Category: Positive Psychology

How to Write Professional and Impactful Emails

Post author By admin
Post date July 25, 2022
No Comments on How to Write Professional and Impactful Emails

People get dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of emails (let’s not even talk about how many unread emails are sitting in my inbox right now) and it’s easy to miss—or just plain ignore—them on a scroll. So when you’re writing an email, you want to do everything in your power to ensure the recipient sees, opens, reads, and acts on it the way you’re hoping they will.

The truth is that some emails are more effective—and likely to get a response—than others.

No matter what field or industry you work in, or would like to work in, knowing how to write emails that achieve your goals is vital. Here are the basics to help you get started—if you’re new to the workforce—or to make sure this email is just right.

Elements of a Professional Email

No matter what your email is about, it can be broken down into the same basic pieces. Depending on the situation, you might not need to use all of these elements, but you should always consider each one.

Subject Line

Your subject line goes in its own field above the message itself, but it’s still very much part of your email. And you should never leave it off—or your message is likely to remain unopened, whether the reader skips over it or it lands in their junk folder.

This short phrase (along with your name or email address) will be what the recipient sees before they decide whether or not to click on your email, so you want to make sure you’re clearly stating what your message is about and setting the right expectations. Stay away from subject lines that just say “Hello” or “Please read” unless you know the person well. Instead try something along the lines of these examples:

“Can we set up a meeting?”
“Requested resume for Matthew Li”
“Question from a fellow UT-Austin alum”
“Feedback on report draft needed by EOD Monday”
“Question about apartment listing – 123 Maple Street”

Note: If you’re applying for a job via email, sometimes the job posting will tell you to include something like your name or the position title or number in your subject line, and you should always follow these directions.

The only time you don’t need to write a subject line is if you’re responding to or forwarding someone else’s message: In this case, you can just leave the existing subject line—unless you want to highlight a specific deadline or action item.

Greeting

Would you walk up to someone at work who you don’t know well and just start talking about the report that’s due without saying “Hi” or even their name? Probably not. So you shouldn’t do it over email, and you definitely shouldn’t do it if you’ve never communicated with the person before. Start your message with an appropriate salutation (most commonly “Hi,” “Hello,” or “Dear”) and the recipient’s name if you know it.

In most workplace communications, a first name only is just fine, unless the person works for a more formal company where using their full name might be more appropriate (or, say, you’re emailing the head of a division or company). Including a first or full name is always better than accidentally misgendering somebody with a “Ms.” or “Mr.” For professors and doctors, however, their title followed by the last name is usually best.

If you don’t know who your email will go to, you can sometimes skip the name entirely and just write “Hello” or “Hi there” to start your message. “To Whom It May Concern,” might be just fine If you’re emailing a customer service department or similar, but never use it in a cover letter.

Body

This is where you actually write the information that you want to send the person you’re emailing. Every email has a body, whether it’s a single word (“Thanks!”) or paragraphs and paragraphs long—but please don’t make it too long! For professional emails, make sure that you keep your language appropriate for the situation and clearly state why you’re sending the message and what (if any) action you’re hoping the recipient will take after reading.

Closing (or Sign-Off)

Your email closing is the (usually single) line before your name and/or signature. Skipping this can come off as rude or abrupt, so be sure to include one unless you’re emailing with someone you know well or you’re several emails into a thread. The most common professional email closings are “Best” and “Thanks.” But you can definitely change it up based on your preferences and the circumstances.

Signature

Typically, you end an email by signing just your name at the end. Your first name is usually enough here, but for more formal emails (such as a cover letter), your full name might be warranted. You might also choose to include additional information after your name (often on the lines below), such as your contact information, title, company, pronouns, or links with more information about you or your company. You might also create a default email signature that contains some or all of these components.

Tips for Writing a Professional Email

Here are a few things to help you ensure that your emails are effective and professional.

Keep It Concise

Emails are one of the main ways we communicate at work, so people get a lot of them. If someone is sifting through an inbox with 50 (or 500) unread messages, they’re more likely to respond in the moment to something that’s a few short paragraphs at most as opposed to something that’s much longer. So be respectful of others’ time and keep your emails short and to the point.

