Identify yourself, if necessary

If you are e-mailing someone who does not know you (or e-mailing someone whom you met only briefly), introduce yourself. Keep your introduction short and to the point, but do include any relevant information that will help the person remember who you are.

Include necessary information

In addition to stating your purpose in the subject line of your e-mail, you should also summarize your purpose in the first paragraph of the body of the message, particularly if your message is more than a paragraph or two long. Tell readers the information they need to know and what you want or need them to do based on the information you are sending them. In particular, make sure to include information such as important contact people or relevant deadlines. If the e-mail is more than a couple of paragraphs long, reiterate what you need to be done and by when in the last paragraph of the e-mail.

e.g.	Don’t forget that the mandatory HR meeting is this Wednesday at 3 p.m. In order to stay on track with our schedule, you will need to e-mail electronic versions of the updated documents by March 3. Please provide the requested feedback no later than Friday, October 16.

Also, if several days (or more) have passed since an initial e-mail or event, remind the reader of the context of your message with a brief introduction such as “Last week you asked if I could . . .” Such reminders will save the recipient having to spend time trying to remember what you are referring to in your message.

Leave out unnecessary information

Keep your message short and concise. Rarely should e-mail messages be longer than a few paragraphs. Readers who have to wade through lengthy messages are more likely to give up before reaching the end, or in their skimming, they might miss important information. To keep your messages concise, leave out information that is not relevant to the matter at hand. In particular, it is generally best to send personal information in a separate e-mail from work-related content.

If different people working on a project are involved at different levels, you probably don’t need to tell everyone everything. Send specific information to specific individuals based on what they need to know and do.

Keep your message focused

How many times have you received responses to an e-mail that you sent that do not include all of the information you were requesting? Readers often read until they reach the first question or request, hit reply, and never look back to your original message. For this reason, it is often helpful to use separate paragraphs—with paragraph breaks in between—for your questions, requests, or other important points if you have more than one. Then, after you have written your message, go back to the initial paragraph and add a sentence indicating how many points you have covered. Even better, numbering your paragraphs lets readers know at a glance how many points they need to respond to. If your e-mail is very long or the questions or ideas are more complex, consider writing separate e-mails for each one so that they will be read and responded to individually.

Maintain a professional tone

It is amazing how many businesspeople who would spend hours making a presentation or project polished and professional will dash off an e-mail that is so informal and unbusinesslike to clients, colleagues, and hired professionals. Though e-mail is admittedly more relaxed than a ten-page business proposal, you should still keep the tone of your message professional by using standard capitalization and punctuation, checking your spelling, and generally avoiding shortened or cutesy words, phrases, and symbols. Use standard fonts and font sizes, and don’t use all caps anywhere in your message. If you need to emphasize a word or phrase, use italics or bold (or rarely, bold italics).

Not:	im trying to get a final count for the workshop tomorrow. p.m. if you plan to attend plz let me no. Thnx
But:	I’m trying to get a final count for the workshop tomorrow afternoon. If you plan to attend, please let me know. Thanks.

Determine who needs to receive the information

You don’t want to leave anyone out who truly needs to receive the information you are sending. One effective way to get information to those who need it is to use carbon copy and blind carbon copy to inform those involved in a project. 

Proofread your message

When sending e-mails to professionals, take the time to check your message for spelling errors and to proofread your text. If your e-mail is long or contains complex subject matter, you may want to have someone proofread your e-mail for you to make sure that it is clear and adequately conveys your intended meaning.

Keep in mind that e-mail is not private

Many companies can and do periodically or systematically read employee e-mails. Furthermore, anything you send through e-mail can be forwarded to countless recipients, can be posted on any number of Web sites, or can be printed and publicly displayed or distributed for untold numbers of people to see both in- and outside of the workplace. Consequently, before hitting the send button, make sure you are writing something that you don’t mind if other people know that you wrote.

