5.Teaching E-mail Writing to Students in Professional Courses

Emails have become a vital mode of communication, especially in most workplaces that are striving to become paperless offices. Hence while teaching Communication Skills to students in most of the UG and PG courses that do not come under the umbrella of humanities, the component of E-mail writing becomes very crucial. This paper proposes to explore how skills of e-mail writing and e-mailetiquettecan best be imparted to the students. This should be done in such a way that it successfully becomes their life-long tool for effective professional communication. Emphasis should be given to both their activities within the classroom as well as outside the contact hours with the instructor.The sessions should practical rather than theoretical and look at ideas that can be immediately used in the classroom.An attempt has been made in the paper to speculate upon possible the activities and assignments that may inculcate in the students the ways of communicating various kinds of messages that may be sent through emails in the workplace.

Email refers to digital messages transmitted throughan internet connectionthrough various devices like computers, mobile phones and tablets and includes everything from casual notes to friends to multimediapresentations, audio and video clips sent across the world. E-mails enable us to send a message to a person without our making a direct contact or even knowing where that person is. There is no need for the sender and the receiver of the message to be available in real time. Prasad observes, “Till 1970s E-mail was called computer based messaging system (CBMS). It was in 1974 that Western Union first registered the trademark “Electronic Mail” (E-mail).” (Prasad 262) The subscribers to the electronic mail are called “Users”. Being a User once can access messages on any computer compatible device from anywhere in the world. This convenience has not only made many offices paperless but even physically smaller or non-existent! For example, the physical offices of Google are small and less in number although its employees are large in number and are spread throughout the world. Students could be asked to offer other examples of organizations that have shrunk in its physical size due to this virtual miraculous connection called Internet and Email.

The instructor can wrap up this component of teaching by summarising that email, which was originally intended to be an informal and quick form of exchange of messages, has now become the default communication vehicle for most organizations. As with any business correspondence, however, poor spelling, ineffective layout or inappropriate email etiquette can all exercise negative effects on the audience, with repercussions ranging from simple miscommunication to tainted reputation and potential loss of business. An ideal session on email writing should blend the general principles of good correspondence with a more specific focus on the pitfalls and dangers of poor email writing and lack of email etiquette. A successful and interactive course could enable its participants to create the desired effect and convey a message with greater impact through professional email writing.The benefits and the desired learning outcomes should be that the participants should acquire a reader friendly yet a professional style of email writing. The learners should feel ascertained that their emails and other correspondence receive the attention they deserve. Moreover they should gain an increased awareness of the etiquettes of email writing. This helps participants when they have to correspond frequently with clients and colleagues by email and would like to improve your professional email writing style, when they have to engage in rapid and effective email correspondence and wish to develop a rapport with virtual email correspondence. A session or a couple of sessions on teaching email writing, depending upon the needs of the learners, should ideally include the components like an consideration of the general principles of professional email writing, discussion on informal vs. formal styles in email writing, preparing and management of emails, methods of developing rapport and warmth through email writing as well as etiquettes of email writing.

While teaching UG and PG students how to write emails the instructor can draw the attention of the students to the growth and development of emails as a medium of communication. A suggestive summary of such a discussion is as below:

The unprecedentedswiftgrowth of the Internet and its widespread use in business has changed the way in which organizations communicate. Internet access has become one of the pre-requisitecomponents of the infrastructure forthe existence of any organization. Most individuals possess a personal email address. Many companies are now promoting the use of emailof almost all in-house correspondence and a large amount of external communication i.e. communication with people or institutions outside organizations also depends on email. It is one of the most convenient and inexpensive methods to contact people in any part of the world for professional, business or personal purposes. According to Raman and Sharma emails offer phenomenal advantages. It is rapid—a message can be transmitted to as many individuals as necessary instantaneously. It is inexpensive because it saves paper and other stationery. As a result it is promoted in most organizations as a green initiative. It is convenient and saves time. When dealing with external agencies, especially important clients , it becomes the most inevitable mode of communication since the recipients can receive them at their own time and leisure and respond to after the necessary reflection and research. (Raman, Sharma 449)

In addition the instructor could introduce the various components of an email to the students namely users, messages, addresses of senders and recipients, protocols, messaging transports, gateways and directory systems. Since most of the learners are well acquainted to the Internet, they may know many of these terms. Hence a general discussion or a recapitulating session with the students could increase their level of confidence of being aware of a number of aspects of email writing.

The students could be introduced to the various types of email massages—like neutral messages, good news messages, bad news messages and persuasive messages. The instructor can distinguish among thesetypes demonstrating the discriminating factors in each of them. For instance, neutral messages and plain and direct in their preparation, language and presentation. Good news messages can have a deductive approach of presentation wherein the message can begin with the good news itself and further details can follow the opening news.Persuasive messages should be written for the point of view of the reader’s benefit and a negative message should be inductive in its approach i.e. it should begin in an indirect manner by opening with some positive remarks.The instructor should be able to evince with some real life examples how the use of euphemized language in the message itself can allay its negative effects upon the reader.

