Business Writing

Lesson 5: Extending your Writing Skills

External E-mail

When you are contacting people outside your own company by e-mail, you should bear in mind that, as discussed above, not everybody will be using the same software. It's better to send simple e-mail which conveys all the important information than to send visually stylish e-mail which may be illegible when it arrives at the other end. Sending e-mail which has been written using html is usually a bad idea. Some e-mail programs automatically use html, even if it's not apparent when you're writing, but you can turn this function off.

Don't send important information using e-mail attachments. Many people will not open e-mail attachments in case there might be computer viruses within them. If you need to send an attachment, make sure you're aware of the recipient's policy on this, if necessary by querying first. If you don't send attachments, you cannot transmit viruses from your system to those of people whom you e-mail. If you open attachments which people have sent to you, you should be sure to have an up-to-date virus checker running on your system at the time. It's wise to turn off the function in some e-mail programs which opens attachments automatically.

Formal business e-mail messages should be formatted like letters, with appropriate introductions and indented or spaced paragraphs. They should always contain contact information for your business, preferably including non-electronic means of contact. They should include all the information which you are legally required to provide in letters. It's a good idea to include this information in your business signature so that you don't have to write it out afresh every time.

Although you cannot add your legal signature to a standard e-mail message, you should always sign it with your personal name, rather than having it ascribed anonymously to your company. People responding to such messages should know who they are talking to, and should be able to ask for you if they contact your company by other means.

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