How to Write Effective and Professional Emails

Summary: Emails are used for just about everything we do. Being able to write emails that are taken seriously and get the job done is easy when remembering these simple rules.

Writing emails are a part of life. There is no way of getting around it so it is best to learn how to write them effectively and professionally. When an email is written correctly, they can even help make life easier.

With so many emails needing to be written and read each day, they need to be kept short and to the point. You can list items if that helps shorten an email to be just a few sentences long.

When emails concern and are between multiple people, always reply all. The biggest problem in many team work settings is a lack of communication. Don’t just assume that everyone is included already, look through the list of recipients and make sure that someone important hasn’t been forgotten. This includes carbon copying those that need to be informed but don’t need to take action.

Give the subject of the email a good description. Just putting the day of the event or “hi” doesn’t help anyone understand what the email is about and whether or not it is important.

Think about how you would find this email again later if you need to. Are there any keywords that stand out to you that would make it easier? Be sure to include those keywords.

Keep your email chains organized. If the email you need to write is on the same subject as a previous email, reply to it. If the subject is something new, then create a new message.

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