Follow up

For information that is time sensitive or urgent, follow your e-mail message with a phone call. You never know when someone might be in an all-day meeting, unexpectedly out of the office for a day (or longer), or swamped with other work. You don’t want your e-mail to get buried with all the others.

When responding to e-mail messages:

Respond in a timely manner

Be professional and courteous by responding promptly to e-mail messages you receive. Even if you only have time to dash off a quick “Received your e-mail; swamped right now; will respond to your requests ASAP,” this lets the original sender know that you received his or her e-mail and that you will get back to him or her as soon as possible.

Reading comprehension

Exercise1

1. Most people receive a lot of e-mails each day. They want to be able to read and understand your message quickly. Look at these hints for making an e-mail easier to read. Put them in order of importance

• Keep the message short.

• Write simple sentences.

• Put the main message near the start.

• Put important request in the first paragraph.

• Use polite phrases to build a good relationship with the other person.

Exercise 2

Define the statements as True or False.

1. If you want to be specific as to the purpose of your e-mail, just write “Meeting”.

2. People are less likely to open e-mails from people they don’t recognize.

3. If the e-mail is more than a couple of paragraphs long, remind once again what should be done and by when in the last paragraph of the e-mail.

4. Readers who have to wade through lengthy messages are unlikely to give up before reaching the end.

5. If your e-mail is very long or the questions or ideas are more complex, consider writing separate e-mails for each one so that they will be read and responded to individually.

6. As e-mail is admittedly more relaxed than a letter, you may not use standard capitalization and punctuation.

7. Send your e-mail if you are 100% sure that a person you are writing to isn’t in an all-day meeting, unexpectedly out of the office for a day (or longer), or swamped with other work.

Exercise 3

Find in the text the statements that prove the following:

When writing e-mail it is necessary:

• to choose the subject carefully

• to identify yourself

• to include necessary and leave out unnecessary information

• to keep your message focused

• to maintain a professional tone

• to keep in mind that your e-mail is not private

• to respond in a timely manner

Exercise 4

Complete the sentences.

1. The subject line of your e-mail is of utmost importance, as it is what will determine whether …

2. Keep your introduction short and to the point, but do include any …

3. In addition to stating your purpose in the subject line of your e-mail, you should also …

4. Readers who have to wade through lengthy messages are more likely to …

5. It is often helpful to use separate paragraphs if ...

6. One effective way to get information to those who need it is to …

7. If your e-mail is long or contains complex subject matter, you may want to have someone …

Exercise 5

Match the verbs on the left with nouns on the right to have phrases from the text. Then use these phrases in your short guidelines on how to write effective e-mail.

to delete to fight to follow to convey to recognize to keep to summarize to remind to receive to use to cover to number to emphasize to check to proofread to hit

the name the steps responses a word or a phrase the text your purpose for attention the points messages the send button standard fonts the paragraphs the main purpose the reader spelling to the point

1. Charles Robinson lectures at major business conferences throughout the world on how to use e-mail effectively. Listen to him talk about the advantages of e-mail and complete the sentences.

E-mail:

1. is _________________and _________________than snail mail.

2. is _________________than a phone call.

3. is less _________________to use than a fax.

4. means that differences in __________________and _________________are less an obstacle to information.

5. leads to more________________structures.

2. In part two Mr. Robinson gives three useful tips on addressing e-mails. What are they?

1. _____________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________

Exercise 1

Complete the sentences with the appropriate word or phrase from the list below.

e-mail meeting face-to-face

memo fax noticeboard

in-house magazine office gossip post

1. I plan to send the agenda of our forthcoming meeting to all participants as an ______________attachment this afternoon.

2. Listening in to ______________at the coffee machine is a good way to find out what is really happening in the department.

