10 Ways To Write A Professional Email: 1. Make The Subject Line Count [PDF]

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https://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_STR.h tm 10 Ways to Write a Professional Email When you are in college, or taking classes from an online university, many students are concerned about their class work and keeping up in class. In today’s world, it is even easier to keep in touch with professors. A student merely has to send an email to a professor. They don’t even have to talk face to face. Many professors like emails because they can provide accurate information to the student. However, many professors don’t like email because they feel that students are far too informal with the emails they send. Too often, professors say that they see things like, “Lol”, “Ttyl”, “hee hee” and professors have no idea what those even mean! This skills that are used when you are in college will be used in the workplace. Whether you are a student, or a professional, here are 10 rules to writing a professional email. Your professor (or boss) will be pleased, and you will probably receive a quicker response. 1. Make the Subject Line Count You want your the person you sent the email to first open your email. They get tons of emails a day, and if it is urgent, you want the recipient to read it. Include what class it is for, and what questions you have. The professor will appreciate it. 2. Get to the Point If you are able to present the problem in the first sentence, the person will be more willing to help you. 3. Identify Yourself Especially if this is for a professor (and even a boss) tell them what class you are in, and what section. Many professors teach many classes, and if you tell them which class you

are, it will help them answer your questions even faster. If it’s for work, make sure that you are clear about what you are asking about. 4. Keep the Text Language to Yourself Avoid anything such as “brb”, “ttyl”, that may be good for texting, but keep it out of emails. 5. Keep it Short You want your email to be very short. Keep it around 1to 2 paragraphs. If it is longer than that―but you must send it, try including bullet points. The recipient will be more likely to read it. If you have a lot to say, try just talking to the professor. It will be easier for both parties if you need to talk at length. 6. Say Hello! It is always nice when you add a small hello, or good morning, or good afternoon. It shows that you are trying to be polite. You aren’t bothering the recipient with lots of showy sayings, but you aren’t being rude either. 7. Proofread Make sure to read your email before you send it. You will be able to catch a lot of mistakes. Your professor and co-workers will respect you if you can spell and have proper punctuation. This will also get you in the habit of reading over your work before you submit it. 8. Be Pleasant Just because you are annoyed with a professor or co-worker, don’t show it in your email. They will be less willing to help you. 9. Respond Fast Email is supposed to be fast. If you don’t respond within 24 hours, the person you sent the email to will forget about your question. Even if you respond and tell the person

that you got their email, but you don’t have the time to draft an appropriate answer, let them know. They will appreciate that you took the time to inform them. 10. Have an Appropriate Signature Line Make sure that if you have a signature set up on your email, it is profession and free of quotes, silly fonts, or smiley faces. Others will think you are immature if you send them an email and your signature is something in pink with smiley faces.

Writing Effective Emails Writing Effective Emails The average office worker receives around 80 emails each day. With that volume of mail, individual messages can easily get overlooked. Follow these simple rules to get your emails noticed and acted upon. 1.

Don't overcommunicate by email.

2.

Make good use of subject lines.

3.

Keep messages clear and brief.

4.

Be polite.

5.

Check your tone.

6.

Proofread.

1. Don't Overcommunicate by Email One of the biggest sources of stress at work is the sheer volume of emails that people receive. So, before you begin writing an email, ask yourself: "Is this really necessary?"

As part of this, you should use the phone or IM to deal with questions that are likely to need some back-and-forth discussion. Use our Communications Planning Tool to identify the channels that are best for different types of message. Also, email is not as secure as you might want it to be, particularly as people may forward emails without thinking to delete the conversation history. So avoid sharing sensitive or personal information in an email, and don't write about anything that you, or the subject of your email, wouldn't like to see plastered on a billboard by your office. Whenever possible, deliver bad news in person. This helps you to communicate with empathy, compassion, and understanding, and to make amends if your message has been taken the wrong way.

