– Tips for writing emails
FOR the next few weeks, I will be giving some tips on how you can get your business content in tip-top shape using tried and true advice by industry professionals. Today’s article references ‘Business Writing Essentials’ by Clare Whitmell.
In times past, when physical letters still dominated the communications sphere, emails were seen as an informal means of communication. While letters still have a place in business communications today, emails are leading the race through their light-speed delivery in communicating critical business content. Be it internal correspondence or a piece of communication to a client, customer or other external subject, emails are now the go-to for many companies in their day to day operations.
Therefore, it is necessary that we develop and adhere to some standards in that type of communication to ensure that that space- though digital and essentially informal in structure- could still operate as a means of cordial, respectful, and – most of all – clear and concise interactions among professionals.
Here are some points to consider when crafting emails for business:
BREVITY
Get straight to the point with your reason for writing. Edit carefully so that your email contains only the most important information. Less important information can be sent in a separate email, an attachment or link to which you can refer the receiver (“See information attached” or “Se details or examples at the link provided here.”) In the business word, it’s always best to assume that the person has limited time, so information needs to be communicated in the most concise way possible
BE CLEAR
Use a descriptive subject line that tells your reader what your email is about. Use shorter paragraphs with each paragraph focusing on the main points of the discussion. This also allows the reader to scan the document quickly.
PLAN
For longer emails, a plan helps you focus on the objective of your email and keeps your ideas linked and concise, Whitmell says. This does not have to entail you mapping out your information, but deciding what the most important parts are and grouping and listing the information properly can go a long way in communicating effective messages.
BE ACCURATE
Use your spell check to eliminate spelling or typing errors. In a previous column, I proposed some editing tools that can really help to sharpen your writing and editing. Grammarly is still leading the list for me, and if you can, invest in the paid version for a premium editing experience and additional suggestions. Such tools also help you to save time in editing long documents.
DELETE PREVIOUS EMAILS
Some emails can get very long if multiple people are communicating on the subject. Unless the information needs to be continually referenced by the previous parties, it is okay to delete a thread if the email gets too long. If the subject of the email changes but it has the same recipients of a previously longer thread, change the subject and delete the old thread after hitting reply. Should someone need to catch up on the history of the email, you can refer them to the thread at another time.
USE PLAIN BACKGROUNDS AND FONTS
It is better to use black text on a white background to be sure that your email is easy to read. Patterns or motifs in the body of the email risk making you look childish or immature – stick to a plain white background. The same goes for text. Some persons use decorative text and backgrounds in their correspondence that can really distract from the message. For business communications, keep it simple.
BE POLITE
Avoid writing sarcastic or angry comments. This is a piece of advice given in last week’s column as well. In business communication, politeness is key to keeping good relationships. Take some time to gather your thoughts and word them in a manner that maintains politeness.
PUNCTUATION
Use capital letters only where necessary, such as for names, places and days of the week. Don’t write the whole email in capital letters as this looks as if you’re shouting at your reader or avoid capitalising words that sound like proper nouns when they are not. Rule of thumb: use ‘sentence case’ to be safe.
ABBREVIATIONS
Some email writers abbreviate as much as possible, making their emails difficult to understand. This is especially the case when employees overuse jargon. Internally, jargon is fine, but even then, it needs to be done within limits. However, external communications should be without jargon at all times, and where abbreviations are used, they should only be inserted after first being explained by using the whole meaning of the term.
These tips should be able to bide you over in getting a basic email completed. Just remember: business is business and all the formalities you would usually use in communicating verbally or via other written platforms for business, similar considerations should be given to emails as, sooner or later, they may officially be accepted as part of the “formal” communication family.
If you’re interested in contributing to this column on writing email thewritemind592@gmail.com