Email Communication or How to Make Sure You Include Everything You Need when writing an Email

Sending or receiving emails is now a big part of our daily activity as employees. Sometimes, we send and receive more emails than we actually talk with our colleagues. And this is not due to some trends caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even before of it, emailing was starting to be the main communication method (contrary to the WACAMA recommendation I was telling you about in an old article of mine).

The other day, I was talking with a colleague about how to make sure everything needed is included in an email. So I thought about it a little bit and presented, by steps, how I try to make sure I don’t forget something. Then, I figured others might be interested in these steps, so here they are:

1. Write notes on the main topics you want included in the email.

2. Write the message and keep it as draft (you can save it in a Word document you use).

3. Read it carefully and correct mistakes (spelling, missing of words, if all items in your notes have been mentioned, etc.).

4. Take a small break from it and do another task.

5. Come back to the text and read it again; check again your notes to see if you missed anything, make corrections, if necessary. If your email contains more than two sentences, it’s best to sepparate the paragraphs with spaces (optional – underline the critical information you want the reader to remember after reading your text; you might make them stand out with italics or bold).

6. Send it.

7. If there is a call to action for the receiver (you gave them a DL (deadline) or requested something), make a note to follow-up (two days before the DL expires).

 

I hope it’s useful to you!