Writing Emails: My Complete Guide

Hey, welcome back to engVid.

Today we are looking at how to do emails well.

A vital skill in today's modern world, it's not just for at work, we're looking at social

emails and in general, what makes emails different to letters and any other form of communication.

The way you present yourself in an email can give a very strong or a very poor impression

of you.

So it's important that you communicate well by email because it's often the first thing

people know of you before they meet you.

So my top tips, I'm not saying that I follow these all the time.

Some of my emails are atrocious.

But this is like the golden standard that we're looking for.

You want your emails to be clear, to the point.

It's not the place for philosophizing and thinking about questions and discussion points.

It's more sort of...

It's more kind of factual communication that we're looking for in an email.

Succinct, yep.

Why say in 32 words what you could say in eight words?

So you need to be rereading your emails to think, where can I shave off some words here

to make this more punchy?

Punctual.

I once worked for someone who said that you should treat an email like a letter with a

first class stamp, i.e. you need to respond to it within 24 hours.

Obviously, if it's a sales or marketing spam email, that doesn't apply, but it's a nice

yardstick.

Be polite and be considerate.

Even if you're thinking something quite negative about the person you're writing to, you still

need to try and write to them in a way that shows respect.

First thing we're going to be looking at is how you start the email.

Then we'll be looking at the first sentence in the email, where you're saying, like, the

purpose of the email, and we'll look at some key phrases for various different types of

email, and then how to finish it.

Valutation, that means how to say hello.

If you're writing to your partner, wife, husband, now, I'm not going to give relationship advice,

but just to kind of show some differences, you might put their name, a way this is how

you might say goodbye, thinking of you, or maybe you can be more poetic, and then put

your name, obviously your name is not my name, well, it might be, might be some Benjamins

out there.

If you're writing to a friend, hey, more North American, hi, more British, put their name,

might end with see you soon.

You might write that kind of in sort of text language, like see ya soon, you might sort

of abbreviate it, like, because if it's a friend, you don't have to stick to formal

rules of written English, and then put your name.

Work emails, now, if it's someone within your company, dear, and then what their name is,

you definitely need to have your name at the bottom, will look better if you've set up

some sort of e-signature, but it's up to you how you sign off, you could just put the name

without any kind of kind regards, thanks, so you can just, you know, nice and clean,

just put your name, but if you do want to have a sign off, then thanks, it's quite sort

of generic, it works for many different occasions, you don't have to be saying, thanking them

for a Christmas present, to write thanks, it can mean sort of thanks in advance for

doing something, or maybe kind regards, but kind regards is quite formal for someone who

works in the same organization, especially if you see them all the time, you can abbreviate

that to KR, so you'd probably just see the KR, just so you know what that means.

If you're writing to someone in a position of authority outside of your company, then

dear, and then if you know their title and name, then put it, their surname we're looking

for here, if you don't know their name, then it's dear sir or madam, okay?

The end, kind regards, and then you put both of your names, and then preferably an e-signature

if you've got one, if you're looking to promote whoever you're working for.

Okay, let's have a look how to do that first sentence.

Okay, cool, so we have said hello, now we need to write something.

So, the first sentence is the why you are writing, the purpose of the email, okay?

So there's some different ways of doing this.

I am writing to, now if you're applying for a job, you could say, I am writing to apply

for the position of.

I am writing to apply for the position of.

You might be writing a complaint, I'm writing to complain, I am writing to suggest a suggestion,

okay?

Lots of different purposes, but this is your basic pattern at the beginning.

I am writing to, or if someone has been trying to call you, you could say, I'm sorry, I was

not able to take your call yesterday, or I'm sorry for the delay in answering your email.

I am sorry, I was not able, or I'm sorry for dot, dot, dot, okay?

I'm writing to, or an apology, or if someone has written to you about something specific

like, I don't know, a faulty piece of machinery, dear so-and-so, in reference to your complaint

about the electric oven, I can confirm da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

So, in reference to means this is about something you have told me about, okay?

Right.

And you are, so this is more if you are writing to someone that you don't know that well.

Maybe they're a new contact, maybe you have watched my video on networking, and you have

got an introduction to someone, and you're sending them an email.

So, it was great to meet you last night at such-and-such a bar, and then you would go

into why you enjoyed meeting them, or something you spoke about, and then maybe a link to

your website or something.

Or further to our phone conversation on such-and-such a date, so further to means, so we had this,

and now we've got this.

So, the first step was the phone call, and now we're writing, or following our email

correspondence on the 1st of October, I'm writing again to see if anything has changed.

Okay, we're just going to have a quick pause, pressing the pause button, because if you're

learning something from this, this is, you know, the absolute best phrases you can use

in emails, if you're finding it of benefit, then do me a favor and subscribe, and get

the notifications, and so you get each video from me.

Attachments, so you've got the basic email, but you want someone to see a document, too,

and you have attached it, so you might say, "Please find attached."

Now we've got one of these is in the passive, and one of them is in the active, "Please

find attached", so the attachment, something has, you know, it's just been someone, someone's

done it, but it wasn't us, so this is the passive, and this is the active, "I have attached

it to the email."

Two different options, this is more common.

Sometimes emails have to convey bad news, so you might write, "Please accept my apologies

for", or if it's really bad news, something like this, "We regret to inform you that your

son did not pass their exam, and he needs to re-sit them", or something.

Okay, we've got a little bit more for you.

Sometimes in emails, you might need to ask the other person to do something, "Could you

send back a copy of the report?", "Could you do this?", "Could you do that?", or "Please

do this", "Please do that".

A more formal construction, "I would be grateful if you _____", or "I would appreciate it if",

okay?

So, depending on the relationship as to whether we go for the simpler option or the more formal

one.

And then towards the end, you might need to say something like, "Do let me know if you

have any further questions", "further" meaning more, "Do let me know if you have any further

questions", or "Do let me know if you have any concerns", if you write "concerns" there.

"Concerns" are worries.

Should you require any more information about this, please do not hesitate to contact me.

"Hesitate" meaning to wait, don't wait, do it straight away.

Why not do the quiz straight away so you try and remember all of these great phrases from

today's lesson?

Hope it's been of use.

If you want any private tuition, I have limited availability, but you can go through my website,

honeyourenglish.com.

Thanks.