughts (or consider writing separate e-mails if you have many
unrelated points or questions).
Finally, state the desired outcome at the end of your message.
Format your message so that it is easy to read. Use white space to visually separate
paragraphs into separate blocks of text. Bullet important details so that they are easy to pick
out. Use bold face type or capital letters to highlight critical information, such as due dates.
(But do not type your entire message in capital letters or boldface
Proofread Re-read messages before you send them. Use proper grammar, spelling,
capitalization, and punctuation.
Using the Passive Voice
Good business writing doesn’t permit the use of excessive passive
verbs. The passive voice is used in situations where you don’t want to
attribute the action to a particular person or group. As a general rule,
you should use few passive verbs in your writing
NO Abbreviations
Write all verbs in full. Do not use contracted forms like don’t or can’t.
Do not use abbreviations such as info (for information) and asap (for
as soon as possible).
•Watch your vocabulary. Certain words are considered informal. Examples are:
fix, begin, start, OK, thanks etc. Avoid them in formal writing.
• Instead use words like repair (for fix), commence (for start / begin), in order / all
right
(for OK) and thank you (for thanks).
•Avoid informal intensifiers like really and so. Instead use more sophisticated
ones such as
extremely, highly, entirely etc.

Certain discourse markers are considered informal. Avoid

using them. For example, write incidentally instead of by the way.

Do not leave out words. Ellipsis is not acceptable in formal writing. Write
‘I hope to see you soon’ instead of ‘Hope to see you soon.’
TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE E-
MAILS--CONTINUED
Cc: and Bcc: (‘carbon copy’ and ‘blind carbon copy’)
Copying individuals on an e-mail is a good way to send your message to the
main recipient while also sending someone else a copy at the same time. This
can be useful if you want to convey the same exact message to more than one
person.
Blind copying e-mails to a group of people can be useful when you don’t
want everyone on the list to have each other’s e-mail addresses. The only
recipient address that will be visible to all recipients is the one in the To:
field.
subject
Sample
Dear Mr Ram,

I am writing in reference to the current situation with the Delhi Airport Project. We have a number of
questions which we hope you could answer.

First of all, could you please provide us with an update on where you are on the Delhi Airport Project. We
would also appreciate it if you could clarify what the current issues with the delivery system are, and confirm
when you expect them to be resolved.

Could you also please confirm whether the post-installation support covers the equipment 24 hours a day? And
what is actually included in the support? In particular, we would like to have confirmation if the cost of parts
and labour are included in the package? We require this information as soon as possible.
And lastly, we are considering extending the period of the post-installation support from your company from 6
months to 12 months. We would be very grateful if you could provide us with a quote for this extension.

I would really appreciate it if you could deal with these matters urgently.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
Roni Tripathi
Development Manager
 Errors in Email

You are Ken Smith, the Advertising Director at ABC Global Inc. in Los Angeles,
which is an American company that has recently expanded globally. For the last month
you have been collaborating with your colleague, Ernest Chan, the Advertising
Director in ABC Global’s Chinese office in Beijing. Ernest did you a favour by sending
you the Beijing office’s past financial report from February 2020 and you want to write
him an email to thank him, but you also want to ask if someone in his office could
make updates to the report to reflect the current situation in 2023.
Below is a draft of your email to Ernest. You realize you may need to edit it so the
email is professional and effective.
 Error in Email

Sample email (with errors)

Subject line: I know you’re gonna love this idea!
Dearest Ernest,
My most heartfelt thanks for sending me a copy of the 02-02-12 report. I also appreciate that
you would like me to return the favour by making updates to the report and sending it back to
you ASAP.
Here is my idea, and I think you’re gonna love it! :) I need your buy-in before I proceed so I
hope you will agree right away!!
I have read through the report, and to be honest, it needs many changes. I know as a man in
your position in your culture you must have a secretary so I suggest that we give the updates to
your secretary and she can make the changes. What do you think?
BTW, how are the wife and family? I hope everything is going swimmingly for you!
Cheers,
Ken Smith
Advertising director
ABC Global Inc
 Errors in email

Sample email (after editing)