3. I would prefer to discuss this departmental problem in a ____________meeting.

4. As soon as the contract has been signed, I’ll send it to you by registered ____________.

5. We are just checking the technical drawings now. We’ll send them to you by _____________tomorrow morning.

6. Have you circulated the agenda for next week’s _____________yet?

7. We like to print letters from the company’s employees in our _____________which comes out every month.

8. You can find information about our health and safety regulations on the _____________in the corridor.

9. I’ll send you a ______________later with the main points from our meeting.

Exercise 2

Complete the following table

noun	verb	adjective
1 advice 2 3 4 response 5 6 7 8	revolutionise use	confidential private sensitive urgent

Exercise 3

1. Match a word from 1-6 with a suitable word from a-f to make a phrase related to the paperless office.

computer fax imminent important invaluable paperless

arrival documents machine office screen tool

2. Use appropriate phrases from 1 to complete the text about e-mail.

E-mail has become an ……….1……….for business communication, replacing other forms of office communication such as the ……….2………. . Of course, e-mail has its disadvantages. Many of us have experienced the feeling of staring helplessly at the ……….3……….after sending a message to the wrong person. Another drawback is that e-mail is not a very secure medium for sending ……….4………. . However, the ……….5……….of more secure systems may bring the ……….6……….a step closer.

Exercise 4

Jacqui Bond wrote an e-mail to Ili Enache about a meeting next week. The points from the message have been mixed up. Order the message appropriately.

1. Attachments: one

2. Subject: Meeting 31 January

3. I’m afraid I may not be able to make the 8:00 start. The train connections can be very difficult at that time of day.

4. Would it be possible to start at 9:00? It means we would finish at 17:00 instead of 16:00. Please let me know if that’s a problem for you.

5. Hello, Ili

6. Best regards, Jacqui

7. You asked me to send the feasibility report and I am attaching it here. Please note that this is not yet in final draft and there may be some mistakes.

8. Thanks for sending the agenda for our meeting.

9. I’m looking forward very much to seeing you next week.

You are Ili Enache. Write a reply to Jacqui. Say that you can start at 9:00 but you will have to finish at 16:00 because you have another appointment after that. Suggest that you take a shorter lunch break so you can finish earlier. Don’t forget to thank Jacqui for the report.

Exercise 5

1. You are a Sales Manager at Caramia in Holland. You are planning a team-building seminar for your sales team. Katie Whitely, a colleague at your company’s Head Office in Dublin has given good reports about a company called CFI Training.

Read three e-mails to Katie. Evaluate each answer using the checklist below and decide which one is best.

CHECKLIST
content	Must cover all the points in the bullets in the task instruction
length	Between 40 and 50 words
style	Neutral business style. Concise and clear.
vocabulary choice	Should avoid using exactly the same words as in the instruction

Instruction:

Write an e-mail of 40-50 words to Katie;

• Asking her to contact Kevin Lynch at CFI Training to find out if he could run the seminar for 30 people in July.

• Informing her that you need his proposal by Friday.

• Suggesting Kevin should telephone you at 9a.m. tomorrow to find out more.

1

I would be most grateful if you would contact Kevin Lynch at CFI Training with regard to organizing a team-building seminar for the 30 people in our sales team in July. Please inform him that it is most urgent and we require his proposal by Friday. I therefore suggest that he should telephone me tomorrow at 9a.m. for further information concerning the project.

2

Could you ask Kevin Lynch at CFI Training about running a team-building seminar for 30 of our sales staff in July? If he is interested, tell him it’s urgent and I need his proposal by Friday. He can contact me tomorrow at nine for more details.

3

Team-building seminar for 30 sales staff in July

Could you contact Kevin Lynch at CFI Training to find out if he could run the seminar? If he’s interested, can you tell him I need a proposal urgently. I suggest he telephone me at nine tomorrow to find out more about the project.

Write a reply from Kevin Lynch to the Sales Manager at Caramia Holland. Write an e-mail of 40-50 words to the Sales Manager:

• expressing your interest in running the seminar.

• explaining that you won’t be able to call at 9a.m. – out of the office all day – and suggesting two other times, 6p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) or 9a.m. (Wednesday).

• asking her to inform you which time is better.

Exercise 6

Make any corrections to the following e-mail that are necessary to make it more grammatically correct.

