Reading Minds to Write Emails

Abstract

This essay explains how to write a professional email. It imagines that you are a young attorney in a corporate context. But you can translate that hypothetical frame into any professional context. It takes a fairly formulaic approach to its topic: When you are starting out, you should follow the formula. As you become more experienced and skilled, you will know when and why you should vary from the formula. You should also be attentive to how your colleagues in the work context write their emails and decide whether you should conform to their practices or your own.

This essay first considers what the body of your email text should look like, and why. It then reviews technical details about addressing them, writing subject lines, signing them, and adding some other contents, if they are applicable. Of course, you should also carefully proofread and copy-edit any email before sending it.

Keywords: professional email, rhetoric, pragmatics, cognitive environment