2. Make Good Use of Subject Lines A newspaper headline has two functions: it grabs your attention, and it summarizes the article, so that you can decide whether to read it or not. The subject line of your email message should do the same thing. A blank subject line is more likely to be overlooked or rejected as "spam," so always use a few well-chosen words to tell the recipient what the email is about. You may want to include the date in the subject line if your message is one of a regular series of emails, such as a weekly project report. For a message that needs a response, you might also want to include a call to action, such as "Please reply by November 7." A well-written subject line like the one below delivers the most important information, without the recipient even having to open the email. This serves as a prompt that reminds recipients about your meeting every time they glance at their inbox. Bad Example

Good Example

Subject: Meeting

Subject: PASS Process Meeting

Bad Example

Good Example - 10 a.m. February 25, 2014

If you have a very short message to convey, and you can fit the whole thing into the subject line, use "EOM" (End of Message) to let recipients know that they don't need to open the email to get all the information that they need. Example Subject: Could you please send the February sales report? Thanks! EOM (Of course, this is only useful if recipients know what "EOM" means.)

3. Keep Messages Clear and Brief Emails, like traditional business letters, need to be clear and concise. Keep your sentences short and to the point. The body of the email should be direct and informative, and it should contain all pertinent information. See our article on writing skills for guidance on communicating clearly in writing. Unlike traditional letters, however, it costs no more to send several emails than it does to send just one. So, if you need to communicate with someone about a number of different topics, consider writing a separate email for each one. This makes your message clearer, and it allows your correspondent to reply to one topic at a time. Bad Example

Good Example

Subject: Revisions For Sales Report

Subject: Revisions For Sales

Bad Example

Good Example

Hi Jackie,

Report

Thanks for sending that report last week. I read it yesterday, and I feel that Chapter 2 needs more specific information about our sales figures. I also felt that the tone could be more formal.

Hi Jackie,

Also, I wanted to let you know that I've scheduled a meeting with the PR department for this Friday regarding the new ad campaign. It's at 11:00 a.m. and will be in the small conference room.

I also felt that the tone could be more formal.

Please let me know if you can make that time. Thanks! Monica

Thanks for sending that report last week. I read it yesterday, and I feel that Chapter 2 needs more specific information about our sales figures.

Could you amend it with these comments in mind? Thanks for your hard work on this! Monica (Monica then follows this up with a separate email about the PR department meeting.)

It's important to find balance here. You don't want to bombard someone with emails, and it makes sense to combine several, related, points into one email. When this happens, keep things simple with numbered paragraphs or bullet points, and consider "chunking" information into small, wellorganized units to make it easier to digest. Notice, too, that in the good example above, Monica specified what she wanted Jackie to do (in this case, amend the report). If you make it easy for people to see what you want, there's a better chance that they will give you this.

4. Be Polite People often think that emails can be less formal than traditional letters. But the messages you send are a reflection of your own professionalism , values, and attention to detail, so a certain level of formality is needed. Unless you're on good terms with someone, avoid informal language, slang, jargon , and inappropriate abbreviations. Emoticons can be useful for clarifying your intent, but it's best to use them only with people you know well. Close your message with "Regards," "Yours sincerely," or "All the best," depending on the situation. Recipients may decide to print emails and share them with others, so always be polite.

5. Check the Tone When we meet people face-to-face, we use the other person's body language , vocal tone, and facial expressions to assess how they feel. Email robs us of this information, and this means that we can't tell when people have misunderstood our messages. Your choice of words, sentence length, punctuation, and capitalization can easily be misinterpreted without visual and auditory cues. In the first example below, Emma might think that Harry is frustrated or angry, but, in reality, he feels fine. Bad Example

Good Example

Emma,

Hi Emma,

I need your report by 5 p.m. today or I'll miss my deadline.

Thanks for all your hard work on that report. Could you please get your version over to me by 5 p.m., so I don't miss

Harry

Bad Example

Good Example

my deadline? Thanks so much! Harry

Think about how your email "feels" emotionally. If your intentions or emotions could be misunderstood, find a less ambiguous way to phrase your words.

6. Proofreading Finally, before you hit "send," take a moment to review your email for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. Your email messages are as much a part of your professional image as the clothes you wear, so it looks bad to send out a message that contains typos. As you proofread, pay careful attention to the length of your email. People are more likely to read short, concise emails than long, rambling ones, so make sure that your emails are as short as possible, without excluding necessary information. Our article on writing skills has tips and strategies that you can use when proofreading your emails.

Key Points Most of us spend a significant portion of our day reading and composing emails. But the messages we send can be confusing to others.

