How To Write An Effective Email

In a global delivery environment where teams sit oceans apart, email becomes pretty much the heart and soul of effective day-to-day internal and external communication. It is very important for teams and individuals to understand that writing effective emails is actually a skill that helps in almost every sphere of professional life.

Below are the quick tips and tricks to help one develop this very important skill :-

1. Always start with a strong and relevant subject line. Your first impression is your last impression.

The Good: "design freeze date confirmation query"
The Bad: "a query"
The Ugly: "hi!"

2. Always think about who is your audience and accordingly furnish the appropriate level of details.

The Good: "Hi Anne, since you are the lead developer on this project, can you point me to the right location in source control for the master design document?"
The Bad: "Hi Anne, I cannot cannot the lead developer on the project but I need the master design document. Can you please send it across to me?
The Ugly: "Hi Anne, can you send me master design document?"

3. Your first paragraph should always contain the critical and most important part of your email.

4. Always ask for execution action, put your 'Whats' and the 'Whens' clearly.

The Good: "Hi Anne, we have a client presentation this Thursday. If you have not sent the sales data summary, please do so by end of day today"
The Bad: "Hi Anne, we should discuss about how to improve the formula to calculate data more quickly. I was not happy with the turnaround time last week.

Lets discuss this in the next meeting. Also, please send the last week sales data. We have a client presentation this Thursday."
The Ugly: "Hi Anne, we should discuss about how to improve the formulae to calculate data more quickly. I was not happy with the turnaround time last week. Lets discuss this in the next meeting.

P.S. We have a client meeting this Thursday. Please send the sales data by end of day today"

5. Use paragraphs and bullet points to illustrate your point, if your email is more than 100 words.

6. Always add a 'Summary' at the top or bottom of email, if your email takes more than few minutes to be read.

7. Check your spellings. Check your grammar.

Spell-checker is not an overhead but a friend most of the times. This becomes even more important when you are sending emails to clients and customers directly

8. Always give your email a quick read again after you finish.

95% times, you would like to change something in your email to make it better, if you do a quick read by yourself.

Nitin Gupta
http://blog.ongraph.com
OnGraph Technologies is an Offshore Software Development company with offices in London, UK and Noida, India. OnGraph provides high quality application development services to its clients spread across USA and UK, very cost effectively with strict development and quality processes in place.