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How to Write an Email for a Writing Job

Writing an email is an essential part of any job in modern society, but it’s important to approach this task with a specific mindset. Often we’re asked to write short emails for simple tasks, or long emails for complex tasks. But what exactly does that mean? Let’s take a quick look into the various elements you need to include in your next email to seal the deal.

The Subject

The subject takes up the majority of the email, as it’s the first element a reader will see. Naturally, you want to keep it brief, easy to understand and memorable. You should also make sure that it’s relevant to the receiver of the email. If you’re sending it to a large group of people, it might be a good idea to create a different subject for each person. This will make it easier for them to find the email that suits their needs. The following examples give you some ideas on how to write a killer subject line:

  • “Order processed for Ms. Smith”
  • “Important announcement: New products added to the store!”
  • “You’re invited to join the Acme Club”
  • “New Group Event: Fun Friday!”

As you can see, these are all pretty straightforward subjects, but they make for good examples because they’re all very short. Most importantly, they all have a common theme—they’re all relevant to the person reading the email.

The Body

The body is probably the most important part of any email, as it’s the area that will get the most attention. Make sure that you’ve got something interesting to say—after all, you want your email to be read! You can break down the body of the email into several sections, from the opening line to the main body to the closing. Let’s take a look at some of the elements that make up a sound body of an email.

The Opening Line

The opening line is, as the name suggests, the opening line of the email. In order to grab a reader’s attention, you need to use a hook—something that will make the reader interested in what you have to say. Sometimes the opening line is just the closing line of the preceding email, or it may be the first part of the body of the email. In most cases, it’s a good idea to start with a question, as this will make the reader stop and think. Just like with the subject line, you can use a different opening line for each recipient of the email.

The Main Body

The main body of the email is, as the name implies, the main body of the email. It should be a concise summary of the content of the entire email, including headers, body, and attachments. If you’re writing to someone who is not a very regular reader of your emails, it may be a good idea to write a short brief (just a few sentences will do) that summarizes the most important points of the email. Once you’ve written this brief, you can go through the main body and add more details—including links to important sources and background information. If you’re writing to someone who is not familiar with your work or does not have a lot of interest in your field, you can write a short overview of what is special about your work and why they should care.

The Footer

The footer of the email is, in most cases, the area at the end that contains the signature of the writer. If you’re writing to someone outside your company, you may want to include your contact information, including an email address. If you’re emailing within your company, you can simply add your company’s website or some other contact information. The following example shows you how to write a killer footer:

As you can see, the footer contains a lot of useful information—including the author’s contact details. Not only does this make the email more professional, but it also shows that you’ve taken the time to care about their needs.

Attachments

Attachments are often times the clusterfuck that is modern-day email communication. But they’re an important part of any job, so don’t shy away from them! You have several options when it comes to attaching files to an email. You can either link to a file on a hard drive or email server, you can attach a document (such as a word document or an image), or you can use the document functionality built into most email clients to attach a PDF or Microsoft Word document. Depending on which option you go with, you need to approach the attaching of files with a little bit of planning. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

External Hard Drive

If you have a file that you need to send (for example, a large image for a background detail or a spreadsheet with a lot of numbers in it), you can either store it on a local hard drive or you can upload it to an external hard drive. The following illustration shows you how to attach a file on a local hard drive:

As you can see, we’ve got a file cabinet here containing three hard drives. One of the drives contains the word document we’re trying to send, while the other two are attached using external hard drives. The advantage of using external hard drives is that you can easily remove them and move them around if necessary—for example, if you need more space on your hard drive (or if your hard drive breaks down and you need to replace it).

The disadvantage of using external hard drives is that if you need to work with the file locally, you’ll have to make sure that you have sufficient space on your hard drive. Another disadvantage is the increased chance of losing files due to hardware failure. The advantages, however, largely outweigh the disadvantages. If you need to attach a file that’s larger than 4GB, external hard drives are the way to go.

Email Clutter

If you have a lot of files to send and your local hard drive is beginning to fill up, it may be a good idea to send the files to an external hard drive. But what if you still want to keep the elements of your email clutter-free? For example, what if you want to use the Email client built into your phone? Your local drive isn’t the only place files get stored on your computer either—many email clients store the files received by the user on an internal hard drive (known as the local mail store). This is a very convenient location for storing and accessing files when working with your phone or tablet.

To keep your email clutter-free, you need to avoid using local mail stores when possible. You can either use a cloud-based storage system (such as Dropbox or Google Drive), or you can create a shared folder on a networked hard drive and share that folder with the people you’re writing to.