Composing an email is one of the basic skills students will need to learn as they navigate through college and workforce life. This guide shows how to properly compose an email and shows the features of an email and how to use each feature.
Table of Contents:
To begin a new email message, click "Compose" or "New Message" which is usually located at the top of your email inbox screen. When you click a button similar to this, you are beginning a new email message to a number of recipients. You are not replying to a message that was sent to you.
Here is what it looks like from the top three email providers: Microsoft Outlook (the provider which HCCC uses for email), Gmail, and Yahoo Mail
Microsoft Outlook/Hotmail: A blue button that says "New message" located at the top left.
Gmail: A large plus (+) sign on the top left that expands to show the word "Compose" when you put your mouse over it.
Yahoo Mail: The word "Compose" located at the top left of screen.
To: This is where you put the direct recipient(s) of the email message using their email address. Their address is usually a username followed by @ (at) symbol and the email provider. For example, jsmith123@email.com will be John Smith's email address. jsmith123 is his username and email.com is his email provider.
Here at HCCC, students and staff will have @hccc.edu (staff and faculty) or @live.hccc.edu (students) as their email provider. Students will have the last four numbers of their student ID as part of their HCCC username.
Example 1: Student's name is John Smith with the ID number of 0123456. Their email address will be jsmith3456@live.hccc.edu
Example 2: Faculty's name is Jane Doe. Their email address will be jdoe@hccc.edu
If you are sending a message to multiple recipients, you may separate the email addresses with a comma (,) or a semicolon (;). For example: jsmith@hccc.edu, jdoe@hccc.edu, bsmith1234@live.hccc.edu. OR jsmith@hccc.edu; jdoe@hccc.edu; bsmith1234@live.hccc.edu
Be sure to correctly type down email addresses on the To, CC, and BCC fields. If you misspell an email address and click send, the message will bounce to you saying it failed to send because the recipient was not found. The sender may have the username of Mailer-Daemon. In some cases, the message will not send because the recipient in the To, CC, or BCC field does not exist.
If you misspell someone's username in the global HCCC directory, you will get a dialog box that says "No results found". The email address will still be entered but if you click "Send", it will bounce back to you with a message saying that the username does not exist.
CC: Carbon Copy. When you put an email address or more in the CC field, that recipient is not the direct recipient of the message, the address(es) in the To field are. But the CC recipient(s) will get a copy of the message to let the direct recipient know that the CC recipient(s) also knows the message content but is not necessarily involved in the conversation. If you are CC'ed in an email, you do not have to reply to the message; the sender just wants you to be in the know of what is happening but indirectly. You can also use CC to introduce someone for future contact.
BCC: Blind Carbon Copy. BCC recipients receives a copy of the message but direct recipients do not know that a message was sent to them; the BCC recipient does know who the direct recipient is, however. BCC is used for group emails where you do not want recipients to know who is in the list for privacy reasons. Recipients in a BCC field also do not know the other recipients in the field.
Subject: This is a brief one line or word summary about what your message will be about. You also have the option of putting nothing on the subject line, it will show up as (no subject) when the receiver sees it. At times, college professors and companies will require a subject line format if you are sending a certain email message.
The body is the main area for composing an email message. Here it could be a short one line message, a paragraph, or a few paragraphs. Just like old fashioned letter writing, the body of a message includes a greeting, the main message, a closing salutation, and a signature if one is not already prepared beforehand.
Here's an example of a student writing to a professor about a paper:
To: bobsmith@university.edu
From: jdoe73@students.university.edu
Subject: Re: Jane Doe - Essay - Crime and Justice Tuesday 6 PMGood afternoon,
I have attached an updated copy of my paper with the corrections you gave me from my previous draft. One thing I don't understand is the note about using academic journals instead of Wikipedia pages. I don't know what academic journals are. Will you be able to help or should I ask a librarian?
