In the course of your professional life in English-speaking countries, you’ve no doubt encountered [1] challenging situations that require your written communication and response. Emails are one of the most popular forms of communication in the corporate world, so it’s important that you get practice working on them.

Subject Lines: Concision is Key

The first thing any reader sees when they open an email is the subject line, so a strong and succinct subject is arguably the most important step in constructing business emails. Remember that about half of business emails are read on phones, and with limited screen real estate, there’s no guarantee a long subject can be read in full.

To write concisely [2] is to express your thoughts using as few words as possible, eliminating stylistic and semantic [3] redundancies. In writing a business email, this translates to indicating the purpose of an email in the subject line (every business email should have a purpose) while minimizing word count. This is a conservative interpretation of concision, but if you have a tendency to write wordy emails, it won’t hurt to overcorrect by adopting a strict view.

Example)

Student example: Asking for your availability regarding our upcoming interview

• Suggested subject line: Invitation to Interview

Especially for cold emails, ones in which you’re hopeful for a reply but not necessarily guaranteed one, we’d recommend trying something that’ll get the reader’s attention. You might use one sentence that addresses the reader’s needs, or even prompt a question that might make them consider opening an email. Please refer to the second example email below.

Building a Body

The body of the email is naturally the meat of the sandwich. Let the reader know what you’re trying to say, and indicate clearly if a response will be required. Take a final re-read to make sure that there aren’t any mistakes. You may also indicate the presence of any relevant attachments (ex. “Please find attached file ABC”).

Practice Cases

The key to writing good emails is practice, practice, practice! Below, you will find a few scenarios to choose from. Select one to three, and spend some time before your lesson, writing up a sample email for the scenario. We recommended selecting one or two scenarios for 20-minute lessons, or two to three scenarios for 40-minute lessons.

In the course of your lesson, your tutor will evaluate your responses and help guide you through standards for professionality, grammar, and word choice.

1. You are arranging a time to meet with your colleague to discuss an upcoming project. The meeting is not particularly urgent, but you do need to schedule it soon.

2. You are hoping to introduce your company’s service to Cattle Inc, a company that may benefit from the use of your services. You are reaching out for the first time to a contact person at this company and want to inquire if they’re open to having a conversation.

3. You received an individual’s contact information from a friend, and wanted to inquire about job openings in their company, as you’re looking for a new role.

4. You are managing a team of employees, one of whom has not been particularly prompt in turning in their task. You have reminded them once, and the deadline is coming up. You are responsible for reminding them again.

5. You are managing a team of employees, and one of them received a particularly harsh customer complaint that you have to relay to them.

6. You are reaching out to your manager to request that they reconsider their work-from-home policies.

7. You are deflecting a request from a coworker. You’ve been receptive to their requests in the past, but you are starting to wonder if they are overreliant on you.

8. You are giving negative feedback to your coworker. You had to make up for their sub-par work product for which they had failed to take adequate precautions.

9. You are requesting time off from work. It’s a busy time of the year for your team and company, but you have an urgent personal matter.

10. You are asking for additional support for career development. You want to enroll in a course that teaches relevant skills and would like the company to reimburse you for the cost.

Find below a few sample responses to help get you started!

1. Subject: Project Check-in

Hi Dan,

I just wanted to reach out about scheduling a meeting for project XYZ we’re presenting next week. I’m available this Tuesday or Thursday at around 2PM, but let me know if you’ve got better times that work for you.

Cheers,

Mel

2. Subject: Cut your call center overheads in half

To whom it may concern,

I know that it can be difficult to manage customer relationships in a fast-growing company like yours. Jabootle is a solution that helps you offload customer service relationships while maintaining quality customer service and saving money along the way. If you’ve got some time in the next week, I’d love to have a quick chat with you.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Jab

3. Subject: Alex suggested I reach out

Hey Quinn,

My name is Riley, and I’m currently working at Melon, an Indonesian EdTech company.

I learned about Cantaloupe from Alex, and was wondering what kind of challenges your team is facing. I’d love to be able to offer some points.

My best,

Riley

PS: I’ve attached my resume herein.