How to write more polite English e-mails

In general terms, when the person is reading your e-mail, it is important that they are
able to clearly identify the following information:

1. - Who is this person?

2. - What is this email about, and why did she write me?
3. - Do I need to answer?

To help you with this, here is a sample structure for composing your e-mails:

1. Recipient

Whenever possible, try to send the email to someone specific.

This business of sending the e-mail to a series of people and waiting for someone to
take the initiative to reply is usually not very successful (unless this is already a process
in your company).

Examples (without a specific recipient):

1. Hello team,
2. Hi team,
3. Hello everybody,
4. Dear all,
5. To whom it may concern,
6. Dear Mister/Miss,
7. Hi,

Examples (without a specific recipient):

• Dear John Smith,

• Hello Mr. Smith,
• Hello Mary Donny,
• Dear Ms. Donny,

IMPORTANT: avoid "Good morning, afternoon, evening" because you don't know
what time the person will read it.
2. Initial greeting

Using an initial greeting in your email is a great way to break the ice, without being
stuffy but also without being rude by getting to the point.

Examples

• I hope all is well.

• How are you? I hope you are healthy and happy.
• I hope you are well.
• I hope you are fine.
• I trust you and your coworkers are fine.
• Greetings from all of us at _________ [company name].
• Greetings from _____ [person’s name] and me.
• It is a pleasure to be in touch with you again.
• It was a delight to see you in ____[conference/event/place].
• Welcome back to work! I hope you had a nice vacation.
• Thank you for your [support|time|help|assistance].
• I really appreciate the [support|time|help|assistance] you’ve given me.
• Thank you once more for your help in this matter.
• Thank you for writing to us about your experience in the hotel last week.

IMPORTANT: try whenever possible to use different greetings, especially if you

are used to communicating with the same groups of people.

3. Presentation, and Introduction

Examples:

• I’m working with John Carter on Project Diamond.

• Lucy Dinn at Company Extreme said I should contact you.
• I saw you last week at the Medicine Directors’ Conference but didn’t have a
chance to introduce myself.

4. Explaining what the email is about

To get the attention of the recipient, who surely has dozens of other emails to read,
already in the first paragraph, you must make clear the answer to the following question:
"What is this email about and why did she write me?" That is why I have separated
different examples for different contexts:
Giving thanks
• I am writing to thank you for your generous contribution to the ……….
• Thanks everyone! I need to drop. Please feel free to reach out with any additional
questions

New hire presentation

I am pleased to introduce Peter Wilson, Manager of Training Department.

To inform new procedure

This procedure explains how to request services from Information Technology
Department.

Meetings Subjects
• To follow up our call earlier…
• As we discussed at yesterday’s meeting…

Sharing Information
• I am pleased to inform you that we have hired a new Vice President of
Financial.
• I would like to update you on changes in our travel policy.
• Good news…
• I have an answer for you…
• I’ve completed my research for you…
• Just getting back to you…
• I received some important information from Ms. Smith, and I believe it will
be useful to you…

Confirm commitments

Informal: Can I confirm we’re still on for lunch tomorrow at 2pm at the South West
station?

Formal: This is to confirm our meeting at your office tomorrow at 2 p.m. Does the
arrangement still work for you?
Confirm agreement
I am happy to confirm our agreement about the…

Declining a request
Thank you for writing to ask about attending the conference in Sidney. I wish I could
approve your request but unfortunately, I could not.

Invite
You are invited to Venture Capital Chat on Thursday, December 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. at
the Arena Theater.

Recommendation
Jessica Dell has asked me to provide information to you in support of her job
application, and I am pleased to do so.

Congratulation
Congratulations on successfully passing the exam. Your hard work has paid off!

Apologizes
• Please accept my apology for missing the meeting yesterday. I am sorry
that a medical issue prevented my attending.
• Let me start with an apology.
• I’m sorry.
• I apologise.
• Please accept my apologies.

Approval request
• I would appreciate your approval to attend a training program to meet my
annual performance goals…

Request reference/recommendation letter

 • I am applying to graduate schools in marine biology, and I would be very
grateful if you would write a letter of reference for me.

Request permission
• I am writing to request permission to…

Request a meeting
• I would like to request a brief meeting with you to discuss…

5. Request action or providing help

Before the final greeting, take a moment to reinforce that you need feedback (if that is
the case) and that you are available for any additional questions.

Exemplos:

• If I can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

• If you require any further information, feel free to contact me.
• If you require any further information, let me know.
• Please feel free to contact me if you need any further information.
• Please let me know if you have any questions.
• I hope the above is useful to you.
• Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact
me.
• Please contact me if there are any problems.
• Let me know if you need anything else.
• Drop me a line if I can do anything else for you.
• I look forward to hearing from you soon / meeting you next Monday.
• I look forward to seeing you soon.
• I’m looking forward to your reply.
• We hope that we may continue to rely on your valued custom.
• We look forward to a successful working relationship in the future.
• Please advise as necessary.
• I would appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.