Thank you,
Jane Doe
Based on the example, the email is written formally and replying to the professor, hence the Re: in the subject line. The subject line is not changed when replying to someone. The student greets her professor with a "Good afternoon". She writes the main message as one short paragraph that is to the point with no extras. Afterwards, she says "Thank you" as her closing salutation and writes her name underneath it. The professor already knows her name but in a formal email, it is important to have a signature either set up beforehand or manually written as Jane Doe did here.
Here is an example of a formal email written at a company by a staff member to another staff member of the same status:
To: clintbarton@teamavengers.net
CC: brucebanner@teamavengers.net
From: natasharomanoff@teamavengers.net
Subject: City cleanup plansHello,
Thank you for deciding to spearhead the city cleanup routes. It has been a month since the destruction from the asteroids and while we are still recovering, I believe it is time to get the roads repaired and cleaned up for back to normal use. A lot of businesses and residences have been affected and we know it's going to take some time to rebuild these roads and buildings again.
Fifth Avenue going from 14th St to 66th St seems to be the most affected in regards to damage. I have copied Bruce into this email so he will know where to begin deploying most of his robots. We trust that you will be able to lead a team of people who can start repairing certain areas that have the most damage and get it done as quickly as possible. Get in contact with Bruce if you need to.
Steve, Tony, and I will continue to survey the city and get back to you and your team on what important things need to be done as well as keeping track of Loki's evil plans. In the meantime, Fifth Ave currently looks the worst and that will be our focus. Don't worry about 10th and 11th, they were untouched by the asteroids.
Best,
Natasha Romanoff
Be sure to avoid using CAPS LOCK, emoticons, emojis, slang, shorthand (ex: OMG), and frequent exclamation marks (!) when writing a formal email. Informal email messages do not necessarily have a set of rules to follow.
Here is an example of an email written very informally in an informal and formal setting by a staff member to another staff member of the same status:
To: steverogers@teamavengers.net, thorodinson@teamavengers.net, brucebanner@teamavengers.net, clintbarton@teamavengers.net
CC: tchalla@teamavengers.net, natasharomanoff@teamavengers.net
From: tonystark@teamavengers.net
Subject: WANDA'S SURPRISE PARTYYYAbout Wanda Maximoff's surprise party this Friday!!! :D Me and Nat already finished a list of who is coming and are already doing the food stuffs. What y'all guys want! We're thinking pizza, shawarma (i know you love THAT!), wings, steak, shrimp, burgers!!!! :P :P :P
I just attached a list of some restaurants we could order from!! Nat already got receipts for the cake and cookies from the bakery (yoooo she chose goooood!!!!)! Hit me up to what y'all want for the party. ;)
Peace OOOUUUUTTTT
TonY!Also, Petey P's got some GAMES planned so you guys better GET READY TO BATTLE ME!
While an email about party planning at a workplace can be somewhat informal because of the joyous mood of the occasion, the sender did not need to use slang, CAPS LOCK, multiple exclamation marks, colloquial sayings, nicknames, and emoticons to convey his message. Using them frequently can make the message look messy and distracting. A few exclamation marks does not hurt the message; it could make the recipient feel comfortable when they read your message. But using them frequently can distract the recipient and make them feel somewhat awkward.
Here, we will edit Tony's message to be more formal but also informal given the mood of the message:
Subject: Wanda's surprise party.
Hey team! Just want to let you know that Natasha and I finished the list of who's coming to Wanda Maximoff's surprise party this Friday! We are starting to think about what food we should have. I've attached a list of restaurants we could order from. We're thinking of having a variety of food like shawarma (I know you guys would love that!), wings, steak, shrimp, and burgers. Let me know what else we should have.
Nat already has receipts from a really good bakery she chose for the cake and cookies. Clint, she's going to scan and send you the receipts soon. Even though Nat and I are in charge of planning the party, let us know if you guys have any more ideas. We're cool with anything!
Talk to you later,
TonyP.S. Peter has the games all planned out. Get ready to battle me! ;)
When replying to an email, you usually have two ways of doing so:
Your email provider may have the words "Reply" and "Reply All". If not, it may show these symbols (an example from Outlook):
The single curved arrow stands for "Reply" while the arrow with an extra line stands for "Reply All". If you hover your mouse over each of the symbols, a text will appear to show what it stands for.
