2. TCS Rules
10 minutes only
Use all the phrases given.
No evaluation if less than 70 words
Use 70 to 80 words
Name of the sender and receiver should be given.
Use the phrases in given sequence.
Tense should not change.
Use 7 minutes for writing and 3 minutes for proofreading.
Write XYZ if no name is given to be written.
AVOID USING ‘AND’ .USE SMALL SENTENCES.
3. Things to keep in mind
Perception about the Receiver
Receives email in bulk quality.
May receive compliments regularly, if they are a public figure.
Does not have free time.
Does not mind helping you, if it is fast.
Perception about the Sender
Spends long time crafting the ‘perfect’ (-ly long) email.
Believes that their request is original, unique, and special.
Believes that they are the first to ask for such favors.
Cannot imagine why anyone would turn them away.
Desires to tell the whole story, explained from every angle, so that the listener can understand
their point of view.
4. Email: Introduction
Email is currently the most used communication channel in the business
environment, as businesses rely on it heavily for sending messages across
long distances in a short time.
Business email etiquette encompasses a set of rules indicating effective,
proper and polite ways to behave when sending and receiving emails. The
rules of etiquette are focused on how messages should look and on what they
should contain.
5. Style :Email Form
1. Email Address
2. Subject
3. Salutations and Closings
4. Font
5. Paragraph Spacing
6. Signature
7. IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE
E-MAIL:
Subject Line
E-mail subject lines are like newspaper headlines. They should convey the main point of your e-mail or the
idea that you want the reader to take away from your e-mail. Therefore, be as specific as possible.
Greetings
Use some kind of greeting.. Don’t just start with your text..
Dear Mr Smithson, Dear Ms Stringer.
It is also becoming quite common to write the greeting without a comma,
e.g. Dear Miss Lawson
e.g. Dear KK
8. IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN
EFFECTIVE E-MAIL:
Endings
End the message in a polite way. Common endings are:
Yours sincerely, Best regards, Best wishes, Regards,
If you did not put a comma after the greeting at the beginning of the message, then do not put a comma
after the ending either,
e.g. Best wishes
e.g. Regards
Names
Include your name at the end of the message. It is most annoying to receive an email which does not include the
name of the sender.
Kind regards
Ram Kapor
Human Resources Manager
9. IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE
E-MAIL:
Use Simple English
i. When the writing is too formal or uses irrelevant technical language, it is difficult for
laymen to understand..
ii. Use conversational English.
iii. Be authentic and realistic.
Font Matters
Fonts that are too small, too large, or otherwise hard to read (i e. 8 point, all bold.) makes
us not want to read the email as well.
Beware of your fonts in your ‘presentation’. Do not bold the entire email, use easy to read
fonts (ie. Arial), and use a standard size.
10. IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE
E-MAIL:
Closing remarks
Before you end your email, it's polite to thank your reader one more time as well as add
some courteous closing remarks.
1. "Thank you for your patience and cooperation." or
2. "Thank you for your consideration." and then follow up with,
3. "If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to let me know." and
4. "I look forward to hearing from you."
11. Sending emails
Salutations
1. Dear Mr/ Mrs/ Ms/ Miss Sita
2. Dear Sir/ Madam
3. Dear Jay
Signing off
1. Yours sincerely/ Yours
2. Yours faithfully
3. (With) Best wishes/ Kind regards
4. See you soon/ Hear from you soon
12. Sending emails
Opening phrases
1. In reply to your letter ... .
2. Thank you for your letter of May
14th concerning … .
3. Thanks for your email ... .
4. Following our telephonic
conversation ... .
Closing Phrases
1. Please contact me again if you need
any more information.
2. If I can be of any further assistance,
please do contact me again.
3. Let me know if you need anything
else.
4. I look forward to hearing from you.
13. Reason for writing
This letter/ email is to ... .
I am writing to ... .
I am pleased to ... .
Could you please ... .
Would you please ... .
Please email me ... .
Just a quick note to ... .
I am sorry to inform you ... .
Unfortunately ... .
I’m sorry about ... .
I apologize for ... .
14. TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE E-MAILS
Think about your message before you write it.
