Business English-Aditional Guidelines for e-mail messages

Additional Guidelines for E-mail messages

Guidelines

1. Choose an e-mail username that sounds professional.

silvia@gmail.com may be cute, but it won´t impress a business person or professor.

2. E-mail subject headings are important. Use short, specific phrases (usually noun phrases) that quickly tell the subject. This helps the reader, who may be looking at a long list of messages.

Meeting

(or)

Scheduling a meeting

NOT: I want to meet.

NOT: Have a meeting

Capitalize the first word of the subject heading. The rest of the line does not have to be capitalized unless it contains names. Articles and prepositions are not capitalized unless they are the first word of the heading. No period (.) is necessary.

A Problem with the Cost Estimate

(or)

A problem with the Cost Estimate

NOT: A Problem With The Cost Estimate

 When you answer an e-mail, the e-mail system automatically puts RE:in the heading. This means “about”. You do not have to add this yourself.

Heading of first message:

Information

Automatic heading for the reply:

RE:Information

 3. Use highlighting carefully. Some highlighting features do not work well in certain e-mail programs. For example, underlining or italics may appear as $%.

4. Keep your message short. Try to keep each message to one topic. If you have a lot of things to include, make a list or use headings within the message to make the information easier to read.

Here are some options:

Change the meeting

Have it at a different time

Arrange for a different room