“Top 10” Email Tips

For

Ms. Fornal’s Third Grade Class

When writing an email to your friend, your teacher, a company, or anyone important in your life there are some very important things to keep in mind. Yes, writing an email is a quick and easy way to communicate with someone but it’s also a very tricky one too! Read the ten tips below before writing your email and you’ll be thankful you did!

1. When setting up an email account, please choose your email address wisely. Your email address is the first thing someone sees when they check your message. If you are writing to someone that you do not know, you don’t want them to be scared to open your message or offend them. For example, if you had blackworm@yahoo.com as your email address, the reader may not open your message for fear of a virus. Using your first name and another word is a good choice, but remember to always keep it simple.

2. Remember to always use a clear and concise subject heading. When constructing your email message, give the reader an idea of what your email is about in your subject. Be sure to be clear in what you want them to know. If you are writing your teacher (meJ) to ask about homework you may have missed, be sure to include the date of the homework in the subject. This helps the teacher know what homework you are asking about.

3. Always check your spelling before sending the email. Often times when we send an email, we are writing them quickly and not thinking too much about our grammar and spelling. Be sure to always do a spell check before you send your email to make sure the words you have written will be clear and easy to understand for the reader.

4. Do not use too many abbreviations or unclear language. “B4 U go to school pck me up a btle of mlk at the store.” This can be confusing to the reader if they do not know what B4 is or pck. Think about what you’d like to say before you write it and be sure to reread it for clarity.

5. When replying to a message, be sure to refer to the email that was sent to you. If the sender asked you a question or wanted to know something, be sure to reference that in your answer. Time may have passed between your emails and the reader may not remember what you are answering or telling them about. “In your email you asked me for Shirley’s address. Her address is….”

6. When writing to someone you do not know, be sure to address them by name or by position. “Ms. or Mr. Jones” or “Sir or Madam” are good ways to address your email. Although this is not a formal letter, you should still show respect in your email exchange. If you are writing to inquire about a position or to find out more information, you are more likely to get a response to a respectful email than to one that reads, “Yo, I need to know…”

7. When sending attachments, be sure to mention them in the body of your email. When sending an email to someone with an attachment, it is always a good rule of thumb to be sure to tell them the attachment is there. The reader may be checking their email quickly or be unfamiliar with email, and miss the important attachment you included. At the end of your email write, “See attachment” or in the text you can write, “I have attached the document to this email.”

8. Don’t take forever to reply to an email! Email communication is viewed as highly accessible and much quicker than postal mail. When someone sends you an email they are usually expecting a reply in 1-2 days. The information in the email or requests may have a deadline that makes it very important for you to reply in a timely manner.

9. Never open an email from someone you do not know. Many viruses are carried through email and can ruin your computer. Be sure to always run a virus scan or send the email to a spam folder. Some information that is sent via email is not always the best for your eyes, so be sure to only open email from those people that you know.

10. Always read over your emails before sending them. Sometimes what you thought you wrote isn’t what really is in your email. Read over your emails to be sure the messages that you want to be sending are the ones your readers are receiving. You may type the wrong name or the wrong address and confuse the reader of your email. Be sure to always read over the email and spell check.