© Intellevate India 1
E Mail Etiquette Business Writing Skills
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Contents Learning objectives
At the end of this session, you will be
able to:
1. Understand the impact of poorly written emails
2. Understand what makes a personal email different
from a business email
3. Write emails that people read… and act upon
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Agenda
• Why email etiquette?
• What is email etiquette?
• How to write effective emails
• Email best practices
• Practice
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Why email Etiquette?
1. Face to face
2. Voice
3. Written
Perception
Reality
??
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Why email Etiquette?
??
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Why email Etiquette?
Casual
To gossip
To entertain
To socialize
Formal
To inform
To convince
To enable action
With respect & dignity
??
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Why email Etiquette? The Problem
Lack of e-mail etiquette has resulted in
it’s becoming one of the biggest time-
wasters
a source of stress & frustration in many
organizations
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An Information Mapping (IMI) survey done with
organizations having a workforce of 5000+
employees, shows that:
•40% respondents "waste" 30 minutes -
3 hours per day reading poorly written
emails!
•80% of respondents deem email writing skills
as 'extremely' or 'very' important to their jobs.
Why email Etiquette?
??
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Why email Etiquette?
The study identified the biggest email
problems as:
• Disorganized content
• Missing critical information
• Unclear action or request
• Content is too wordy, long and difficult to read
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The 4 C’s of effective emails
C
C
C
C
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CONTENT
Can be divided into 2 parts:
• Subject Line
• Body of the mail
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CONTENT : Subject Line
1. Should convey the essence of email
2. Must not be a complete sentence
3. Brief and to the point
4. Urgency of the message must be indicated in the
subject line:
• If it is not urgent, indicate “FYI” before the subject line
• If urgent, type “URGENT” before your subject line.
5. Be diplomatic, be assertive
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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The 4 C’s of effective emails
CONTENT : Body of the mail
1. Relate content to the reader
2. Limit your message to one subject
3. Keep to a 15 line message (about half a
computer screen) if you can
4. Good idea to use bullets
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CONTENT : Call To Action
The call to action is the
Instructions or information we want the reader to
take away from the message.
Or
The Actions that need to be taken
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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Example
To: Team members From: The PM
Date: Today
I received a phone call from Jimm Bobb Incorporated and spoke with Jimm Bobb.
He said that we need to evaluate our current procedures when we are
typing our e-mails. If we are not obeying the current policies, practices, and
procedures which are already set in place, then he will need to conduct a full
investigation. So when you are typing your e-mails, please be aware that
what you are typing could be viewed as offensive by the reader. Also, when
using our e-mail system, keep it limited to just work-related e-mails. Do not
transmit chain letters, large documents etc. as it may bog down our mail
servers. Jimm and I are going to lunch to discuss what we can do to try to
combat the number of inappropriate e-mails being transmitted throughout
our campus. See me if you have any questions! Have a nice day!
Thanks,
PM
Exercise: Call to action
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Example
To: Team members From: The PM Date: Today
I received a phone call from Jimm Bobb Incorporated and spoke with Jimm Bobb.
He said that we need to evaluate our current procedures when we are
typing our e-mails. If we are not obeying the current policies, practices, and
procedures which are already set in place, then he will need to conduct a full
investigation. So when you are typing your e-mails, please be aware
that what you are typing could be viewed as offensive by the
reader. Also, when using our e-mail system, keep it limited to just
work-related e-mails. Do not transmit chain letters, large
documents etc. as it may bog down our mail servers. Jimm and I are
going to lunch to discuss what we can do to try to combat the number of
inappropriate e-mails being transmitted throughout our campus. See me if
you have any questions! Have a nice day!
Thanks,
PM
Exercise: Call to action
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CORRECT
1. Convey information appropriately
2. Check accuracy of figures facts & words
3. Accept and apologize: if data is not
available
4. When in doubt- Ask.
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CORRECT
• Spelling & Grammar - proofread for errors
carefully.
• Use precise words
• Program your e-mail to auto spell check
all outgoing mails
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CORRECT
Who is it marked to?
• Wait to fill in the "TO" mail address!
