Page 99 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

88 How to Write Effective Business English

(more on this shortly) do the job more effectively? It’s true that
where every conceivable time zone may have to be covered in global
business, e-mails can work best. But assess each task on its merits as
poor use of e-mail creates inefficiency in the workplace. We’re also
losing many traditional problem-solving skills as a direct result as it’s
easy to pass messages on without dealing with them. Other factors
need to be addressed as well. Non-native and native English writers
often write over-concisely at the cost of not making complete sense.
And now that an estimated 55 per cent of all e-mails are opened on
mobile devices, your well-designed, helpful format may be lost.
The ‘on the move’ mobile device reader processes information in
a different way too: another reason to avoid the beginning, middle
and end writing of yesteryear. You have to write smarter than ever
before, to get key messages across sooner.

Writing e-mails

When it comes to writing e-mails, two fundamental findings emerge:

● ● E-mails are written by virtually all levels of staff in all types of
company. Largely gone are the days of the traditional secretary:
we mostly have to design our writing ourselves.

● ● Looking at the statistics, it’s easy to see how such vast e-mail
usage can lead to information overload. So it’s crucial to
maintain quality and make things as relevant and easy as
possible for the reader, so your e-mails stand out for the right
reasons – not because your English or your content is wrong.

E-mail scenarios to watch out for

Sending too quickly

We all do it: we type our messages and click on the send button
without checking them first. Speed of response can seem like a