The past two days, I was at one of the British Council learning centres attending a course entitled "Writing Better Emails and Letters". This course is sponsored by my company for those required and those interested. I was actually not required to go as this was not in my job scope, but I feel that this would help me in my work, and besides, how can I miss out on any writing course? Hence I signed up for this and my boss is kind enough to let me go.
The course was for two full days, and it was really enriching! I have learnt a lot as well as realised the kinds of common mistakes many people made. The instructor himself is also a humorous and interesting guy, who injected zest and fun into the course to make it even livelier!
Throughout the course, we were drilled on grammar and usage of the English language. The instructor told us that the email should be clear and concise, instead of the roundabout way people used to write. Hence, the main thing is : GET TO THE POINT!
There were also other common mistakes, like after the salutation, we should not be putting a comma (,), e.g. "Dear ___________," should be "Dear __________" and then start the email off. Long sentences should be avoided, and there should be a clear opening, body and closing. We should also end off a business email with "Your sincerely" or "Best Regards".
Another tip is that we should not be replying every email. Hence, things like "Noted" or "Noted with thanks" should be avoided as these are unnecessary. Even common things like "FYI", "FYA", "For your information please", "For your attention" should be avoided. Instead, we should send the email saying "This is for your record", or "This needs your attention and review".
One other common mistake is when it comes to sub-paragraphs, there should not be a comma (,) or semi-colon (;) to separate them. Rather, just leaving a line between every sub-paragraph will suffice.
We also had a role-play where we wrote out an email and marked each other's emails as an exercise, as well as charades where we had to communicate what we wanted to bring across to others in a clear and concise manner.
All in all, it was a pretty good and enriching course. I really learnt a lot and found out the things I should not have been doing. Hopefully when I return to work tomorrow I can practise the new email techniques and improve!
The course was for two full days, and it was really enriching! I have learnt a lot as well as realised the kinds of common mistakes many people made. The instructor himself is also a humorous and interesting guy, who injected zest and fun into the course to make it even livelier!
Throughout the course, we were drilled on grammar and usage of the English language. The instructor told us that the email should be clear and concise, instead of the roundabout way people used to write. Hence, the main thing is : GET TO THE POINT!
There were also other common mistakes, like after the salutation, we should not be putting a comma (,), e.g. "Dear ___________," should be "Dear __________" and then start the email off. Long sentences should be avoided, and there should be a clear opening, body and closing. We should also end off a business email with "Your sincerely" or "Best Regards".
Another tip is that we should not be replying every email. Hence, things like "Noted" or "Noted with thanks" should be avoided as these are unnecessary. Even common things like "FYI", "FYA", "For your information please", "For your attention" should be avoided. Instead, we should send the email saying "This is for your record", or "This needs your attention and review".
One other common mistake is when it comes to sub-paragraphs, there should not be a comma (,) or semi-colon (;) to separate them. Rather, just leaving a line between every sub-paragraph will suffice.
We also had a role-play where we wrote out an email and marked each other's emails as an exercise, as well as charades where we had to communicate what we wanted to bring across to others in a clear and concise manner.
All in all, it was a pretty good and enriching course. I really learnt a lot and found out the things I should not have been doing. Hopefully when I return to work tomorrow I can practise the new email techniques and improve!
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