Add a Personal Touch

Because you want to be concise, and written messages lack the tone of speech, email “can feel curt,” says Muse career coach Barb Girson, but this is easily fixable.

Being professional doesn’t mean you need to be robotic. So before you jump into the meat of your message, “Pause and add a quick pleasantry,” Girson says, to acknowledge the person at the other end of your email. This could be as simple as, “I hope this email finds you well,” or, “I hope you’re having a great week.” If you’re friendly with the person you’re emailing, you might reference something you know about them like, “How was apple picking with the kids last weekend?” or, “Did you catch the Packers game last night?” Note: For cover letters, you can generally dive right in.

Clearly State Your Intent

In all professional messages, you should explicitly say why you’re emailing and what you’re looking or asking for. Don’t make the reader guess at your point.

You might open a cover letter with something along the lines of, “I am excited to be applying to your open sales development role.” Or after your opening pleasantry to a coworker, you might say, “I just wanted to check in about the presentation tomorrow,” or, “Following up on yesterday’s meeting…”

At the end of your email, you might also include a call to action such as “Can you get me any feedback on this deck by noon Thursday?” or even a clear statement that no action is necessary like “We don’t need anything from you right now, but we just wanted to keep you in the loop!” just to be sure that the recipient comes away with the right information.

Proofread!

If you’re sending multiple emails a day, it can be easy to overlook this step, but you should be rereading all your emails for spelling and grammar, Berger says. If you have the time, Berger even recommends saving your email as a draft and going back to it later to make sure it looks good with fresh eyes. This probably isn’t necessary for a note to that colleague you email multiple items a day, but for particularly important or delicate emails, it might help you catch that embarrassing typo or mistake before you hit send.

Bonus Tip: Make Sure Email Is the Right Tool in the First Place

Depending on what you’re trying to communicate, email might not be the right tool, says Muse career coach Heather Yurovsky: “While a well-written and concise email is certainly effective and allows the reader to respond in their own time, a phone call can sometimes take the place of multiple emails while getting much more accomplished and building a stronger relationship.” So if it’s appropriate given the relationship you have with the person, consider calling or sending a shorter email to set up a meeting. If it’s a colleague in your office, you might also walk over to their desk or use a tool like Slack that allows for quicker back-and-forth communication.

Example Professional Emails

What does this look like in action? Here are a few example emails:

Reaching Out for an Informational Interview:

Subject: Aspiring growth marketer—would love to ask you a few questions

Hello Juan,

I hope you’re having a great week. I’m currently a marketing generalist with XYZ Co and I saw your recent LinkedIn post about your philosophy on conducting market research. I wanted to reach out to let you know how much I admired what you said about how data tells a story if you let it.

As someone early in my career, I’m interested in learning more about growth marketing as a possible path for me. If you’re open to it, I’d love to connect and chat about how you got into this field and what advice you have for someone hoping to transition from an entry-level generalist role to a specialist role in growth marketing. Do you have any availability for a Zoom or phone call in the coming weeks?

Looking forward to connecting and thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Regards,

Rishi Anand
Marketing Coordinator, XYZ Co
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anand-rishi

Expressing Appreciation and Building a Relationship:

Subject: Thank you for your talk and time!

Dear Professor Washington,

I hope this email finds you well. I’m reaching out to thank you for talking to our biology club about your research. We all found it fascinating and I really appreciated how you stayed longer than planned to answer all our questions. I was especially interested in what you said about this research having the potential to translate to other areas of the body! I’m planning on enrolling in your BIO409 class next semester and am looking forward to learning about these concepts in more depth!

Thanks again,

Hillary Thompson

Emailing a Team Member at Work:

Subject: May vendor invoices (send by EOD Wednesday?)

Hi Carla,

How was your long weekend? Did you make it out to the beach like you talked about? I know you’re probably still settling back in, but when you get a chance could you send over the vendor invoices from May? The accounting team needs them by EOD Wednesday.

Thanks!

Tish

How to Write Different Types of Emails:

Looking for advice on how to write specific types of emails? Check out these articles (with templates and/or examples) for when you’re emailing in certain situations:

Communication Positive Psychology Written Communication

Why Writing Skills Are Important and how to Improve Yours

Post author By admin
Post date July 25, 2022
No Comments on Why Writing Skills Are Important and how to Improve Yours

Have you ever sent an email no one seemed to understand that ended up derailing the timeline for an entire project? Or written a report that you then had to explain verbally to everyone after they read it?

