The Art of Writing Emails

Like it or not, emails are a big part of working life. Read on to find out how they can be an effective tool for you.

By Rekha Guruswamy

In an increasingly digital world, email has emerged as the leading tool for communicating in the corporate world. Besides being quick, cheap and efficient, email is also highly versatile; putting official correspondence, work reminders and meetings literally at your fingertips, allowing you to easily reach everyone from clients to superiors.

With such diverse applications however, emails may lose their intended effect or even communicate the wrong message if proper protocol and netiquette isn’t used. To ensure that your emails get the attention they deserve, here are some practices that would help give you that professional edge.

First impressions
As with any physical encounter, first looks determine if something is worth paying any attention to. With emails, a meaningful and relevant subject line that includes the topic will allow recipients to place priority on your message. Avoid generic and informal subjects like “Hi”, “Urgent” or worse, a blank subject field; these are not clear enough and may even get dismissed as spam (gasp!).

Hello!
Proper greetings help to convey your respect for the recipient. If you’re unsure of how to start, “Dear…” followed by the reader’s correct salutation (Mr, Mrs, Ms) and full name is always a safe bet. However, if the addressee’s name or title is unknown, use “Sir” or “Madam” instead.

It’s all in the tone
Emailing is inherently risky because its written nature doesn’t allow tones, and therefore emotions, to be adequately transmitted. Here’s where netiquette comes into play. Typing in capital letters with exclamation marks strewn all over suggests that you’re angry, shouting, and thus rude. At the same time, use the backspace key to your advantage. Unlike spoken conversations, words in email can be taken back and deleted (before you press ‘Send’ anyway), so review your choice of words and sentence structure, making sure that the reader will understand your message as it was meant to be.

Speak good English
While you’re making sure of an appropriate tone, you might as well check if your language is correct - capitalise “I’s” and first letters of sentences, remove abbreviations and get rid of the Singlish. Also, avoid being pretentious and misusing words with meanings distorted by local usage. A prime example is “revert” which actually means “to return to doing, using, being or referring to something, usually bad or less satisfactory”; simply use “reply” instead.

Break it up
Large chunks of text can be cumbersome to read and digest, especially if they’re filled with big words. Where possible, be direct and use simple English. Phrase your sentences concisely and separate a large body into neat paragraphs. If necessary, use bullet points to convey distinct bits of information.

Be technologically courteous
Rich text and HTML can jazz up a dull email with different colours and a variety of fonts. However, be aware that not all email clients allow their recipients to view such formatting correctly. Besides, that font may be too small and the colour too glaring to read properly off.

Files sent through email should be as small as possible, sent only when productive and relevant to the topic. Make sure to scan files before they’re attached; you wouldn’t want a potential client turned away by a virus lurking in your email.

Signing off
End your email politely by signing off with “Yours sincerely” or something similar.

Send away
Email allows you to vary the way addressees receive their messages. CC and BCC stand for “Carbon Copy” and “Blind Carbon Copy” respectively. Use the former for discussions or to keep the boss updated regarding progress while the latter is best used to email different recipients who don’t know each other and when you want to prevent email addresses from being disclosed unnecessarily.

“Reply to All” should only be used when the message absolutely needs to be seen by every person on the original mailing list.

Forwarding and copying messages sends the entire content of another email in your inbox to your recipient. Do note however that email is usually confidential in nature and copyright protected by the writer of the initial email unless explicitly mentioned otherwise. Wantonly forwarding information is frowned upon as poor information management and potential grounds for a copyright infringement suit.

Last but not least, thoroughly vet your email, address list and any attachments. Too many careers have been cut short due to inappropriate and wrongly addressed email as well as plain, useless spam clogging up servers and inboxes. Spare your job from the chopping board, spare a thought the next time you’re about to press that ‘Send’ button.


Delay replies. One advantage of email over fax and snail mail is that it’s almost instantly delivered to you. Putting off replies negates this virtue and besides, it doesn’t portray a very good image of the company you’re representing.

Miss questions. Email allows you to respond comprehensively to questions but if the queries are too complicated, it’s better than nothing to say that you’ve received the email and are working on answering the questions as best as possible.

Discuss colleagues, vent your anger or spam the network with joke and hoax emails. Company emails are often monitored by administrators and such emails may be seen by management as a waste of resources and an indication that you’re too free.

Drag out email conflicts. Where possible, arrange for a face-to-face or at least a telephone call to clear the air.

Overuse the “High Priority!” option. Like the boy who cried wolf, you just might not be taken seriously enough when it’s absolutely essential for you to get an urgent message across.

Be too stiff. Emails ARE personal exchanges of information just like spoken conversations and should include customised content. Where relevant, use the active instead of passive voice of a verb. Avoid emoticons however, being too casual will make
your recipients not take you seriously.

Forget to adapt. As correspondence between parties increase, it’s often better to adopt a less formal tone to facilitate communication. It’s still not an excuse to be rude and oblivious though.