A Manual About Creating Professional Emails

Professional Email Etiquette

A manual about creating professional emails

By LaSheena Fuller

Professional Email Etiquette

This manual issolely for academic use and purpose only as required by:

Dr. Mary Lanigan
HPT 6100
Fall 2014

Company names and individual names are dramatized and are not used from actual places or persons.

All images obtained from Microsoft Clip Art.

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Section 1
Addressing a Professional Email5

Section 2
Professional Ways to Express Thoughts and Ideas9

Section 3
Proofreading and editing emails11

Appendix13

Summary14

Introduction

When you send an email in a professional atmosphere, do you find yourself speaking as if you are just sending an email to a friend? Are you not sure how to address the email and if your recipient will find it professional? Did you know that sending the wrong type of email in a professional setting could have a negative impact on your professionalism?

It is important to create professional emails when in the workplace or dealing with any professional business. Some misunderstandings and errors made in professional emails can cause some situations to have a negative outcome. A professional email should sound nothing like a personal email sent to a friend.

In this manual, you will learn how to use professionalism when creating professional emails. Learning this information can help you gain a more professional outlook on communicating professionally. It will also help your coworkers or peers see you as more professionally intelligent.

After reading this manual you will be able to:

How to address a professional email

Use professional ways to express thoughts and ideas

Proofread and edit the email before sending

At the end of each section, complete TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE to make sure you will later be able to construct professional emails in professional settings. The answers to each of the quiz questions are found in the Appendix at the end of this manual.

Now let’slearn how to email more professional!
Section 1

Addressing a Professional Email

The first step to professionalism when sending and receiving emails in a professional setting is to have a professional email address. Most companies may assign their employees an email address of their name attached to the company’s domain name. This prevents having inappropriate email addresses. If you owna company or use a professional email for any professional purposes, be cautious of what your email address is.

Using the company name isproper when it is the centralized email, but individual email addresses should be an arrange of your first and last name. It is also helpful to be able to identify the recipient with their name in the email address.Nothing is more professional than using your name as an email address for business or professional purposes.

Some examples to consider when your email address is not assigned:

What not to consider:

Section 1 continued

Another important aspect in creating professional emails is to make sure the subject of the email is clear, direct and relevant to the body of the email.

Most people decide to open an email based on its subject. Therefore, you want to make sure it is an attention-getter as well as straight to the point of what the email is about. Because the subject affects how fast and even if the email will be read, the subject line should be the main idea of the email. If the email is about a summary of all the things discussed in last week’s meeting, the subject line should be as brief as, “Last Week’s Meeting” or “Overview of Last Week’s Meeting.”

Stick to the point about the subject in the body of the email and don’t switch to what you think should have happened in the meeting and why some things were not discussed. Save that information for a new email because you can lose your recipients in unnecessary conversation without getting the review of the meeting.

Another important part is to use professional salutations when starting an email. You never want to say “Hey there folks” or “What’s Up” when greeting your recipients. Use professionalism and say “Hello Jacob” or “Hi Jerren” or be much more formal and say “Dear John.” Never use casual salutations as if speaking to a friend. When addressing the email to multiple recipients, it is best to have a general salutation greeting all as a group or section such as “Good Afternoon” or “Hello Direction Team.” No need to lists three and four names in the greeting just address them as a whole.

Now that you have learned how to address a professional email, let’s see if you are on the right track of creating professional emails.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEGDE

1. If your name is Jane Smith, you work for McDonald’s corporate office and you are responsible for handling customer comments, complaints and questions, what email address is probably assigned to the department?

2. True or False? As an employee of Governors State University, your work email has been assigned to you. You are sending an email to your director about next week’s meeting; you would send an email from .

3. Match the correct letter of the email body with the correct letter of the subject line.

Email:

A. Our department has received an excessive amount of inquires about the posting of the Staff Clerk position. I feel we should create a committee toset up the interview questions that we feel are neededto ensure the position will be filled with the best candidate.

B. The Board of Trustees would like to meet with each employees of this department to discuss any suggestions in changing the procedures in professional development.
C. It has been brought to our attention that our department has received the most recognition within the last quarter. Congratulations to all of the hard working employees that are in this department. Together we are making a greater difference and being recognized for it.

Subject Line:

a. Board of Trustees Meeting

b. Professional Development Suggestions

c. Recognizing All

d.New Interview Committee

e. This Quarter’s Recognition

*Answers and feedback are found in the Appendix of this manual.

