Email writing tips By Dave Riches Email writing has become a large part of modern communication, particularly in business. The world has become much smaller now that we have the ability to send and receive email messages over great distances at an incredible speed. Due to the ease of use it has the potential to be abused and you should try to keep the following points in mind when writing email. How much should I write in an email? Do spelling and grammar matter in email? What do cc: and bcc: mean? What are plain text and HTML format email? What is a good email program? What is a signature file?
How much should I write in an email? Email is meant for quick, simple communication . As a general guide that means roughly 4 or 5 paragraphs at most. Due to the limitations of formatting and layout, anything much longer than that is probably best sent as a separate attachment such as a Word file. Most people have a limited attention span with email - if they are receiving a lot of mail you want to get the main message explained in the shortest possible space. Top
Do spelling and grammar matter in email? We think it does. Poor spelling and grammar show a lack of attention to detail and sends the wrong message about yourself and how you do business. Most email programs today have built-in spell checkers so there is no excuse! You wouldn't send a letter that was poorly punctuated and uses no capital letters - why not make sure your email messages look professional too? Top
What do cc: and bcc: mean? There is a certain etiquette with email, especially in the use of the carbon copy (cc:) and blind carbon copy (bcc:) fields. It is courteous to add addresses to the ' cc:' field if those people need to know about the subject but are not required to act on the contents. The 'bcc:' field is useful where discretion is required. People in this field are concealed from other recipients in the 'To', 'cc:' and 'bcc:' fields. They can themselves see others in the 'To' and 'cc:' fields but not the 'bcc:' fields.
In this example, an email is sent directly to John by Bob. He copies Tom by including Tom's address in the cc: field. Harry and Sue are blind copied - they can see who the original recipients were but Tom and John won't see their names. Top
What are plain text and HTML format email? Plain text email is exactly that - plain. There is no formatting using different fonts or colours. Email messages can only contain characters typed on a keyboard, known as the ASCII character set. Creative use of characters like '*' and '+" can be used to highlight passages or create headings.
Most plain text email is written using a character set like Courier which is a fixed width font (characters are all the same width). This is useful for perfectly aligning characters between rows, as shown below. Note the headings and separators in use here as well:
HTML email allows you to add formatting to your text as well as images or links using HTML code. Many online newsletters are written in this format as they provide a more visual medium and are pleasing to look at at. The example below is the same message as shown before, including some basic formatting such as different fonts, colours and underlining as well as a hypertext link.
So which email format should you use? Increasingly, email is being read on devices such as mobile phones or PDAs. Plain text email can be easily interpreted on these whereas HTML email often won't display and is usually too large to download anyway.
If you want your email to be readable at all times, plain text is the way to go. It doesn't always look the best but it has other advantages as already mentioned. If you are only sending email to friends and family then HTML format email with the fancy background that you send with Outlook isn't going to cause too much trouble! Top
What is a good email program? Most people use the default mail program available on their system. For many that means Outlook Express which is a component of Microsoft's Internet Explorer . Outlook Express (otherwise known as OE) is a good email program that provides all of the necessary features for the average user. A step up from OE is Microsoft Outlook which Outlook which includes email as well as a calendar and other organiser functions. Outlook is a more powerful email program and being bundled with Office it is very popular in the business community. There are many other email programs and all have their devoted users. Probably the best known alternative is Eudora Eudora.. Or you may opt to use an entirely web-based option like Yahoo Mail or Hotmail.. Hotmail Top
What is a signature file? Signature files can be attached to every outgoing message you send, usually containing contact details and other relevant information. If you are in business you should almost certainly use an email signature in your communications. It is a great way to draw attention to products or services you offer, and you are making yourself easier to contact as well. Other uses for an email signature include: • • • •
confidentiality statements drawing attention to web site addresses promoting a newsletter adding other contact details such as ICQ or AIM
Choosing keywords by Dave Riches Introduction to keywords Why choose keywords at all? Key phrases versus keywords How to research keywords Keyword brainstorming Keyword density
Introduction to keywords A part of successful search engine optimisation of web pages is working out what keywords your prospective visitors might type in to a search engine to find your site. Some are more competitive than others - try searching for 'web design' in Google, there are millions of results! For smaller, establishing web sites it is better to target less popular keywords and phrases to begin with and aim for success with those. Top
Why choose keywords at all? A good web page contains information that people are looking for . When you write the page you need to take a step back and think about what search terms or keywords people would enter to find it. Once you have determined those keywords, you need to narrow them down to 3 to 5 main words. Then you can start to write the page, keeping these words in mind while you develop the content. While writing the web page, you can use search engine optimisation techniques to make sure you use your keywords in the right places for search engine success. Top
Key phrases versus keywords Different keywords joined together form key phrases. These phrases would be what the search engine user is likely to type in to find your site. As a general rule, each page on your site should be optimised for one key phrase. This page, for example, targets ' choosing keywords' as the main two word search phrase. Two to four word phrases are typical - longer phrases are less commonly used in searches. If you are selling products and services then one of your keywords should be your location (i.e. state, province or city).
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How to research keywords Unfortunately there are no shortcuts - good research will pay off with good results. By entering a search phrase in Google you can see what sort of competition you are up against. The blue bar at the top of the results page might say something like 'Results 1 - 10 of about 4,160,000'. That tells you that the search phrase is fairly competitive.
