1. Effective Emailing
Vineet Arora
B. Tech. Ece
Semester 4
Communication Skills 2
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2. Layout
• What is E-mail
• How to Make an Effective E-Mail
• Few common email habits that cause problems
• Structure of E-Mail
• Style
• Some other important aspects
• Discussion
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3. What is E-Mail
• Text-based mail sent via the computer from
one person to another
• A Push Technology
• It waits for You
• It is One-to-Many and almost Free
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4. How to Make an Effective E-mail
• Selecting Your Audience Correctly
• Using Distribution Lists
• Composing Your Messages
– Make the heading meaningful
– Keep each message short and clear.
– Start each message by stating its purpose/context
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5. Few common
e-mail habits that cause
problems
2. Changing the topic without
changing the subject.
3. Including multiple subjects
4. Misaddressed recipients
5. Displaying addresses of recipients
who are strangers to each other
6. Replying vs. forwarding
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6. Structure of E-Mail
• Addressing
• Subject
• Message Text
• Attachments
• Signature
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7. 1. Addressing
• It’s the address of the recipient
• Use BCC to protect Email addresses unless
everyone knows each other
• Maintain address book
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8. 2. Subject
• Precise headline for the message
• Makes easier to handle of e-MAIL
• Avoid sending e-mail with No subject
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9. Ineffective subject lines
Subject: Date:
Hi 9:17 am
questions 10:11 am
Meeting 12:44 pm
One more thing........... 3:02 pm
Some thoughts 4:21pm
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10. Effective subject lines
Subject: Date:
Party planning meeting rescheduled for 3pm 9:17 am
Help: I can’t find the draft for the Smith Paper 10:11 am
Reminder: peer-review articles due tomorrow (3/30) 12:44 pm
Questions about Sociology 210 project 3:02 pm
Congratulations to Jennifer for winning Nobel Prize 4:21pm
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11. Subject: Date:
Re: Question about Smith paper (was: please help with
10:11 am
this!)
Change subject lines when
necessary
Subject: Date:
Re: Re: Re: [Fwd: [Fwd: [hrfac] Reminder: Deadline for
9:17 am
Spring Semester Is Jan. 15]]
Remove extra email prefixes
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12. 3. Message Text
• Keep the message focused and readable
• Keep it short
• Brevity and clarity
• Use paragraphs
• Break into paragraphs; skip lines
between
• Avoid fancy typefaces
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13. Message Text ( cont. )
• Use * * to highlight text if you must
• Write in standard professional English with
Capitalization and correct spelling
• Quote back using contexts
• Identify yourself clearly to cold contacts.
– Hello, I am…The reason I am writing…
– Hello, so-in-so suggested I contact
you…
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14. Poor Email Content
Jon,
Hey, I was just thinking about the meeting we had about the new
workshop you were planning for next week about resume-writing. I think
that we may have forgotten to include all of the students who might benefit
from this workshop. There are several groups of students at the School of
Public Health that were not on your list. Of course you may have added
them to you list since our last meeting. Sara from the School of Public
Health contacted me to ask if the students from the Epidemiology program
were on our list of included students. She also wanted a list of all of the
included departments from the School of Public Health. Can you send me
a list of all of the included student groups? I can then send the relevant
information on to Sara because she needs this information by tomorrow.
Thanks,
Rachell
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15. Better Email Content
Jon,
Can you send me a list of the students included in the resume-
writing workshop by tomorrow?
We may have forgotten to include all of the students who
might benefit from this workshop. There are several groups of
students at the School of Public Health that were not on your
list. Sara from the School of Public Health contacted me to ask
if the students from the Epidemiology program were on our
list. I will send her that information tomorrow after I get the
list from you.
Thanks,
Rachell
Amity University Rajasthan
16. 4. Attachments
• Use sparingly.
• Cut and paste relevant parts of attachment
into text of Email.
• Use URL links instead.
– Upload attachments to website and cite
URL.
– http://www.scribd.com/ is a free service.
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17. 5. E-mail Signature
• Use an appropriate signature
• Brief (4-5 lines)
• Informative
provide all contact information
• Professional
do not include pictures, quotes,
animations
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18. Style
• Threads
Multiple replies can get out of hand,
but continue them to maintain the tread.
When they start to drift start a new thread
with explanation.
• Forwarding stuff, e.g., chain letters
Avoid; annoys most people
• Wait 24 hours
• Write, but don’t send
• Don’t reply at all and let them wonder
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19. Style (contd.)
• Offer to speak by phone or in person; Email is not
a good tool for “clearing the air.”
• Never say in Email what you wouldn’t say in
person or would not like to see in the press or
defend in court
• Once you hit “Send” you have lost control of the
Email
• You can never be certain that it was erased from
all locations. Think of all Email as Permanent.
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20. Some other
important aspects
• Confidentiality and Security
• Managing Emails
( E-mail overload Management )
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21. Confidentiality and Security
Protecting yourself
• Unencrypted Email is not secure and may be
monitored
• All laws governing copyright, defamation,
discrimination and other forms of written
communication also apply to email.
• Password recovery methods
• Never include personal or financial info in an Email
• Install a good security suite on your personal
computer
• Use strong passwords
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22. Confidentiality and Secuity
(contd.)
• Use encryption and digital signatures for
important Email
• Have a separate free Email account for
newsletters, white paper registration, etc.
• Delete browser history, cache, cookies, userids
and passwords after using a public Internet
connection
• Back up your Email.
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23. E-Mail Overload Management
• A problem that affects nearly everyone with an e-
mail account
• Automated filters will never catch all of the spam
• Problems from E-mail Overload
– Takes longer to find a specific message
– Stressful to look at
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24. • Ways to manage E-mail Overload
– Choose your service provider wisely
– Do Inbox CHECK on a regular basis
• Organize Email into folders
• Keep a copy of all sent Email
• Review and clean out folders periodically
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