When sending an email, you should follow a professional format. You’re not usually communicating with your friends or people with whom you have casual conversations. Instead, you are sending a professional, business-like email to request information or provide information necessary.
Regardless of whether or not you’re using a computer, laptop, or sending an email from your cell phone, the layout of the email is the same.
TO: the email address(es) of the people to whom you are sending the email
Cc: this line is for anyone that you want to have a copy of the email that you’re sending. They will know that you sent it to the original email in the “To:” line.
Bcc: “Blind carbon copy”: this line is for anyone you would like to copy an email to, but you don’t want the original recipient to know that you’re sending it. Think about a group text, but you don’t want anyone else to know who you’re sending the text to because you don’t want to share their numbers. Or if you want to send a group email, but you need to keep the other email addresses confidential.
Subject: This line is the subject of the email. For example: Subject: How to Send an Email, you will know that what you read in the body should be about how you send an email. You don’t want to leave the subject empty. You should use key words and not put so much detail that it looks like you’re sending the whole email in the subject line.
Body: This is where you type the content of your email.
You start with a greeting:
- Dear Mr./Ms. Person’s Last Name:
- Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening,
- To Whom It May Concern:
- (Hey, Hi, What’s Up, no greeting at all)–these are NOT ACCEPTABLE greetings
Then you write what your email is about (content). Use complete sentences but don’t get too wordy. Emails should be professional, but to the point. Your reader probably gets a ton of emails a day so they want to be able to read and go through them quickly.
Your last paragraph should always be a conclusion of some sort: “Thank you for your time in advance”; “Please contact me at your convenience.”
Closing: Just like you should never abruptly start an email, you should never just abruptly end an email. You should always provide a closing:
- Sincerely,
- Regards,
- Thank you,
- Cordially,
Proofread your work and make sure it looks good before you send it out.
