Style, Structure & Features

Tips for email use and writing

What is email is good for? And what is it not good for? Some guidelines to help you decide whether to use email or not.

Email is good for:

• Immediate dissemination of information and documents.
• Simultaneous communication with more than one person.
• Making requests without the need to schedule a meeting or interrupt someone.
• Keeping a record of communication, actions and outcome.

Email is not good for:

• Informal chit-chat: Email should not be considered an informal method of speaking with others when dealing with University business. Emails can be quickly and accidentally shared with others and they can be the subject of a Freedom of Information request. Catch up over the phone or a coffee instead!
• Confidentiality: Confidential documents should not be sent via e-mail. E-mail may be transmitted accidentally or shared maliciously, and the security of the system may be breached.
• Dealing with sensitive issues: We rely heavily on non-verbal information like facial expression, body posture, gestures, and voice tone to interpret other people’s behavior. Without these important non-verbal cues, the intention and tone of other people’s communication is easily misinterpreted. This can lead to misunderstandings, damaged relationships, and poor business decisions.

Respectful use of email: We all have our own unique personality and way of communicating. However, in the absence of non-verbal cues, emails can be easily misinterpreted and may unintentionally cause irritation or offence. Here are some general tips for using email respectfully.

• Practice Professionalism: Write all email messages in a professional manner, avoiding overly informal language and text abbreviations like ‘b4’ and ‘gr8’. Your NUI Galway email account was set up for university business and, therefore, you should write in a style and tone consistent with how you would expect other public institutions or businesses to communicate with you. Do not write anything that you would not be happy for everyone to see and that you would not say to the recipient's face. Proof-read your email before sending.
• Read through your Recipients’ Eyes: One easy and effective way to ensure that your email is respectful is by reading it through your recipients’ eyes. When you have finished writing the email, take time to look back through it and consider how your reader might interpret or react to how you have written it. If the tone is wrong, better to make the changes now than regret it later.
• Keep it Short: Keep emails short and to-the-point wherever possible. This will be particularly beneficial for recipients working remotely on tablets or mobiles. Where 'no action' is necessary and where the email is for only for information, this should be stated.
• Confidentiality is Critical: Be extremely careful when sending emails containing personal or confidential information. University emails have the potential to include highly confidential details of people’s contracts, grades, financial circumstances and health. If in any doubt, leave it out.
• Difficult or Sensitive Discussions: Before commencing writing an email on a sensitive topic, consider talking confidentially in person or by phone instead. If there is a possibility that the email will be misconstrued, misunderstood or intercepted, it is probably best avoided.
• Don't Tell the World: If you spot an error in someone’s group email, don’t ‘reply all’ to point it out. The sender might appreciate you identifying the mistake. But including other recipients in the email can feel belittling.
• Respect Readers’ Time: Do not expect others to read through extensively long emails or email trails to pick up important information. Likewise, don’t expect immediate answers to your emails – just because you sent it in a hurry, doesn’t mean it will be read in one. If something is urgent, pick up the phone.
• Tone doesn’t Translate: Take care using irony, humour or sarcasm within an email as this can be very easily misinterpreted. The nuances and subtleties of your carefully crafted message may be missed.
• DON’T SHOUT: Using block capitals or multiple exclamation marks is not advised. In text-based media, these are widely interpreted as shouting or aggression.
• Emphasise Sparingly: The use of bold text, underlined text or highlighted text can be useful to draw the eye to a particularly important piece of information or call to action. Use these features sparingly, however. You might think you’re being helpful, but your emphasis might be interpreted as demanding, aggressive or pedantic.
• Avoid Embellishments: Make your e-mails easy to read by avoiding cursive fonts, coloured text and background colours/patterns.
• Forward with Care: Be aware that forwarding other people's emails can be a major source of conflict. If you have any doubts whether to forward or not, ask permission first.

Anatomy of an email: Some tips on how to structure an effective email and what features you can and should use.

