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  • Hi, I'm Mike.

  • Welcome to Oxford Online English.

  • In this lesson, you can learn how to write an email in English.

  • Do you need to write emails at work?

  • Are you worried that your emails aren't clear, or that you make mistakes in English?

  • In this lesson, you can see a how to write clear, natural-sounding emails easily and

  • quickly.

  • We'll show you how to write an email in English from beginning to end, in simple,

  • clear steps that you can follow right now!

  • Let's start at the beginning.

  • With emails, you can start like a letter.

  • For example:

  • Dear Lina, Dear Sir/Madam,

  • Dear Mr Hill,

  • However, emails are generally much less formal than letters.

  • Use a greeting with 'dear' only if you're writing something formal.

  • So, what else can you use?

  • Many emails start with hello, or hi plus the person's name.

  • For example,

  • Hello, Hi Ryan,

  • In many business emails, you'll follow the greeting with something like:

  • I hope you're well.

  • or How are you?

  • In business emails, these are simply polite phrases, and they don't generally need an

  • answer.

  • For more informal emails, you can start with just the word hi or hey, plus a comma:

  • You can also just write the person's name plus a comma.

  • This is a more professional style, even though it's more informal.

  • It's best with people you already know.

  • For a very informal email, you might not need a greeting at all.

  • This is also true if you're sending several emails to the same person in a short time:

  • you don't need to write a greeting every time.

  • Let's review quickly:

  • For very formal emails, use a greeting with dear plus a name, like a letter.

  • For most everyday emails, use either hello or hi plus a name.

  • For less formal emails, use hi or hey without a name, or don't use a greeting at all.

  • Okay, but what next?

  • After your greeting, you should explain why you're writing.

  • Make this as short as possible.

  • If you're writing to someone who receives hundreds of emails every day, you need to

  • make your purpose clear quickly.

  • Someone who's very busy won't spend a lot of time trying to work out what you're

  • trying to say!

  • How can you do this?

  • Start with a simple phrase, like:

  • I'm writing regarding

  • I wanted to follow up on

  • I would like to ask about

  • These phrases are slightly more formal.

  • Let's see how you could use them:

  • I'm writing regarding the issues we've been having with our database system.

  • I wanted to follow up on our meeting last week and confirm our plans for this month.

  • I would like to ask about the new budget and whether this will affect our department.

  • In a more informal email, you wouldn't use a phrase like this.

  • You might ask a more direct question or make a direct statement, like this:

  • Do you know when the database issues will be fixed?

  • Let's confirm our plans for this month.

  • How will the new budget affect our department?

  • If you're writing because you want to find a solution to a problem, here are some useful

  • phrases:

  • I'm concerned aboutor I need to bring something to your attention.

  • Again, these are more formal phrases.

  • Let's see how you can use them:

  • I'm concerned about the number of sick days staff have been taking recently.

  • I need to bring something to your attention: using outdated software puts us at risk of

  • malware infections and data loss.

  • Now it's your turn.

  • Imagine that you're writing an email to your manager, colleague, or client.

  • You need to write an appropriate greeting, then write one or two sentences to explain

  • why you're writing.

  • Pause the video and do it now!

  • Start again when you've finished.

  • Ready?

  • Let's move on.

  • After you introduce why you're writing, you need to add more details and supporting information,

  • so that your reader understands the situation you're describing.

  • Put this information in a new paragraph.

  • This will make your email clear and easy to follow.

  • First, ask yourself what the person you're writing to needs to know.

  • With emails, less is more.

  • No one wants to read a very long email, and it's hard to make yourself clear if you

  • write too much.

  • So, try to limit yourself to two to three sentences.

  • Put your most important point first.

  • Let's look at some examples:

  • I'm writing regarding the issues we've been having with our database

  • Both clients and staff have been experiencing severe problems for several days now.

  • We are unable to update records or access information on customer interactions.

  • This is costing us large amounts of money, both in time spent trying to fix the problem,

  • and in lost sales.

  • Here's one more:

  • I'm concerned about the number of sick days staff have been taking recently.

  • Staff in the IT department have taken a total of 44 sick days so far this month, compared

  • to a total of 23 for last month, and just 18 for the previous month.

  • This is affecting productivity, and also placing a lot of stress on the employees who do come

  • to work.

  • In both cases, you're writing to describe a problem.

  • Your first sentence introduces the problem, and then your next paragraph gives more details.

  • You can see that in both examples, we use just two sentences, but you can include a

  • lot of useful information in two sentences.

  • If you have more than one point to make in your email, you can repeat this pattern: first

  • put a short sentence to introduce your point, then add a paragraph with two to three sentences

  • to add details.

  • You can move from one point to another using a phrase like:

  • There's one more thing I'd like to discuss with you.

