What else can I do to practise writing emai Get feedback on the emails that you write in real life: if you know a friend whose English is better than yours, ora native speaker, chen ask them ro make comments on your writing. Also, study the English in the emails you receive. If you receive a well-written email, remember to lock carefully at the language. Build your own phrase book: start your own bank of phrases from ones you have received in an email or ones you have written yourself. If you want more help with grammar, we recommend Business Grammar Builder (Macmillan) by Paul Emmerson, the same author as this book. General tips Here are some general tips as a reminder for writing good emails: + Use a ‘subject line’ that summarises briefly and clearly the content of the message. Your email may be one of hundreds on the recipient's computer, and you want chem to read it when it arives and then find it again easily in their files + Use shore, simple sentences. Long sentences are often difficult to read and understand. The most common mistake for leamers of English is to cranslate directly from their own language. Usually the result isa complicated, confusing sentence. + One subject per email is best. The other person can reply co an email about one ching, delere it, and leave another email in their ‘Inbox’ chat needs more time. ‘+ Be very careful with jokes, icony, personal comments etc. Humour rarely cranslates well from one culture to another. And if you are angry, wait for 24 hours before you write. Once you press ‘Send’ you cannot get your email back. Ir can be seen by anyone and copied and sent round the world. The intimate, informal nature of email makes people write things that they shouldn't. Only write what you would be comfortable saying to the person's face. + Take a moment to review and edit what you have written. Is the main point clear? Would some pieces of continuous text be berter as bullet points or umbered points Is it clear what action you want the recipient to cake? Would you be happy to receive this email? If in doubt, ask a colleague to quickly look through and make comments. + Don’c ignore capical leccers, punctuation, spelling, paragraphs, and basic grammar. [t might be okay when you are writing to a very close friend, but to everyone else it’s an important part of the image that you create. A careless, disorganised email shows the outside world a careless, disorganised mind. + Use the replies you receive co modify your writing vo dhe sae person. If che recipient writes back in a more informal or more formal style, chen match that in your future emails to them. (Fthey use particular words or phrases that seem to come from thei company culture, or professional area, then consider using those words yourself where they are appropriate. + Be positive! Look at these words: activity, agreed, evoluing, fast, good question, helpful, join us, mutual productive, solve, team. together, sols, useful. Now look at these: busy, criss, failure, forget it, hard, can’, [ won't, impossible, never, stupid, unavailable, waste. The words you use show your attitude co life.