Even if you’re not in a job where writing is a core component of your professional duties, you probably use your writing skills every day to communicate with others through text (whether it’s over email or Slack, in a monthly or quarterly report, in the form of a project update, or otherwise). If fact, strong written communication skills are one of the top attributes employers look for, regardless of the job they’re hiring to fill.

There are a few different types of writing skills, and with practice you can strengthen them—and show them off in your next job search.

Why Are Writing Skills Important?

If you’re in a writing-centric or writing-heavy role—for example, marketing—you might already be aware of how your writing skills help you daily. But even if you aren’t in one of these jobs, “Writing is an essential skill in the workplace, especially today with more and more people working remotely,” says Muse career coach Jennifer Smith, founder of Flourish Careers. In an increasingly online world, “There’s less face-to-face interaction and more written interaction.”

Strong writing skills help you to communicate with others without having to schedule a meeting or phone call. They ensure readers understand the key points of what you’re trying to get across, come away with the ideas and impression you want them to, and, in many cases, take action to do whatever you’re hoping they’ll do.

“Most professionals have to craft business emails,” says Muse career coach Tara Goodfellow, owner of Athena Consultants. Emails might be how you update your team on a project, request information from a colleague, or how you follow up on a meeting with clear next steps. And in some instances, an email is how you make your first impression on a new person. For example, if you’re an account executive reaching out to a prospect via email or LinkedIn, “A well-written sales pitch to a critical client will increase your credibility and help you land the new client,” Smith says.

You likely also use writing skills outside of email. Maybe you put together presentations that incorporate text or need to write a report on the results of something you did or researched. Or perhaps you’re going on vacation and you’re writing up what you need your teammates or reports to know or take care of while you’re out.

Writing is something others can refer back to at any point—as opposed to verbal communication, which might have to be repeated and requires both parties to be available at the same time. Written records can be particularly helpful when you’re trying to standardize how your team or company handles recurring tasks or training new coworkers to take these on. “Clearly writing and documenting new procedures can allow for future consistency and improved quality control,” Smith says, even if you’re not available to meet with and explain the processes to each new person taking them on.

Examples of Writing Skills

There are several types of skills that combine to make someone a strong writer, including:

Research

Before you write a single word, you need to do your research about the topic you’re writing on. Gathering information that’s up-to-date and accurate is a key part of writing, and the process may help you figure out what content to include. Depending on what you’re writing, research may involve learning about your target customer—whether it’s an overall target market or individual company—evaluating sources for strength and credibility, talking to experts, reviewing and analyzing data, or talking to other members of your team.

Planning and/or Outlining

An outline is a pared-down sketch of what points or topics the document you’re working on will cover and how you plan to structure the information, which can give you a roadmap to follow as you write. Creating and following an outline ensures you’re incorporating all the important information in the right order and not being repetitive or straying too far from your point. It’s often easier to get outside input on an outline than to write an entire report or similar only to find out key information was missing. Outlining skills can also be used to map out a non-writing project ahead of time or plan a process, which can be especially helpful if you’re delegating to or collaborating with others.

Grammar and Clarity

Grammar is the set of rules governing language usage. It’s what guides everyone to communicate in a similar way and, as a result, understand each other more. There are many rules of English grammar, and you should definitely know the basic ones. But unless you’re a writer or editor, knowing the obscure little quirks of grammar usually isn’t necessary. What is necessary is knowing how to construct a clear, easy-to-read, and understandable sentence so you can communicate in writing.

Revising and Editing

Editing is the process of correcting and changing a piece of your own or someone else’s writing to strengthen it. You can revise or edit by making significant changes to the structure, organization, or content of a piece. Or you might proofread a piece of writing, checking for any misspellings, grammar mistakes, or typos. In other cases, you might be tweaking sentences or paragraphs to flow better or reflect a certain tone. Strong editing skills can be useful in a wide range of professional situations—from looking over a report or presentation for a teammate to spotting an error in an email you’re about to send the entire company.