Dear Pierre

I have received e-mail from Magda in which she asks for an advice about the forthcoming presentation that she has to give at the end-of-year meeting. I couldn’t give her any informations and suggested that she makes a contact with Stasek, who is organizing the whole event. If you have a time, perhaps you could do some researches for her. If you could send her short message and some guidelines, I am sure she would be very happy to hear from you.

Finally, please could you let me know as soon as possible if you have received the minute from the last meeting. I haven’t and would like to see a copy before preparing the agendas for our next meeting.

I look forward to seeing you again in the Hague.

Regard

Simone

Exercise 7

Translate into English.

Анекдот по темі:

Англійський бізнесмен диктує секретарці лист:- Дорогий сер! Оскільки моя секретарка - пані, я не можу продиктувати їй те, що про Вас думаю. Більш того, оскільки я джентльмен, то я не маю права навіть думати про Вас так. Але оскільки Ви не є ні тим, ні іншим, то я сподіваюся що Ви зрозумієте мене правильно.

Work with your partner. Each of you has 20 minutes to read one of the articles below (A or B) and prepare a short presentation on the topic of your article. Exchange information. Then ask your partner some questions to check comprehension.

A

Report writing

Introduction Report writing is a time consuming business so it is a great shame if, having devoted all that time to writing your report, the quality is such that hardly anyone can be bothered to read it. Quite frankly, most report readers do not actually read all the report; they are too short of time. You might as well know it and accept it -- that is normal. They only read the parts that interest them. Frequently these are the summary, the conclusions and recommendations.

Of course, some readers do need all the details you so carefully included, they are specialists, but most do not. Most readers just need two things: that the information they want is where they expect it to be so they can find it, and that it is written clearly so that they can understand it.

There is a convention as to what goes where. Stick with the convention and please your readers. Break the convention and people may get slightly irritated – and bin your report.

So what is that convention, the standard format?

Standard Sections

Title Section: In a short report this may simply be the front cover. In a long one it could also include Terms of Reference, Table of Contents and so on.

Summary: Give a clear and very concise account of the main points, main conclusions and main recommendations. Keep it very short, a few percent of the total length. Some people, especially senior managers, may not read anything else so write as if it were a stand-alone document. It isn’t but for some people it might as well be. Keep it brief and free from jargon so that anyone can understand it and get the main points. Write it last, but do not copy and paste from the report itself; that rarely works well.

Introduction: This is the first part of the report. Use it to show the reader why the report is important to them. Give your terms of reference (if not in the Title Section) and explain how the details that follow are arranged. Write it in plain English.

Main Body: This is the heart of your report, the facts. It will probably have several sections or sub-sections each with its own subtitle. It is unique to your report and will describe what you discovered about ‘the problem’.

These sections are most likely to be read by experts so you can use some appropriate jargon but explain it as you introduce it. Arrange the information logically, normally putting things in order of priority -- most important first. In fact, follow that advice in every section of your report.

You may choose to include a Discussion in which you explain the significance of your findings.

Conclusions: Present the logical conclusions of your investigation of ‘the problem’. Bring it all together and maybe offer options for the way forward. Many people will read this section. Write it in plain English. If you have included a discussion then this section may be quite short.

Recommendations: What do you suggest should be done? Don’t be shy; you did the work so state your recommendations in order of priority, and in plain English.

Appendices: Put the heavy details here, the information that only specialists are likely to want to see. As a guide, if some detail is essential to your argument then include it in the main body, if it merely supports the argument then it could go in an appendix.

Conclusions and Recommendations

In conclusion, remember that readers expect certain information to be in certain places. They do not expect to hunt for what they want and the harder you make it for them the more likely they are to toss you report to one side and ignore it. So what should you do?

• Follow the generally accepted format for a report: Summary, Introduction, Main Body, Conclusions, Recommendations and Appendices.

• Organize your information in each section in a logical fashion with the reader in mind, usually putting things in order of priority – most important first.

Good luck with your report writing!

B