To write effective emails, first ask yourself if you should be using email at all. Sometimes, it might be better to pick up the phone. Make your emails concise and to the point. Only send them to the people who really need to see them, and be clear about what you would like the recipient to do next. Remember that your emails are a reflection of your professionalism, values, and attention to detail. Try to imagine how others might interpret the tone of your message. Be polite, and always proofread what you have written before you click "send."

1. Write a meaningful subject line. Before you hit “send,” take a moment to write a subject line that accurately describes the content, giving your reader a concrete reason to open your message. Email is different from text messaging. In a text message conversation, two parties expect to engage in multiple, rapid back-and-forth exchanges, asking for clarification and providing corrections when necessary. Generally, you are texting somebody you already know well, about a shared interest, and the subject of the conversation will change as your time together progresses. But email is part of most people’s work routine. Most professionals who get 20 or 50 or 200 emails a day do not want to engage in a leisurely back-and-forth; they want to clear out their inbox and move on to their next task. If your subject line is vague — or even worse, if it’s blank — you have missed your first opportunity to inform or persuade your reader. Remember — your message is not the only one in your recipient’s mailbox. A clear subject line will help a busy professional to decide that your email is worthwhile.

Subject: [Blank]

If you don’t include a subject line, you are suggesting that your name in the “From” line is all your priority. That could come across as arrogant, or at the very least, thoughtless. A well-chosen subje reader.

Subject: “Important! Read Immediately!!“

What is important to you may not be important to your reader. Rather than brashly announcing th informative headline that actually communicates at least the core of what you feel is so important

Subject: “Quick question.“

If the question is quick, why not just ask it in the subject line? This subject line is hardly useful.

Subject: “Follow-up about Friday“

Fractionally better — provided that the recipient remembers why a follow-up was necessary.

Subject: “That file you requested.“

If you’re confident your recipient will recognize your email address, and really is expecting a file fr email users get scads of virus-laden spam with vague titles like this. The more specific you are, th through.

Subject: “10 confirmed for Friday… will we need a larger room?“

Upon reading this revised, informative subject line, the recipient immediately starts thinking abou open the email.

2. Keep the message focused. Why are you writing? Are you responding to a request? Apologizing for an error on your part? Asking for the recipient to take some action for you?



Purpose: Any textbook on business and professional writing will include examples of complaint and adjustment letters, proposal letters, progress reports, application



letters, and so forth. Directness: You probably don’t need to open with “Dear Ms. Jones,” engage in personal chit-chat, and close with “Yours Truly.” (If you really want to be that formal,



send a letter on paper instead.) Organization: Readers will often get partway through a complex message, hit “reply” as soon as they have something to contribute, and forget to read the rest. That’s human nature.  Number your points in more complex message. (Start with a clear 

statement of how many parts there are to your message.) Split unrelated points into separate, purposeful emails. 

If you send all your employees a message that only relates to some of them, a lot of people will waste time reading the whole thing, in order to

 

determine whether any part of it applies to them. Other people will give up as soon as they find any detail that does not

apply to them. (Again, this is human nature.) Politeness: Please and thank-you are still important, but wordiness wastes your reader’s time (which is rude). 

Indirect and wasteful: “Dearest Arnold: I would be very much obliged if, at your earliest convenience, you could send me the current password for the website. I look forward to your response. Have a nice day! Yours Truly, Philomena.”



Blunt to the point of rudeness: “Need the password for the website.” (If you get a message like this, you might assume the sender trusts you and really needs your help; however, if you send a message like this, you might appear needy and panicky. Is that how you want to come across? Think about it.)

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Urgent, yet polite: “Site is down, but I can’t troubleshoot without the new password. Do you know it?”

To help your reader focus on your message: keep your text readable. 

Proofread, especially when your message asks your recipient to do work for you. Allcaps comes across as shouting, and no-caps makes you look like a lazy teenager. Regardless of your intention, people will respond accordingly.  If you are in middle school, a gushing statement “thx 4 ur help 2day ur gr8!″ 

may make a busy professional smile — or shudder. Often, the sweetness of the gesture won’t be enough. u want ur prof r ur boss 2 think u cant spl? LOL ;-)

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Write short paragraphs, separated by blank lines. Most people find unbroken blocks of text boring, or even intimidating. Take the time to format your message for the

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ease of your reader. Avoid fancy typefaces. Don’t depend upon bold font or large size to add nuances. Your recipient’s email reader may not have all the features that yours does. In a pinch, use asterisks to show *emphasis*.

