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    Week 3 Handout 1

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    dymodatt
    The document provides guidelines for writing formal and informal emails, including appropriate greetings, reasons for writing, requests, apologies, attachments, endings, and closing formulas. For formal emails, proper titles and surnames are used with "Dear". Common reasons for writing include making requests, offering help, complaining, and apologizing. Formal language avoids contractions and is more polite and formal. Informal emails can use first names and are less formal with language. Examples are provided for both formal and informal phrasing of common email situations. The document concludes with an exercise to distinguish between formal and informal phrases.

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    Week 3 Handout 1

    Uploaded by

    dymodatt
    18 views6 pages
    The document provides guidelines for writing formal and informal emails, including appropriate greetings, reasons for writing, requests, apologies, attachments, endings, and closing formulas. For formal emails, proper titles and surnames are used with "Dear". Common reasons for writing include making requests, offering help, complaining, and apologizing. Formal language avoids contractions and is more polite and formal. Informal emails can use first names and are less formal with language. Examples are provided for both formal and informal phrasing of common email situations. The document concludes with an exercise to distinguish between formal and informal phrases.

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    Week 3 handout 1 (2)

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    The document provides guidelines for writing formal and informal emails, including appropriate greetings, reasons for writing, requests, apologies, attachments, endings, and closing formulas. For formal emails, proper titles and surnames are used with "Dear". Common reasons for writing include making requests, offering help, complaining, and apologizing. Formal language avoids contractions and is more polite and formal. Informal emails can use first names and are less formal with language. Examples are provided for both formal and informal phrasing of common email situations. The document concludes with an exercise to distinguish between formal and informal phrases.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    18 views6 pages

    Week 3 Handout 1

    Uploaded by

    dymodatt
    The document provides guidelines for writing formal and informal emails, including appropriate greetings, reasons for writing, requests, apologies, attachments, endings, and closing formulas. For formal emails, proper titles and surnames are used with "Dear". Common reasons for writing include making requests, offering help, complaining, and apologizing. Formal language avoids contractions and is more polite and formal. Informal emails can use first names and are less formal with language. Examples are provided for both formal and informal phrasing of common email situations. The document concludes with an exercise to distinguish between formal and informal phrases.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    Technical Writing (2017-2018)

    Week 2_Handout 1
    Instructor: Dr Aseel Zibin

    Formal and informal emails (greetings to closing phrases)


     E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by
    telecommunication.
     Whether you are writing to friends, colleagues or to a potential business partner, your
    main goal is to get your message across, in other words, to ensure the recipient
    understands you.
     In formal and informal emails, first person singular pronouns can be used because
    many of these emails are personal. Thus, the sender would want the recipient to know
    that he/she is sending the email.

     If you use improper or incorrect language and continuously make mistakes in your e-
    mail, not only might you fail to make yourself understood, you might also fail to
    make a good impression on the reader.

     To avoid this, you need to take into account certain steps/information to help you to
    write a good, mistake-free email. These steps/ pieces of information are provided
    below.
     The examples are labelled ’formal’ and ’informal’- please note that most informal
    expressions are perfectly suitable to use in ’semi-formal’ situations, such as between
    business associates who have worked together for some time and have established a
    good relationship.

     Steps/information to take into account when writing an email (from greetings to


    closing phrases):

    1. SUBJECT OF THE EMAIL: Any email you send should have a subject. If the
    recipient gets an email without a subject, he/she may delete it without even reading it.

    2. GREETINGS/SALUTATION:
    Formal
     Dear Sir/ Madam,

    1
     Dear Sir or Madam,
     To whom it may concern: (especially if you do not know the addressee)
     Dear Mr/ Ms Jones,
     Dear Dr Smith,
    (Note: First names are NOT used, only surnames. Using Miss or Mrs to address a woman is
    not appropriate, as you do not know whether she is married or not). To avoid embarrassment,
    use Ms. is the default form of address for women regardless of their marital status.

