The advent of email revolutionised the world of business communications, giving you the ability to send messages and documents instantly to different people all over the world. This way of communicating, however, has also become a common way to interact socially, leading to a blurring of the fine line between corporate and personal writing. How should you write business emails and how can you best avoid problems?
Business Emails Need Different Writing Skills
You may not think that you have a problem to solve here. If you regularly use personal mail to communicate with friends and family, then you may feel that you know how to write for this medium already. Business emails are corporate documents, however, and should be written in a language appropriate to this environment. What you say and how you say it matters.
How to Structure Work Emails
Every email you send at work should have a purpose. You may be sending a quick internal message to remind colleagues of a meeting; you may be sending business-critical information to a customer. Your writing should always be concise and laid out in a logical order so that the recipient gets the message. Tell them why you are writing, say what you need to say, give a call to action if appropriate and then sign off.
