How to Write an Email

The sound, the word, the sentence … the paragraph. Surely you’ve been doing your homework and you’ve been writing your sentences diligently every day. Have you tried something bigger? Perhaps an email or two? That’s awesome! Today I want to give you a few tips on how to write a better email, one that communicates the information in a succinct, appropriate and effective manner.

Let’s start from the beginning. When you address your reader you must do so according to your relationship with him or her. If you know them well, a friendly ‘Hi Allen’ is perfect. If you have interchanged emails before but there is no real ‘feeling’ between you, then ‘Dear Kelly’ should be your choice. If you have never had an exchange with this person before you must use their surname: ‘Dear Ms. Harrison.’ If you do not know who you should be addressing your email to (eg: you have a complaint regarding a product you purchased from a large company), use ‘To whom it may concern.’

Anglo culture dictates that we thank our reader for dedicating time to us. If you are responding to an email from a client or supplier you can thank them for contacting you. If someone has responded to one of your mails, be sure to say something along the lines of ‘thank you so much for your prompt reply’ (formal) or ‘thanks for getting back to me.’ (informal). When writing to someone for the first time you may say, ‘thank you for taking the time to read this email.’

Emails tend to be shorter communications, so the next thing you want to do is get to the point and state your purpose. Ask the question if you have one or answer your reader’s question. Use short, clear sentences. This paragraph is the main body of your text.

In the next paragraph, you are going to thank the reader once again. You can thank them for their cooperation, consideration or a specific thing that they did for you. Finish this paragraph by inviting the reader to respond by saying something like ‘I’m looking forward to hearing from you again’ or ‘please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any (more) questions.’

End the email by signing off with ‘best regards,’ ‘sincerely’ or you can even say thank you one more time. Use very informal closings such as ‘cheers’ and ‘best wishes’ only with dear friends. Before clicking the send button, re-read your email at least three times to make sure that everything is spelled correctly and is in its place.

Perhaps you need some help with this last part. Just send me a sample email and I will correct it for you. Of course I usually charge for this service, but because I consider you a special friend, I’m happy to do this for you!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jennifer

Are You Resourceful?

What’s your primary resource for improving your English fluency? How much would you say you use that resource?

I recently conducted a poll asking these same questions and although the answer to the first one varied widely, the answer to the second question was consistently upwards of 80% of the time.

Whoa! That’s way too much time to spend on one aspect of the language. Think about listening, speaking, reading and writing as your children. Would you spend 80% of your time with one of them, leaving only 20% of your time to spread thin between the other three? No way, they are each their own person and require their own special attention, but you have an equally bottomless well of love for each one. Likewise, you should dedicate equal time to the four main fluency skills.

Now, I’m not saying you do less of what you obviously enjoy very much. Rather, I’m suggesting that you do more of those things that have not been getting so much of your attention. If you’re at a loss for what you can do, you can visit the facebook group. Please read through other people’s tips and tricks in the ‘Action!’ thread and feel free to add your own. I’m always excited to the hear about the creative ways you think up to reach your fluency goal.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein

Have fun!

Jennifer