Email (electronic mail) lets you transmit information from one computer to another quickly and easily. It's a fast, convenient and cost efficient way to send letters, memos and other documents.

Because of its speedy transmission and response time, email has become a daily routine for millions of people . It's also an effective tool for reaching groups of people quickly and cost effectively.

Because many of us use email to communicate with friends and family, we tend to think of it as a relatively informal medium. But in the workplace, email is part of your professional correspondence. People form impressions of you based on what you write, and often keep your emails on file for historical and legal records.

In other words, even though the medium is the same, writing an email to a business client (or professor) is not the same as writing one to your best friend at another school.

The remainder of this module is adapted from Writing Effective E-mail: Some Guidelines, by Dr. Jim Dubinsky, Director of the Professional Writing Program at Virginia Tech (used with permission).

General Guidelines-->