Tuesday, January 6, 2009

How do I write official mails?

This is a question that I hear often while training. I guess the question should be, 'How do I write professional emails'?
Here are a few points that will help in giving a professional finish to your emails:
  1. Be clear about why you are writing the mail - what is your objective?
  2. Is there any secondary information that will complement what you are conveying?
  3. What are the action points you want from the mail, or what is the response you want?
  4. Is the structure and logical flow sounding good?
  5. Have I left enough white space in my mail?
  6. Have I kept the audience in mind while writing?
  7. Is my subject line, salutation and signature sounding casual or professional?
  8. Are there any grammar errors?
  9. Have I done a check after writing?

Well, I hope to have got the 80% of it. Try this and let me know.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Almost it is god and u have covered all the points. Is there any structure templates for writing email or it is structured depending on the content.

Generally what kind of common error you observe in Emails?

Is it Language, spelling, grammar or the structure.

Please clarify.

Venkat

emailmatters said...

Venkat, there are templates and they work fine if you need a direction to begin. But, being dependent on templates can be a handicap as you go higher in the organization as you are expected to communicate well.