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For our #WeekendWatch, we have our first Lynda.come video lesson, Crafting a Strong Message (4m16s) from the Writing Email course.
This video outlines three key strategies that will help you write effective email messages. With a great deal of communication in the workplace taking place in email, learning how these three strategies work will make you a more effective employee.
In addition to watching today’s video, skim the titles of the other videos for others that you can watch to improve your email messages. After watching the video, you can leave a comment on the strategies it recommends, your experience with email in the workplace, or another video lesson that you recommend.
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The site is designed so that you can easily watch an entire course, with the individual video lessons autoplaying one right after the other. It certainly won’t hurt you to watch more than I am recommending, but realize that I do not typically ask you to watch an entire course.
Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.
16 Comments
The three strategies that this video recommends are: 1) figure out the main purpose of why you are sending the email, 2) figure out how you will format the email (the appearance of it), and 3) figure out the tone you want the email to portray. These three strategies can be helpful because they sum up how to improve an email. The most important strategy is to know the purpose of the email, because if the email is all over the place, the person receiving the email will not know why you really sent the email. The appearance of the email is also important, just like the video mentioned, if the email has one long paragraph, it will be super overwhelming to look at. Finally, the tone is important because you do not want to sound harsh if that is not the point you are trying to get across to the person receiving the email. On the Lynda.com videos about emails, I thought the video about personalizing your message would be helpful because this can help make your email be more personable.
I have a lot of experience with emails in the work force. This past summer I had an internship at a roadway design company. Email was a very common way to communicate between the different team members on a project. It allowed us to make sure we knew everything that was going on for the upcoming week or any important tasks that had to be done right away. Anyone who sent an email usually had a pretty straightforward subject line so everyone would know what the email was about. Also, if someone was sending me a task to work on, at the beginning of their email to me, they would state the purpose of why they were sending me that email.
I think the comparison between the bad and good emails was a good demonstration. Even when we need something from the person we’re writing an email to, it’s not appropriate to attack them like that. It was mentioned in the article the other day that we need to fight a sense of entitlement when writing an email, and I think it might apply to what went wrong in that first email example.
I’ve usually tried to consider audience a lot when writing emails as part of my job(s). I’ve had to write to professors as a research assistant, I’ve had to write back to other students as a TA, I’ve had to write emails to my boss (both formal and informal) for full time jobs, and email coworkers working out of a different office. The structure might still be the same, but the tone and approach are very different I think between say, an email to my boss asking to be put down for a company polo and an email to a student about their computer crashing and needing help.
I tried looking for a video, but couldn’t find any that caught my attention as a good lesson.
I really liked what the video said about the physical appearance of a good email. It talked about how paragraphs shouldn’t be too long and how some points may be better off broken up into bullets. I very much agree with this statement because I’ve often received emails that just seem like long blocks of text, which makes me much less inclined to read them. But when an email is broken up nicely into small paragraphs it makes the email look much more concise and removes the appearance that the email writer is droning on.
I also agreed with the video that the tone of an email is very important. Making sure that your email has a proper tone helps to ensure that you get the response that you were hoping for. For me that was the biggest difference between the two example emails in the video. The first one had an extremely harsh tone that most likely would not of elicited the desired results, while the second email had an encouraging and helpful tone which I think would have motivated the employees to turn in their work on time.
Yeah I agree with the statement about tone. I think people often times forget that their tone can be misinterpreted in emails. It’s their line of communication, and being able to understand that they can’t see your facial expressions and only rely on the words you write is very important. There are many times when I include sarcasm in my emails to friends and they misinterpret it. This is easily avoidable if you stick to knowing the purpose and importance of an email.
I’m glad this video emphasized the importance of tone when writing an email. I think it is especially important to pay attention to this because you lose other indicators such as tone of voice and body language when communicating through writing. The video also discussed how you can personalize the tone of your message based on your audience. I’d like to improve my ability to adjust the tone of my writing in any medium, not just email.
