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HOW TO WRITE AND SEND OFFICIAL EMAILS IN 10 EASY STEPS

Wondering whether you should address as "Sir" or just type a friendly "Hi or Hello" when you write an official e-mail?
Or are you wondering whether you should mark your mails as CC, while sending or replying to an official mail to a person or
an organisation?
Just like every correspondence, e-mail communication too has certain guidelines.
Take a look at what these are in an official capacity.
If you are applying for a position in a company or simply corresponding or replying to an email, make sure you keep the
following in mind:
1. Subject Line:
a) This is the most important part of your email. Do not type large sentences in the subject line. Remember it is important to
always use a subject line. Not using a appropriate subject line will probably result in your email, not been read or simply
deleted by the recipient.
b) Most organisations mention a subject line that you must stick to, If not, use a subject line that will get the attention of the
concerned person. Eg, Trainee Marine Engineer application or Deck Cadet application or Sponsorship for Trainee Marine
Engineer or Sponsorship for Deck Cadet or Trainee Electrical officer application, DLP submission of Cadet Roshan Kumar,
Enquiry about PJPSA course... etc. If applying for a position, It is important to indicate what rank you want to apply. This is
done as most organizations and persons filter the mails as per the positions.
c) If you are simply corresponding / requesting information use a appropriate subject line which indicates the subject you are
corresponding or asking information on.
2. Text Body or Covering letter:
a) All emails must have a text message wherein, you , must mention the name of the concerned person while starting your
covering letter. If not, you can start with Sir or Ma'am or even a mere 'Hello'. Simply sending attachments without any text
email will probably be simply deleted due to security reasons. It is like sending a parcel without a covering letter.
b) Use a proper salutation. Addressing the recipient by name is preferred. Use the person's title (Capt, Mr, Mrs, Ms or Dr.)
with their last name, followed by a comma or a colon. Optionally, you can precede the salutation with "Dear..." ("Hello..." is
acceptable as well). Using a last name is more formal and should be used unless you are on first-name terms with the
recipient. If you don't know the name of the person you're writing to (but you really should try and find it) use "Good day or
Good morning / afternoon / evening, etc".
c) Introduce yourself in the first paragraph. Also include why you're writing, and how you found that person's e-mail address,
or the opportunity you're writing about. Eg: "My name is Nikhil Barua. I'm contacting you to apply for the sponsorship listed in
the Marex bulletin dated December 31, 2009. Eg: "My name is Nikhil Barua, I have been sponsored by you and have
completed my presea training in July 2009 from TSRahaman and wish to know further procedures enabling me to join a ship
at the earliest. Eg: I am Nikhil Barua, Deck Cadet, Ex MT Charles VK Eddie and presently on leave and would like to inform
you that I am ready to join my second ship.
d) Write the actual message. Be sure to get your point across and do not ramble on! Be direct and to the point. If it's fluffed
to be longer the reader may glance over the important details.
e) The email should be no more than 5 paragraphs long, and each paragraph should be no more than 5 sentences long.
f) Never use all capitals where not required. On the Internet, it means shouting. Do not use the chat mode, SMS language or
short forms of any kind. Remember, this is an official mail. Always use sentence case format.
g) Use correct grammar, punctuations and be careful of sentence construction.
h) Close your covering letter properly. You can say 'Thanks and Regards, Yours Sincerely' and the likes, followed by your
Name, Rank, Ships name if appropriate, Presea training type and name of institute if appropriate, Address, and
contact numbers including the email address.
i) Avoid any symbols, images, icons, etc. They are a strict no-no for official e-mails. Also avoid any fancy or animated
signature Also, mention your telephone number in the e-mail even if you have already mentioned it in your attachment.
j) Though most companies prefer text only message, you could send an attachment when asked to do so. However while
attaching a document, ensure that the file is named correctly. For example, avoid attaching a file called CV.doc, biodata.doc,
document.doc, resume.doc or doc1.doc in the e-mail. Ideally, mention CV and your name as the name of the file or some
word relevant to the attachment. If you are attaching jpeg image files, ensure that they are in colour and are neither to large
or too small (ideal size of jpeg image is 800 x 600 resolution). Take care that just the image must be visible and all
unnecessary portions, margins are cropped and removed. It is important that the image has a good visual appeal and is as

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straight as possible and is properly oriented. Finally name the image appropriately ( eg: 12 marks.jpg, birth cert.jpg etc) and
avoid names like 201223.jpg, dony.jpg, dsc2012.jpg, document.jpg etc).
k) Follow a format for your attachments if mentioned. Some people or organizations may ask for a doc file or a xls file or pdf
file or jpg file and some may specifically mention not to send attachments.
l) Make sure you view the final email or the formatted document before you send it. Persons get annoyed to see a document
presented in a lousy manner.
3. Ensure that you do not send a CC to anyone else but only to the concerned person (s). You may send CC to the concerned
person (s) belonging to the same organization if appropriate. Do not forward or send your CVs to multiple people belonging to
different organizations and / or different organizations in a single e-mail.
4. Ensure that your email id is not funky, for example hotkaran@hotmail.com or karanthegreat @gmail.com or
mechkaran@hotmail.com or shippiekaran@yahoo.com. It should ideally be your real full name, not a username or nickname.
Use periods, hyphens, or underscores to secure an e-mail address that's just your name, with or without extra numbers or
letters as a suffix, if you can.
5. When using fonts, make sure you are not "creative" . Use a black colour font not to large or too small. Size 10 or 12 in Arial
or Times Roman on a white background is just right. Format your email left aligned, single line spaces with paragraphs as
required.
6. Do a virus scan of any attachment you send. You don't want your potential employer to be greeted with a virus while
opening your resume. Most importantly, make sure you don't send the wrong file as an attachment.
7. Do not use unnecessary abbreviations in official e-mails.
8. Maintain the 'thread of the conversation', that is, if someone has mailed you about something, use 'reply' instead of
'compose'. Do not change the subject line when you are sending a reply. This will help you and the recipient know the flow of
the conversation. Do not use the "reply" option if you are creating a new email with a new subject line. Take care when using
the 'reply all' function. The email will also go to the persons for whom it was not intended.
9. Reply to the sender immediately after receiving an e-mail so the recipient would know that you have received his/her
e-mail. If you cannot reply to the entire mail at that point of time, make sure you let them know that you will reply in detail at a
certain time.
10. E-mail conversations have to be clear and there should not be any scope for misunderstanding. So, be careful about your
language and be polite as all this also reflects your attitude.

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