NIOS Class 12 English: Chapter 28B Summary of- ‘Writing E-Mails’

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In the Modern Generation Use of E-Mail or Electronic Mail is Gradually Increasing Because E-Mails is Cheaper and Faster Than Other Communication Such as Letter, Less Interfering Than a Phone Call and Easier to Send Than a Fax.

There is No Limitation Such as Differences in Location and Time Zone to Use E-Mail. for Example, if You Send an E-Mail from India to a Firm in America, They Will Get It Immediately.

E-Mail Was Invented in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson.

Section 28B. 1 Summary of – ‘What Makes E-Mail Different’

• E-mail is fundamentally different from paper-based communication because of its speed and broadcasting ability.
• While you are using paper as communication you might have to be very clear because if the receiver has any doubt, then it would be time consuming process as they post query by paper and after that the sender then clarify the doubt via paper.
• Whereas in e-mail if the receiver have any query they immediately send e-mail and the sender can resolve it quickly.
• So, we can also call e-mail is more like structured conversation.
• E-mail saves time and effort both.
• Another difference between e-mail and older media is that what the sender sees when composing a message might not look like what the reader sees.
• Sender՚s software and hard ware which is used for composing, sending, storing, downloading, and reading may be completely different from receiver՚s software and hardware.
• The visual quality of sender՚s message may be different at receiver՚s screen.
• So, it is necessary to tailor message to this new medium.

Section 28B. 2 Summary of – ‘How to Write an E-Mail’

Let՚s take look on major features of communication via e-mail

Ways of Establishing Context

• It՚s difficult to assume sender՚s location, time, state of mind, and profession, interest or future value to you.
• It՚s important to be careful about giving receiver some context.
• A receiver my got thousands of e-mails by different user so to attract their attention do not forget to write a subject line which defines overall massage.

Useful Subject Lines

• A subject line in e-mail is what clears the idea of e-mail՚s body which help people mentally shift to the proper context before they read message.
• The subject line should be brief, and needs to be a complete sentence.
• It must give a clue to the contents of the message.
• For example:

• Here subject line highlights the important of the massage.
• If the message is in response to another piece of e-mail, so it՚s better to preface the subject line with RE (Regarding) .

When any person (receiver) gets a lot of mail and the sender want him/her to act on message immediately then use URGENT as preface the subject line.

If e-mail have non-urgent information in which no response from the receiver is require then prefacing the subject line with FYI: (For your information)

Avoid using the word ‘information’ in subject line ad rather then this clearly for the specific piece of information you need.

Quoting References

• Whenever you are referring to previous e-mail then must explicitly quote that document to provide context.
• Instead of sending e-mail that says: “Are passes for 18^th, 3 p. m. show gone?”
• Subject line makes e-mail specific.
• In the subject line if you are referring to the show on the 18^th you can say: Re: Show on 18^th.
• Referring to previous document is necessary, suppose any massage was sent send on before 2 days and might not remember it after that when you see the response.
• But avoid giving too much context.
• Let՚s understand it with example:

• Here you can see (B) is better because it is shorter and is action oriented. And it give idea to the receiver what they have to do-
  • Compare prices from different sources
  • Decide and convey subsequent action.
• The greater than sing (>) appears only when forwarding a mail or replying to a mail without going through the process of composing a reply afresh.
• This sign (>) appears only at the recipient՚s end.

Page Layout

• Computer screen and paper both are two different things so it՚s possible that the words might look different in each format and usually people find it difficult to read things on a screen than on paper.
• For example, is sender have put some of information in boxes but your recipient՚s computer may not receive it in that form.
• So good e-mail page layout is different from good paper document page layout.

Shorter Paragraphs

• While any one read e-mail messages in a document window with scroll bars. So, it might be complicated if the paragraph is long then half of the paragraph will be outside of the screen due to which it՚s become difficult to remember previous information for some of the people.
• So, keep in mind that while you are writing an e-Mail makes sure the massages will be covered in shorter paragraphs.

Line Length

• Some of the software does not able to automatically wrap the mail or adjust what words go on what line.
• Is sender and receiver software is not same so it might possible that the massage does not look that good on receivers side; especially in formal business communications.
• If a line is longer than 76 characters including a space, it is split after the 75^th character and the line ends with an equal sign.
• Some e-mail reading software can automatically reconstruct message and some can completely change the alignment.
• So it՚s better to keep lines under seventy characters long. Because leave a little room for the indentation or quote marks correspondents may want if they need to quote pieces of message in their replies.

Clear and Precise Prose

• It is better idea to keep everything short in e-mail including lines, paragraphs or a message. If receiver wants more information, they can ask for it.
• Some of the receiver may have limits on how much disc space their e-mail can use.
• But in the case sender have to report to many people then its better practice to put more details into the e-mail so that you aren՚t flooded with questions from everyone on the recipients list.
• The sender have to decide by their own that how many people should be included in receivers list because the fewer the people there are on the recipient list, the shorter the message should be.
• Keep everything on one “page” . In most cases this means twenty-five lines of text.

People usually use short forms when sending e-mails such as:

• BBL - be back later
• IMO - in my opinion
• BFN - bye for now
• IOW - in other words
• BRB - be right back
• LOL - laughing out loud
• BTW - by the way
• NBD - no big deal
• FYI - for your information
• RPFL - rolling on floor laughing - grin
• TIA - thanks in advance - big grin
• TIC - tongue in cheek
• HSIK - how should I know?
• TTFN - ta ta for now
• IAE - in any event
• TTYL - talk to you later
• WYSIWYG- what you see is what you get

Greetings and Signature

• There is no any predefine rules for opening and closing. So, most of us have practice to start with Dear- (First name) and close with ‘Regards’ or ‘Thanks’ and signature.
• Whereas in the USA, they often begin with ‘Hi’ many people do not give either a salutation or a signature because the addressing information is a part of an e-mail message.
• The e-mail message itself says that who have sanded it but it is good to have greetings and signatures.
• Many people use these signatures as an easy way to give their name and alternate ways of reaching them.
• For example:

It՚s up to the sender that which information is necessary with which massage.

Identification

• Sender has to identity their-selves when sending e-mail to a stranger.
• And e-mail must answer the questions that will come to the receiver՚s mind. Such as:
  • How did she/he find out about me?
  • What does she/he want from me?
  • Who is he/she?
  • Why should I pay any attention to him/her?
• So, sender must have to put all identification information at the top instead of the bottom because:
• Identity is an important clue to the context of the message.
• When there is case of problem with the transmission, usually the end of mail might have chance to lost than the beginning
• If identity of sender is not declared then there might be chance that the correspondent may delete message before they reach to the bottom.