Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch.

5–1
 Characteristics of Successful
E-Mail Messages and Memos

• To, From, Date, Subject Headings

• Single Topic
• Conversational Tone
• Conciseness
• Graphic Highlighting: letters, numerals,
bullets, headings, capital letters,
underscores, boldface, and italics

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–2

 Writing Process

• Phase 1 (Prewriting): Analysis,

Anticipation, and Adaptation
• Phase 2 (Writing): Research,
Organization, and Composition
• Phase 3 (Revising for Clarity): Revision,
Proofreading, and Evaluation

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–3

 Smart E-Mail Practices (1)

• Getting Started
• Compose offline.
• Get the address right.
• Avoid misleading subject line.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–4

 Smart E-Mail Practices (2)

• Content, Tone, and Correctness

• Be concise.
• Don’t send anything you wouldn’t want
published.
• Don’t use e-mail to avoid contact.
• Never respond when you’re angry.
• Care about correctness.
• Resist humor and tongue-in-cheek
comments.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–5

 Smart E-Mail Practices (3)

• Netiquette
• Limit any tendency to send blanket copies.
• Never send “spam” [unsolicited ad].
• Consider using identifying labels, such as
“ACTION,” “FYI,” “RE,” “URGENT.”
• Use capital letters only for emphasis or for
titles.
• Announce attachments.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–6

 Smart E-Mail Practices (4)

• Netiquette (continued)
• Don’t forward without permission.
• Scan all messages in your inbox before
replying to each individually.
• Don’t automatically return the sender’s
message.
• Revise the subject line if the topic changes.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–7

 Smart E-Mail Practices (5)

• Personal Use
• Don’t use company computers for personal
matters.
• Assume that all e-mail is monitored.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–8

 Smart E-Mail Practices (6)

• Other Smart Practices

• Use design to improve readability of
longer messages.
• Consider cultural differences.
• Double-check before hitting the
Send button.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–9

Formatting E-Mail Messages (1)

• Guide Words
To: Consider keying receiver’s full name with
e-mail address in angle brackets
(Heather Jones<[email protected]>).
From: Entered automatically
Date: Entered automatically
Subject: Include meaningful topic summary.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–10

Formatting E-Mail Messages (2)

• Salutation Options
• No salutation
• “Heather,” “Dear Heather:,” “Hi,” or “Good
morning!”
• Include name in first line (“Thanks, Heather,
for your help . . .”).

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–11

Formatting E-Mail Messages (3)

• Body
• Cover just one topic.
• Use uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Keep the total message under three screens in
length.
• Closing
• Consider a complimentary closing such as “Best”
or “Cheers.”
• Include your name and identification– especially in
messages to outsiders.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–12

 Sample E-Mail Message (1)

Date:
Date: September
September3, 3,2004
20049:05:12
9:05:12AM
AMEST
EST
To:
To: Matt
MattFerranto
Ferranto<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
From:
From: Brooke
BrookeJohnson
Johnson<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
Subject:
Subject: Supervising
SupervisingTwo
TwoAssigned
AssignedInterns
Interns
Dear
Dear(Hi)
(Hi)Matt:
Matt:
Two
Twointerns
internswill
willwork
workininyour
yourdepartment
departmentfrom
fromSeptember
September2020
through
throughNovember
November30. 30.As
Aspart
partof
oftheir
theirsupervision,
supervision,you
youshould
shoulddo
do
the
thefollowing:
following:
**Develop
Developaawork
workplan
plandescribing
describingtheir
theirduties.
duties.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–13

 Sample E-Mail Message (2)

**Supervise
Supervisetheir
theirwork
workto
toensure
ensurepositive
positiveresults.
results.
**Assess
Assesstheir
theirprofessionalism
professionalisminincompleting
completingassigned
assignedwork.
work.
Please
Pleaseexamine
examinethethepacket
packetbeing
beingsent
sentto
toyou.
you.ItItcontains
containsforms
forms
and
andadditional
additionalinformation
informationabout
aboutthethetwo
twostudents
studentsassigned
assignedto toyour
your
department.
department.Call
Callmemeat
atExt.
Ext.248
248ififyou
youhave
havequestions.
questions.
Best,
Best,
Brooke
Brooke

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–14

 Formatting Hard-Copy Memos (1)

• Leave a 2-inch top margin.