Also, you will learn a lot about how the search engines work by entering different phrases and seeing where they rank. Try and find combinations of keywords that return pages with poor information. If you can write a solid page of content using those keywords you should be able to rank highly in searches provided you follow the basics of search of search engine optimisation. optimisation . The other major source of research for keywords are your server log files . When a visitor finds your site using a search page, the words they used to find you are entered in your server log files. By looking at this information you can find: •
keywords to target
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phrases to target
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ideas for new pages
As an example, we noticed that people found our site by typing in 'writing email newsletters'. The information we had on the subject was very limited though. We wrote a new page about writing email newsletters,, uploaded it to our site and now it pulls in a good number newsletters of visitors on its own every day. Keep finding those keywords and keep building new web content around them. Top
Keyword brainstorming There are some excellent ways to develop and brainstorm new keywords, which can then be used to write new web pages for your site. The Search term suggestion tool from Overture can be used to see what other words have been used in actual searches on a topic. This is also a great way to find some of the less competitive keywords. An easy way to find new keyword combinations is to think like your customers . If you sell golf equipment, you would want pages based around putters, balls, drivers, brand names and specific products. Over time you slowly create more and more pages using phrases like 'king cobra driver' for example to cater for specific searches. Top
Keyword density
If you start to get really technical about your keywords, you will want to know the density or word count of keywords on your page. A part of search of search engine optimisation is researching the ideal density of keywords on the pages - around 5 to 10 per cent is considered about the 'right' amount. A page needs to feature the keywords prominently but not read like they were added purely to boost the search rankings. A job for someone experienced in writing for the web! web! The free keyword counter will counter will analyse one of your web pages and also compare it with another site if you supply the URL. It then gives you an assessment of the top words for the page and the density percentage.
Email writing Submitted by admin on 8 October, 2008 - 14:22 This lesson aims to teach or revise the rules of writing emails in English by studying the differences between formal letters, and informal and semi-formal emails. Level - Intermediate and above
The main focus will be on writing semi-formal emails, and the students will send an email to a tourist information centre of their choice using the rules they will have studied in the first half of the lesson. I have done this lesson several times myself and although not all of the students received replies from the information centres they emailed, most of them did, which in itself gave them much satisfaction. The lesson is suitable for intermediate students and above, although if simplified could be adapted for use with lower levels. Worksheets • • • • •
Formal letter (to letter (to be cut up for stage 4) Semi-formal email (to be cut up for stage 4) Semi-formal email (to be used in stage 6 & 8) Informal email (to be cut up for stage 4) Bad email (to be used in stage 6)
Procedure 1. Ask students students what what factors factors are important important for them them when they they are choosing choosing a holiday holiday (e.g. weather, accommodation, activities, costs, culture, food, history etc.). Ask students where they usually get information about a holiday destination (e.g. guidebooks, Internet, recommendations from friends). Ask if they have ever emailed a tourist information centre before a holiday. The answer will probably be no. 2. Tell them them that in this this lesson lesson they they will be emailin emailing g a tourist tourist information information centre centre in a city city of their choice to get information about that place. Put the students into pairs and tell them to try to decide on a place in the world that they would both like to visit. Give
them a few minutes to discuss this and then go round the classroom asking where each pair would like to go. 3. Tell the class class that that before they they write write their emails, emails, you you are going going to go throu through gh some some of the rules of email writing. Ask them what style of writing they would use, if writing a letter to e.g. a o prospective employer. The answer is formal . Then ask what style of writing they would use to email a close friend. The o answer is informal . Finally ask what style of writing they would use if emailing a formal recipient. o The answer is semi-formal . Ask them what style of writing should be used to write to a tourist information centre ( semi-formal ). 4. Give out out the cut up up strips strips (worksheets (worksheets 1, 2a and 3) and ask ask them to group them into into a formal letter, a semi-formal email and an informal email, and then to put the strips into the right order. Go round checking. 5. Tell the students students that that you are going going to focus focus on the semi-forma semi-formall email because because emailing emailing has become the main means of communication and so it is important to know the conventions of this style of writing. 6. Give the the pairs a copy of the semi-formal semi-formal email email as an an example example of a good email (worksheet 2b) and a copy of the ‘bad email’ (worksheet 4). Ask them to draw two columns on a piece of paper and write the headings Dos and Don’ts at the top. The students then compare the two emails and try to discover the rules of writing a good email. They should write the rules in the correct column. Give them about 10 minutes to do this. 7. Go round the classroom asking for the rules they discovered, and write them up on the board under Dos and Don’ts. (see teacher’s notes) notes) 8. Tell students students that they they are going going to write write an email email (on paper) paper) to the informat information ion centre centre of the city of their choice asking for any information they require. Tell them to use the model email (worksheet 2b) as an example and to follow the list of rules they have. Students work in pairs. Go round helping them, reminding them of the rules r ules and helping with any language problems. 9. When they they have finished finished writing, writing, ask ask the students students to swap swap emails with with another another pair and ask them to proof-read each other’s emails. Go round giving each pair feedback helping them with any mistakes they may have made. 10. If possible, go to the computer computer room and ask students to try to find the email address of the tourist information centre of their chosen place. When they have the address, ask them to use their own email accounts to write their email to the information centre. This means they will receive an answer to their own email addresses.
Extra option If you have a lot of time, you can ask the students to email another pair with their questions (as well as the tourist information centre). That pair can then use the Internet to research the answers to the questions and reply to the email with the answers. This will give the students extra practice of emailing, and also give them valuable practice of using the Internet for research purposes in English.