Whether you hit Reply or Reply All, your subject line will be the same subject line the sender put but with a "Re:" in front of it. You can change the subject line when replying or add to it.
Let's take this example from student Jane Doe and her professor:
To: bobsmith@university.edu
From: jdoe73@students.university.edu
Subject: Jane Doe - Final Essay Draft - Crime and Justice Tuesday 6 PM
Attached file: Jane Doe Women in Crime.docx
Good evening Professor,
Here is my draft for my paper "Women in Crime".
Thank you,
Jane Doe
To: jdoe73@students.university.edu
From: bobsmith@university.edu
Re: Jane Doe - Final Essay (EDITED) - Crime and Justice Tuesday 6 PM
Attached file: Jane Doe Women in Crime (professor edit).docx
Jane,
I've edited your paper for grammatical errors and put in some comments. Please send me a final copy by next week Tuesday at 8 AM. Make sure to cite your references in a separate page and not after your last paragraph.
Thank you,
Bob Smith
Notice how Bob Smith changed a little bit of Jane Doe's subject line to let her know that what he is sending is an edited version of her paper. He could have left the subject line as is when replying but he needed to convey an important aspect of the message to the student.
Forwarding an email is sending an already received message (from a sender to you) to a new recipient or more. When you forward it to a new recipient, the subject field starts with "Forward" or "Fw" followed by the original subject line. Forwarding is used when you want to send a message you received to someone who you think might be interested in it. Forwarding can also be used to send a copy of the message to someone who was unintentionally left out from the original recipients list.
Forwarded email chains were very popular in the 1990s during the blooming stages of the internet. The message would contain some kind of story which was followed by "Forward this message to as many people as you know or you will have BAD LUCK FOREVER!!!!!" In a large forwarded email chain, the original sender is usually lost in the list of emails or the original sender is no longer visible due to how lengthy the chain is.
When you click "Forward", the "To" field becomes blank but the "Subject" field will be filled. The original message in the body is kept and you can add a message above it for additional information or you can leave it alone. Be advised that if you do add additional text above the original message, other people who forward the message may have your message intact and sent out to people you do not know.
Attaching a file is one of the top email skills students will need to learn during their time in school as it is often used to send assignments to professors. In a work setting, it is used to send documents and projects to colleagues and supervisors. How large the file type depends on your email provider; there is usually a limit to size in file attachments. In order to send larger files, you may need to use a cloud storage and send a link to your recipients for them to view it.
To attach a file, click on the button in your compose screen that either says "Attach" "Attach file" or shows an image of a paper clip. Here is what it looks like from Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo.
Outlook: Next to "Send" and located at the top of the compose screen called "Attach". It's also next to the bottom near "Send" and "Discard" as an image of a paper clip.
Gmail: Next to "Send" and Text Formatting (A) buttons. It has an image of a paper clip.
Yahoo: Next to "Send" and has an image of a paper clip.
When attaching files, please note that anyone can forward your message along with your attached file without your knowledge so be careful what files you are sending in your message.
Drafts are email messages you would want to send for another time. It is kind of like writing a paper on Word but you are not yet finished with it so you save it in your cloud storage or computer to get back to it at another time. Any email you write -- whether you're sending it, replying, or forwarding -- automatically becomes a draft that you can either save or discard. Your email provider will have a separate folder for your drafts.
Folders are a way of organizing email messages into different categories so you can backtrack to them whenever you need them for your records. You can use folders to clean up your inbox especially if you want to keep certain messages but not have them in your inbox where you can accidentally delete them.
When sending an email, note that once you click send that email cannot be unsent. It will go to the recipient where it may be read in an instant or read later. If you make a mistake you can always send a second email admitting your mistake.
But if you are writing an email and somewhere along the way you are having second thoughts about sending the message, you can always discard it. Or you can save it in drafts and discard it if you decide not to send the message at all. Messages discarded will not be put into the trash, they will only disappear.
