Faculty of Computer Science

and Engineering

Writing email
 Motivation
• Knowing how to write a good email—one that
will actually get a response–is crucial to your
success: it can make the difference between
whether or not you get a job, find a mentor,
get funding for an idea, or receive potentially
life-changing advice.
 Think of the receiver
• Gets a lot of email.
• May receive compliments regularly, if they are
a public figure.
• Regularly gets asked a standard set of
questions and favors.
• Does not have a lot of free time.
• Does not mind helping you, if it is fast.
 Sender (you)
• Spends a long time crafting the ‘perfect’ (-ly long)
email.
• Believes that their request is original, unique, and
special.
• Believes that they are the first to ask for such favors.
• Cannot imagine why anyone would turn them away.
• Desires to tell the whole story, explained from every
angle, so that the listener can understand their point
of view.
 Analysis
• Respect the recipient’s time and make sure
the email is even necessary. 
• Determine well what is the purpose of the
mail, and state it clearly in it
• What kind of answer or action do you expect
from the person you write to? You should
suggest some in the email.
 Contents (typical)
• Recipient(s)
• Subject
• Greeting
• Introduction
• Core
• Request
• Signature
• Attachments
 Recipients – To, Cc and Bcc
• The To field is for people that the message directly affects,
and that you require action from. If you expecting
someone to do something, they should be in the To field.
• The Cc (or carbon copy) field is for people you want to
know about the message, but are not directly involved. It's
mainly for people that do not need to act or reply to the
message, but to keep them informed.
• The Bcc field (Blind Carbon Copy) is used when you want
other people to receive the message, but you don't want
the other recipients to know they got it.
 Subject
• Include words or phrases in the header that will
grab your reader's attention (maybe "Urgent",
"Important", "Critical”).
• Include your requested action if there is one
• Be as specific as possible. 
• Think of your email subject line like a headline or
book title. Remember, short, to the point, and
exciting are the things that will make your reader
open up your email!
 Subject – Example
• Subject: [Blank]
– If you don’t include a subject line, you are
suggesting that your name in the “From” line is all
your recipient should need in order to make you
message a top priority.
– That could come across as arrogant, or at the very
least, thoughtless.
– A well-chosen subject line is an important
opportunity to inform and persuade your reader.
 Subject – Example
• Subject: “Important! Read Immediately!!“
– What is important to you may not be important to
your reader.
– Write an informative headline that actually
communicates at least the core of what you feel is
so important: “Emergency: All Cars in the Lower
Lot Will Be Towed in 1 Hour.
 Greeting
• Always use greeting (include title)
– Dear Mr. Jones (Professor Sokolov) – formal
– Dear Tony, Hi all – informal
• You may use first name if you know the person
personally
• For professional letters use family name even
when you know the person. The email can be
forwarded, so in this way it sounds more
professional
 Introduction part
• Address the email to a specific person(s).
• Spell the recipient’s name right.
• Introduce yourself if the recipient does not
know you
 Central part
• Keep it short and to the point – get right to the
point in as few sentences as possible.
• If your idea isn’t interesting enough to grab
someone in just a few sentences, then you need
to work on your idea
• If the advice you need requires multiple
paragraphs to explain, you either need to do more
research yourself first or it’s simply not a question
you should be asking a stranger over the internet.
 Request
• Make your request crystal clear. 
• Even though you want to keep your email
short, be sure to make whatever it is you’re
hoping to get from the recipient as clear and
specific as possible.
• Write short paragraphs
 Request - Example
To: Professor Blinderson
From: FuZzYkItTy2000@hotmail.com
Subject: [Blank]

Yo goin 2 miss class whats the homework

 Request - Example
To: Professor Blinderson
From: m.ponsybil@gmail.com
Subject: EL227 Absence, Oct 10
Hello, Prof. Blinderson. This is Morris Ponsybil, from EL227 section
2. This morning, I just found out that the curling team has
advanced to the playoffs, so I’m going to be out of town on the
10th. According to the syllabus, it looks like I will miss a paper
workshop and the discussion of Chapter 10. May I email you my
Chapter 10 discussion questions before I leave town? And could I
come to your office hour at 2pm on the 12th, in order to discuss
the paper? I’ve asked Cheryl Jones to take notes for me.
Thank you very much. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.
 Attachments
• Avoid attachments
– Rather than forcing you reader to download an attachment
and open it in a separate program, you will probably get faster
results if you just copy-paste the most important part of the
document into the body of your message.
• Recognize that attachments
– consume bandwidth can carry viruses
– don’t always translate correctly for people who read their
email on portable devices.
– may require your recipient to have certain software installed
 Attachments - Example
To: All 1000 Employees
From: Eager Edgar
Subject: A helpful book everyone should read
——–
Hello, everyone. I’ve attached a PDF that I think you’ll all find very
useful. This is the third time I sent it the file — the version I sent
yesterday had a typo on page 207, so I’ve sent the whole thing again.
Since some of you noted that the large file size makes it a bit awkward,
I’ve also attached each chapter as a separate document. Let me know
what you think!Attachments:
• Big Honking File.pdf (356MB)
• BHF Cover.pdf (25MB)
• BHF Chapter 1.pdf (35MB)
 Tips
• Use your professional address
• Make a spell check
• Use polite tone, be concise and state clear
purpose
• DON’T USE ALL CAPS
• Capitalize – avoid all lower cases
• Avoid textspeak (abbreviations and acronyms)
like tnx, lol, gr8…
 Tips
• Think before you click “Send.”
– If you find yourself writing in anger, save a draft and
continue later
– Don’t pour gasoline on a fire without carefully weighing
the consequences.
• Respond Promptly
– If you want to appear professional and courteous, make
yourself available to your online correspondents. Even if
your reply is, “Sorry, I’m too busy to help you now,” at least
your correspondent won’t be waiting in vain for your reply.