(Errors have been made bold)
Subject line: Updates request (1)
Dear (2) Mr Chan (3),
Thank you very much (4) for sending me a copy of the February 2, 2012 (5) report. I also appreciate that
you would like me to return the favour by making updates to the report and sending it back to you as
soon as possible (6).
In response to this, I would like to know if it would be possible for me to make a further request. (7)
I have read through the report, and to be honest, it needs many changes. However, I am extremely busy
at the moment with our new advertising campaign, so I wonder if we could find someone with more
administrative experience to input these updates for us. Do you have anyone in mind in your office? (8)
Before I go, thank you also for asking about my family holidays. We had a wonderful vacation in Mexico
over the Christmas break. How was your holiday this year? I hope your family is doing well. (9)
Best regards, (10)
Ken Smith
Advertising director (Los Angeles office)
ABC Global Inc.
 Errors in Email
Explanation for Errors
1. ‘Subject line: I know you're gonna love this idea!'. There are a number of problems with this
subject line. 1) It is too casual and inappropriate for a business context; 2) the use of the contraction
'gonna' is too casual and may be misunderstood by your reader; 3) use of an exclamation mark is
inappropriate in business emails in general, regardless of culture; 4) the purpose of the email is
unclear with this title.
2. 'Dearest' is overly affectionate and inappropriate in tone for a business email.
3. 'Ernest' is too informal, especially when emailing to a colleague from a more indirect, hierarchical
culture.
4. 'My most heartfelt thanks' is potentially confusing and inappropriate in style for a cross-cultural,
business email. The phrase 'my most heartfelt thanks' is very stylistic informal language more
appropriate to greeting and thank-you cards, not business emails to a colleague from any culture.
5. 'the 02-02-12 report' is inappropriate because the date here may be interpreted in different ways.
Instead, you should use the YYYY-MM-DD international formatting style. It is also helpful to write
out the month rather than use the number.
 Errors in Email

6. 'ASAP' is an example of an abbreviation that is also a type of jargon.

Avoid abbreviations and jargon in cross-cultural writing, including
emails.
7. ‘‘Here is my idea, and I think you're gonna love it! :) I need your
buy-in before I proceed so I hope you will agree right away!!'. There
are a number of problems with these two sentences. 1) The use of
'gonna' and exclamation marks are too informal for a business email; 2)
the use of a smiley face emoticon is too casual and might be
misunderstood by your reader; 3) the use of jargon such as 'buy-in' is
not in keeping with using a general global English style of writing.
 Errors in Email

8. 'I know as a man in your position in your culture you must have a secretary, so I
suggest that we give the updates to your secretary and she can make the changes. What
do you think?' This is extremely inappropriate on a cultural level because you are
making assumptions and articulating a stereotype that men in this culture will
necessarily have female secretaries.
9.'BTW, how are the wife and family? I hope everything is going swimmingly for you!'
has two errors: 1) the use of BTW is another abbreviation that may not be understood
across cultures and is not an example of general global English vocabulary, and 2)
though it is appropriate to attempt to establish a relationship with your colleague,
especially since Ernest Chan is from a culture that generally values affective trust and
relationships to maintain business ties, the use of 'the wife and family' and 'I hope
everything is going swimmingly' are too casual and the language itself may be
misunderstood.
10. 'Cheers' is too informal as a signal to end the email.
 Keep writing.
That is true. Your writing skills improve with practice.
Therefore, make it a habit to write at least 200 words a day.
Keep a diary. In this digital age, blogging is perhaps better
than writing a diary. Participate in online forums where
people express their ideas in English.
Incorrect Mail
Correct mail

Dear Mr. Blankship ,

The invoice we received yesterday from your office was dated 25 February. The
date mentioned is incorrect .The original invoice is attached herewith which
bears the date as 28 February. Please correct the date and resend the invoice.
This will help us to send the funds promptly by the end of the day.
Let me know if you need anything else.
Regards
,
Isabelle
Incorrect Sentence
Dear Sir/Madam
With utmost regret I would like to inform you that the project
delivery will be delayed. This is due to one of our key team
members has fallen sick due to food poisoning at the last
minute.
This was unexpected. We are trying for a substitute with the
required skill set but it would take some time. The lost time
might lead to delivery of project delay by one week.

We have our sincere apologies but we would like to be given

one week more for the completion of the project.

Thanks &
Regards XYZ
Recommend--my friend Ram--vacant post--
Programmer Analyst--degree--work experience--
pleasant person--good addition--team--resume
Dear Sir/Madam
I am Nidhi Pandey working in the capacity of a programmer in the
department of IT in this organization. I would like to recommend my
friend Ram for the vacant post of Programmer analyst in the
company. I have known Ram personally for over ten years, and have
always known him to be an organized, responsible, and a pleasant
person to work with.
I believe that his skills and experience will be a good addition to our
team. I am attaching his resume for further perusal.
I would be happy to provide further information if required.

Thanks &
Regards XYZ
Thank you .BEST OF LUCK
Have a wonderful journey