Professional Documents
Culture Documents
4
Shares
While that may be a great movie line, it’s not the way you should start your
business emails.
But before we get to step one, let’s quickly look at a few basic words
related to emailing in English:
Below, you’ll find a guide that includes some additional specific language
you can put in emails. For more ideas, check out the video “Writing a
Business Email.”
Better yet, since that video is available on FluentU, you can be sure you’ll
get a lot out of it. FluentU takes real-world English videos—like movie
trailers, instructional videos, interviews and clips—and turns them
into personalized language lessons.
It’s a great resource for looking up specific subjects like email writing and
learning how native English speakers talk about them. You’ll find hundreds
of videos in the “Business” section of FluentU’s English library—and we’re
adding new ones all the time.
All right, now here are the seven steps to writing a strong business email.
Hi James,
Hi Hannah,
4
Shares Hello Mr./Ms. [Last Name], (formal)
Notice that we always start with a capital letter, and there is a comma ( , )
after each greeting. Let’s now look at each situation in more detail.
Using titles and last names is a formal greeting, and you should use it with
anyone that you do not know well. Whether that is a new client for the
company, or the HR (Human Resources) guy that falls asleep while waiting
for the elevator, this basic greeting works.
If it’s a group of people you know really well, you can use something more
informal such as “Hi all,” “Hi team” or “Hi everyone.”
If it’s a small group of people (five or less), use their first names: Dear
Sarah, Roxy and Chad.
If it’s a more formal email, you can use greetings such as “Dear
Coworkers,” “Dear Colleagues” or “Dear Hiring Committee.”
How do you do it? Simple: State your name and how the reader would
recognize (know/remember) you.
For example:
Hello James Bond,
My name is Joe Milan. We met at the Villain Conference in London
last March and discussed ways my company could help you prevent
evil from taking over the world.
Short and simple. They don’t need a long history, just something brief
(short) that will help them remember or know who you are.
After your greeting, you need a simple sentence that clearly states why
you are emailing. Are you making a request? Providing information?
Apologizing? Complaining? Sending a document?
Get straight to the point with a clear sentence explaining what you want.
After stating your purpose, you’ll want to briefly provide any useful,
relevant information. Here’s what the next paragraph in my email to James
Bond might look like:
1. Your opinion of the project and the issues raised from the audience
The above paragraph gives details about the conference and what the
company wants James to do. The useful details such as the date, topics
and a the conference website is all present in this email. James
has everything he needs to take action.
If you’re attaching any documents to the email, tell the recipient with a
phrase like: “I’ve attached ~,” “Please find ~ attached” or “Please find the
attached ~.”
We’ve given a purpose and details, so now we need to tell the recipient
what action they need to take. Let’s look at two possible endings for the
body paragraph. This first one is not a good option:
Best,
Joe
It’s not good because it’s not clear. Yes, it’s short, but it doesn’t say exactly
what James needs to think about or what he should respond (and when).
Let’s try again:
Please let me know via email ASAP if you can participate. If you can
attend, please include (1) any recommendations you have for the
refreshments and (2) an outline of the materials you’ll need to give
4 your feedback.
Shares
So between these two options, which one makes the next action clear?
Obviously the second example. It tells James exactly what he should do
next, and “ASAP” (as soon as possible) tells him to respond right away.
Always finish your emails with one of the following sign-offs, followed by
your name.
The classics
Regards,
Best,
Sincerely,
The non-traditional
Hope this helps,
Have a great day,
Thank you so much,
Look forward to hearing from you,
Let me know if you have any questions,
However, if you feel that this email should be more than just a regular
email, then consider using a “non-traditional” closing. Be careful not to
use these if you don’t mean it.
Here’s an example:
Here are three common mistakes that people make in their email
signatures:
Greeting. If you don’t know the recipient well, be formal and use:
“Hello Mr./Ms./Mrs. [Last Name].”
Tell the recipient who you are. If the recipient won’t remember
you, remind them in one sentence: “I’m ~ who works for ~.”
Give useful details. Include what, where and when. Link to any
relevant websites, and tell the recipient if you’ve attached a
document.
4
Was the information on this page useful to you? *
Yes No
Send
Search...
Categories
Business English Learning Methods
Business English Resources
Business English Tips
Business English Vocab and
Grammar
About FluentU
4 FluentU brings language learning to life with real-world videos.
Learning a foreign language becomes fun and easy when you learn with movie
trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talks.
FTC Disclosure
FluentU is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an
affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn
advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Amazon and the
Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. We also
participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we
believe in.