Communications Corner

By Jason White, Technical Writer

The Communications Corner is an ongoing series of tips, tricks, and best practices for writing, creating PowerPoints and decks as well as the theories and best practices to be an effective communicator. Each time, we will look at a key aspect of communications. This week, it is writing effective emails.

We want our ASP family to understand that each call we These days, many of us are overloaded with emails – whether we are writing or reading them. And we all know the frustration of getting an email that is so confusing and convoluted it creates a chain reaction of more emails. None of us need this.

Good business emails are to the point, easy to understand, and give your audience the information they need. To write those great emails, start with the subject line. I like to assume that the person I am writing gets hundreds of emails a day. Imagine getting all those emails with subject lines that are one word or do not relate to the body of the email!

The subject line prepares your reader for the body of the email, and it should give a hint about why you are sending the message. If the email is about something in the future, I like to include that date in the subject line. For example, a good subject line about asking for time-off is “Vacation request– July 5-6, 2021”. In this example, a bad subject line would be “Away” because it could be about someone who is away from their post, which requires immediate attention. Think of how the read would feel if an email hits their inbox with the subject line “Away”.

In the body of the email, I like to clearly state the reason for the message and use bullets if I am covering many items. If the email is an update or instructions, I write one or two short sentences explaining the situation and then write “Please note:” before the bullets. For example:

Email overload in the workplace is often a fact of life, and this will not change anytime soon as businesses continue to rely on tool more and more to communicate both internally and externally. However, using email effectively can help you standout, be appreciated by your colleagues, and most importantly, be an effective communicator!

A few final tips:

• Imagine you are getting the email (don’t over communicate)
• Make subject lines informative and relevant
• Keep messages clear and brief
• Be polite
• Proofread, proofread, proofread

“Good business emails are to the point, easy to understand and give your audience the information they need. ”

  • Category: Human Resources