How To Write A Good Email? - 10 Tips For Writing A Good Email

Date First Published: 2nd March 2023

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Services

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn about how to write a good email in this article.

Email is the most commonly used method of communication over the internet. It is also quick and efficient, making it suitable for communicating for both business and personal use, especially when communicating with people that are far away from each other. Once received, the recipient can reply to or forward the message to other people. But, it is also important to be professional when writing emails as once they are sent, that process cannot be undone. Sending a bad or unprofessional email can come with consequences. Below are 10 tips for writing a good email.

1. Use A Professional Email Address

The first thing that the recipient will see when you send them an email is your email address. Sending an email from an address like '[email protected]' is very likely to give the recipient a bad impression of you, especially if it was a non-personal email. Long email addresses that don't give any information about the recipient, like the one above might also make the recipient suspicious as these types of email addresses are often used for spam purposes. An email address like '[email protected]' looks much more professional and will help gain the trust of the recipient.

When sending emails to business contacts or accepting email from a website, it is recommended to use a custom email address that contains your domain name at the end, such as '[email protected]' instead of '[email protected]' since these look more professional. Another risk of using a free email address that ends in 'gmail.com' or 'outlook.com' for business use is that if the email service provider closes down their service, all of your email messages will be deleted from their servers and you will have to find a new email address.

2. Keep The Email Short

It is best to keep your emails short, whilst getting your message or question across. Shorter emails are recommended as they are more likely to receive a response than longer emails. If you send a very long email that does not get the recipient's attention or gain their trust quickly, they are more likely to ignore the email or skim instead of reading the whole message. People usually check their emails to read short messages, not read long essays. Ideally, it is best to not write any more than three paragraphs of text per email message.

3. Keep The Subject Simple and Clear

The subject is what people see before they open the email and is one of the things that affects the recipient's decision to open emails. A lot of recipients decide whether to open an email or not based on the subject when they receive an email from someone they don't know. If the subject looks off or spammy, they might ignore the email message. The subject should be relevant to the email and contain enough information for the recipient to know what exactly the email is about before they open it.

4. Check Your Spelling and Grammar

Once you have finished writing your email, you should always check your spelling and grammar before you send it. You can use a spelling and grammar checker, like Grammarly to check your email for spelling and grammatical errors and correct as many as possible. Emails with spelling and grammatical errors can indicate that the email has been rushed. Commonly confused words (e.g. whether and weather) can also cause embarrassing errors in the email.

5. Never Send Personal Information By Email

You should never send emails with personal information, such as passwords, to other people. This is because email is not encrypted and the recipient can forward it to other people. If you accidentally send confidential business information by email, this information could go to the wrong people and expose private business secrets, which could be very embarrassing.

6. Avoid Using Slang Or Informal Language In Formal Emails

Slang and informal language are okay when writing casual emails to your friends or other people that you know well. But, when writing formal emails to someone who you are not on casual terms with, such as customers, clients, and community or political officials, you should avoid using internet slang or informal contractions like '4u' instead of 'for you' or 'gimme' instead of 'give me'. This type of informal language is inappropriate for formal or professional emails and might give the recipient the wrong impression of you.

7. Use A Professional Signature

When writing formal or professional emails, you should end the email with a professional signature, like 'Regards' or 'Sincerely'. A signature will help the recipient to identify your role and brand along with your required contact information. Most email applications can automatically add your signature to each email you write.

8. Reply To Emails Effectively

When you receive an email from someone else, you should reply to them as quickly as possible and not leave the recipient waiting for a long time. When replying to email messages, it is best to keep the previous messages in the body of the message and your response at the top as this will help the recipient to remember the email discussion. Be careful when using the 'reply all' option as this will send the email to all the recipients in the CC and you will need to make sure that everyone needs to see your reply.

9. Choose Your Fonts Carefully

You should carefully choose the fonts used in your email message. They should be easily readable by other people. You should avoid using difficult-to-read and overly fancy fonts. Although some of these fonts may look visually appealing and be suitable for a logo, they are quite difficult to read and unsuitable for everyday use. Also, make sure that the font you use in your email message is consistent. An inconsistent message that contains multiple fonts can make an email look unprofessional and overwhelm the recipient.

10. Use The CC and BCC Options Carefully

CC and BCC both work by sending a copy of the email to other recipients. The only difference between the two is that BCC creates a blank carbon copy of the message without the recipients knowing who else received the email, whilst CC creates a carbon copy of the message and allows the recipients to see who else received the email. If you want a small number of recipients to be able to view and respond to an email and see who received it, use CC. But, if you are sending an email to a large number of people and it is not important for the recipients to see who the email was sent to, you can use BCC to keep everyone's email addresses private.

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