In addition to the types of messages mentioned above, mails can be sent to sell or persuade, to make an enquiry, answer a question, to complain, answer a complain, to get something done and to create goodwill among others. This is not an exhaustive list but these phrases that may be regarded as “statements of purpose are action-oriented”. (Wright 241)

There can be various ways in which email writing exercises can be introduced and administered as fun filled innovative exercises in the classroom.The activity of preparing an email message primarily involves writing a draft or typing on the computer or a compatible device. Hence, the most commonly implemented exercises are those that require students to draft out email messages based on a certain topic, situation or frame a reply to an existent email. For instance an example of a printed email can be projected on a screen of distributed as leaflets in the class-room.

Students can be asked to identify whether the specimen is a good example or a bad example of an email. In either case they should be able to justify their answer giving relevant points.This could sharpen their critical thinking skills. If they find it to be a bad example, they should be able to point out the errors and re-write a rectified version of the email. Another exercise scramble can be used. This is particularly useful in a class of students who may have exhibited a difficulty in the sequence of organization of ideas. In the exercise, a number of probable sentences of an email could be enlisted and the learners could be asked to put the sentences of the email in correct order. The difficulty level of this exercise can be easily regulated by choosing closely related sentences for an easier exercise and apparently unconnected statements associated to the same topic for a difficult exercise. The tendency towards pragmatic communication in participants maybe increased by also including statements in this exercise that the student should be able to identify as redundant. This can encourage the participants to write precise messages and included only those words, phrases or sentences that contribute to towards the completion of the message.

The above mentioned exercises have close ended answers i.e. they may have either just one or two possible answers or solutions. However certain exercises that are introduced can have questions with open-ended answers. For instance, in an email, either certain sentences in the beginning middle or end can be left blank and offered to the students to fill up appropriately. This brings home to the learner that each email message has a beginning, middle and an end or more specifically an opening, the message itself and well as a closing or a conclusion. This exercise is open-ended and hence can have multiple answers. Therefore, the instructor should be able to strike a balance between being receptive to their answers and alerting the learners if an answer is not relevant to the rest of the email.

Most of these exercises can be done by individual learners. However in a heterogeneous class wherein students possess varied capacities and abilities the same exercises can be administered in the form of group activities. A bright and intelligent student can be made to form a team with some students who are average or below average in their academic potentials. This can encourage peer learning and the students may be able to learn from other students instead of the instructor alone. In addition, they can also learn from the mistakes of the other students. This can also be an effective team building exercise wherein the relatively brighter students can assume the responsibility of teaching or helping others, thereby refining their leadership qualities.

In some cases, role playing can be introduced wherein a group of students could prepare a message in collaboration with all its group members and another group in the same class could draft a reply. This exercise could be graded based on the criteria as appropriateness, accuracy of details, language and grammar. Thus it is a form of role playing but in writing. This activity can thus become a written dialogue orally read out for the rest of the class and can also be graded simultaneously.

Apart from these, students should be taught to proof read their emails and check their spelling and grammar. In most cases the computer points these out on the screen but there can still be scope for errors. Students can be cautioned against using longwinded complicated sentences and embellished or archaic language. They can be encouraged to use short, simple sentences that are easy to understand which can minimise the scope for ambiguity in the message. A suitable complimentary close at the end of the email reinforces goodwill with the reader. The use of right graphical treatment can strengthen one’s efforts to communicate. (Lehman 104) The teacher can demonstrate this point by giving various examples during the session.

A judicious distinction can be drawn in terms of the target audience while administering these activities to bring home the nuance of email writing: while the instructor can draw the attention of the UG students to the meticulous preparation of the content, the PG students who are either poised for an entry into the industry, preparing for competitive examinations or research should be guided further to be able to draft reader oriented messages apart from the accuracy of the message itself.

Technical issues of email writing like the use of Cc, Bcc, attachments, and text and graphic effects like font size, type, colour, background colour and its implications should be elaborately discussed with the participants along with the consequences of using them. The teacher should alert the learners about how the addresses should be checked thoroughly before sending it to the desired recipients so that confidential and sensitive information does not get leaked out in any manner. Students may be discouraged to use clichés like “Please find attached the document...” or archaic phrases like “for your kind consideration” and may more contemporary, creative as well as grammatically correct substitutes for them.

In terms of assessment, emails can be written by the students and these can be graded. Additional points can be given to the students for an appropriate yet specific subject line, use of appropriate language, a sound opening, body and conclusion of the message—all written or typed in the correct format. The exercises mentioned above can also be graded by the instructor and in the PG level also by other students—to encourage peer assessment. This motivates more students to participate in these activities and helps the teacher to frame components for their continuousevaluation. Moreover, Rose M. Senior remarks,

In writing skills classes language teachers may get students in groups to talk about what is happening in a series of pictures before describing a story, talk about their own experiences before recounting them, or discuss their views and opinions in small groups before committing their ideas to paper. In short, language teachers find it unnatural to provide their students with opportunities to speak in their lessons, even in reading and writing classes. For them, speaking provide a useful and appropriate lead-in to reading and writing tasks. (81)

This principle can be aptly applied to the teaching of email writing to adult students in professional courses.

Thus email writing should be given due attention with all its details and possible roadblocks so that effective, accurate and unambiguous communication becomes possible and gradually a consistent habit among the students. If the teachers’ delivery of each of these components and the students’ assimilation of them are successful then emails become one of the most advantageous channels of communication.