WRITING EMAILS LEARNING OBJECTIVE Write emails that ALL

WRITING EMAILS! LEARNING OBJECTIVE Write emails that… ALL: …appropriately meet the needs of their purpose and audience. MOST: …clearly and confidently meet the needs of their purpose and audience. SOME: …imaginatively and precisely meet the needs of their purpose and audience.

EMAILS PROS AND CONS Quicker to send – You don’t need to spend time printing letters off, putting them in envelopes, getting stamps, or going to the postbox! Less personal – Emails are not crafted by hand. With letters, the sender is personally taking the time to write and send a letter. Quicker to receive – You receive an email almost immediately. Essential if it is about something urgent or important. Not as nice to receive – Most people would prefer to receive a letter. Someone has gone to write it and get it to them. Can edit easily. Can go back to see what has been sent and received. Saves the environment! Your inbox can become full of spam and get viruses. There is little danger of this with a letter!

EMAILS! Definition: messages distributed by electronic means from one computer user to one or more recipients via a network. e. g. “reading email has become the first task of the morning" Email has revolutionised the way in which we communicate with one another over the past 20 years or so (although the very first email was actually sent way back in the mid 1960 s! By the end of 2016, there were 2 billion email users worldwide, and 150 billion emails sent per day. Email is now vital in all aspects of many peoples’ lives, including for work, recreation, and building relationships. In this lesson, we will be looking at how to write an email correctly depending upon its audience and the purpose.

OUR LEARNING JOURNEY Identify the basic features and functions of emails. Understand how audience and purpose affect language. Compose my own languageappropriate email responses.

INTRODUCTION Firstly, let’s ensure that we all understand the different features of emails. Look at the worksheet shown on the right, which requires you to identify each of the features of the email. You should then identify each feature’s purpose. Think about what its role is in the email? Why is it there? EXTENSION: Think – do any of these features look different depending upon who the letter is written to/ what the letter is about?

ANSWERS

OUR LEARNING JOURNEY Identify the basic features and functions of emails. Understand how audience and purpose affect language. Compose my own languageappropriate email responses.

PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE It is impossible to teach you one set of rules about how to write an email: every aspect of the content, language and tone of an email depends upon two things – the purpose and the audience. The purpose means what the email is written for. Why has the sender chosen to write the email – what information or action do they need? The audience means who the email is written to. What relation is the recipient to the sender? How well do they know each other? Is there relationship business or personal? These two aspects hugely influence how the email is written. It is that we will explore in this section of the lesson.

PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE TASK Draw a line across a piece of paper/ your exercise book, horizontally, as shown below. Label one end ‘formal’ and one end ‘informal. ’ Formal means serious, professional, and done in accordance with etiquette. Informal means casual, friendly, and not always following the rules exactly. You will be given a set of cards, which detail the purpose and audience of some emails that may be sent in real-life. Your task is to place each card on the gradient between formal and informal. Examples are given on the next slide. Remember, you must be able to justify your choice! Extension – think of your own email purposes and audiences – where would you place them on the continuum and why? Informal Formal

FINDING CONTENT AND LANGUAGE FEATURES You are now going to be shown one example of a formal email and one example of an informal email.

CONTENT IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL EMAILS Formal emails Informal emails Polite – tell what needs to be known More honest – tells what the sender actually thinks! Less emotional More emotional Well-structured and ordered – in paragraphs Less structure – may jump between topics and content Stays on topic – focused, rational May stray off topic Only includes text, punctuation, and attachments Uses most professional email address May include emoticons and other nonstandard content features Uses personal email address

LANGUAGE IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL EMAILS Formal emails Informal emails Complete sentences (subject and verb) Not always full sentences (e. g. ‘But why? ’ No contractions Contractions – ‘I’m’ instead of ‘I am. ’ Conjunctions Comma splices Ordinary verbs Phrasal verbs No acronyms or abbreviations Acronyms and abbreviations Greetings include ‘Dear’ or ‘To whom it may concern’ Sign-offs such as ‘Yours Sincerely’ or ‘Best Regards’ Greetings such as ‘hey’ or ‘how’s it going? ’ Sign-offs like ‘talk to you later’ or ‘bye. ’

OUR LEARNING JOURNEY Identify the basic features and functions of emails. Understand how audience and purpose affect language. Compose my own languageappropriate email responses.

MAIN TASK – WRITE AN EMAIL You are now going to draft a real-life email! Choose one of the email topics/ purposes/ audiences below. You will need to use the knowledge that you have gathered about emails over the lesson, in addition to your skills of creativity and imagination, in order to compose the most appropriate emails. WRITE AN EMAIL… …To a relative, telling them about how lockdown is going; … To your teacher, asking him/her how lockdown is going; …To the government, asking them how (if? ) they’re dealing with the virus; …To your buddy, asking him or her how they’ve been coping during the lockdown; Remember to make your emails appropriate for audience and purpose!

PLENARY ASSESSMENT Look at your email. Which award should you receive, and why? BRONZE AWARD SILVER AWARD GOLD AWARD - Shows some awareness of the correct structure of an email; - Has some awareness of audience and purpose; - Uses some of the language features appropriately; - Uses some of the content features appropriately. - Shows a clear awareness of the correct structure of an email; - Has a clear awareness of audience and purpose; - Uses a range of the language features clearly and appropriately; - Uses a range of the content features clearly and appropriately. - Shows creativity and precision in applying the correct structure of an email; - Points are elaborated on in detail, and are highly appropriate for audience and purpose; - Uses a range of the language features confidently, accurately and imaginatively; - Uses a range of the content features confidently, accurately and imaginatively.