This modern 21st century which is going on is all based on texting. Get any trouble, call your friend or family in a flash to help you out. When you are having difficulty with your assignment or project, what do you do? Yes, you are thinking right, you immediately call or text your professor for guidance.
Despite all these facilities, there are still some situations in which you should write a mail to anyone, your professor, HOD, or office boss. Sometimes it happens that you have to write an E-mail with some professionalism. Because when you want to contact your boss or departmental HOD, you should not just text or call them. You have to be a little more professional and write them an E-mail to tell them what you want to say.
It is not like, you can’t Email your friend or family, you can also do that many people still do the E-mail thing to contact their friends. But that E- e-mails are informal messages you can simply write anything in your E-mail. But when you are writing an E-mail to your HOD or boss you have to be more professional.
If you want to make your E-mail more professional, you have to be very careful about a few little things. Because when you are writing an E-mail, you have to be more concise. You can not write the details of each and everything, so make it pertinent. So that the reader will not be weary. In this article, we will discuss in depth, how you can make your E-mail more professional. Because an E-mail sounds more professional will have an excellent impact on the reader and it will be beneficial for you as well.
E-Mail – Electronic Way Of Sending Messages
E-mail stands for Electronic Mail, mail means message or text. E-mail is the electronic way of sending messages to other people via the Internet. These E-mails can travel across different time zones in just a blink of an eye. Here you send an E-mail to your family and within a second they will get your E-mail and can respond to you easily. The E-mail system is considered to be the most effective way of communication, whether it’s anything professional or personal.
In the old days, there was not this much casualty between boss and employee as we see nowadays. Employees were more professional even with their colleagues. But if we talk about this century, bosses are a bit too much lenient with their employees that sometimes they even cross their limits. Still, when communicating with your boss through e-mail, you have to be professional so, it will look like the talk between boss and employee.
Professional E-Mail Tips
There are some key elements that you have to keep in mind while writing a professional E-mail. In this article, we will chew over how to make your e-mail more professional. When you are doing a job in any professional office or IT office you have to write hundreds of emails. And for that, you need to know how to write a professional E-mail to any formal person.
There are some takeaway points that you have to keep in mind while writing a professional Email. so now talk about those key elements which assist your E-mail to achieve a level of professionalism.
1. Profesional E-Mail Address
When people start exploring social media, the first thing that they do, or we can say that they had to do is create an E-mail address, which can be used anywhere. That email address is the standard email, but when you are working in any professional area, or even when you set foot in your professional career you have to create your new professional E-mail address.
That will aid in recognizing you. Many offices arrange professional email addresses for their employees themselves. But that email will be used only in that office, you won’t be able to use that for personal purposes.
Professional people need to separate their personal E-mail or professional E-mail. These are some of the samples of professional E-mail addresses:
- l firstname.lastname@thedomain
- l firstnamemiddleinitial.lastname@thedomain
2. Add The Subject
When you write an E-mail to your friends or family, you write it randomly for instance you talk about everything that you want. But in professional E-mails, you have one topic over which you are talking so it is worthwhile adding the subject at the beginning of your E-mail. You must be thinking about what is Subject. So fundamentally subject is the topic which we are going to talk about in the coming paragraph or E-mail.
The main motto behind writing the subject is to help the reader to know what he is going to read about. Like if you are writing an E-mail to your boss related to the cleanliness issues in your office so the subject will be CLEANLINESS AWARENESS. in this way it will be easy for him to know the issue or to know what you have discussed in your E-mail before even reading whole E-mail.
Don’t forget that subject should be concise, use less than 60 characters in your subject.
3. Greeting
Greeting at the start of your text or E-mail is a very common or casual thing. But greeting properly is the main point you cant write Hello or Hi to your boss or HOD. You have to apply the proper salutation in your greeting it will make your E-mail look more professional.
You can write Hi or Hello in the E-mails where the recipient is the person whom you know personally. But you can’t write Hello Sir or Hi Sir. It will not look appropriate.
“Professional emails should start with a greeting and end with a sign-off. Use neutral language in your professional email and try to avoid slang or colloquialisms.” Madisyn McKee
Some samples of greetings:
- Dear Sir,
- Hello Marie,
- Hi Sam,
- Dear Manager,
4. Write Concisely
As we have said before. Make your E-mail as concise as you can. So that it will be easy for the reader to read your E-mail and take action. Always make your words to the point. Like if you are asking your boss to tell you the availability of reports you can just write, “ I want to know that do you have the final reports?”, you can’t write” I asked other colleagues they said, he doesn’t have so I asked you that do you have the reports?” this way of writing is not considered as professional. There is no need to add the details or the whole story in your E-mail, people are so busy in their life that they don’t have time to read out your stories.
5. Don’t use The Word “Just”
Don’t ever use the term” just” because this term is giving you an apologizing tone. The term “Just” is namby-pamby, not authoritative. When you are working for mutual profit or goals there is no need for apologizing. Like if you are writing an E-mail to your boss don’t write “ I am just emailing you to know that you have the reports” instead you should write “ I am emailing you to know that you have the reports”. that the more appropriate way to write to your boss.
