Writing Professional Emails
Writing a professional email is as important as speaking professionally. Many times in my career my sole interaction with fellow professionals has been via email. It was my only chance to make a professional impression on them.
Every email you send is a representation of you and your firm. It is very important to have polished, well-written emails and a keen understanding of email etiquette.
Period! ✋
In this blog we are going to cover some of the basics such as grammar, structure and etiquette.
Rule #1
YOU MUST HAVE PROPER GRAMMAR. Forgive me for going all caps on you there; however, I have seen legal professionals I love and care about literally send emails where they didn’t capitalize the first sentence in the email, one where the word “I” was not capitalized and many that simply omitted periods.
Periods are the most basic form of grammar. And there are really only three rules to remember when it comes to periods.
- They go at the end of every sentence.
- When a sentence ends in an abbreviated word, you do not add an additional period.
- Exclamation points and question marks replace periods.
Here are a few examples of the second and third rules.
The only two in attendance were John Adams, M.D. and Roderick Jones, Esq.
Can you believe the only two in attendance were John Adams, M.D. and Roderick Jones, Esq?
BTW, TBH
Work emails are NOT text messages among friends. You should never, never, ever send a work email that looks like a text message. I don’t care how comfortable you are with your colleagues.
There are many reasons why your emails must look professional but the number one reason is that you are a professional. And your emails should reflect that.
Further, you never know where those emails could end up. Should you have to hand a case over to another professional, possibly even another firm, your emails could be reviewed by the highest of your superiors, such as your client.
The relationship the client has with the firm is the most important relationship to the firm and if your client sees an unprofessional work product from you, they are certain to lose trust in your abilities.
Capital Offenses
Always capitalize the following:
- Proper Nouns
- Adjectives that use Proper Nouns
- People & Titles
Basically
I am going to get very basic with this because I have seen so many errors over the years. Capitalize every word that begins a sentence. Even if it is a name that begins with a lowercase letter, such as eBay or iPhone.
Capitalize all people when they are written as proper nouns.
The Pope | Pope John Paul
The Queen | Queen Elizabeth
The President | President Obama
El Chapo | Chapo Guzman
Jobs are not capitalized, job titles are.
Paralegal Valentina Z. Harris of Paralegal Power Co.
Valentina Z. Harris is a paralegal for Paralegal Power Co.
Media Titles
Capitalize newspapers, magazines, book titles and movie titles.
In Some Instances
In titles, prepositions ARE NOT capitalized, UNLESS it is at the beginning of the title.
Rule #2
Do not address your email until you are completely finished writing, proofreading and editing the email.
Rule #3
Create a concise subject line.
The best subject lines are three to five words.
Think of keywords when you are creating a subject line. If you or the person you are sending this to had to search their email to find it, what would be the most sensical keywords used in such a search.?
In the legal field, this is typically the client’s case number and or name. However, if you are sending correspondence to your client, you may just want to use this subject line:
CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL CORRESPONDENCE (And then a brief subject such as “Pleading Review” here.)
I use that subject line a lot for my clients. Given that our email accounts are typically easily accessible from our phones, I think we should take that small extra measure to make sure our confidential communication stays that way.
But if you are not using that template:
- Start with the most important part first.
- Start with action words.
- Be specific and direct.
Rule #4
Don’t forget your introduction. You know I use TextExpander so I have literally at least 20 different personalized salutations that are just a few keystrokes away. Such as:
.gm
Good Morning,
I hope this email finds you well this morning.
.badweath
Hello,
I hope this email finds you somewhere free from this bad weather we have been having.
That means I type the text “.gm” and it automatically populates the above salutation. I have many more expansive salutations. These are just two basic examples. I am a big TextExpander fan.
TextExpander doesn’t just make being friendly and polite easy, it saves the average person over 60 hours a month in time. You would think it is expensive, it is $3 a month. No reason not to give yourself this advantage over the competition.
Rule #5
Write purpose-driven emails. You are on a mission. You have business to get done. Make sure you cover:
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
Give the recipient the information they need to help you complete your objective in a way that is organized and easy to read.
- Bullet points? Why not.
- Numbered lists? You got that.
- Highlighted Text? If necessary, sure.
Rule #6
Always spread positive energy. Either in your introduction, the body of your email and/or conclusion.
Also known as “be polite.”
Word Exchange
You can enter words that are very similar but nonetheless different words into a Google search and regardless you will get different results. How we communicate with each other is just the same.
Instead of using the word “want” try “would like.”
I want to know if the meeting is still on this Friday?
I would like to know if the meeting is still on this Friday?
The attorney wanted the subpoena issued last week.
The attorney would have liked the subpoena issued last week.
Make sure to show your appreciation for the recipient. How do you do that? Simply write, “You are appreciated. Thank you.”
Rule #7 Be Clear
Sometimes there can be a misunderstanding. I used to handle this by saying something like :
I apologize if…
I apologize for…
I apologize for the confusion…
However, I no longer apologize for things like I used to. I certainly apologize if I am wrong, but I found I was saying I am sorry or I apologize when there is no reason for me to be apologetic.
But you still want to convey a sense of ownership for the situation and not place blame, right? It is easily done by saying:
Thank you for your patience with this confusing situation; (then clarify the situation.)
It’s that easy. Change all of your “I am sorry’s” and “I apologize for” to “thank you for your understanding, patience, etc.” Or “I appreciate your understanding, patience, etc.”
Now you have taken ownership of the situation and shown appreciation while clarifying the situation and moving things along.
Rule #8 Proofread Your Emails
Do you know the most amazing lawyers and professionals typically read their emails once before sending?
Some read them multiple times, which is crazy. We should all at the very least be using Grammarly’s free service. In which case proofing the typical email once is sufficient. It will show if you fail to proofread your emails.
Make sure before you follow Rule #2 and address your email that you have considered the recipient in their entirety. Such as the person’s title, position, culture, gender, age and or ability to understand legal terms.
If you found this blog post useful, subscribe to our blog then scroll down to find other related Paralegal Power Blogs. Make sure you take advantage of HubSpot’s Free Email Generator and use them to create engaging email templates too. It’s all free.
FREE FOREVER | NO CREDIT CARD NEEDED
Check out our previous blogs.
About the Author
Valentina Zapata Harris
Mother | Advocate | Blogger
If you enjoyed this blog post, you might like these ones as well.