I also watched the ‘General Etiquette Tips’ video, and I found it to be helpful. One tip that it suggested was to respond to emails you receive with a small acknowledgment, so the sender knows that you have seen it and will get back to them. I think this is a very simple thing to do that can be beneficial for both parties.
I think it is so important to respond with a courtesy email informing the sender you received and read the email. I have had multiple occasions when I sent an email with important information and I would have liked the recipient to acknowledge that they got it so I don’t have to uncomfortably ask them, “Hey, did you see my email?” upon our next in-person interaction.
I think this video explained how to write a strong message. The fact that there was one example of how managers wrote to a colleague regarding late work in a negative tone and with multiple ideas and another example of the manager having written a well crafted and thought out email was very helpful. The tone of any message can determine whether or not someone responds harshly to a message. I have noticed that during my internships, people will respond to emails more likely when the boss is helping them understand what they have to do and in what frame of time. However, when the boss or even coworker has an aggravated tone, there is less likeliness for a response. In the video they explain to plan the purpose and appearance of a message as well, and as discussed in the previous articles, with less writing in the message it is less overwhelming which is part of the appearance. Also, is the purpose and plan of action in an email are sent, it is definitely more effective. During my internship last summer, when I would send my boss a document they would respond with a thank you, and then ways that I could improve the document. The one was both gracious for me completing the document, but also helping by giving me constructive criticism on what to fix. I also found that the videos titled “Understanding your message’s impact” as well as “General Etiquette Tips” were useful in understanding all aspects that go into emails.
I have been in leadership positions where people who I have delegated tasks to have somewhat let me down and it is very easy to get frustrated and want to send an email similar to the example first shown in this video. I have found that ultimately productivity is the most critical element in the professional world and It does no one any favors and is just generally unproductive to be negative and crass. Structuring it more in the way the amended example showed; this is the problem I’m having with you and I understand your side but what can we do to resolve it and move forward. A really important lesson to learn in a leadership position in order to effectively manage a team and any issues that inevitably arise. This video was a good reminder to always voice and communicate your concerns but the way you do it and manage your business relationships through email is of utmost importance, the potential impacts are far reaching and can have unseen consequences down the road.
The video basically expands the idea from the previous articles on how to craft effective emails while giving out a simple but very helpful example. The three rules given are also quite straightforward in terms of being clear about the main purpose of the email, how to organize it well but the thing that captured my attention the most is about setting the tone right.
Often times when we need to send an email to a manager or a professor we sometimes tend to overlook the tone of it and so the message of the email itself ends up to be misinterpreted by the recpient. For example, if I found out that there is a grading error in my course I cannot just directly ask the professor to check back my work simply because it would not seem polite at all and will definitely hurt the professor’s feelings. Instead, what I can do is trying to explain what is my problem and asking kindly for the professor’s help if they are willing to while adding a simple sentence like ‘Thank You in advance!’ which can actually help make me to not sound like forcing someone but simply asking nicely for help. Professors, managers or any person that we need to send emails to are just normal persons that have feelings just like us so it would not be that hard to make sure our emails besides serving the main purpose that it would also not make the recipient feel annoyed or offended by it.
For the past two summers I have interned in a research lab. During this time, I communicated very often via email with my PI’s and other lab members. I can speak from experience that tone and personalization is very important in email. One of my PI’s had a very short temper in person and her emails also conveyed that. I often did feel criticized while reading some of her emails towards me; however, since she was my superior I was still inclined to respond quickly. I think this might be different in a workplace when you are sending emails to coworkers. They are definitely more inclined to respond with negativity and resentment. This video’s recommended strategy on personalization and tone is very important, especially when communicating with individuals who are more sensitive to tone (such as myself). If communication is key to productivity, poor emails will only hurt a business or team.
