Why take this course?
After completing this course, you will be able to
- write emails that say what you want to say and make a good impression.
- write and proofread emails that are clear, concise, complete and correct.
- apply plain language skills in real-world situations.
- choose and write in an appropriate style and tone.
- properly format business and personal emails.
This hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves course teaches you the skills you need to write clear, concise emails that readers will open, understand, respond to appropriately and leave with a good impression of you. You will learn the Top Seven Email Do's and Don'ts, and have a chance to practise writing effective subject lines, applying the Inverted Pyramid, adding structure and formatting to make messages clearer and more readable, and much more.
You'll learn plain language techniques that will help you write more briefly and correctly. We'll also look at how to adjust your style and tone to avoid potential email conflicts, and ways to deal with conflict when it does arise.
Who should attend?
Anyone who needs to write emails that communicate clearly and concisely.
Federal Employees
This course helps you learn or enhance skills you need to meet and apply these federal public service competencies, behaviours, policies or programs:
Key Leadership Competencies: Engagement, Excellence
Employee Effective Behaviours: Engagement, Excellence through results
Communication Practices: Communications Policy of the Government of Canada
What topics are covered?
Introduction
- Email overload
- What email burden costs
- Top 7 email 'peeves'
Think before you type
- When not to email
- Privacy and confidentiality
- CCs, BCCs and Reply Alls: Thinking about recipients
Steps to writing email people will read
- Top Seven email 'pluses'
- Determining objective
- Considering the reader
- Drafting the body
- Subject lines
- Inverted pyramid
- Structure and formatting
- Structure vs. appearance
- Hyperlinks and attachments
- Proofreading
Style and tone
- Writing in plain language
- Paragraphs and white space
- Sentence variety
- Simple sentence structure
- Strong verbs and active voice
- Simple vocabulary
- Cutting unnecessary text
- Netiquette: Avoiding and defusing conflict
- Imperatives vs. conditionals
- Qualifiers and intensifiers
- Punctuating on purpose
- Signatures
- Saying no
- Softening a blow
- Defusing conflict
- When and what to reply
- Email courtesy