by bluephin

Created on: May 17, 2008   Last Updated: July 26, 2008

It was just as if yesterday when people have to wait as if forever before their message is sent across to somebody not within their reach. What has started with smoke signals has enhanced to telephones, snail mails and Morse codes. We are now in the digital age or computer age, as some call it, and one of the popular means of communication (one that is cheaper compared to using your mobile) is an email.

Writing an email is in self a very basic skill, but it has pre-requisites. One of which is knowledge in using computers and the internet. But once already armed with these pre-requisites, it would just be a breeze to start composing an email.

As any kind of writing, there are basics that one should keep in mind. Familiarity to the fundamentals of letter writing will be a good start.

FILL IN THE SUBJECT HEADER

It is good practice to fill in the Subject header, in that way the recipient will have the slight idea of what the email is all about. Refrain from making a very lengthy subject, keeping it to 1-4 words should be enough.

DON'T OMIT THE GREETING

Put in a greeting or salutation, with the likes of Hi Mary if you are writing in a more relaxed or personal tone or Dear Mr. Smith if it is a bit formal. You can also just address the recipient through the first name. At some instances, the greeting or salutation is omitted if the intended recipient is a family member, relative or a friend and the tone is more of personal than professional. This could be an exception to the rule.

WRITE IN A READABLE FORMAT

Write your heart out. The body of the email is what the thing is all about. Although the sender is at liberty to put into words what she wants, she should also consider the reader. Emails are read through the internet and are looked at on a computer monitor. Though already formatted by the email sender in such a way that the reader would be comfortable in reading it is unavoidable that the computer being used at the recipient's end doesn't have the same power as what the sender is using. In this respect, using uncommon fonts and characters should be avoided as much as possible. There's nothing worse than reading an email that you cannot fully understand because some characters wouldn't appear on your screen because your computer can't recognize it.

If the email is on a professional mode and the message is expected to be long group your thoughts in chunks and write them in paragraphs. This way it would be easier for the reader to read through each line without the need to

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