No matter who you are or where you work, you need to write emails. And you need to write them often.
A study done by the McKinsey Global Institute found that we spend a third of our time at work dealing with email. The only thing that takes up more time is “role specific tasks” – in other words, doing our job. But at least this we have been trained for. How many people have been trained to write an effective email?
Through this masterclass, you will learn three principles and three tips that will help you write emails that will be opened, read and responded to.
It is true that we write now more than at any other time in history, and a great deal of that writing is in emails. It is a channel of communication that everyone in the 21st Century should master.
Can you afford not to?
Put the reader first.
When you get to the activity,
In question 1 you are given three sentences that are writer-centred. Rewrite the sentences so that they are reader-centred.
In question 2 you need to give your thoughts as to why you think it is a good idea to make your writing reader-centred.
Write down your answers to these questions before continuing.
Before continuing to do the activity, read through the notes, which give you more information on the difference between the active and the passive.
In the next activity, you will need to do three things:
1. Identify which of two sentences is active and which is passive
2. Rewrite three passive sentences in the active
3. Answer the question, "Why should we write predominantly in the active and not in the passive?"
Keep the above three tasks in mind as you read through the notes.
Activity on passive and active
Below there are three questions.
In question 1 you have to identify which sentence is active and which is passive.
In question 2 you need to rewrite the passive sentences in the active.
In question 3 you need to give some thought as to why we say it is a good idea to write predominantly in the active and not the passive.
Write down your answers to these questions before continuing.
What does it mean to be professional when writing email?
Activity
Take a few minutes to do the task.
It will help you reflect on whether you are writing effective subject lines or not.
To give you a chance to process the points raised in the video for Tip Two and to consider the tone of your own writing, following the instructions in the task.
To give you a chance to process the points raised in the video for this tip, and to practice editing and proofreading, follow the instructions in the activity.