Effective Emailing

Vineet Arora
B. Tech. Ece
Semester 4
Communication Skills 2

Amity University Rajasthan

Layout

What is E-mail
How to Make an Effective E-Mail
Few common email habits that cause problems
Structure of E-Mail
Style
Some other important aspects
Discussion

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What is E-Mail
Text-based mail sent via the computer from
one person to another
A Push Technology
It waits for You
It is One-to-Many and almost Free

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How to Make an Effective E-mail

Selecting Your Audience Correctly
Using Distribution Lists
Composing Your Messages
Make the heading meaningful
Keep each message short and clear.
Start each message by stating its purpose/context
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Few common
e-mail habits that cause
problems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Changing the topic without changing

the subject.
Including multiple subjects
Misaddressed recipients
Displaying addresses of recipients
who are strangers to each other
Replying vs. forwarding
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Structure of E-Mail

Addressing
Subject
Message Text
Attachments
Signature

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1. Addressing
Its the address of the recipient
Use BCC to protect Email addresses unless everyone
knows each other
Maintain address book

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2. Subject
Precise headline for the message
Makes easier to handle of e-MAIL
Avoid sending e-mail with No subject

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Ineffective subject lines

Subject:

Date:

Hi

9:17 am

questions

10:11
am

Meeting

12:44
pm

One more thing...........

3:02 pm

Some thoughts

4:21pm
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Effective subject lines

Subject:

Date:

Party planning meeting rescheduled for 3pm

9:17 am

Help: I cant find the draft for the Smith Paper

10:11
am

Reminder: peer-review articles due tomorrow

(3/30)

12:44
pm

Questions about Sociology 210 project

3:02 pm

Congratulations to Jennifer for winning Nobel

Prize

4:21pm

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Subject:

Date:

Re: Question about Smith paper (was: please

help with this!)

10:11
am

Change subject lines when

necessary

Subject:

Date:

Re: Re: Re: [Fwd: [Fwd: [hrfac] Reminder:

Deadline for Spring Semester Is Jan. 15]]

9:17
am

Remove extra email prefixes

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3. Message Text

Keep the message focused and readable

Keep it short
Brevity and clarity
Use paragraphs
Break into paragraphs; skip lines
between
Avoid fancy typefaces
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Message Text ( cont. )

Use * * to highlight text if you must
Write in standard professional English with
Capitalization and correct spelling
Quote back using contexts
Identify yourself clearly to cold contacts.
Hello, I amThe reason I am writing
Hello, so-in-so suggested I contact you
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Poor Email Content

Jon,
Hey, I was just thinking about the meeting we had about the new
workshop you were planning for next week about resume-writing. I think
that we may have forgotten to include all of the students who might benefit
from this workshop. There are several groups of students at the School of
Public Health that were not on your list. Of course you may have added
them to you list since our last meeting. Sara from the School of Public
Health contacted me to ask if the students from the Epidemiology program
were on our list of included students. She also wanted a list of all of the
included departments from the School of Public Health. Can you send me
a list of all of the included student groups? I can then send the relevant
information on to Sara because she needs this information by tomorrow.
Thanks,
Rachell

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Better Email Content

Jon,
Can you send me a list of the students included in the resumewriting workshop by tomorrow?
We may have forgotten to include all of the students who
might benefit from this workshop. There are several groups of
students at the School of Public Health that were not on your
list. Sara from the School of Public Health contacted me to ask
if the students from the Epidemiology program were on our
list. I will send her that information tomorrow after I get the
list from you.
Thanks,
Rachell
Amity University Rajasthan

4. Attachments
Use sparingly.
Cut and paste relevant parts of attachment into
text of Email.
Use URL links instead.
Upload attachments to website and cite URL.
http://www.scribd.com/ is a free service.

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5. E-mail Signature
Use an appropriate signature
Brief (4-5 lines)
Informative
provide all contact information
Professional
do not include pictures, quotes,
animations

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Style
Threads
Multiple replies can get out of hand,
but continue them to maintain the tread.
When they start to drift start a new thread
with explanation.
Forwarding stuff, e.g., chain letters
Avoid; annoys most people
Wait 24 hours
Write, but dont send
Dont reply at all and let them wonder

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18

Style (contd.)
Offer to speak by phone or in person; Email is not
a good tool for clearing the air.
Never say in Email what you wouldnt say in
person or would not like to see in the press or
defend in court
Once you hit Send you have lost control of the
Email
You can never be certain that it was erased from
all locations. Think of all Email as Permanent.
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Some other
important aspects
Confidentiality and Security
Managing Emails
( E-mail overload Management )

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Confidentiality and Security

Protecting yourself
Unencrypted Email is not secure and may be
monitored
All laws governing copyright, defamation,
discrimination and other forms of written
communication also apply to email.
Password recovery methods
Never include personal or financial info in an Email
Install a good security suite on your personal
computer
Use strong passwords
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Confidentiality and Secuity

(contd.)
Use encryption and digital signatures for
important Email
Have a separate free Email account for
newsletters, white paper registration, etc.
Delete browser history, cache, cookies, userids
and passwords after using a public Internet
connection
Back up your Email.
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E-Mail Overload Management

A problem that affects nearly everyone with an email account
Automated filters will never catch all of the spam
Problems from E-mail Overload
Takes longer to find a specific message
Stressful to look at

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 Ways to manage E-mail Overload

Choose your service provider wisely
Do Inbox CHECK on a regular basis
Organize Email into folders
Keep a copy of all sent Email
Review and clean out folders periodically

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Discussion
Questions and Comments?

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