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Writing Emails

Slide presentation by Jaquelin Yang

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What do we use emails for?

- Talk to a partner -

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What do we use emails for?

  • School
  • Work
  • Friends and Family
  • Housing
  • Problems with online shopping

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What should a good email have?

- Talk to a partner -

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What should a good email have?

  • A clear and specific subject line
  • A greeting, closing, and signature
  • Proper capitalization and punctuation
  • Correct spelling and grammar

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Some other things to be careful of …

  • Use a professional email address.
  • Do not use emojis in emails.
    • BAD EX: I will be late today :( sorry :(

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What should a good email have?

  • A clear and specific subject line
  • A greeting, closing, and signature
  • Proper capitalization and punctuation
  • Correct spelling and grammar
  • Let’s look at each of these points -

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Take one of these email templates…

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A clear and specific subject line

  • Where is the subject line on your paper? -
  • BAD EX: Hellooooo ^______^
  • BAD EX: EMERGENCY URGENT TEACHER PLS RESPOND!!!
  • GOOD EX: Absence - ESL 103
  • GOOD EX: Question about test - ESL 103

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Greeting

  • Talk to a partner.
  • Come up with a list of good greetings.
  • Write them on the board.

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How should I greet … a good friend?

A) Dear Mark!

B) Hi Mark!

C) Mr. Mark Thompson!

D) Hi there!

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How should I greet … a good friend?

A) Dear Mark!

B) Hi Mark!

C) Mr. Mark Thompson!

D) Hi there!

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How should I greet … a college professor I know?

A) Dear Sir,

B) Mr. John,

C) Hello Professor Smith,

D) Dear John,

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How should I greet … a college professor I know?

A) Dear Sir,

B) Mr. John,

C) Hello Professor Smith,

D) Dear John,

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How should I greet ... a female professor?

A) Dear teacher,

B) Dear Ms. Simons,

C) Hello Miss!

D) Dear Professor Simons,

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How should I greet ... a female professor?

A) Dear teacher,

B) Dear Ms. Simons,

C) Hello Miss!

D) Dear Professor Simons,

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How should I greet … a new business contact if I do not know his/her name?

A) Dear Sir,

B) Dear Mister,

C) Hello!

D) Dear Sir or Madam,

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How should I greet … a new business contact if I do not know his/her name?

A) Dear Sir,

B) Dear Mister,

C) Hello!

D) Dear Sir or Madam,

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Greeting

  • If you know the person you are writing to…
    • Dear Mr. / Ms. / Professor _____ ,
      • Can I use Mrs. ?
        • Why or why not?
    • Hello _____ ,
    • Hi _____ ,

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Greeting

  • If you do not know who will read your email...
    • Dear Sir or Madam ,
    • To Whom It May Concern :

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Closing and Signature

  • Sincerely,
  • Thank you,
  • Regards,
  • Best,
  • Thank you for your time,
  • Thank you for your help,
  • Thank you,

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All of these should be followed by your full name.

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EX:

Sincerely,

Jaquelin Yang

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Proper Capitalization and Punctuation

  • Do not use all capital letters or too many exclamation marks.
    • BAD EX: TEACHER I WILL BE LATE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Correct Spelling and Grammar

  • Do not use abbreviations
    • BAD EX: LOL TTYL THX
  • Writing emails can be easier than talking in person … You have time to read over your emails again before you send them.

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Some other things in the email…

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Some other things in the email …

  • Attach: Use attach to send things like essays, pictures, videos.
    • If you attach something, make sure you say it in the email.
    • EX: I have attached my essay to this email.

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Some other things in the email…

  • CC: Use CC to send an email to more than one person. CC is usually for people who need this information but do not need to respond.
    • EX: I might send an email TO my professor, but I CC the tutor in the class

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Some other things in the email....

  • BCC: This is for when you need to send the email to a lot of people, but for privacy reasons, you do not want to show their names.
    • Mostly used for business emails.

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Useful links to review at home…

  1. Useful email phrases
  2. Grammar and phrases for emails
  3. More instructions for business emails

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Let’s look at a sample email from a student…

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What’s wrong with this email? Talk with a partner, then come up to fix the mistakes.

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This is what a correct email should look like...

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JYang001@sdccd.edu

ESL 103 - Absent on Thursday

Dear Professor Yang,

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My name is John Smith and I am a student in your ESL 103 class. I am writing to let you know that I am going to be absent on Thursday, February 15 because I have a doctor’s appointment. I know that there are no excused absences in this class, but I wanted to let you know. I will make sure to check Canvas for my homework. If you assign any new quizzes or assignments, will you please let me know? I appreciate your help.

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Sincerely,

John Smith

JohnSmith@gmail.com

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Your Turn!

Using the student info sheet, write an email to me.