Outstanding business english

Chapter Seven

E-mail and instant messaging

General

In e-mail and instant messaging, the focus is on the one-to-one recipient or the relatively ‘captive audiences’ of your e-mail thread or address book contacts. It contrasts with social media’s main focus on writing to interest and engage a wider (often specifically targeted) audience.

E-mail is a predominant form of business writing today; indeed, inestimable billions of e-mails are sent worldwide each day. Even if we disregard the high percentage of spam that may be filtered out, it’s thought that an office worker can spend 28 per cent of a 40-hour working week reading and answering e-mails. Yet few companies offer training or advice on the subject.

Let’s look at your business. How many e-mails ...