The Art of Email Writing
Everyone has to know the basics of email writing, whether you are a student, businessperson or corporate worker. However, if you work in a corporate environment or you are a job seeker, you have to take it up a notch by mastering the art of email writing.
Quite a number of people are still jobless because they cannot compose a simple email and if you are wondering why you did not get invited for an interview after sending in your CV then that is probably the reason why.
It saddens my heart when I see graduates struggle to compose a simple email. Interestingly, emails are easy to compose if you pay attention to details. The fields you see when composing an email, that is, the recipient, subject and body fields must be appropriately filled for your email to have a meaning. I will attempt to explain those fields one after the other.
RECIPIENT: An email must be addressed to someone, hence, this particular field. Your email can have as many recipients as possible; you can also copy (cc) people and blind copy (bcc) people. When you “cc” people, you want the actual recipient to see who you have copied, but when you “bcc” someone in the email, the actual recipient does not get to see who you “bcc’d”.
You have to make sure you typed in the correct email addresses of the intended recipient, lest your mail bounces back or go to an unintended recipient.
SUBJECT: Personally, if an email does not have a subject, I would probably never open or act on it and if it came from colleague, I would tell them to input a subject and resend to me.
The subject is the summary of the body of the mail. It must be precise and concise; the recipient must be able to have an idea of the body of your email by just looking at the subject. The subject does not only give meaning to an email, it is also instrumental in referencing an email at a later date. When you want to search for a mail, inputting a word or two of the subject of the mail helps to narrow down the search.
As a Legal and HR generalist, I have received job application emails from applicants without subjects. Some forward only their CV with no subject, no body, just attachment and I delete such emails when I receive them
No potential employer or HR person would take you seriously when you send your application without a subject. The subject could be as short as a word and as long as six or seven words. Anything longer than that could make the field tacky.
For a job applicant, the position you’re applying for should be the subject of the mail. It helps the HR to know how to classify your application, especially if they rolled out many vacancies at once.
BODY: The body of your email details the essence of your email. You can start the body with a salutation; something like “Dear sir” or “Dear Ma” or “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Fisayo” or “Dear all” where the recipients are many.
After the salutation, you throw in little pleasantries like “trust this mail finds you well…” and then, you go into a brief introduction which is more or less the reason why you’re sending the email. For a job applicant you could say “Sequel to your vacancy advertisement for the position of legal officer in your company, I hereby apply for the position…”
After the introduction, you go into the main part of the body; this must be another paragraph, your email body must be well spaced and paragraphed to give it clarity and meaning. For a job applicant, this is where you state briefly your experience, core competencies, skills and among other things.
After the main part of the body comes conclusion. The conclusion must contain an action point or plan as the case may be. For example, if you are job seeker, you can say “I have attached my curriculum vitae to this mail for your kind consideration. I look forward to being invited for an interview so we can discuss further…”
For people working in the corporate environment, this is where you tell the recipient what you expect of them; that is, what you want them to do with the information you’ve given them in the mail. It is also where you set deadlines; you could say something like “I have attached the report of the last meeting to this email for your perusal and review, I would like to get your feedback by next week so I can work on the final report…”
You can end the mail with “Best regards”. I always prefer to use, “Do accept the assurances of my esteemed regards”. After this, you put your name, designation and your contact at bottom left side depending on who the recipient is.
In email writing, the language/diction of an email must be formal. You should refrain from using shorthand and abbreviations which have no root or place in English language, for example, typing “U” instead of “You”.
Also, try as much as possible to avoid grammatical errors, before you hit “send”, do well to proofread. If you cannot do it on your own, call someone you know is well versed grammatically.
Also, the tone of your language must be polite; try to avoid cracking jokes, do not forget that you cannot see your recipient neither can they see you, so they might not understand your joke. You both cannot determine each other’s demeanor or mood, hence, the need to be polite, avoid jokes and other sarcastic remarks or comments. Always remember to keep it FORMAL.
Fisayo Eluyera Esq is and Legal and Human Resource expert. He can be reached at elufisayo@gmail.com
