21 Basics of Professional Email Writing
With work from home becoming a normal part of our lives, emails have become an integral part of our work culture. When it comes to professional emailing, here are some of the best practices observed across the industry. This article is designed to be a quick-start guide for new professionals and a refresher course for older professionals.
Be Concise: When you send a formal email, it is always a good idea to be crisp and clear. If it is an important email, it's a good idea to think through what you want to say before you type it out or write a rough draft. It shows clarity of thought as well as respect for the receiver’s time.
Summarize: When adding someone to an existing mail chain, it is a good practice to add one or two helpful lines describing the discussion so far as it helps the receiver catch on faster rather than having to go through numerous emails in the chain line wise to figure out the gist of it.
Be calm: This goes without saying but do not draft an email when you are angry/emotional over an issue. Wait till you have recollected yourself and then raise any concerns calmly.
Be specific: When writing to a group about something that needs to be done, it is important to mention who is expected to do what. Everyone’s job is essentially no one's job. So it’s better to mention people by their name and assign a task, also mention who they can consult or ask for help.
Be Descriptive: To avoid the problems caused by the curse of knowledge, always go the extra mile in describing what needs to be done and how.
Use a deadline - To avoid delay in deliverables always mention a deadline. Also ensure that the deadline is clearly specified after taking into consideration the cross-geographical teams. It's best to mention the deadline in both your and the other team members’ time zones. Also clearly spell out the time zones to avoid ambiguity over abbreviations. For eg: Please complete the task and send me a report by 24 June 2021 2 p.m. Indian Standard time(IST).
Subject: Always make sure that the subject is clear, short and to the point. It helps with easier retrieval in future. Also in case of long mail chains, check if the subject is still relevant. If the discussion has bifurcated, create a separate mail chain with the relevant subject .
<EOM>: If the email is extremely short (like an instruction), finish it off in the subject line and end with <EOM> i.e. End of Mail.
Use prefixes: As and when applicable use prefixes like Urgent, IMP, FYI, ACTION etc. in the subject line as calls to action so that the email gets the due attention it deserves.
Use High Importance: Some applications like Outlook let you mark emails as high importance, I have observed a reluctance to use this feature especially in young employees. However, when you think that something is urgent and needs immediate consideration, it is a good idea to use this feature as it flags the email for the immediate attention of the concerned recipients.
Short Emails: Studies have proven that shorter emails are more likely to be read and responded to. 5 lines is the sweet spot for email.
Split emails: If a subject requires a detailed discussion, split it into two parts, a summary part and a details part and then connect them with a common subject line: For eg: Subject: New Product Discussion-Summary, Subject: New Product Discussion-Details.
Make Email Scannable: Make emails easy to read at a glance by using bullets, headings, sub headings, bold and italics formatting etc.
Use screenshots: Use screenshots rather than describing the issue. Its faster and makes it easier for the recipient to understand.
Give options: To avoid ambiguity about meeting times or any other ideas, give options and ask people to choose rather than asking open ended questions.
Save Drafts: For routine or periodic emails create and save drafts to use as a template so as to avoid doing the same things repeatedly.
Working hours: Write to people during their working hours. Now, since it is difficult in cross-geographical teams, at least be mindful that the recipient of the email will respond at the time convenient to them.
Follow ups: Send follow up email/minutes of meeting(M.O.M) after offline meetings to be on the same page and bring up to speed any parties that did not make it to the meeting but need to be informed.
Recall: Use Recall and Or Reply all to correct mistakes. In case you sent an email to the wrong recipient or you forgot to attach something, both Outlook and Gmail offer the recall feature upto a certain time. However, if you notice an error later, it is a good practice to reply to all and rectify the issue.
Out-Of-Office(OOO): Write OOO messages properly. It must include whom to contact in your absence, when you will be available next and if you can be contacted on your phone/email in case of an emergency.
Email Signatures: While most people just add their name and designation to their email signature, signatures can also be used to share your professional networking IDs like your Linkedin/Twitter handles. You can choose to add upcoming vacation days, your mission statement etc.
