Sometimes I get e-mails that make me not want to reply at all. There is actually an etiquette to writing mail, but a certain group doesn’t follow it, doesn’t want to, or doesn’t know it. As the saying goes: not knowing isn’t shameful — not learning is.
The other day a mail arrived. It had no subject line, no body text, no greeting — in short, nothing. Instead of using the body, the sender had put a single sentence in the subject line — “can you help with a website?” — and hit send. Now, how am I supposed to answer that mail? And beyond that, here’s something I really dislike in mails: writing “k” instead of “okay”. I mean, this is e-mail, not a Whatsapp group.
Similarly, I once received a mail that just said “we want a website built, how much”. Let me be honest: I mostly don’t reply to people who do this. I don’t know if I’m thinking about it right, but if someone doesn’t take the other person seriously even while writing a mail, what trouble will they cause me during the actual website build — will they even pay? It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, I reply to everyone who tries to use the language properly — who can write “okay” instead of “k”, who adds even a small subject line and conveys their request nicely. I don’t care much about the “Hello”, “See you”, “Best regards” parts, because that’s really a matter of general culture. Outside the so-called white-collar crowd, hardly anyone uses them anyway.
But if you say “I want to send everyone nice mails — I want my mail to have a proper introduction, body and conclusion”, let me explain with an example. I produce a series on Youtube called Kariyer Sohbetleri (Career Talks). And when reaching out to people for this series, I usually send a mail like this;
Subject: About Career Talks
Body:
Hello,
I’m Burak Bayram. (Here I briefly introduce myself: what I do, where I studied or study if it’s relevant, where I work.) How are you? I hope you’re well — and I write an opening sentence like that.
(Then I start a new paragraph and explain why I’m writing and what I’m asking for, in polite language. I spell everything out clearly so no question marks are left in people’s minds. Sometimes I even do my research in advance and include, right in the first mail, the kind of questions I’d ask in the Career Talks interview. Of course, I also add links to sample Career Talks videos I’ve made before. I try to make the mail fully self-explanatory, and when they reply, I share my thoughts on time, date and place and wait to hear back.) (In this vein — some people mail me “Bro, can I ask you a question?” With that question, you’ve already asked me a question. It’d be nicer if you just got to the point 🙂 )
(In the section before the last paragraph, I add my footnotes.)
Closing:
See you soon,
Burak Bayram.
With mails like this, the person on the other side will understand you much better. Of course, this usually applies to first mails — afterwards, if it’s someone you more or less know, you’ll naturally continue writing in a normal conversational tone, in proper language. So you may not need the name signature or phrases like “see you” at the end. But again, it can vary from person to person. In general, this is how a mail is written. I hope I’ve been helpful.
Stay healthy, may Allah protect you, take care, goodbye!