3. Avoid attachments.

Rather than forcing you reader to download an attachment and open it in a separate program, you will probably get faster results if you just copy-paste the most important part of the document into the body of your message.

To: All 1000 Employees From: Eager Edgar Subject: A helpful book everyone should read ——– Hello, everyone. I’ve attached a PDF that I think you’ll all find very useful. This is the third time I s 207, so I’ve sent the whole thing again. Since some of you noted that the large file size makes it a document. Let me know what you think!Attachments: 

Big Honking File.pdf (356MB)



BHF Cover.pdf (25MB)



BHF Chapter 1.pdf (35MB)



[… ]

(Okay, raise your hands… how many of us would delete the above message immediately, without

To: Bessie Professional From: Morris Ponsybil Subject: Email tips — a subject for an office workshop? —Bessie, I came across some tips on streamlining professional communications. Has anyone volunt if you’d like me to run a little seminar (2o minutes?) on using email effectively.Below, I’ll paste the want it.Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4.

Write a meaningful subject line. Keep the message focused and readable. Avoid attachments. […]

Recognize that attachments 

consume bandwidth (do you want your recipient to ignore your request so as to avoid



paying for a mobile download?) can carry viruses



don’t always translate correctly for people who read their email on portable devices.



may require your recipient to have certain software installed (such as Microsoft Publisher or Apple’s Pages)

4. Identify yourself clearly.

If you telephoned someone outside your closest circle, someone who probably wouldn’t recognize your voice, you would probably say something like “Hello, Ms. Wordsworth, this is Sally Griffin.” A formal “Dear Ms. Wordsworth” salutation is not necessary for routine workplace communication. When we send text messages to our friends, we expect a lot of back-and-forth. But professionals who use email don’t enjoy getting a cryptic message from an email address they don’t recognize. While a routine email does not require a formal salutation such as “Dear Ms. Wordsworth,” ask yourself whether the person you are writing knows you well enough to recognize your email address. To: Professor Blinderson From: [email protected] Subject: [Blank]Yo goin 2 miss class whats the homework

(Professor Blinderson will probably reply, “Please let me know your name and which class you’re i address [email protected].”)

To: Professor Blinderson From: [email protected] Subject: EL227 Absence, Oct 10Hello, Prof. Blinderson. This is Morris Ponsybil, from EL227 section advanced to the playoffs, so I’m going to be out of town on the 10th.According to the syllabus, it l Chapter 10. May I email you my Chapter 10 discussion questions before I leave town? And could I the paper? I’ve asked Cheryl Jones to take notes for me. Thank you very much. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.

(If you are asking the other person to do you a favor, providing the right information will give him Ponsybil shows his professor he cares enough about the class to propose a solution to the problem

When contacting someone cold, always include your name, occupation, and any other important identification information in the first few sentences. If you are following up on a face-to-face contact, you might appear too timid if you assume your recipient doesn’t remember you; but you can drop casual hints to jog their memory: “I enjoyed talking with you about PDAs in the elevator the other day.” Every fall, I get emails from “[email protected]” or “[email protected]” who ask a question about “class” and don’t sign their real names. While formal phrases such as “Dear Professor Sneedlewood” and “Sincerely Yours,” are unnecessary in email, when contacting someone outside your own organization, you should write a signature line that includes your full name and at least a link to a blog or online profile page (something that does not require your recipient to log in first).

5. Be kind. Don’t flame. Think before you click “Send.” If you find yourself writing in anger, save a draft, go get a cup of coffee, and imagine that tomorrow morning someone has taped your email outside your door. Would your associates and friends be shocked by your language or attitude? Or would they be impressed by how you kept your cool, how you ignored the bait when your correspondent stooped to personal attacks, and how you carefully explained your position (or admitted your error, or asked for a reconsideration, etc.). Don’t pour gasoline on a fire without carefully weighing the consequences. Will you have to work with this person for the rest of the semester? Do you want a copy of your bitter screed to surface years from now, when you want a letter of recommendation or you’re up for promotion? @!$% &*@!! &(*!

Go ahead… write it, revise it, liven it up with traditional Lebanese curses, print it out, throw darts order to get it out of your system. Just don’t hit “Send” while you’re still angry.

