Emails, messages and memos

Email remains the backbone of workplace communication. Office workers commonly receive more than 100 emails a day and spend a large share of their working week reading and answering them, while instant messaging platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Slack carry an ever-growing share of quick internal exchanges. Because these messages are so frequent, small improvements add up: a clearer subject line, a request in the first sentence, a message sent only to the people who need it. This lesson covers how to write effective emails, when to use instant messaging instead, how to write memos, and how to measure whether bulk emails are working.

When email is the right channel

Email is ideal for messages that need a record, for contacting people outside your organization, for sharing attachments and for communication across time zones. It is a poor channel for urgent issues (people may not see it for hours), for emotional or sensitive matters (tone is easily misread), for long discussions with many participants (threads become tangled) and for confidential information that could be forwarded. Before writing, ask whether a quick conversation, a chat message or an update to a shared document would work better.

Anatomy of an effective email

An effective business email has six parts.

• Subject line: specific and informative, ideally with the action or topic and any deadline: "Approval needed: Q3 travel budget by Friday", not "Question" or "Update".
• Greeting: "Hi Amira," for colleagues; "Dear Ms. Laporte," or "Good morning, Dr. Singh," for formal or first contacts. Match the formality the other person uses.
• Opening: state the purpose or main point in the first one or two sentences. If you need something, ask for it here.
• Body: give the details the reader needs, in short paragraphs. Use numbered lists for steps or questions and bullets for items, so the reader can reply point by point.
• Closing: restate the action and deadline, and offer help: "Could you send your figures by noon Thursday? Call me if anything is unclear."
• Signature: name, title, organization and phone number, and any legally required information. Keep it short and avoid images that clutter replies.

Email etiquette and good habits

Two errors deserve special attention. Sending confidential information to the wrong person can breach privacy law as well as embarrass you; many organizations configure a delay on outgoing mail or warnings when you email outside the organization. And forwarding a thread can expose earlier messages that were never meant for the new reader, so read the whole thread before you forward it.

Instant messaging and collaboration platforms

Instant messaging (IM) suits quick questions, coordination and informal updates. Good IM habits differ slightly from email habits. Put your whole question in one message rather than sending "Hi" and waiting for a reply. Use threads to keep topics separate. Use public channels for work topics so others can find the answer later, and direct messages for personal or sensitive matters. Respect status indicators and time zones; a message sent at 11 p.m. may feel like a demand to respond. Remember that IM is a business record too: many organizations retain chat messages, and they can be produced in legal proceedings.

Memos

A memo (short for memorandum) is an internal document that announces a policy, procedure or decision to a group of people. Many organizations now send memos as emails or post them on an intranet, but the memo format remains useful for messages that must be formal, filed or printed. A memo has a heading block with TO, FROM, DATE and SUBJECT lines, followed by a body that opens with the main point, gives details (often with headings and lists) and closes with any action, deadline or contact. Memos do not have a greeting or signature, although the writer may initial the FROM line.

Measuring bulk email

When you send newsletters, announcements or marketing emails to large lists, you can measure what happens. Email platforms report the delivery rate (the share of messages that reached an inbox rather than bouncing), the open rate (the share of delivered messages that were opened), the click-through rate (the share of delivered messages in which a link was clicked) and the click-to-open rate (the share of openers who clicked). Open rates have become less reliable since 2021, when Apple's Mail Privacy Protection began preloading images and reporting many messages as opened whether or not a person read them, so clicks, replies and completed actions are better measures of success.

tests = {
    "A: Benefits update": (1960, 980, 196),
    "B: Action needed: choose your benefits by Nov. 15": (1970, 1182, 473),
}
for name, (delivered, opens, clicks) in tests.items():
    print(f"{name}")
    print(f"  open rate {opens / delivered:.1%}  click-through {clicks / delivered:.1%}  click-to-open {clicks / opens:.1%}")

A: Benefits update
  open rate 50.0%  click-through 10.0%  click-to-open 20.0%
B: Action needed: choose your benefits by Nov. 15
  open rate 60.0%  click-through 24.0%  click-to-open 40.0%

Managing your own inbox

Good email writing is half the story; the other half is managing the messages you receive. Common strategies include processing email in set blocks of time rather than constantly; applying a quick decision to each message (do it now if it takes under two minutes, delegate it, schedule it or delete it); using folders or labels sparingly and relying on search; turning off notifications during focused work; and unsubscribing from lists you do not read. Teams can also agree to shorter emails, clear subject-line tags such as [Action] and [FYI], and fewer copies.

Portfolio task for lesson 4: revise one of the messages you collected in lesson 1 into a well-structured email with a specific subject line, a purpose-first opening, a scannable body and a clear closing. Then write a one-page memo announcing a change to a procedure you know well.