Now that we know the importance of creating professional emails, let’s find out how to use professional ways to express thoughts and ideas

Section 2
Professional Ways to Express Thoughts and Ideas

Try not to “reply all”toevery email that is sent out as a mass email. Emailscan be sent to notify a group of people about a specific topic. It would be expected to “reply all” if the email is asking for volunteers for a special event or when asking a question that everyone would needs the answer to. It is not necessary to “reply all” to an email unless it is information that needs to be shared with all.

In modern times, many people have their work emails set up on their smartphones. Receiving multiple notifications about an irrelevant email can be irritating and distracting.

If 30 people are included in an email letting everyone know the office will be closing early, then Bill and Sally start to “reply all” talking about what plans they will be making with John to meet after work, others can get irritated because they are not a part of those plans or they are not interested in it. Even“replying all” telling Bill and Sally to stop “replying all” can be a bit annoying.

Furthermore, be very cautious of what emails you decide to “reply all” to so that you are making your other coworkers jealous you don’t hang out with them after work.

Let’s discuss how humor can be a miss in professional emails.

Section 2 continued

Try to be very cautious with humor as well. Emails have no tone or facial expressions becauseit contains words non-verbally communicated to others. Not everyone has a sense of humor. It can be offensive to some as others may find the humor. Keep the humor to a minimum unless you personally know the person.When someone cracks a joke by email, it is like doing standup in a comedy club and no one is laughing at your jokes, then all you hear is crickets.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

4. Select which emails are ok to “reply all”:

Office PotluckProfessional Development Opportunity

Computer systems down for an hourReschedule Meeting

Announcement of Employee of the Month

5. True or False? Jokes are a great way to liven up professional emails and help employees relate to each other more.

*Answers and feedback are found in the Appendix of this manual.

In this last section, we will introduce proofreading and editing the email before sending to recipients.

Section 3
Proofreading and editing emails before sending

Proof read every email that you construct before hitting the send button. What could be worse than sending an email with misspelled words and incomplete thoughts?Your recipient will judge you because you did not take a moment to make sure what was said is what was meant.

You don’t want your email to sound like you are sitting right next to your recipient. Make sure the email is constructed more like a business letter. Replying from your smartphone can have negative effects on your proofreading because slang can be listed as corrected words in your phone. Slang words are inappropriate to deliver in a business type atmosphere. If replying from your phone, make sure to use these tips to keep you credibility.

In addition to the types of words used, never use all caps or type in red font. Using all caps is just the same as YELLING IN AN EMAIL. You don’t want to offend your recipients so stay away from all caps even if you may be sending a heated email.

Also, don’t mark the email urgent if it is not urgent. Urgent or High importance emails go to the top of the recipient’s email list to make sure it is one of the first emails seen and marked with a little red exclamation mark (!). Red represents angerand correction in writing. You would not want your recipient to think you areupset with them even if you may be. All caps and red font together would probably get you visit from HR or your supervisor.

Now we will test your knowledge to see if you are ready to create professional emails.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEGDE

6. True or False? If you type in ALL CAPS and red font, you can scare your recipient.

7. Why would an email be marked urgent?

a. the email is mildly important

b. the email is not important at all

c. the email is very important

Appendix

Test your Knowledge Answers

1. B. As the person responding to departmental inquiries, you would want to use a centralized email to be a median between the customer and the company. The email address is not specific to a person but professional for the company.

2. False. Your personal email address should not be used to email coworkers. A professional email address would be your name and the company’s domain name.

3. A. & d.; B. & b.; C. & e.
Subject lines need to be clear and direct

4. Office Potluck, Professional Development opportunity are emails that can be “reply all” because others may need to see everyone’s response. Office potluck everyone would want to know who is bringing what so there are not any of the same dishes. Professional Development opportunity would be great to get a consensus vote to make sure it will be a needed suggestion for majority.

Computer systems down for an hour is an email that doesn’t really need any reply. If a reply is needed it can just go to the sender of the email.
Announcement of Employee of the Month should not be replied to all because that individual person should receive a separate congratulatory email.
Reschedule Meeting should not be reply all either because it would deliver the information needed and individual questions and responses should go to person scheduling the meeting.

5. False. Keep all jokes to a minimum. It can make some people feel uncomfortable and it can be perceived as inappropriate.

6. True. Using red font and all caps in a professional email is a way to make your recipients fear your emails.

7. c. The email should only be marked urgent if it needs to read sooner than later.

Summary

Remember how important it is to properly construct professional emails in professional settings. You wouldn’t want to be judged by any of your peers because of you inability to communicate by email. Written communication is just as important as oral communication.

Before pressing send on that professional email remove the senders’ names and check all the things you just learned about to make sure your professional email will have its professional delivery.

Go and share this manual to make sure more people are aware of professional email etiquette.