Everyone who works professionally needs to write emails. Despite this, most of the people I know have complained about having to write emails. It can be hard to get the tone right and to know what kinds of things to avoid. The person who receives an email will inevitably judge the sender based on how it's written, so it is important to appear professional and have a clear message. Many people have given advice on writing emails, but I've found that a lot of it isn't applicable to all of the messages that I need to send.
Emmy Favilla, an editor for BuzzFeed, published a book on editing titled A World Without Whom. One of the points that she makes is on drafting and editing emails. They need to be the right tone for their audience, they need to be concise, and they need to be as unambiguous as possible. She provided some advice for writing emails that I think works quite well.
According to Favilla, an email doesn't need a fancy start to it. It can just start with a simple, "Hi [Name]." It also doesn't need fluff and small talk. You don't need to ask how their day is going before sharing the reason you emailed in the first place. She also advises that writers avoid emoticons, ellipses, and long paragraphs. Use bullet points to get lots of information across instead, as that's easier to read. When you end an email, you can just sign your name rather than choosing from any random variation of "best wishes" or "sincerely." Otherwise, it can easily come off as trying too hard.
Here is an example of an email that I sent prior to hearing this advice:
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An email following Sunni's advice would look more like this:
Hi Sunni,
I was wondering how many poems we need for the workshop on Thursday. There's the four (including mine) that we got in class, but then I got emails from two Carsons about their poems. I just wanted to check how many we're supposed to have for this week.
Eliza
This email is concise, doesn't waste time, and doesn't thank the recipient for no reason. I like these guidelines to writing emails because they are simple and can be applied to emails with many different contexts. I hope that you benefit from looking into them as well.
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