• Recipient(s): The ‘To...’ field identifies your main recipient(s). This is the person to whom you are directing the email and, if required, the person who you are seeking a response from. Double-check the name and spelling: some staff share the same name (e.g. John McDonagh x 2, Anne O’Connor x 2, Kevin O’Sullivan x 2, etc.) and some surnames have different variations (e.g. Donohoe, Donohue, Donoghue).
• CC: The ‘Carbon Copy’ field allows you to include additional recipients on the email. This can be one of the biggest causes of email overload and irritation, so be careful who you CC! Ask yourself whether the people really need to receive the information – or will it simply waste their time opening and reading it. CC should not be used unless the recipients know why they are in receipt of a copy of the message and whether they are intended to act on it. Do not CC someone’s line manager in an effort to prompt a quicker response – this can cause unnecessary irritation. If you 'Reply All’ to an email, remember that you will reply to all of the recipients in the ‘To...’ and ‘CC’ fields. This is a good time to strip out the unnecessary recipients.
• BCC: The ‘Blind Carbon Copy’ field allows you to include other recipients in your email without identifying them and without giving the recipient(s) the opportunity to include them should they ‘Reply All’. It can be a useful way of disseminating information to a large group of people without worrying about revealing their contact details or potentially opening them up to spam. However, BCC should be used cautiously and sparingly, ensuring that decisions to do so meet the standards of integrity and transparency. If you are using it to email a wide group, include a line at the top describing who is in the BCC (e.g. BCC: All applicants to the Hardiman Scholarship). That way, all recipients will know who is included and why they are receiving it.
• Subject Line: This is your single biggest opportunity to draw attention, encourage the opening of your email and prompt a response. Do not leave the subject line blank. Make sure it is informative and meaningful. Long subject lines will not appear in full on screen, so avoid them. Put the most important information up front. For example, instead of “Information for all NUI Galway students regarding access to counselling services”, you should write “Access to counselling services: information for all NUI Galway students”.
• Attachment(s): Use attachments sparingly to help reduce demands on our servers, especially if you are emailing a large group. Explore options to remove the need for attachments, like linking to information and files online, uploading files to Sharepoint, or using an external file sharing service for large files (e.g. WeTransfer). Did you know that reducing the amount of data we share can also help reduce our carbon footprint? On average, each email we send creates 4g of CO² emissions. If it has a picture attachment, this needs extra storage and takes longer to transmit, so the carbon footprint rises to an average of 50g.
• Greeting: Begin every email with an appropriate greeting that addresses the recipient(s) in a friendly and professional manner. In the university, we tend to use ‘Dear [FIRST NAME]’ or ‘Dear [PROFESSOR/DR SURNAME]. However, if you know the recipient well, a simple ‘Hi [FIRST NAME]’ will suffice. If you are emailing a group, consider using the common greetings: ‘Dear students’, ‘Dear colleagues’, or ‘Dear all’. Irish language greetings ‘A chara’ (Dear friend) and ‘A chairde’ (Dear friends) are also good options, even if the rest of the email is in English.
• Introduction: The opening of your email should clearly and briefly state why you are sending it. (If the recipient(s) don’t know you, you will also need to include a line by means of introduction, e.g. I am a student in First Year Psychology and I would like find out more about...). If your email has a call to action like ‘take the survey’, ‘indicate your availability’, ‘give your approval’ - put it up top. If you need to give more background information, do so afterwards, making sure to be as concise and relevant as you can. The most important information can you usually by summed up as the Who, What, Why, When and How. Answer those questions succinctly to keep your email short and your recipients interested.
• Email body: As reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from a page, emails should be thoughtfully structured for the benefit of the recipient. Paragraphs should be reasonably short and blank lines inserted between them. When listing points, they should be emphasised by being numbered or bullet points used. If the email covers a number of different themes, consider adding headings to the paragraphs in your email to help the reader navigate their way through. If the email has actions for specific recipients, identify clearly who and what you are asking them to do.
• Sign-off: Finish every message with an appropriate salutation, followed by your first name. While the following salutations are overused as to render them cliché, they are useful in a professional context: ‘Kind regards’ and ‘Best wishes’. There are lots of nice Irish language salutations too. Consider using ‘Le dea-ghuí’ (With good wishes), ‘Le meas’ (With respect) and ‘Beir bua’ (Wishing you success).
• Signature: Clearly identify yourself by using a signature at the end of your email, which you can set up to be added automatically. This will help your recipients identify you and your role in the university, as well as follow up with you by mail or telephone. The NUI Galway Marketing and Communications Office recommends a consistent style for university email signatures in the NUI Galway Brand Guidelines.
• Email Tags: Do not overuse the ! High Importance email tag, reserving for truly important or urgent emails. This feature loses its potency if used more than is necessary.
• Read receipts: We strongly discourage the use of read receipts as method checking if an email has been received. This can increase traffic on our email servers and therefore affect performance.