Video: Email Guidelines

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From the course by University of Washington

Business English: Networking

717 ratings

University of Washington

Business English: Networking

717 ratings

Course 1 of 5 in the Specialization Business English Communication Skills

This course begins with a welcome message and an overview of the Specialization. After this introduction, you will be asked to take a proficiency test to see if this course is right for you. During the course, you will begin learning vocabulary and customs related to socializing and networking in English. The goal is to enable you to interact with business contacts in person, on the phone and over email in a professional way. Course Learning Objectives • Determine whether the objectives of this Specialization align with your learning goals • Evaluate your current level of proficiency in business English communication • Present relevant information about yourself in a discussion forum • Develop your networking skills • Write short emails with appropriate formatting • Recognize and produce formal and informal language in emails • Develop vocabulary related to jobs and companies

From the lesson

Emails

In week 3, we will introduce you to writing professional emails.

Video: Email Guidelines3:29

Video: Subject Lines3:32

Video: Email Greetings2:37

Video: Email Closings1:09

Meet the Instructors

Richard Moore
Extension Lecturer, International & English Language Programs
UW Educational Outreach

[MUSIC]

Welcome back to Business Communication Skills.

Have you written emails before in English?

Are you going to be writing emails in English in your jobs or

studies in the future?

Well, this module is all about email.

Love it or hate it, email is a very important part of business communication.

And in this module, you'll learn about writing effective and professional emails.

How to write subject lines, greetings, and closings.

How to choose the appropriate tone, and finally how to start off and end an email.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to write some professional looking emails,

so let's start with the first lesson.

Let's start by talking about some useful email tips.

How many emails do you get a day?

How many of them do you read?

How many emails do you send?

It's probably more than just one or two, right?

We can become swamped by too many emails, so it's a good idea to follow these tips,

so that we can make email an effective form of communication.

Email is fast, but you should take your time writing an email,

especially if it's part of your job.

Look at this email.

It's hard to read, isn't it?

Look how we can make it much easier by a few simple steps.

So this is what we did.

We divided it into short paragraphs.

We used white space between the paragraphs.

We used bullet points and we made the sentences shorter.

Another thing to remember is that we still use paragraphs in emails

even if they're short.

Look at this email.

All the sentences are on separate lines.

It's actually harder to read.

It should be divided into smaller paragraphs like this.

Email is not face to face communication.

And so there's no body language to help the other person understand you.

Try to avoid jokes or strong emotional language.

Emoticons or emojis might be helpful in some cases, but

they aren't considered professional.

Also, it's a good idea to avoid overusing exclamation marks.

Be clear and specific.

Your readers don't have a lot of time to spend reading emails.

So the less time they have to spend trying to understand what you're trying

to say the better, right?

If you're writing to someone because you want to get a response

on a couple of issues, it's much better to write them in separate emails.

Why?

Because often the reader might just give you a response on the first issue and

then forget all about the other ones.

It also helps to track separate issues later.

Have you ever hit send and then realized you spelled something wrong or received

a reply and seen your original message with a terrible or embarrassing mistake?

We all have.

But still, it's a good idea to read through the email carefully,

especially if you're writing to someone you don't know.

Even though it's email, following the rules of written English will make

sure the impression you give your reader is a good one.

[MUSIC]

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