3 Tips for Confident Business Emails in English with Author Erin Lebacqz - All Ears English

Q1. Let's just go straight into it. I'm going to ask you our first question because I think our listeners are going to really understand your answer and feel your answer. 
What would you say is the biggest challenge that everyone has with the email writing, business email writing native speakers and non-native speakers. What would you say that is aaron?

 

A1. I think from all the people I've talked to and taught around the world, we all have something in common in this way that we get a little bit nervous about our emails. And so I think that the issues of confidence when you are kind of like 'oh myu gosh my screen is blank.' ,'how do I know how to start'. 'how do I know if this is going to sound like to the person who is reading it' etc. It's very nervous making for many people. 

 

Q2. Hopefully today's tips are gonna help us get at that fear because I think the key for getting over fear in life anywhere is understanding what to do and then going ahead and taking action. Would you agree with that aaron?

 

A2. I sure do. I think knowledge is power and in this case it's kind of like if we understand that there are strategies we can use to make our emails work, we can feel more confident. 

 

Q3. Let's go into today's topic. Today Aaron you're going to give us three tips and we are talking about how to make sure we're writing confident emails, specifically for a Western business audience. Let's go into it. What would be your first tip on how to do this?

 

A3. Well my first tip is that Westerners and many people around the world, but Westerners really really do in a business email expect there to be a clear main point. And so your readers may be opening up your email thinking okay I wonder what this is for and I wonder if I need to do something and so they're going to be looking for that information in the email right away. What is this about? 

 

Q3-1. Alright, so this is gonna lead me to the follow-up question. What do you see as the common mistake to this, like what are your students doing that are they burying the lede?

 

A3-1.  That's exactly what people do. It's you may have written an email where you feel like you said your main point clearly and yet person didn't understand or they called you or they didn't email back in the way that you thought. Well it could be because you might have buried the lede. As lindsay was mentioning which means kind of hiding your main point later in the email. The idea of the lede being kind of a main point what's the most important thing we need to know. That needs to happen right away. I would say after you do your friendly greeting put in the main point in the top paragraph. 

 

 

Q4. What is your second tip?

 

A4. Our second tip is you know the reader when they open up their email they're wondering what it's about but they're also wondering if what their part is. We need to sometimes include that other person in the email. And we can do that by writing what Westerners often call "a call to action." And that can be a sentence that lets the reader know what do they need to do in response.  

 

Q4-1. I love it. Now how do you recommend doing this aaron. If it is a long email, is it a bulleted list, or is it just a final sentence? Where does it go?

 

A4-1. Great questions. I think when you are writing your call to action one of the most important things to think about is your verb. Because like lindsay said these are actions, these are things that the reader's going to do. Do you want them to submit changes to the document, do you want them to reply with an extra piece of information, or provide a file. Right. So think about the verb. And think about do they need any details like a deadline or a place or a when. But we actually still want to put our call to action fairly close to the beginning in  our email and that can feel a little bit counter-intuitive like not what you might expect. Because we might think well I need to explain everything and then at the bottom say and here's what to do. But really then we run the risk that what if they don't get to the bottom of the email or what if they don't read the email with that action in mind. So we actually do want the call to action to come fairly soon after the main point in the beginning you can always refer to it again later but you do want to give at least the hint that 'Hey reader, you have a part in this too.' towards the beginning. 

 

 

Q5. What would be your third tip Aaron for confident business emails to a western audience?

 

A5. My third tip is actually my favorite tip which is the fact that you can get your reader completely ready to understand your main point and your call to action by writing a subject line that previews both of them. So kind of back to the idea that you want your reader to learn right away from your first paragraph just in case they can't read the whole email right then, well even better get them to start learning right there in the subject line. So when I write a subject line I'll write a two-part subject line. One part that refers to the topic the main point sentence and one part that refers to the action. So if it was something like new hiring committee and let me know if you want to be on the hiring committee i might say "New manager hiring committee: Reply if you'd like to be on the committee." So use a short email subject line that previews both the main point and the action.  

 

< THREE TIPS >

#1. To write a main point sentence, make sure you can literally point to a sentence in your email and say look there's my main point. And make sure it's in the beginning. Don't bury that lede guys.

 

#2. That was to provide a call to action and it's still courteous, it's okay to let your reader know what you'd like from them. Whether you want them to send back edits or whatever it might be. They want that information they want to know their action very clearly to make it easier for them. 

 

#3. We can get somebody ready, get their brain box open by making sure that our email subject line previews the top maybe two words about the topic, two words about the action.