How to write a professional e-mail

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Using an e-mail program


Moste-mail programs that use the internet have relatively standard elements. Tosend an e-mail you need to fill in the following information.To:           The e-mail address of the person thatyou want to sendSubject:A brief but meaningful statement about the subject of the message.Cc:           The addresses of those people whowill receive a copy of the message.Bodytext: Start this part with a greeting, followed by the message, and finish witha close.Letus look at each of these elements in detail.
The 'To* elementItis here that you type the e-mail address of the person that you want to sendthe message to. E-mail addresses are made up of two parts: the 'username' (alsocalled the 'userid') which is found to the left of the @ character, and thedomain which is to the right of the @ character. In the example below, theusername is jchan and the domain is office.com.hk. jchan@office.com.hkTheusername must be unique within a certain service provider. Sometimes, you canchoose your own username but other times your company or service provider willassign you one.Takegreat care when typing the e-mail address as it can be easy to make mistakes.It is usual practice to use lower case letters for e- mail addresses althoughusing upper case should still allow the message to reach its destination.Spelling and the position of the full stops is very important though and amistake can mean that the e- mail is sent to the wrong person or not sent atall.
The 'Subject' elementAbrief and meaningful statement about the contents of the message allows thereceiver to read quickly through his or her list of incoming mail and identifymessages of special importance. It also allows the receiver to save certainmessages and delete others. An e- mo.il message that contains a blank subjectis likely to be ignored.
The 'Cc' elementAswith normal business communications, 'cc' stands for 'carbon copy' (a hangoverfrom pre-photocopier/computer days), and indicates the other people who willreceive a copy of the message. An e-mail 'cc' differs, however, in that thee-mail address of each person is included along with their name. Remember thatthe recipient of your message (the 'to' person) is not the same as the personor people who receive a copy for information (the 'cc'
The recipient is the person that youdirectly communicate with, so address the message accordingly. It can beconfusing to receive a message that is actually meant for someone else,especially if it requests some actions to be taken.
The 'Body text' elementThis part comprises the full text ofthe message you are sending. Start this section with an appropriate greeting,followed by the message itself, and finish with an appropriate close.While it is desirable to be brief,business messages will usually be longer than personal notes. Remember that youare communicating, so keep messages short and to the point, but not so short asto obscure their meaning.Most e-mail programs allow you toattach word processed documents, program files or pictures to your message.This serves the same purpose as the 'Enc.' section often found at the end of abusiness letter. Attachments are useful if you wish to preserve thetypographical style and format of an original document, or if retyping adocument or file would be too time-consuming. Whenever you send an attachment,it is advisable to include a short introductory sentence explaining thecontents of the attached file.If you are responding to a message,use the reply function rather than creating a new message. When replying to amessage, you will often only need to reply to part of the received message.Include the relevant section of the received message in your reply, but savetime and space by not returning the whole message along with your comments - quotethe relevant sections only.
Network etiquetteNetwork etiquette, or netiquette, canbe seen as a protocol for human communications over a computer network.Netiquette means being considerate towards other people both locally and aroundthe world. It also alerts you to how your actions can affect other internetusers. It is very important to consider netiquette before using e-mail.
Choose your words carefullyOne advantage of e-mail is that it isimmediate. The downside to this is that once the send button has been clicked,the message cannot be retrieved. As, such, remember to choose your wordscarefully. Although computer networks are impersonal and often involvecommunicating with someone you have never met or are unlikely to meet, followthe same standards of politeness as you do in other aspects of your life.If your correspondent uses your firstname, it is perfectly acceptable to use his or hers. In the case of first-timecorrespondence, • immediate informality is unwelcome in a business situation, especiallyin the international business world.