Learn To Write…Right

• Email

• Report

• Article

• Minutes Of Meeting (MOM)

Writing Formats

The three main categories of people we write mails to:

• Boss

• Colleague

• Client

Writing Effective Mails

It is time to update your employee parking stickers. New

stickers are required by April 1. Parking Rules and

Regulations require that all vehicles driven on campus

must display the current stickers.

Example

Please renew your employee parking stickers by April 1.

Put yourself in the Receiver’s shoes

The person receiving your mail

Thumb Rule

Remember, your readers may know nothing about what you're

telling them

Favorite Subject Lines

Important!!

• Leave Application For 03-12-2014

Subject Line Examples

• With Ref. To The Meeting/Call As On 12-13-2013

OR

• With Ref. To The ‘Hello Kitty’ Cartoon

• Your email should open by addressing the person you’re writing to.

Start With A Salutation

• For someone you don’t know well, especially if they’re a superior or if you have a working relationship with the person, always address ‘Dear.’

• If you know the person well, use ‘Hi Bob’ or ‘Hello Jerry’

• You can even use just the name with a comma (Jerry,)

Start With A Salutation

• If you know the person well, like your team mate, using ‘Dear Garry’ will look odd.

• Get straight to the point.

Write In Short Paragraphs

• Split your email into two to four short paragraphs, each one dealing with a single idea.

• Consider using bullet-points for extra clarity, or if you have too many points to cover.

• Follow the KISS principle.Keep It Short & Simple

• Listing several questions for the receiver to answer.

Using Bullets/Numbering When

• Suggesting a number of alternative options.

• Explaining the steps that you’ll be carrying out.

• If you need to write about several different issues (for

example, if you’re giving your boss an update on Project

X, asking him for a review meeting to discuss a pay

hike, and telling him that you’ve got a doctor’s

appointment on Friday), then don’t put them all in the

same email.

Stick To One Point

The receiver is a human, not a

computer to put the different

topics in different folders.

• Emails should follow the same rules of punctuation as other writing. 

Use Capitals Appropriately

• Never write a whole sentence (or worse, a whole email) in capitals

• Always capitalise “I” and the first letter of proper nouns (names)

• Capitalize acronyms (USA, BBC, NSE)

• Always start sentences with a capital letter.

Use Capitals Appropriately

• Writing a particular word in capital showing it is

important or needs to be looked upon is a myth.

• For short internal company emails, you can get away

with just putting a double space after your last

paragraph then typing your name.

Signoff The Mail

• If you’re writing a more formal email, it is essential to

close it appropriately.

• Use Yours sincerely, (when you know the name of your

addressee) and Yours faithfully, (when you’ve

addressed it to “Dear Sir/Madam”) for very formal

emails such as job applications.

Signoff The Mail

• Use Best regards, or Kind regards, in most other

situations.

Signoff The Mail

• Even when writing to people you know well, it’s polite

to sign off with something such as “All the best,” “Take

care,” or “Have a nice day,” before typing your name.

• Don’t cram your email signature with quotes from your

favourite TV show, motivational speaker or witty friend.

Use Sensible Email Signatures

• Do include your name, email address, telephone

number and postal address (where appropriate) –

obviously, your company may have some guidelines on

these.

• It makes it easy for your correspondents to find your

contact details: they don’t need to root through for the

first message you sent them, but can just look in the

footer of any of your emails.

Use Sensible Email Signatures

• Always, always proofread you emails before you hit the

‘Send’ button.

Always Proofread Your Emails

• Check spellings, sentence formation, capitalization and

usage of the correct words (affect/effect, it’s/its,

you’re/your, than/then.

• Read from the receiver’s perspective.

i’ve attached my resume i would be grateful if you could

read it and get back to me at your earliest convenience. i

have all the experience you are looking for – i’ve worked

in a customer-facing environment for three years, i am

competent with ms office and i enjoy working as part of a

team. thanks for your time

Email Example

Dear Sir/Madam,

I’ve attached my resume. I would be grateful if you could read it and get back to me at your earliest convenience. I have all the experience you are looking for:

• I’ve worked in a customer-facing environment for three years• I am competent with MS office• I enjoy working as part of a team

Thanks for your time.

Yours faithfully,Joe Bloggs

Email Example