6. Email finalization
The list below is quite full of examples for ending an e-mail in a kind manner, whether in
formal or informal communication..

Informal
 • Cheers,
• Faithfully,
• Many thanks,
• Take care,
• Warmly,

Formal

• All best,
• All the best,
• Best regards,
• Best wishes,
• Best,
• Cordially yours,
• Cordially,
• Fond regards,
• Hope this helps,
• In appreciation,
• In sympathy,
• Kind regards,
• Kind thanks,
• Kind wishes,
• My Best,
• My best to you,
• Regards,
• Respectfully yours,
• Respectfully,
• Sincerely yours,
• Sincerely,
• Thank so much,
• Thank you for your assistance in this matter,
• Thank you for your consideration,
• Thank you for your recommendation,
• Thank you for your time,
• Thank you,
• Thanks,
• Warm regards,
• Warm wishes,
• With appreciation,
• With deepest sympathy,
• With gratitude,
• With sincere thanks,
• With sympathy,
• Your help is greatly appreciated,
• Yours cordially,
• Yours faithfully,
• Yours respectfully,
 • Yours sincerely,
• Yours truly,

Extras tips
- If you are in the habit of receiving a lot of e-mails in English, check how they write,
learn using the concept of modeling, and always remember that you are communicating
with people from different cultures. Always be careful!

- It's nice to always vary the way you start and end your emails, especially if you always
send to the same group of people. You can copy and paste these sentences into your
computer and use them as you answer your e-mails.

- Remember to use the spell checker to check for possible typos, punctuation, or
grammatical errors.

Conclusion
A failure in written communication can cause a lot of mishaps and rework, because we
depend on the other side's interpretation. When this happens in a different language, it's
even worse, because just as you may not have fully mastered the language yet, the
person on the other side may have the same difficulty as you do, agree?

If we take the responsibility to be as assertive as possible in our communication, our

chances of success are surely greater.

Always put yourself in the other person's shoes and remember the three things they
need to be able to answer when reading your text:

- Who is this person?

- What is this email about and why did he/she write to me?

- Do I need to answer?
Greet the attendees and open the meeting
Whatever language you’re speaking, meetings always start with a greeting! English is no
different. In English, use the more formal “Good morning” or “Good afternoon” rather than
“hello” and remember to thank all the attendees for coming. Then, if you’re leading the
meeting, you’ll need to announce that the meeting is starting. Example: “Good morning.
It looks like everyone’s here, so let’s get started.” After that, you’re ready for the next step.

State the purpose of the meeting

There’s no point in having a meeting unless people know what the purpose of it is. If
you’re in charge, say: “We’re here today to…”, “Our goal today is…”, or “I’ve called this
meeting to…”, then finish with a brief explanation of the purpose of you r meeting.
Example: “We’re here today to discuss last quarter’s sales figures.”

Review past business

If you are meeting to discuss ongoing matters, review your progress with them before you
move on to new content. People usually use the minutes (official notes) or action points
from the previous meeting to give this part of the meeting structure and make sure they
don’t waste time. Before reading the minutes say, “To begin, let’s quickly go over the
minutes from our last meeting.” “Go over” means to review something and is a [common
expression in business (link to 9 common business English expressions)]. Once you’ve
done this, you can move on to the main section of the meeting.

Use the agenda and introduce each item

Now it’s time to discuss new business! Use an agenda (list of items to discuss) to keep
everyone focused and make sure you don’t miss anything out. The meeting leader will
start by drawing everyone’s attention to the agenda. They’ll say: “Please look at your copy
of the agenda. There are xx items on the list today. Let’s start with number xx.”

Keep things moving

To avoid wasting time, the key to a successful meeting is keeping it moving forward.
When it’s time to move onto the next topic, say, “Now that we’ve discussed this, let’s
move on to the next topic” or refer to the numbers on your agenda and say “Let’s move
on to point number X”.

Any other business?

The last item on the agenda is often “A.O.B.” or “Any other business”. It’s important to ask
if there is any other business at the en d of the meeting to give all the people in the meeting
a chance to mention any other issues they feel are important and are related to the topic
of the meeting.
Time to finish
You need to do three things at the end of a meeting: summarize everything that’s been
discussed, thank everyone for coming, and then dismiss the meeting. It’s not hard,
though! To summarize, use: “To sum up…” Example: “To sum up, we’ve determined the
sales figures could be better and discussed solutions.” Then, thank everyone for
attending: “Thank you all for attending/coming.” Let everyone know it’s okay to leave with,
“The meeting is finished.” Finally, if there’s a follow-up meeting say, “We’ll see everyone
next…”

Next time you have an English meeting, try using this structure and these phrases and
see what a difference it makes.