Email is one mandatory thing for anyone for all official matters today and being students it is even more important for you to format various emails for various reasons.

In day to day interactions, we may have to write emails to teachers, recruitment team, Hr managers, business people, banks, universities, and other important people. So, one must know how to format a proper email for official matters with proper tone, language and email etiquette. Today let’s see how to format an official email…

How To Format An Official Email?

• Always use your official email for official purpose
• Use professional fonts & styles such as ‘Calibri font with 11/12 font size’ or ‘Times New Roman’
• Mention the subject line clearly
• User proper greetings & salutations in a formal language.

• You can also use the last name of a person whom you are greeting to

E.g. Dear Chandra: for Hemachandra

     Dear Latha, for Sumalatha

If you don’t know whom you are talking to, then you can use salutations such as Mr.Dheeraj , Ms.Pushpalatha and etc

• Introduce who you are in the first sentence/paragraph
• Always keep the sentences short
• Be to the point in the content and don’t just scribble unnecessary information
• Use proper punctuation, spellings and follow the grammar.
• Use proper closing/sign off’s such as ‘yours sincerely/ truly/ respectively/appreciatively/ yours cordially/ With Best regards and etc
• Use fully spelled words an don’t use shortcuts
• Proofread your message
• Create signatures for faster formal emails
• Double check email addresses for all the recipients.

Don’ts In An Email (Official)

• Don’t use a comma after a salutation instead use a colon after a salutation. E.g. Good morning:, but not Good Morning,
• Don’t use informal greetings such as Hey Buddy, Wassup Dude, not even Dear Sir/Dear Madam…as they are not your near and dears.
• Don’t use informal language such as “we dudes are planning to chill out this weekend”
• Don’s use any emoticons/smileys.
• Don’t write in all capitals
• Don’t write in regular WhatsApp/social media language
• Don’t use contractions such as ‘I’ll m’s u out’.
• Don’t use abbreviations such as ‘FYI’ instead write it as ‘for your information’.
• Use proper transitions/connecting words between words & sentences
• Use proper punctuation and see that the email is spelling/typos & grammatically error free.
• Don’t forget to attach your documents.
• Use full stop inside the closing quotations.
• Avoid forwarding emails and replying all at once options for official emails.
• Don’t include private information such as bank account passwords, account numbers or any other confidential information.

Sample Email

Email address: Use the primary person’s email id

Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy): – use to send to additional people, this option copies all you original content to this people as-well but they can’t see to whom else who have wrote this email.

Cc (Carbon Copy) (use only, if necessary) : This option just copies the original email, but the recipient gets to know to whom else you have sent the message.

Write the Subject line:

Salutation:

Body Paragraphs:

Closing:

Sincerely,

Writers Name:

Designation,

Phone number.

Attachments (If any).

By E. Hemachandra Prasad