Email. writing

Email. writing

  E-mail is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most important means of communicating in the business place. To succeed in their jobs, our students need to learn how to write the successful e-mail.

Why is E-mail important?

¨Just look at these numbers:

¨140 million people used e-mail in 2003.

¨E-mail messages outnumber first-class letters 30-1.

¨80 percent of business employees say that e-mail has replaced most of their written business communication.

¨45 percent of business employees say that e-mail has replaced most of their business-related phone calls.

¨66 percent of business employees say that they are e-mail only communicators.

E-mail Benefits:

¨ E-mail allows a writer to instantly communicate with a reader.

¨ E-mail can be sent to numerous readers at the same time.

¨ E-mail allows the writer and reader(s) to chat with each other online. A real-time dialogue is possible, whereas memos and letters may require days or weeks for dialogue to occur.

¨ E-mail means no telephone tag.

E-mail is similar to and different from memos and letters:

¨Letters are external correspondence; memos are internal correspondence. E-mail (electronic mail), in contrast, can be both internal and/or external. Employees can e-mail each other within a company and/or e-mail vendors, clients, and colleagues outside a company.

¨E-mail is similar to memos in that both use identification lines (Date, To, From, and Subject), in contrast to a letter’s eight essential components. Like letters and memos, e-mail must be clear, concise, accessible, accurate, and achieve audience recognition.

¨A successful e-mail contains a subject line with a topic and a focus, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

E-mail problems

¨Specifically, e-mail causes the following problems:

¨Instantaneous communication hinders the writer’s ability to double-check facts, effectively proofread text, and achieve the correct tone.

¨—If we write something that has grammatical or mathematical errors, we can check these for correctness.

¨—If we write something that might be offensive, we can set the memo or letter aside for a while. Then, at a later date, we could review the original and revise accordingly.

¨—E-mail, in contrast, can be sent at the push of a button. This speed may hinder our revision.

¨People don’t like scrolling endlessly. Instead, e-mail should abide by the WYSIWYG factor (What You See Is What You Get). One, viewable screen of text is better than text that only can be read when you scroll . . . and scroll and scroll.

¨Some can use highlighting techniques; other e-mail packages cannot. If a system can use highlighting but another system cannot, the codes used to highlight will garble the e-mail message. E-mail writers should limit themselves to:

¨numbering,

¨Asterisks

¨indenting (by using the tab key or the space bar)

E-mail and computer viruses:

¨Computer viruses, easily spread via e-mail, make readers cautious about opening e-mail from unknown sources. To avoid this problem, you should use Sig. Lines in your e-mail.

¨These signature lines tell readers who you are (since e-mail addresses like BigDaddy@aol.com or SweetBaby@hotmail.com don’t communicate clearly).

¨Ideal signature lines include your name, your organization/company, contact information (phone and fax numbers), and your URL and e-mail address.

The biggest problem in e-mail is the lack of professionalism:

¨Students are used to writing IMs—Instant Messages—to their friends. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re discussing e-mail written in the workplace, to bosses, co-workers, vendors, and clients. In instant messages, our students can get away with poor punctuation and spelling.

¨As Diane Stafford, editoralist for the Kansas City Star, says, “One could argue that the casual nature of instant messaging has created a different mind-set among young e-mail users.

¨Perhaps the medium dictates the style, and [students] don’t think it requires the same attention as, say, a school essay.”

¨But for business e-mail, those errors create the wrong image, making employees and companies look unprofessional. Stafford continues by stating, “job readiness education is a good thing in middle schools and high schools…Teach [students] that what’s acceptable in instant messaging isn’t appropriate for job hunting” (C1: May 2, 2002).

¨Write an email to a colleague giving some recent news of something that changed in the office.

Email Writing :

Class Task 1:

¨Take a separate sheet of paper.

¨As a recent buyer of the car, write an email to the manager of United Automotive company, Mr Ahmad, regarding the  poor quality of service facility available in the city.

¨Make sure your tone is not harsh or rude. Sign the email with your name.

¨ Class Task 2:

¨On the back side of the sheet that you have received, write a reply email to your customer as Mr Ahmed.

¨Attend to his complaint, so concern, apologize for the inconvenience and provide alternatives.

¨Make sure your tone is gentle, concerned and customer focused.