HOW GOOD ARE YOUR EMAIL WRITING SKILLS!

In today’s Facebook world, do we still find the time to write a good Email to our colleagues at work? Guilty or not, we can’t deny that some people in our workplace would tend to forget the value of writing good emails. Yes, you can blame it on social media, or perhaps, on lack of trainings for email etiquette. With our technology today, almost half of our communication relies on internet. Paperless world, they call it. And so, a good chunk of our time at work goes to writing and reading emails. Now here’s the thing, how do we make sure that we are communicating correctly through someone else’s screen? Here’s some cool tips that you can absolutely practice at work:

• BE CLEAR.

Now this is a real struggle for us when we’re trying to communicate via screen and texts. Because we can’t make them hear our tone of voice and we can’t make them see our facial expressions. That is why clarity is very important in communicating via email to avoid misunderstandings.

Let’s say for example you want to ask questions about a certain topic, it would be essential to use the right punctuation. Sometimes, people tend to forget about this that they expect the other person that they actually got the message right. It will also be helpful for you to mention at the bottom of your email if the person need to reply, to make sure that they got your email instead of just expecting that they would answer back.

• Make Good Title for the Subject Line.

Is your email urgent? Or are you trying to remind people about a particular meeting happening soon? It will be better if you maximize the title to give people an idea about what you wrote. Because people are busy and most of the time, they categorize an email based on its importance and urgency. You wouldn’t want your message to be thrown at the spam folder, or worst, the trash folder. So if you want your message to be read, make sure that you use subject lines wisely.

Make no mistake of leaving the subject line BLANK! No no no! Never ever.

• Keep it concise.

Some of us tend to overly communicate on email. While it’s good that we have this technology, face-to –face communication is still vital. When writing emails, avoid using so much words it tends to confuse the reader. Also this takes a lot time for them. Being concise and brief help the reader to get the message right away rather than whirling around and not going straight to point.

Also keep in mind to write separate emails for other topics. For example, if you are writing an email about a reminder for them to attend a meeting, do not include any other topics aside from the meeting. Write a separate email so that the messages don’t get mixed up.

• Double check before sending.

have you ever had the mistake of sending a confidential email to the wrong person? Or maybe you were in a rush, and accidentally hit send while there were still some red lines on your sentences and you know that the person’s receiving the email is a certified Grammar Nazi? Always reread your email before hitting that precious button. You wouldn’t want to be judged as incompetent just because you’ve made these mistakes.

• Always be courteous.

Well again, we don’t get to express our tone of voice and facial expressions via screen, and so it is a must for us to be always courteous. Though we have all these technologies, it’s not an excuse for us not to practice some manners. And though we communicate through screens, the other person reading your message is still a human. Why not praise your colleague for submitting the reports on time, before giving him/her another task? Or maybe simply thank them for replying quickly. Work can be stressful at times and a little virtual pat on the back by affirming your colleagues would be a really great help for them to get over stress.

Effective Business Writing develops the writing skills of individuals to enable them to communicate effectively. The workshop aims to equip learners with the skills to write clearly, concisely and correctly.