emails@work: How to write effective business emails
By Mary Morel
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About this ebook
Emails are a quick and efficient way of sending information anywhere in the world and people can read and respond in their own time. Yet emails can get us into trouble if we don’t think before pressing ‘send’.
emails@work shows you how to write emails that get to the point and achieve results.
This e-book covers: manage your emails; email conventions; think first and get to the point; write specific subject lines; write well; punctuate well; check your tone; and review and proofread your email.
Mary Morel
Mary Morel's first non-fiction books were about marketing your small business because she needed to learn these skills. She had a thriving small business in New Zealand, but when she moved to Australia in 1999, she had to start again from scratch. Now established in Sydney, she's turned her attention to business writing and grammar. She's developed online writing courses, classes and webinars (www.onlinewritingtraining.com.au) and works with companies to improve their board papers (www.writetogovern.com.au).
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emails@work - Mary Morel
Introduction
To: The reader
From: Mary Morel, Online Writing Training
Subject: How to write effective business emails
Email is the predominant form of communication in business today. According to The Radicati Group (Email Statistics Report, 2013–2017), there were 929 million email business accounts in 2013. In that year, the majority of emails were for business, with more than 100 billion emails sent and received each day.
Emails are a quick and efficient way of transmitting information anywhere in the world and people can read and respond at a time that suits them. You also have a searchable record of your transactions, which you don’t have with phone calls.
Yet emails can get us into trouble if we don’t think before pressing ‘send’. Some people over-communicate in emails and the result is intrusive and distracting. More concerning are emails that go viral and reach a much wider audience than intended. Sometimes such emails have far-reaching consequences, as illustrated in Chapter 1.
NB All names are fictitious.
Chapter overview
Chapter 1: Manage your emails
This chapter covers how to manage your emails so you work effectively and protect yourself from their pitfalls.
Chapter 2: Email conventions
Email has developed its own conventions about greetings, sign-offs and signature blocks. Even how you enter multiple people into a ‘To’ field has unspoken guidelines.
Chapter 3: Think first and get to the point
Email is fast and efficient, but is it always the best way to communicate? This chapter looks at when email is most appropriate. It also covers the importance of getting to the point upfront since many people read emails on the phone or just skim-read an email in preview mode.
Chapter 4: Write specific subject lines
People will determine whether to open your email based on who it is from and the subject line. Most subject lines should be informative and specific so the reader knows what the email is about.
Chapter 5: Write well
Even though emails are more conversational in tone than formal letters and we forgive the occasional typo, you still need to write emails well. This chapter looks at basic writing principles for professional email correspondence.
Chapter 6: Punctuate well
Clear punctuation aids readability and this chapter covers email-specific issues and some of the different forms of punctuation that suit email (e.g. more exclamation marks and emoticons).
Chapter 7: Check your tone
Before pressing ‘send’, check the tone of your email to make sure it is professional and friendly, neither too abrupt nor overly flowery. This chapter provides hints on how to achieve an appropriate tone.
Chapter 8: Review and proofread your email
A quick review and proofread improves the clarity and professionalism of your emails.
Chapter 1: Manage your emails
More and more business is conducted by email. Today’s emails are yesterday’s letters and although they are less formal, they are still written communication. Their immediacy can make them feel like conversation, which means that sometimes we forget to take the care that any writing requires.
It’s also easy to forget that emails aren’t confidential and can easily be forwarded. I am sure most of us have been surprised to find emails we thought were written to just one person being forwarded to several others. In most