6. Spell Check
Before sending the E-mail to your boss. First, make sure that you have run it through any grammar or spell checker. Because it will not give a good impression of you if your E-mail has spelling mistakes or grammar issues. When we are writing or typing, mostly it happens that we write the word wrongly.
In this way, it is important to run the spell checker so that your E-mail will be neat and clean from any issues. Many software is available in the market for this purpose like the most commonly used one is Grammarly. You can simply install this app and use it to double-check your E-mails or documents.
7. Pay Attention To The Body Of The E-Mail
After greeting or subject, the next step is writing the body of your E-mail. You have to be very careful while writing the body of your E-mail. Always try to make the body of your E-mail as concise as you can. But despite writing to-the-point sentences, if your body of E-mail is long then there is no need to panic.
Divide the whole body into different paragraphs so that it won’t look dull overall. Also try not to use a lot of punctuation in your E-mail, As it wont give your E-mail a more professional look.
8. Use Formatting Options
If you are writing your E-mail on MS Word or even on PDF, you will see many formatting options. Use those tools to make create your E-mail look more appealing. If you want to point out some important words you can use the Bold option to highlight that specific point.
You can also use the underline tool, which can be used while writing the names of books, businesses, or any person, you can also underline any specific thing which you want the reader to read with more attention like any important dates. There is also another option of hyperlinks. This can be used to insert any link in your E-mail. You don’t have to copy-paste that link in your doc, you can simply use the hyperlink option to create the link.
9. Timing Of E-Mail
One thing that is always neglected in professional communication is the timing. Sending your principal, HOD, or your boss an E-mail late at night or very early in the morning looks very unprofessional. Before sending your E-mail, make sure to check the time at which you are sending your E-mail. Just like sending an E-mail at an inappropriate time is an unprofessional thing, replying to a boss’s E-mail late is also not considered very professional.
You should check your inbox repeatedly so that you will know when you get the E-mail from your boss and can reply to it inappropriately time. It happens many times, people don’t check their e-mail inbox on time and they miss the great opportunities of their life.
10. Use Templates
If you are in a higher position, you will face this situation very openly that sending the same message again and again. for example employees asking for meeting timing, dates, or location. Or there is a possibility that it can be the frequently asked question under customer support. For all these questions you have to reply mostly to the same thing so that it is easy to make a template and save it for future use. Writing the same E-mail again and again will be time-consuming but when you have created a template you can just open it and do some editing and can send it immediately.
Templates are more professional as compared to E-mails. Sending an E-mail written in any template will be recognized within a minute and its also look more professional.
11. Avoid Twenty-Five-Cent Word
Many people think that using vague language will make them look smarter or more intelligent but this is not true, especially in writing E-mails. Try to use more simple words which can be understood by the reader easily. Some people try to be over-efficient and use difficult or long words from the dictionary so that reader will think that he is very smart or intelligent but it happens oppositely.
It doesn’t make them look astute but gives the wrong impression to the receiver of the E-mail. Also as we have mentioned above use concise words so using long lengthy sentences or even long words will be inappropriate in professional E-mails.
12. Don’t Overuse Punctuation
Always remember, the more punctuation you use, the more atrocious your E-mail will look. Surprisingly, people love to exploit punctuation. They don’t know where they have to apply commas, apostrophes, or other things. Even some people don’t even know that we can’t write 2 or 2 question marks in one place like people write,” Where have you been???” this way of writing is unacceptable. Without knowing the true meaning of ellipsis and where to put these dots, people use it anywhere like anywhere.
Relevent topic:
Conclusion:
Writing an E-mail is not a very old-fashioned thing even in this century. Many people still prefer to write E-mail when they need it. But there are some situations where you have to write professional E-mails like to your boss, your department HOD. And for that, you need to know how to write professional E-mails. Professional E-mails are concise ones, in which the writer has to make his words as shorter as he can.
He can’t write long stories in professional E-mail. For this reason, we have mentioned all the things which should be included or excluded in professional E-mail. These are the things you have to keep in mind while writing professional e-mails.
FAQs:
1. How to end a professional E-mail?
Answer: There are many good ways to finish your professional E-mail respectfully. These are some closing lines that you can add to give your E-mail a better look:
- l Sincerely
- l Best regards
- l Kind regards
- l Thank you
2. How can I write a professional subject line?
Answer: While writing the subject of your E-mail. Keep in mind that it should be concise and clear. Use the words that are relevant to your context and try to use keywords that will explain your whole E-mail in just one sentence. don’t make it lengthy try to complete it in less than 60 characters.
3. How to make your E-mail stand out from other’s e-mails?
Answer: Make your E-mail clear and concise. Try to add a subject line that is wholesome of your E-mail, add the greeting with the appropriate salutation, clear the purpose of the E-mail, and close your E-mail with your contact formation and signature.