    Informal
     Hi Dennis,
     Hello Claire,
     Dear Mum,
    (Note: salutations are followed by a (,) comma, exception: ’To Whom It May Concern :’)

    3. REASON FOR WRITING / REPLYING


    Formal
     I am writing to make a reservation/ to apply for the position of…/ to confirm my
    booking/ to ask for further information about …
     I am writing with regard to the sale of …/ to the complaint you made on 29th
    February
     Thank you for your e-mail of 29th February regarding the sale of… / concerning the
    conference in Brussels.
     With reference to our telephone conversation on Friday, I would like to let you know
    that…

    Informal
     Just a quick note to invite you to…/ to tell you that…
     Thanks for your e-mail, it was wonderful/great to hear from you.
     I wanted to let you know that / tell you about / ask you if…
     I’d like to let you know that…

    2
     There are different reasons for writing an email.
    Below are some examples:

    a) MAKING A REQUEST / ASKING FOR INFORMATION


    Formal
     Could you please let me know if you can attend … / if you are available for a meeting
    on 12th December?
     I would appreciate it if you could please send me a brochure/ if you could please
    reply within two days.
     Could you possibly arrange a meeting with the Logistics Manager?
     I would also like to know if there are any swimming pools in your area.
     Please let me know how much the tickets cost.

    Informal
     Can you come and see me sometime next week?
     Do you think you could call Jerry for me?
     Can you call me/ get back to me asap? (as soon as possible)

    b) OFFERING HELP / GIVING INFORMATION


    Formal
     I am glad to inform you that we will be holding our annual conference in Brussels on
    20 September 2014.
     We regret to inform you that the show has been cancelled due to bad weather
    conditions.
     We are willing to arrange another meeting with the CEO.
     We would be glad to send you another statement if necessary.
     Please do let me know if I can be of further assistance.
     Should you need any further information/assistance, please do not hesitate to contact
    us.

    Informal
     I’m sorry, but I can’t make it tomorrow. (= I can’t come tomorrow.)

    3
     I’m happy to tell you that John and I are getting married next month.
     How about I come and help you out?
     Do you need a hand with moving the furniture?

    c) COMPLAINING
    Formal
     I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with… / to complain about…
     I regret to say that I was not completely satisfied with the room you provided us.
     We regret to inform you that your payment is considerably overdue.
     I would like to receive a full refund and compensation for the damages.
     I am interested to hear how your company can compensate us for the distress we
    suffered.

    Informal
     I’m sorry to say that you’re late with the payments.
     I hope you won’t mind me saying that the place you’d recommended to us wasn’t as
    nice as we’d expected.

    d) APOLOGIZING
    Formal
     We would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.
     Please accept our apologies for the delay.
     Please let us know what we can do to compensate you for the damages caused.
     We will make sure that this will not happen again in the future.
     I am afraid I will not be able to attend the conference.

    Informal
     I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.
     I promise it won’t happen again
     I’m sorry, but I can’t make it to the meeting.

    4
    e) ATTACHING FILES
    Formal
     I am attaching my CV for your consideration.
     I am sending you the brochure as an attachment.
     Please see the statement attached.
     Please find attached the file you requested.
     I am afraid I cannot open the file you have sent me.
     Could you send it again in … format?

    Informal
     I’m attaching/sending you the holiday photos.
     Sorry, but I can’t open it. Can you send it again in … format?

    4. ENDING
    Formal
     I look forward to hearing from you.
     I look forward to your reply.
     I look forward to meeting you soon.

    Informal
     Hope to hear from you soon.
     Let me when you you’re coming.

    5. CLOSING FORMULA
    Formal
     Yours faithfully, (when you start with Dear Sir/ Madam,)
     Yours Sincerely, Sincerely Yours, Sincerely, (when you start with the name e.g. Dear
    Ms Collins)

    Informal
     Love,
     Thanks,
     Take care,

    5
     Yours,
     Best regards, (semi-formal)

     One more thing to keep in mind is that in formal correspondence contractions are
    rarely used, so remember to write ’I do not’ instead of ’I don’t’ or ’they cannot’
    instead of ’they can’t’ and so on. Keep learning, keep writing – practice makes
    perfect.

    Exercise 1: Formal vs. Informal. State whether the sentences below would be classified as
    either formal or informal. If informal, change it to formal.

    Example:
    Hi y’all!
    _informal; To Whom it May Concern: __

    1) I am pleased to inform you that you have won our grand prize.
    _____________
    2) I hope all is well with your new career choice.
    _____________
    3) I shouldn’t have gone and missed with it!!
    _____________
    4) I can’t help you with that cuz it’s too hard.
    _____________
    5.) Hi, how are you?
    ________________
    6) I’d like to complain about the disgusting food you served us at your restaurant last night.
    _____________

    7) Send me the price list asap.

    _____________________

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