  • Regarding

  • I'd also like to ask you about

  • Use one of these phrases to change the topic, and then introduce your next point.

  • For example:

  • There's one more thing I'd like to discuss with you.

  • It seems like the number of customer complaints has been increasing for three months

  • Now, you can practice.

  • Take the email you started before.

  • Add a new paragraph, which should be two to three sentences long.

  • Add details to the point you introduced before.

  • Pause the video and do it now.

  • If you want extra practice, add another topic to your email, using one of the linking phrases

  • you just saw.

  • After you explain all the points you want to make, what should you do next?

  • When you write an email, you should make it clear what you expect from the person you're

  • sending it to.

  • Even if you're writing just to give the other person some information, it's a good

  • idea to make that clear.

  • Put your call to action in a new paragraph.

  • Again, putting each thing in its own paragraph makes your email structured and easy to follow.

  • So, what can you write here?

  • First, let's consider situations where you need the other person to do something urgently.

  • You could say:

  • Pleaseby tomorrow at the latest.

  • As a matter of urgency, you need to

  • For example:

  • Please arrange a meeting of all department heads by tomorrow at the latest.

  • As a matter of urgency, you need to contact all the clients who may have been affected

  • by this data breach.

  • If your request is less urgent, you could use phrases such as:

  • Could you please…?

  • I would like you to

  • For example:

  • Could you please talk to Matt in the HR department and clarify our options on this?

  • I would like you to design a poster to inform staff about the new policies.

  • With calls to action, you should think about your relationship with the person you're

  • writing to.

  • For example, saying something like, you need toor I would like you tois relatively

  • direct.

  • That's fine if you're a manager writing to one of your team, but it might sound inappropriate

  • if you write that to your manager.

  • This also depends on the corporate culture where you work.

  • Generally, if you aren't sure, it's better to be less direct.

  • For example:

  • I suggest that you contact all clients who may have been affected by the data breach.

  • Can I ask you to design a poster to inform staff about the new policies?

  • But, be careful!

  • Don't be so indirect that the other person doesn't understand what you need.

  • If you don't need a response from the other person, say something like:

  • This is just to keep you updated.

  • This doesn't require any immediate response, but please keep an eye on the situation.

  • Now, it's your turn!

  • Pause the video and add a call to action to the end of your email.

  • Think about who you're writing to, and make your call-to-action appropriately direct or

  • indirect.

  • So, now you're nearly finished.

  • What's left?

  • Finish your email with a sign-off and your name.

  • You can use a lot of the same sign-offs you can use in a paper letter, such as:

  • Regards, Best Wishes,

  • Kind Regards,

  • Like with greetings, you wouldn't generally use very formal sign-offs like Yours Sincerely

  • in an email.

  • You might see it sometimes, but only in very formal emails.

  • Don't forget to write each word of your sign-off with a capital letter, and put a

  • comma at the end.

  • The sign-offs you've just seen are neutral and can be used in almost any situation.

  • If you're writing something more informal, you might use a sign-off like:

  • Cheers, Take care,

  • In this case, you wouldn't capitalise each word, which is why care in take care has a

  • small 'c'.

  • Like with greetings, you might not need a sign-off at all in an informal email.

  • Just write your name at the bottom, or don't write anything at all!

  • After you put your sign-off, add your name, and you've finished!

  • For example,

  • Regards,

  • Vijay

  • Cheers,

  • Katya

  • Now you know how to write a clear, effective email in English.

  • Let's put everything you've learned together.

  • To write an effective email in English, you need to:

  • 1. Use an appropriate greeting.

  • 2. Introduce your topic in a single sentence.

  • 3. Add details to your topic in a short paragraph.

  • 4. Add a call-to-action to explain what you need the other person to do.

  • 5. Use an appropriate signoff.

  • Let's do a longer example together:

  • Dear Lina,

  • I need to bring something to your attention: many staff are using very weak passwords on

  • their laptops and for database access.

  • Our work depends on keeping our clients' personal financial information safe.

  • If we lose our clients' trust on this issue, it will not be easy to recover.

  • I trust that you can see that it is better to take action now, rather than after something

  • goes wrong.

  • I suggest we make a rule that passwords must be a specific length, and that staff must

  • change their passwords at least once a month.

  • Please let me know what you think about this.

  • Regards,

  • Vijay

  • What do you think: could you write an email like this?

  • Try it!

  • Use words and phrases from the lesson.

  • Remember to organise your email into paragraphs, like we showed you.

  • This will make it easier to keep your ideas structured and clear.

  • For more free English lessons check out our website:

  • Oxford Online English dot com

  • Thanks for watching! See you next time!

Hi, I'm Mike.

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A2 初級

Emails in English - How to Write an Email in English - Business English Writing

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    林安安 に公開 2021 年 06 月 11 日
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