I found a short video about emailing over sensitive topics. There is a good example of a woman emailing her superior about a disagreement she had with him. The woman giving advice actually says to talk in person for sensitive matter but recognizes that sometimes that isn’t possible. http://time.com/4899351/smiley-faces-work-emails/
The video emphasizes the usefulness in crafting a “reader-friendly” email that is appealing and easy for the viewer to understand. In response to the example, workplace disagreements are a huge exercise of self-control. Using email to confront subordinates or lateral co-workers is a great way to be productive and impressive as Caed previously stated. The suggestive ways on how to complete assignments to meet the deadlines was a good way to make the second email both supportive. The first email felt reprimanding and would definitely affect the quality of work that would be submitted.
The video had three main points: topic, structure, and tone. I think I personally am pretty good at comprising an email with one main point. I do struggle sometimes on how to effectively structure the information so my audience will read and comprehend it. Due to my position in my sorority, I send out information concerning different events on different dates in one concise email and sometimes I struggle to format it in a streamline manner but this video series helps. The example concerning tone really helped enlighten me because I know I can get easily frustrated and forgot to recognize how that comes off in emails, sometimes. Next time, I’ll take a step back and think for a moment about how this is truly coming off.
I think the emphasis on the tone of an email is very important to consider when crafting emails to coworkers and to those in authority. I am in a leadership position for an organization on campus, and I have found it is easy to have your tone come across in an unproductive way, especially when frustrated with those you are emailing. The restructuring of the email to Kerry and Les in the video was very helpful to see how you can get your tone across in a productive way.
Those three strategies are actually very helpful to show the way to write well-readable emails. My favorite part was using bullet points or numbers the sub-points that reader can read the email thoroughly. I have experienced when I read the email with lots of sub-points and notes I have to be work on, I have tendency to overlook and not paying attention to the details. Which can cause really big problems when the all the requests/actions has to be done in timely manner. In same sense, I like the blank line between two paragraphs that improves the readability.
Also, I completely agree with the importance of the tone. Since we cannot see the face or hand gestures through email, the text form, sometimes it’s hard to detach the purpose of the email. Especially when people use sarcasm in the text form, it becomes extremely hard catch it and can be interpreted in opposite way. Tone of the emails in text is crucial, and it should be very clear about the purpose of the email.
One of the most memorable things that I learned from my internship this summer was the importance of tone in an email. In the construction industry sending an email about something (or someone’s) deficiencies is inevitable. About halfway through my internship I experienced this exact scenario. I was overseeing the work in a small renovation and the door and hardware supplier had repeated sent the wrong materials to the job. They were ultimately holding up the completion of the job and the time came to address the situation. While I could have sent a very strongly worded email, I decided that it would not be in my best interest to do so. By sending an email that projected a negative tone, the subcontractor would have more than likely taken offense and been unwilling to cooperate. Therefore, I decided to address the problem in a way that addressed the problem and provided solutions. Ultimately, my decision to do so worked in my favor. The subcontractor was more willing to cooperate and do whatever necessary to complete the job and, I believe, appreciated the fact that I did not take the former route in addressing this situation.
In my opinion, my project manager said it best, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”
This video offered good critique for three main issues with an email. These three issues included the purpose, tone, and appearance of the email. This video made a good point in saying that when comprising an email, you must first clearly understand the purpose of the email you are trying to send. If you don’t have a clear idea of what you are trying to send, then how would you expect the person you’re sending the email to understand as well? This is why you must understand the purpose of your email.
This video also pointed out that the appearance of one’s email can have a major effect on whether or not an email is read, and properly responded to. Avoiding the jumbling of paragraphs by keeping paragraphs 5-6 lines and including spaces between paragraphs, as well as including subpoints are effective means of making an email more reader-friendly.
Finally, this video also pointed out that one’s tone in an email has a big effect on how the reader may perceive the message. It is important to make sure that the tone of your words used in an email are consistent with how you are trying to make it sound. Varying tones can make it difficult to understand someone’s email.