How to Make an E Mail
Learn the pros and cons of email compared to traditional mail., Display important information as quickly as possible., Tend toward shorter paragraphs., Be prepared for a slightly more "relaxed" tone than with normal letters., Make your emotional...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Learn the pros and cons of email compared to traditional mail.
Email uses the same medium as "snail mail" — text.
However, the two forms of communication are far from identical.
Email offers many benefits over traditional mail as well as a few negatives.
Pros:
Sent instantaneously Easy for your recipient to respond right away Generally requires a less formal tone Email programs automatically keep track of correspondences for you Appropriate for: most business correspondence, non-formal tasks, conversations with friends, relatives, etc.
Cons:
Less personal Carries less weight (for example, sending an email to someone who's just lost a relative isn't as meaningful as sending a handwritten letter) Not appropriate for:
Intensely personal matters, very formal correspondences -
Step 2: Display important information as quickly as possible.
One of the most important rules of writing great emails is to be as brief as possible.
An easy way to do this is to position it at the top of the email so that it is as visible as possible.
For example, if you're emailing an online merchant to ask for a refund, you might start your email with: "Greetings.
I am writing to request a refund on a recent purchase I made with you." Putting this in the first line of the email ensures the recipient will get the message right away.
As another example, if your message requires a quick response, you might put the word "URGENT" in the subject line to make this obvious, rather than hiding this information deep in the text of the letter.
This is the email equivalent of marking a letter's envelope with a message like "response requested immediately." Some digital sources recommend putting information in the body of the email instead of in an attachment when possible.
The reasoning for this is that every additional action needed to access the information will make the recipient less likely to read it. , Email doesn't lend itself well to long, block-like stretches of text.
Reading a long, detailed email can be torture for many recipients.
Words on a computer screen often look denser and less detailed than those in a real letter, making them uncomfortable to read for long stretches.In addition, computer users are often used to getting the information they need from their emails quickly and directly, rather than having to dig through long, roundabout paragraphs.
For these reasons, it's best to be quick, terse, and to-the-point in your emails.
One email etiquette authority recommends limiting your emails to just a few paragraphs and no more than 25 lines of total text whenever possible., Unlike with normal letters, when you write an email, you can reasonably respect a response within a day or two.
Sometimes, your recipient may write back in just a few minutes! The speed of email correspondences has led to the wide popularity of using a semi-formal tone for "serious" email correspondences.
While some very grim or serious occasions will still call for a formal tone, don't surprised to see somewhat casual standards for tone (as well as spelling and grammar) in everyday emails.
For example, it's common for customer service representatives to take a friendly, familiar tone when writing emails to customers.
You may see emails that start with the greeting "Hi" and that include non-formal features like colloquialisms and exclamation marks. , As with real letters, it can be more difficult to detect emotional subtleties in email text than in personal conversations or even phone calls.
Things like sarcasm, double entendres, and subtle emotional cues don't "translate" well to text.
Since it's easy to be misunderstood, try to make your intent extra clear whenever you think there's a chance your text may be taken the wrong way.
Below are a few ways you may want to do this:
Bold, italicize, or CAPITALIZE words for emphasis.
Example: "Yeah, that will definitely work" versus "Yeah, that will DEFINITELY work." Use short disclaimers to explain yourself.
Example: "I'm going to kill the boss" versus "I'm going to kill the boss (kidding!)" Use emoticons — smiley faces made from text characters.
Example: "Gee, have a real great trip" versus "Gee, have a real great trip :-)" -
Step 3: Tend toward shorter paragraphs.
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Step 4: Be prepared for a slightly more "relaxed" tone than with normal letters.
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Step 5: Make your emotional intent as obvious as possible.
Detailed Guide
Email uses the same medium as "snail mail" — text.
However, the two forms of communication are far from identical.
Email offers many benefits over traditional mail as well as a few negatives.
Pros:
Sent instantaneously Easy for your recipient to respond right away Generally requires a less formal tone Email programs automatically keep track of correspondences for you Appropriate for: most business correspondence, non-formal tasks, conversations with friends, relatives, etc.
Cons:
Less personal Carries less weight (for example, sending an email to someone who's just lost a relative isn't as meaningful as sending a handwritten letter) Not appropriate for:
Intensely personal matters, very formal correspondences
One of the most important rules of writing great emails is to be as brief as possible.
An easy way to do this is to position it at the top of the email so that it is as visible as possible.
For example, if you're emailing an online merchant to ask for a refund, you might start your email with: "Greetings.
I am writing to request a refund on a recent purchase I made with you." Putting this in the first line of the email ensures the recipient will get the message right away.
As another example, if your message requires a quick response, you might put the word "URGENT" in the subject line to make this obvious, rather than hiding this information deep in the text of the letter.
This is the email equivalent of marking a letter's envelope with a message like "response requested immediately." Some digital sources recommend putting information in the body of the email instead of in an attachment when possible.
The reasoning for this is that every additional action needed to access the information will make the recipient less likely to read it. , Email doesn't lend itself well to long, block-like stretches of text.
Reading a long, detailed email can be torture for many recipients.
Words on a computer screen often look denser and less detailed than those in a real letter, making them uncomfortable to read for long stretches.In addition, computer users are often used to getting the information they need from their emails quickly and directly, rather than having to dig through long, roundabout paragraphs.
For these reasons, it's best to be quick, terse, and to-the-point in your emails.
One email etiquette authority recommends limiting your emails to just a few paragraphs and no more than 25 lines of total text whenever possible., Unlike with normal letters, when you write an email, you can reasonably respect a response within a day or two.
Sometimes, your recipient may write back in just a few minutes! The speed of email correspondences has led to the wide popularity of using a semi-formal tone for "serious" email correspondences.
While some very grim or serious occasions will still call for a formal tone, don't surprised to see somewhat casual standards for tone (as well as spelling and grammar) in everyday emails.
For example, it's common for customer service representatives to take a friendly, familiar tone when writing emails to customers.
You may see emails that start with the greeting "Hi" and that include non-formal features like colloquialisms and exclamation marks. , As with real letters, it can be more difficult to detect emotional subtleties in email text than in personal conversations or even phone calls.
Things like sarcasm, double entendres, and subtle emotional cues don't "translate" well to text.
Since it's easy to be misunderstood, try to make your intent extra clear whenever you think there's a chance your text may be taken the wrong way.
Below are a few ways you may want to do this:
Bold, italicize, or CAPITALIZE words for emphasis.
Example: "Yeah, that will definitely work" versus "Yeah, that will DEFINITELY work." Use short disclaimers to explain yourself.
Example: "I'm going to kill the boss" versus "I'm going to kill the boss (kidding!)" Use emoticons — smiley faces made from text characters.
Example: "Gee, have a real great trip" versus "Gee, have a real great trip :-)"
About the Author
Andrea Morales
Enthusiastic about teaching crafts techniques through clear, step-by-step guides.
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