HOW TO WRITE A

CLEAR EMAIL
 OBJECTIVES

 Study what makes an email clear

 Understand why this is important

 Be able to write an email in a clear way (practice)

 Make the reading easy for the recipient
 Avoid questions and FB from the recipient
 WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

 To avoid misunderstandings
 To avoid to explain the same thing 2 times
 To avoid questions from the recipient
 So TO SAVE TIME

 To give a good image to other people

 People will TRUST YOU
 People will be more willing to help you when you need

 Recipients will answer you sooner

 Or recipients will do the job sooner and better if they perfectly
understand your email
 BRAINSTORMING

In your opinion, what can we do to make

an email very clear?
 BRAINSTORMING : PRESENTATION

1) Numbering
 Bullets  Arrow

Titles Italic Structure

Bold Space Short
Highlight Colors
Underline
Table
CAPITAL LETTERS Screen Shots
BRAINSTORMING: CONTENT

Good English

Easy
Examples

Solutions oriented
Short sentences
EXAMPLE OF CLEAR EMAIL (1)
 WHAT MAKES THIS EMAIL CLEAR? (1)

 Titles bold + underlined

 2 parts for 2 subjects
 Short sentences / not real sentence
 Bullets / Dashes
 Underlined ETA
 Colors : Green is positive (ok/can do), Orange is to refer to
someone
 Arrows to make conclusions
 Spaces to order ideas
 Solution oriented
 Easy English
EXAMPLE OF CLEAR EMAIL (2)
 WHAT MAKES THIS EMAIL CLEAR? (2)

 Title bold + numbered

 2 parts for 2 dif ferent priorities
 Bullets
 Each main idea in red color and bold
 Blue color + italic to refer to an attached document
 Arrows to make conclusions
 Spaces to order ideas
 @ NAME : to tell each person what they have to check
 Solution oriented
EXAMPLE OF CLEAR EMAIL (3)
 WHAT MAKES THIS EMAIL CLEAR? (3)

 Table
 Arrows to remind important ideas
 Spaces to order ideas
 Bullets
 Hours in red + bold
 Short text
 Easy English
EXAMPLE OF CLEAR EMAIL (4)
 WHAT MAKES THIS EMAIL CLEAR? (4)

 Titles bold + underlined

 3 parts for 3 dif ferent questions
 Deadlines underlined and highlighted in yellow
 Dashes
 @ NAME in orange : to give information to specific person
 Important ideas in red, capital letters or bold
EXAMPLE OF CLEAR EMAIL (5)
 WHAT MAKES THIS EMAIL CLEAR? (5)

 Titles bold + underlined

 2 parts for Problems and Solutions
 Solution-oriented
 Spacing
 PICTURES!!! Pictures are worth hours of messages and emails
in some cases.
SUM-UP: WHAT MAKES AN EMAIL CLEAR?
(PRESENTATION)

Structure

Shorter is better

Visually easy to understand

SUM-UP: WHAT MAKES AN EMAIL CLEAR?
(PRESENTATION)

Structure :
- 1st subject
- 2nd subject
Short :
- No real sentences
- Short email

Visually easy to
understand :
Dashes, Colors,
Underline…
SUM-UP: WHAT MAKES AN EMAIL CLEAR?
(CONTENT)

English easy to understand

Technical problems understandable

for non-technical

Be solution-oriented

Give example to illustrate

SUM-UP: WHAT MAKES AN EMAIL CLEAR?
(CONTENT)

English easy to understand

Technical problems understandable for

non technical

Solution oriented

Give examples
PRACTICE : MAKE EMAILS BETTER (1)
(WORD DOCUMENT)
PRACTICE : MAKE EMAILS BETTER (2)
(WORD DOCUMENT)
 PRACTICE : MAKE EMAILS BETTER
SOME SOLUTIONS
Mail 1 :
 Do a table with all requested information and ask the
recipient to fill the table :
 Easier to read and understand for the recipient
 Recipient will have to fill all cells in the table so it minimizes the risk
of missing information (=save time)

Mail 2 :
 More space
 More structure
 Maybe include some screen shots to make it easier to
understand
 PRACTICE : WRITE AN EMAIL

Scenario :
I will send each of you a fake “email request” for some
information.

Your Job:
1 . Respond and ask for missing details /information you need.
2. After I send you the missing details, send me an organized,
ef fective mail containing the requested information.

My Job:
I will give you feedback along the way about your
communications. 