• Proofread the mail beforehand to be sure that it is
exactly the way you want it
Put yourself in the receiver shoes and decide:
• Am I the relevant person to be getting this mail?
• Am I clearly able to make out why did I get this
mail?
• Avoid sending a “Reply all” mail unless absolutely
necessary. Send replies on a need to know/act
basis.
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CORRECT : Attachments
1. Make sure to create an attachment if you
are mentioning the same in your mail
2. Check with the receiver
1. if he/she would like to receive the attachment
2. whether they have software to open
attachment
3. Do not attach very heavy attachments
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CONCISE : Language
1. Use simple language
• avoid jargon
• excessive phrases or repetition
2. Be brief. Get to your point as quickly without
leaving out any necessary details
3. Avoid using SMS lingo: U instead of you, 2 instead
of to or too, plz instead of please, and thanx
instead of thanks. It's fine for personal email
4. Frequently used abbreviations such as Mr. & Mrs.,
FYI (for your information) and etc. are fine
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CONCISE : Exercise
This is to thank you for the quick response
Thank you for the quick response
This report is in connection with the internal job postings
This is a report on internal job postings
In majority of cases it is found that the trains are on time
The trains are usually on time
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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CONCISE : Exercise
Rahul will arrive at about nine o’clock Rahul will arrive at or about nine o’clock
I need the following information in order to complete the report
I need the following information to complete the
report
The meeting will be held for the purpose of discussing the visit of Simon Webster
The meeting will be held to discuss the visit of Simon Webster
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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COURTEOUS
• Use “Please” and “Thank You” where appropriate
• Avoid writing your message using all uppercase
letters. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING.
• Make sure that you have spelled out the name of the
recipient correctly. If not sure, confirm before
sending the mail.
The 4 C’s of effective emails
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The 4 C’s of effective emails
C oncise
C ourteous
C orrect
C ontent
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We would like to start a green belt project which will be a
Quality project and therefore we would like to invite
everyone to join us in to be a part of the team. The name of
the project would be “Need Based Nominations”.
It is essentially to design and implement a process of
Nominations for various non-process related training
programs offered across Intellevate. Bhaskar, who is very
keen on the project kicking off on time would be sponsor
proposed for the project and Ebby is the black belt
attached with a very vast experience on the subject.
Inder would champion the green belt project which is a Quality
project and Himanshu who is the green belt on the project
has nominated Satya and JP.
Please confirm participation as then we would like to schedule
our first meeting.
Exercise
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Exercise
Subject: Green Belt project
We are planning to kick off a Quality Project “ Need Based Nominations “ .
Goal : To design an implement a process of Nominations for various non-process related training programs offered across Intellevate
Proposed Sponsor : Bhaskar
Champion : Inder
Black Belt : Ebby
Green Belt : Himanshu
Team Members : Satya & JP
We invite you to participate as a core team member and add
value to this project.
Please confirm your participation. I would then schedule our
first meeting.
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Use these helpful practices to ensure proper
etiquette when composing e-mail:
• Use black or blue font only. Do not use red font.
• DO NOT USE ALL CAPS.
• Arial / Verdana fonts
• Use a 10 or 12 point font. Do not go too small or too
big!
• Use bullet points whenever possible.
• Do not use excessive punctuation (!!!!!!)
• Be sure recipient has proper software to open
attachments.
• Never respond to an email when you are angry/upset.
E-mail Best Practices
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Use these helpful practices to ensure proper
etiquette when composing e-mail:
1. FYI and FYA
2. Avoid using humor unless understood clearly by the
recipient
3. Use an auto-signature.
4. Proofread all messages and use spell check before
sending.
5. Insert attachment file before sending.
6. Distribution lists / filtering lists
7. BCC
E-mail Best Practices
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Before you hit the send button, ask yourself
these questions:
• Are the name and email address in the "TO:" field
correct?
• Have I properly addressed the recipient?
• Have I used the appropriate tone?
• Is my email too wordy (or is it not wordy enough)?
• Have I attached unsolicited attachments?
• Have I proof-read my message?
Before you hit send