From: Clair Haddad To: Ann O. Ying Subject: Re: Ongoing Problems with ProjectI’m not sure how to respond, since last week you told S Wednesday’s workshop. I can CC Sue in on this thread if you like, since she’s the one who will hav you my copies of the manual, or we can look into shifting the work to someone else. Let me know

From: Ann O. Ying I tried all morning to get in touch with you. Couldn’t you find a few minutes in between meetings t and I’m sorry if this is last-minute, but I’ve never done this before and I think the least you could d

If your recipient has just lambasted you with an angry message, rather than reply with a point-bywhich

1. casually invokes the name of someone the angry correspondent is likely to respect (in orde developed) and 2. refocuses the conversation on solutions (in this conversation, Ann has already dug herself

6. Proofread. If you are asking someone else to do work for you, take the time to make your message look professional. While your spell checker won’t catch every mistake, at the very least it will catch a few typos. If you are sending a message that will be read by someone higher up on the chain of command (a superior or professor, for instance), or if you’re about to mass-mail dozens or thousands of people, take an extra minute or two before you hit “send”. Show a draft to a close associate, in order to see whether it actually makes sense.

7. Don’t assume privacy. Unless you are Donald Trump, praise in public, and criticize in private. Don’t send anything over email that you wouldn’t want posted — with your name attached — in the break room. Email is not secure. Just as random pedestrians could reach into a physical mailbox and intercept envelopes, a curious hacker, a malicious criminal, and your IT department can probably read any and all email messages in your work account. If you stretch the truth in an email (downplaying a problem, leaving out an important detail, etc.), you’re creating a written record that your recipient can (and will) use to determine whether 

you are uninformed about the truth

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you are informed but deliberately misrepresenting the truth

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your confused and conflicting emails mean you aren’t a reliable source for determining the truth

8. Distinguish between formal and informal situations. When you are writing to a friend or a close colleague, it is OK to use “smilies” :-) , abbreviations (IIRC for “if I recall correctly”, LOL for “laughing out loud,” etc.) and nonstandard punctuation and spelling (like that found in instant messaging or chat rooms).

These linguistic shortcuts are generally signs of friendly intimacy, like sharing cold pizza with a family friend. If you tried to share that same cold pizza with a first date, or a visiting dignitary, you would give off the impression that you did not really care about the meeting. By the same token, don’t use informal language when your reader expects a more formal approach. Always know the situation, and write accordingly.

9. Respond Promptly. If you want to appear professional and courteous, make yourself available to your online correspondents. Even if your reply is, “Sorry, I’m too busy to help you now,” at least your correspondent won’t be waiting in vain for your reply.

10. Show Respect and Restraint Many a flame war has been started by someone who hit “reply all” instead of “reply.” While most people know that email is not private, it is good form to ask the sender before forwarding a personal message. If someone emails you a request, it is perfectly acceptable to forward the request to a person who can help — but forwarding a message in order to ridicule the sender is tacky. Use BCC instead of CC when sending sensitive information to large groups. (For example, a professor sending a bulk message to students who are in danger of failing, or an employer telling unsuccessful applicants that a position is no longer open.) The name of everyone in the CC list goes out with the message, but the names of people on the BCC list (“blind carbon copy”) are hidden. Put your own name in the “To” box if your mail editor doesn’t like the blank space. Be tolerant of other people’s etiquette blunders. If you think you’ve been insulted, quote the line back to your sender and add a neutral comment such as, “I’m not sure how to interpret this… could you elaborate?” Sometimes Email is Too Fast! A colleague once asked me for help, and then almost immediately sent a follow-up informing me she had solved the problem on her own. But before reading her second message, I replied at length to the first. Once I learned that there was no need for any reply, I worried that my response would seem pompous, so I followed up with a quick apology: “Should have paid closer attention to my email.”

What I meant to say was “[I] should have looked more carefully at my[list of incoming] email [before replying],” but I could tell from my colleague’s terse reply that she had interpreted it as if I was criticizing her. If I hadn’t responded so quickly to the first message, I would have saved myself the time I spent writing a long answer to an obsolete question. If I hadn’t responded so quickly to the second message, I might not have alienated the person I had been so eager to help. –DGJ