• Set side margins at 1 to 1 ¼ inches.
• Leave a blank line between the heading
guide words.
• Align the information following the
headings

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–15

 Formatting Hard-Copy Memos (2)

• For the subject line: use (1) initial capital letters

for the main words, or (2) all capital letters
• Leave two blank lines between Subject and the
first line of the memo
• Single-space within the memo and double-
space between paragraphs
• Sign your initials after your name on the From
line.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–16

 Sample Hard-Copy Memo (1)

Qualcom
QualcomEnterprises
Enterprises
22inches
inches Interoffice
InterofficeMemo
Memo

DATE:
DATE: September
September3,3,200x
200x
11blank
blankline
line
TO:
TO: Matt
MattFerranto
Ferranto
BJ
BJ
FROM:
FROM: Brooke
BrookeJohnson
Johnson

SUBJECT:
SUBJECT: Supervising
SupervisingTwo
TwoAssigned
AssignedInterns
Interns
Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–17
 Sample Hard-Copy Memo (2)

22blank
blanklines
lines
Two
Twointerns
internswill
willwork
workininyour
yourdepartment
departmentfrom
fromSeptember
September2020through
through
November
November30.30.AsAspart
partofoftheir
theirsupervision,
supervision,you
youshould
shoulddo
dothe
thefollowing:
following:
••Develop
Developaawork
workplan
plandescribing
describingtheir
theirduties.
duties.
••Supervise
Supervisetheir
theirwork
worktotoensure
ensurepositive
positiveresults.
results.
••Assess
Assesstheir
theirprofessionalism
professionalisminincompleting
completingassigned
assignedwork.
work.

Please
Pleaseexamine
examinethethepacket
packetbeing
beingsent
senttotoyou.
you.ItItcontains
containsforms
formsand
and
additional
additionalinformation
informationabout
aboutthe
thetwo
twostudents
studentsassigned
assignedtotoyour
yourdepartment.
department.
Call
Callme
meatatExt.
Ext.248
248ififyou
youhave
havequestions.
questions.

Enclosure
Enclosureof Business Communication, Second Edition
Essentials Ch. 5–18
 Writing Plan for Routine
Memos and E-Mail Messages
• Subject line: Summarize memo contents.
• Opening: State the main idea.
• Body: Provide background data and
explain the main idea.
• Closing: Request action, summarize
the message, or present a closing
thought.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–19

 Improving Memo Readability
With Listing Techniques (1)
• Parallelism
Instead of this: Try this:
Workers were nervous, Workers were nervous,
stressed, and full of stressed, and
preoccupation. preoccupied.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–20

 Improving Memo Readability
With Listing Techniques (2)
• Instructions
Instead of this: Try this:
To clean the printer, you To clean the printer, do the
should first disconnect following:
the power cord. Then you * Disconnect the power
open the front cover, and cord.
the printer area should be * Open the front cover.
cleaned with a soft, dry * Clean the printer area with
cloth. a soft, dry cloth.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–21

 Improving Memo Readability
With Listing Techniques (3)
• Headings
Instead of this: Try this:
On April 3 we will be in Date City Speaker
Toledo, and the speaker April 3 Toledo Troy Lee
is Troy Lee. On May 20 May 20 Detroit Erin Win
we will be in Detroit, and
the speaker is Erin Win.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–22

 Improving Memo Readability
With Listing Techniques (4)
• Within Sentences
Instead of this: Try this:
Our team constantly tries Our team constantly
to achieve our goals, tries to (a) achieve our
customer service must goals, (b) improve
be improved, and our customer service, and
production targets must (c) hit our production
be hit. targets.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–23

 Improving Memo Readability
With Listing Techniques (5)
• Bulleted Items
Instead of this: Try this:
At the AutoSelect Web At the AutoSelect Web
site, we let you compare site, you can do the
car prices, you can following:
research the best • Compare car prices.
financing, and you can • Research the best
learn about leasing.
financing.
• Learn about leasing.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–24

 Improving Memo Readability
With Listing Techniques (6)
• Paragraph Headings
Instead of this: Try this:
The next topic is Vacations. A new
vacations. A new vacation schedule will be
vacation schedule will be available in two weeks.
available in two weeks.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–25

 Try Your Skill

• Arrange the following in a concise,

bulleted list.
In the next training session, the trainer will
demonstrate how to use video conferencing,
how to share multiple programs, and how to
maintain an Internet directory.

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–26

 Try Your Skill

• Improve the readability of the following instructions

that will become part of a student employment
booklet.
[Poor] In preparing for an employment interview, you
should begin by studying the job description.
Itemizing your most strategic skills and
qualifications is also important. Giving responses in
a mock interview is another good practice technique.
Last, you should be prepared to ask relevant
questions.
Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–27
 End

Essentials of Business Communication, Second Edition Ch. 5–28