Communication Skills

Even if writing isn’t a core part of your job, you’ll likely use it to communicate in the workplace. This might mean composing an email, messaging someone on Slack or Teams, giving feedback, creating a meeting agenda, or giving an update on a project. Being able to communicate clearly through writing will help your work go more smoothly, increase the chances you get what you want and need from others, prevent misunderstandings, and allow your colleagues to feel informed and included—ultimately strengthening your professional relationships.

9 Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

“Good writing can help you stand out and get ahead,” Smith says. So how do you improve your writing skills? Here are a few tips:

1. Brush Up on Grammar Basics

If you’re already feeling your eyes glaze over, don’t worry. Unless you’re a writer, editor, or similar, you don’t need to know whether it’s who or whom or when to use an em dash vs. a semicolon (and to be honest, editors don’t always know all these things). But you should know the basics: how to write in complete sentences rather than fragments or run-ons; how to use quotation marks and commas in typical scenarios; and when to use there, they’re, or their, to name a few.

There are a number of free resources online you can use to brush up on your grammar skills or answer individual questions, such as Grammar Girl and the content many dictionaries put out on their blogs. Or you might look into paid courses on platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera. You can find plenty of free quizzes (like this one) to figure out your current level of skill and discover areas for improvement. There are also a number of books you can check out: The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is a classic—but still widely used and, more importantly, short—overview of the most important grammar rules, and Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner is a more modern guide written in a lighter tone.

2. Read (and Study) the Type of Writing You Want to Improve

One of the best ways to improve your own writing is to read a lot. Note what writing resonates for you and look at that writing closely to see how it’s put together. Is it using a lot of technical words? Is the tone conversational or more serious? Does the writer use a lot of short sentences, mostly longer sentences, or a mix of both?

Reading of any type can help you get a sense of the different ways all the elements of writing can combine effectively. But it can be particularly helpful to focus on the same types of writing you want to improve. Reading Shakespeare is great if you enjoy it, but it’s unlikely to improve your emails. If you want to level up your marketing copy, technical reports, or written sales pitches, those are the types of writing you should be studying most closely.

3. Pick the Right Format for the Situation

You have to quickly update your boss on what you’ve done in the last week. What’s the best way to do it? Are you going to open up a new Google doc and write a five-page report covering every detail? Probably not. You’re likely going to type up an email with a few short paragraphs or bullet points that hit the key points in a way your boss can read quickly.

On the other hand, if you’re detailing the findings of weeks of research, that five-page report might be necessary for your immediate supervisor or a teammate who needs to know about your process. But if you’re sharing those results with another department, it might make more sense to convey only the key takeaways or action items in a PowerPoint presentation with a few bullet points or short summary on each slide.

Knowing and choosing the correct format for a given piece of writing—based on your goals and intended audience—will give you the appropriate amount and type of space to share what you need to, and it’ll set your reader expectations correctly as well. Going back to the earlier example, if your manager sees a Slack message, they’ll expect that to take at most a few minutes to read, but if you send them a long document, they’ll be prepared to receive a lot of information (and might hold off on reading until they have the time they need to digest it).

4. Outline Before You Write

Especially when you’re writing something longer or particularly important, outlining beforehand can lead to a stronger finished project and make the process smoother. The best way to outline will depend on your personal preferences and what you’re writing.

In most cases, you’ll want to divide your outline into sections (whether those sections indicate chapters, paragraphs, slides, or anything else) and note what the purpose of each section is. Why is it being included and what question is this section answering for your reader? Once you know that, you can quickly note what information needs to go in this section of your piece. As you’re outlining, check that the order of your sections makes sense. Would someone need a bit of info or context currently slated for a later section to understand what you’re saying here? Move that info or section up in your outline.

If you have a number of points you’d like to hit but don’t know in what order or how they go together, an outline can be even more helpful. Write out each key point in a way that’s easy to move around—for example, a bulleted list in a Word or Google doc or even individual index cards—and start by grouping similar and related points together. Then, organize these groupings in a way that flows logically. If you’re not yet sure what your key points are, you can do the same exercise with all of the smaller pieces of info you want to include and form your key points once you see how all your information goes together.

5. Be Aware of Your Audience and the Appropriate Tone for Your Writing

To communicate well through writing, it’s important to understand who will be reading and what sort of language is appropriate.

