ELECTRONIC MAIL (EMAIL)

DEFINITION
E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication.
(Some publications spell it email; we prefer the currently more established spelling of e-mail.)
(Rouse, 2005)

SAYING EMAIL ADDRESSES

When you want to say your email address, you must remember that is not the same that in Spanish.
You must spell your email, letter by letter and use the following special names for the symbols as
British Council refers:

➢ Remember that @ is pronounced ‘at’ and “.” is pronounced 'dot'. Example:

[email protected] is ‘liss mol ra at Gmail dot com’ .

➢ Sometimes there is a “.” in the person's name. Example:

[email protected] is ‘jeffery dot amherst at british council dot org’.

➢ “_” in an email address is called ‘underscore’. teaching_ [email protected] is ‘teaching

underscore job at Gmail dot com’.

Note: according to the British Council you should write emails without capital letters.
([email protected])
PARTS (MODEL)

When you are writing an email, you must recognize the parts of an email. (See Fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Basic structure of an email.

Advices:
➢ Write few words to express the subject (main idea – intention) for example Appraisal
Form Reminder.
➢ Use a polite language.
➢ Write short paragraphs to express your ideas.
➢ Identify yourself clearly. Write your names and course when you send a homework,
exercise o a request by email.
➢ Don't write your message in the subject field.

You can see more advices in https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/email/

¿A FORMAL OR INFORMAL E-MAIL?

FORMAL E-MAIL INFORMAL E-MAIL

• An email to a teacher. • A birthday greeting to a colleague.
• An email to a customer. • An email to a colleague who is also a
• A job application. good friend.
 • An email to your manager. • A social invitation to a friend at your
• A complaint to a shop. workplace.
• An email from one company to • An email with a link to a funny
another company. YouTube clip.
• A message to a friend on a social
networking site.
Fig. 3 Some aspects that you can use to difference formal and informal email (British Council,
s.f.)

LAYOUT AND PUNCTUATION

Starting an email: We normally write a comma after the opening phrase. We start a new line
after the name of the person we are writing to.

Finishing an email: We normally write a comma after the closing phrase. We start a new line to
write our name at the end.

FORMAL E-MAIL INFORMAL E-MAIL

• Dear Mr. Rodriguez, • Hi Tim,
• I am writing to thank you for all your • Many thanks for your help.
help. • See you next week.
• I look forward to seeing you next • Cheers,
week. • John.
• With best wishes,
• John Smith.
Fig. 4 Some useful expressions to start an email (British Council, s.f.)

Phrases for starting and finishing.

Here are some phrases which we use for starting and finishing emails. We use these in formal and
informal emails:
FORMAL E-MAIL INFORMAL E-MAIL
Dear Mr. Piper, Hi Tim,
Starting phrases Dear Sir or Madam, Hi there Tim,
Morning/Afternoon/Evening
Tim,
Hello again Tim,
Yours sincerely, Regards,
Ending phrases Yours faithfully, Cheers,
Yours truly, Bye for now,
See you soon,
Fig. 5 Some useful expressions in specific kind of email (British Council, s.f.)

RULES (etiquette)

Rule 1:Always check you have got the right name in the 'To' box. And make sure your email
only goes to the people who need to read it. Remember that if you reply to all, then everyone will
get your
email. Do the whole sales team really need to read your email to one person about something
unimportant?

Rule 2: This sounds obvious, but do not forget to attach them! A word of advice – attach the file
you want to send before you start writing. That way, you cannot forget to attach it!

Rule 3: No. If you write 'CAN YOU LET ME KNOW THIS WEEK?' you are basically shouting
at your reader. They will think you are very rude. So just do not use CAPITAL LETTERS.

Rule 4: Short emails sometimes sound rude. People will not read very long emails. Keep emails
short, but remember to be polite and friendly, too.

Rule 5: This is important, especially if it's a work email. If you make mistakes in your email,
people will think you also make mistakes in your work. So always check everything carefully.
Ask a colleague to read and check it before you hit 'Send'.

(British Council, s.f.)

ACTIVITIES

1. Prepare your email address in oral way, record your voice, and send it to your
teacher. (lissmolra @gmail.com)

2. Look for the following words in the dictionary:

• Address book.
• Draft. • Recipient.
• Reply. • Store.
• Attachment. • Capital letters.
• Domain name. • Spell.
• Forward. • Sender.
• Inbox. • Salutation.
• Reply to all. • Regards.
• Outbox. • Sincerely.
• Username. • Blind carbon copy. (BCC)
• Link. • Carbon copy. (CC)
• Attach • Address.

3. Write a formal email to the teacher ([email protected]) requesting to join to the

Teams group. Do not forget to use the information that you read in this workshop.

4. Write an informal email to a classmate or a friend. Then, you take a screenshot of it

and send it to the teacher, like an image by email.

5. Write an email to attach a word document with a short personal description about
yourself in English.

6. Complete the sentences with the right word (CC – attachment – send – link – delete
– open)
 a. You can __________________ an email to one or more people.
b. When you get an email, you must ____________________ it before you can read it.
c. With your email, you can include an _________________ (like a photo or document).
d. If you do not want to keep an old email, you can ____________________ it.
e. You can include a ___________________ to a website in your email.
f. If you are sending someone an email, and you want your manager to see it as well,
you can ___________________ your manager.

7. Choose the correct answer to complete the text.

Dear Ms Köpke,

I have been __1___ your name by Maëlle Corbineau in Paris, who has recently used your
agency for the recruitment of three Czech engineers. We are ___2___ to open a new R & D
unit in Poland in three months' time, and we are __3__ in your playing a headhunting role for
us in that country.
I would therefore be __4__ if we could meet up some time soon to discuss our needs in more
detail. Please __5__ me know when and where this might be possible.

I look forward to __6__ from you shortly.

Yours sincerely,
Didier Bergougnoux
Trollberg Engineering

1. a. advised b. given c. promised.

2. a. soon b. planning c. hopeful.
3. a. interest b. interesting c. interested
4. a. recognized b. appreciate c. grateful
5. a. inform b. make c. let
6. a. hearing b. reading c. calling

8. Circle True or False for these sentences.

a. You should use polite expressions and more formal grammatical structures. (True -
False)

b. You don't have to include all the points mentioned in the question. (True - False)

c. You can use contractions in a formal email. (True - False)

d. You should avoid using conventional expressions for starting and finishing the email.
(True - False)

e. You should use this style for a person you don't know. (True - False)