A Personal Email

OK.

So let’s now go through a real example of a personal email.

We could also say a more casual e-mail we could say an informal e-mail between two friends we’ve got Kate here and Sarah here and the situation is Kate is going to visit Sarah.

OK.

Kate is going to visit Sarah and now Sarah is going to write an email.

Her purpose is to figure out when actually Kate is going to arrive.

Specifically she wants to get this detail.

She wants to know that.

But she also wants to show her excitement.

So remember as we talked about earlier in this lesson the form of the e-mail the style should follow the purpose our purpose is to show excitement and also to figure out this one bit of information.

When.

All right.

Pretty simple.

We can then be a little bit more friendly and as I mentioned earlier I use the word flowery which basically means we can be a little bit more relaxed about using words we can maybe use words we wouldn’t use in a professional email.

And we don’t have to worry too much about being super super concise.

All right.

So we have a chunk here.

This is let’s call the main body and then the question here.

Remember we should separate out the main question.

That’s what we’re trying to get this information.

So we need to make sure it’s not part of this.

Let’s just read through it and see if we can get the feeling for why this is a good way to to write an email to a friend.

OK.

Dear Kate by the way we can also take dear out of there if we want to.

If we wanted to just say hey Kate or hello Kate or hi Kate or just Kate.

I’m really looking forward to your visit next week.

We can see a lot of interesting places and I can show you some restaurants to eat local food.

OK maybe they’re old friends and they haven’t seen each other in a while.

Who knows.

OK.

So just an example just an example.

She’s just saying some of the things that they might do when Kate visits.

What’s the purpose of that.

Why would she say that.

She’s not giving any names.

She’s not asking any questions.

It’s a waste of time.

Well this is really just to be polite.

It’s also to show her excitement but also to be polite.

If she just starts the e-mail hi Kate which day do you think you will arrive.

It sounds like I have no other purpose or interest other than knowing exactly when you will be here.

And it feels very business like if we just say Kate which day do you think you will arrive.

So by saying this first we we make it feel more comfortable we can show a bit of emotion.

She feels oh wow my friend Sarah can’t wait to see me.

She’s very excited and now I can’t wait to maybe see some local restaurants or hang out or do interesting things in interesting places.

So this is good.

And it’s actually important to have something there.

You could ask a few questions instead you could say How are your kids doing.

You can.

You can use things that you know about your friend.

How are things going with the kids or how’s your job in these days.

I heard that you got a promotion so you can use information that you know to get information from them but you may just be doing that to be friendly so that you’re not saying only exactly what your question is.

Because again if you do that sounds a bit unfriendly sounds a bit cold.

And it sounds a bit to business like OK.

So something has to be there.

I like to use usually some questions some questions.

I heard that you’re going to be moving to Seattle in a few months.

Is that true.

If so let me know because I have some friends there who might be able to help you.

That would be a very simple thing to put at the beginning of an email and then maybe I have a couple of questions I’d like you to answer.

Again this is someone I know someone who I’m friends with maybe I have a long relationship with this person.

If it’s a stranger then I have nothing to ask like this.

We could still do an introduction or something but we wouldn’t be able to say anything like that then we say the purpose which day do you think you will arrive sounds a little bit softer than when will you arrive.

That sounds a little too direct.

It sounds a little too direct.

When are you coming to straight.

When do you think you will arrive.

When do you think.

Sounds much more gentle.

OK.

Now she she uses.

See you at the end of the class will go over some more of these and different ones we can use.

See you is actually pretty good.

It’s very friendly.

It’s very casual.

And then she writes her name at the bottom.

So in the personal style there can be many different ways to do it but it is important to have usually something at the beginning of the email to give it its friendly tone.

And we need to be clear that sometimes we can use dear but we don’t have to.

And also the purpose what we’re trying to get from the other person should be separate from the main body.

You can remember these things you should be able to write really clear personal emails anytime you need.