Consider how formal your language is—if you’re Slacking a teammate, you might be able to be more relaxed in your tone and word choice than when you’re emailing a client or preparing a presentation for stakeholders. In most professional situations you should skip the emojis and avoid using multiple punctuation marks unless the situation really calls for it. “Rarely is ‘!!!!!!’ needed,” Goodfellow says. And don’t write in all caps unless you actually mean to yell.

Before you write, note the knowledge level of your audience as it relates to the topic. “If they are aware of the situation, they [may] not need a great deal of detail,” Goodfellow says. For example, if you’re updating other members of the engineering team on a feature you coded, you can use tech jargon and skip the background, but if you’re writing about the new feature in a blog post for customers, you might need to explain things a bit more thoroughly, choose more common words, and explicitly state why it matters to them.

Before finishing any piece of writing, take the time to reread it while accounting for the audience’s point of view. “Keep in mind that how you intend the email may not be how it’s perceived,” Goodfellow says. Tone is difficult to convey over text, especially humor—and you don’t want to imply an attitude you don’t mean. If you’re responding to an email chain, writing a comment on an ongoing thread, or in any way continuing a conversation, try to mirror the tone of the messages before yours, Goodfellow says.

6. Pay Attention to the Mechanics of Your Writing

Here are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind that will help make almost anything you write easier to read and understand:

Don’t use complex words when simple words will do. If it looks like you used the thesaurus function every few words, it’s likely to distract your reader or make them lose focus. You’ll also end up with a disjointed tone, and you run the risk of someone not understanding the point you want to get across.
Vary your sentences. If all your sentences are a similar length or follow the same structure, your writing can become a slog to read. “One common issue I see is every sentence starting with ‘I,’” Goodfellow says. Think: “I want [x]. I need [y]. I’d like [z].” It gets repetitive, and it’s easier for the reader to lose their place if everything looks the same.
Use specific words and phrasing. Whenever possible, state exactly what you mean rather than using vague words like “things” or phrases like “and so on.” This practice will make your writing stronger and easier to follow.
Don’t repeat yourself. When writing and speaking, it’s common to say the same thing multiple times in a slightly different way. Repetition can unnecessarily pad your writing and cause people’s attention to waiver.
Eliminate filler words and filtering language. Words like “just” and “that” are often unneeded to get your point across and weigh down your writing. You should also take a look at any adverbs and adjectives you use to see if a stronger, more specific noun or verb will do the trick. Similarly, filtering language like “I think” or “it seems like” can weaken your message and make you sound less confident. The use of filtering language is especially common for women, who have been socialized to soften their opinions so as not to offend.
Guide your reader through each of your points. As you move from one topic to the next, transition smoothly. If you spent the last paragraph talking about a project you completed last week and then you jump right to describing an upcoming project without a transition, your reader is likely to get confused. And for every new point, make sure it’s clear to your reader why you’re bringing it up and how it connects to the overall topic.

7. Get Feedback on Your Writing

If you’re looking to improve your writing skills, getting opinions from others about how you’re currently doing can be extremely helpful. You might not realize you tend to use the wrong form of “your” or that your sentences are way too long. But someone else might. It’s also common for individuals to use the same words and phrases over and over without realizing it. Similarly, you might think your writing is clear and to the point, but a reader might feel like there’s key context missing. As you get feedback from multiple people or on multiple pieces of writing, pay attention to any comments or critiques you’ve gotten more than once and focus on that area first.

Ask a teammate, manager, or someone else whose opinion you trust to look at something you’ve written and ask what would make your writing stronger. (If it’s someone you work with, it might be easiest to ask them for writing feedback on something they have to read anyway).

Depending on what kind of writing you’re looking to work on, you might also be able join a writing group or community where people trade writing and critique one another, Smith says. You can find writing workshops (both online and in-person) through universities and other community programs—they often cost money but come with an experienced instructor or facilitator—or you can find (usually free) writing groups online. Meetup.com and professional organizations are great places to start your search.

