Writing for Business: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges

Drafting E-mail

IT’S SO EASY TO send e-mail that sometimes it doesn’t seem like writing at all. But you should give e-mail correspondence the same kind of attention you give business letters, memos, and reports. Here we’ll consider some typical problems and things you can do to make your e-mail more effective.

Common problems

E-mail has become the dominant method of communication in many companies because it’s fast, easy, and inexpensive. Unfortunately, the speed and ease of e-mail have also created some problems for business writers and their companies:

• Employees send and receive time-wasting, unnecessary messages.
• Many e-mails are poorly ...