Email writing

with emails you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression

Don’t annoy customers or peers with wrong spelling or punctuation! Write effective, clear, and structured emails to elicit the required action timeously

Business English Meetings

Formality

Business English Meetings

Vocabulary & Phrases

Making Enquiries

Requesting Action

Making arrangements

Exchanging information

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Formality

Open the PDF (Click here) and do the exercise. Compare your answers with ours:

The 1st email is informal – It contains:

  1. a colloquial phrase – a bit of info;
  2. abbreviations e.g. pls;
  3. an emoticon;
  4. an informal greeting – Hi;
  5. no closing

Furthermore, some words are omitted – I was wondering / I’m not sure

The second email is more formal. It contains:

  1. a formal salutation – Dear;
  2. a formal closing – Best regards;
  3. more formal vocabulary e.g. attend, assist, arrange;
  4. no abbreviations or emoticons;
  5. contractions that are more common in informal emails, but can be used (not recommended) in all emails. Words are not omitted.

 

 

Making enquiries - Answers

Exercise 2 – A

Advantages of sending an email:

  • Speed: Emails are faster to write and send than letters.
  • Cost: Emails are cheaper than sending letters or phoning.
  • Time to prepare: The message is in writing so you can prepare what you want to say – particularly important when responding to #2.
  • Convenience: A phone call can be inconvenient to the person being called, especially if he or she works at a busy place like a travel agency (#3). An email or letter can be answered at the recipient’s convenience. 

Disadvantages of sending an email:

  • Accuracy: In contrast to a phone call, you need to take care when writing an email (or letter). Mistakes which may be overlooked on the phone could give a bad impression when in writing. The impression you make is particularly important when responding to #2 (job advert).
  • You might get more detailed information with a phone call – especially with adverts #1 and #3 – as you can react to what the person says and ask follow-up questions.

Exercise 2 B

Correct order:

4b  –  1d  –  3a  –  2c

Click on the box to the right for model emails for #2 and #3 from Oxford University Press

Click Here to open the models answers in Google drive

Answers for Exercise 3

  1. Please answer asap.
  2. Can you help?
  3. Can you please send me …?
  4. I’m sending you the … in an attachment.
  5. I’m sending you …
  6. Thanks for your email/request.
  7. Let us know if you need any more help.
  8. We hope that you are happy with this.
  9. Thanks for choosing …
  10. We are working on your request.

Answers for exercise 4

  1. Could you please send 
  2. would you be able to help?
  3. ‘d (or would) appreciate a reply asap.
  4. Thank you for your email.
  5. your request is being processed.
  6. in an attachment.
  7. hope you find this satisfactory.
  8. Thank you for your interest. / Do not hesitate to contact us if you require further assistance.