8. Proofread

No matter what you’re writing, taking a last look to check for any typos or mistakes can save you a lot of headaches in the long run. Did you contradict yourself somewhere or leave the verb out of a sentence? Read anything you’ve written out loud if possible. Sometimes things look OK on a screen, but when you try to say them, you realize something’s not right. In a similar vein, you might also print out your writing and correct it on paper, Smith says. Often this is enough to see your writing in a different way, making it easier to spot errors. If the writing has higher stakes or the impression it makes on the reader matters a lot, try to get someone else to read it as well, Goodfellow says.

9. Use Tech Tools as Aids—Not Substitutes

There are plenty of programs and plug-ins that claim to “fix” your writing, such as WritingProAid, Sapling, Grammarly, and even the spelling and grammar checkers built into word processors. These tools can make it easier to write well, Smith says. But they shouldn’t be your one source of truth. Computer programs tend to miss key context that human readers would understand. “Spell-check can help but there are many words that are ‘correct’ but may not be what you intended,” Goodfellow says.

None of these tools should stand in for a thorough proofread. As a professional editor, I use tools like this to call attention to possible errors, but I always look at their suggestions before accepting them and consider whether they’re actually correct or clear. I also look carefully for errors the tools didn’t catch at all. Computer programs can easily miss homophone mix-ups, tense switches between sentences, incorrect word choice, and other issues. And sometimes you may need to write in a style these tools aren’t programmed to support. For instance, if you’re writing about investing, they might mark stock tickers and common financial abbreviations as errors.

Showing Off Your Writing Skills in a Job Search

If you’re applying for a writing-heavy job, you may be asked to submit a writing sample along with your application or complete a skills test at some point during the interview process. But you can showcase your writing skills at other stages as well, no matter what kind of job you’re applying to.

On Your Resume

Unless a specific type of writing skill, such as experience with social media copy or familiarity with a certain style guide, is listed in a job description or is clearly a big value add for a specific role, your writing skills don’t usually belong in your skills section—or at least, that’s not where recruiters and hiring managers will look for them. Instead, they’ll look at the way your resume is written to see these skills in action. Here are some guidelines to follow:

Use correct and consistent grammar—no randomly switching verb tenses.
Write clear, concise bullet points, taking care to choose specific words and strong, active verbs.
Avoid vague or overused words. That means steering clear of contextless buzzwords, such as “passionate” and “synergized,” which might sound flashy but don’t mean anything on their own. And instead of words such as “managed” and “led,” Smith says, aim for interesting and creative—but still clear and specific—words the recruiter hasn’t seen a thousand times that day.
Proofread!

If you’re in a field where writing is a core component of your job, you can also link to writing samples directly from your resume even if you’re not asked for them to further show off your qualifications.

In Your Cover Letter

When writing a cover letter (and you should write a cover letter), you’ll want to follow all the same advice as when you’re writing a resume. But cover letters give you more room to really show off your writing skills. Rather than rattling off lists of qualifications you have, use your cover letter to write succinct but persuasive anecdotes that come together to tell a coherent story about why you’re the right person for the job. Choose past experiences that are relevant to the job you want and support your overall narrative. And make sure your sentences and paragraphs flow in a logical way and it’s always clear why information is being included. You can also inject more voice and personality into a cover letter than you can in a resume to give the reader the sense of who you are as a person.

Throughout the Interview Process

Of course, interviews aren’t often conducted through writing. In fact, unless there’s a good reason for it (such as a disability accomodation for yourself or the interviewer), an all-text interview process may be a red flag for a job scam.

But you’ll still be communicating with your prospective employer via email throughout the process. “Taking the time to craft well-written email responses is a fabulous way to make a solid first impression,” Smith says. “Recruiters and hiring managers will notice a difference between well-thought-out responses vs. rushed comments.”

Remember you’re being evaluated not just for your ability to do a specific job, but for your potential as a teammate. A coworker or direct report who communicates via email in a clear and professional way will make everyone’s work easier in the long run, whereas someone who’s hard to understand in writing might seem like a future headache they’ll have to address—especially if you’ll be communicating with people outside the company through email.

Positive Psychology

Protected: Student Library

Post author By admin
Post date June 15, 2021

Positive Psychology

Aloha!

Post author By admin
Post date June 15, 2021
No Comments on Aloha!

Welcome to the blog-site of the International Institute of Positive Psychology, an International Autonomous School that provides higher education, workshops and trainings in the area of Positive Psychology.