Don’t send e-mails in haste. First, decide on the purpose of your e-mail and what outcome
you expect from your communication. Then think about your message’s audience and what
he/she/they may need in order for your message to have the intended result.
Jot down some notes about what information you need to convey, what questions you have,
etc., then organize your thoughts in a logical sequence.
Reflect on the tone of your message.
When you are communicating via e-mail, your words are not supported by gestures, voice
inflections, or other cues, so it may be easier for someone to misread your tone.
Strive for clarity and conciseness in your writing.
Miscommunication can occur if an e-mail is unclear, disorganized, or just too long and
complex for readers to easily follow.
15. TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE E-
MAILS--CONTINUED
Briefly state your purpose for writing the e-mail in the very beginning of your message.
Be sure to provide the reader with a context for your message.
Use paragraphs to separate thoughts (or consider writing separate e-mails if you have
many unrelated points or questions).
Finally, state the desired outcome at the end of your message.
Format your message so that it is easy to read. Use white space to visually separate
paragraphs into separate blocks of text. Bullet important details so that they are easy to pick
out. Use bold face type or capital letters to highlight critical information, such as due dates.
(But do not type your entire message in capital letters or boldface
Proofread Re-read messages before you send them. Use proper grammar, spelling,
capitalization, and punctuation.
16. Using the Passive Voice
Good business writing doesn’t permit the use of excessive passive
verbs. The passive voice is used in situations where you don’t want to
attribute the action to a particular person or group. As a general rule,
you should use few passive verbs in your writing
NO Abbreviations
Write all verbs in full. Do not use contracted forms like don’t or can’t.
Do not use abbreviations such as info (for information) and asap (for
as soon as possible).
17. •Watch your vocabulary. Certain words are considered informal. Examples are: fix, begin,
start, OK, thanks etc. Avoid them in formal writing.
• Instead use words like repair (for fix), commence (for start / begin), in order / all right
(for OK) and thank you (for thanks).
•Avoid informal intensifiers like really and so. Instead use more sophisticated ones such as
extremely, highly, entirely etc.
Certain discourse markers are considered informal. Avoid using them. For
example, write incidentally instead of by the way.
Do not leave out words. Ellipsis is not acceptable in formal writing. Write ‘I hope
to see you soon’ instead of ‘Hope to see you soon.’
18. TIPS FOR WRITING MORE EFFECTIVE E-
MAILS--CONTINUED
Cc: and Bcc: (‘carbon copy’ and ‘blind carbon copy’)
Copying individuals on an e-mail is a good way to send your message to the
main recipient while also sending someone else a copy at the same time. This
can be useful if you want to convey the same exact message to more than one
person.
Blind copying e-mails to a group of people can be useful when you don’t want
everyone on the list to have each other’s e-mail addresses. The only recipient
address that will be visible to all recipients is the one in the To: field.
19. Using Colon
Colons are used before explanations.
•We decided to cancel the match: it was raining.
A colon is used when direct speech is introduced by a name or short phrase.
It is also used when famous sayings are quoted.
•Bacon says: ‘Reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, speaking a ready
man.’
•Polonius: ‘What do you read, my lord?’
•Hamlet: ‘Words, words, words.’
Letters
Americans usually put a colon after the opening salutation in a business letter.
Dear Mr James:
I am writing to …
British usage prefers a comma or no punctuation mark at all in this case.
20. Examples of Common Mistakes
1. Too Personal in Content
2. Too Emotional
3. Too Crowded
4. Too Informal
24. Dear Mr Ram,
I am writing in reference to the current situation with the Delhi Airport Project. We have a number of
questions which we hope you could answer.
First of all, could you please provide us with an update on where you are on the Delhi Airport Project. We
would also appreciate it if you could clarify what the current issues with the delivery system are, and confirm
when you expect them to be resolved.
Could you also please confirm whether the post-installation support covers the equipment 24 hours a day? And
what is actually included in the support? In particular, we would like to have confirmation if the cost of parts
and labour are included in the package? We require this information as soon as possible.
And lastly, we are considering extending the period of the post-installation support from your company from 6
months to 12 months. We would be very grateful if you could provide us with a quote for this extension.
I would really appreciate it if you could deal with these matters urgently.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Roni Tripathi
Development Manager
25. Confusing words exercise
Complete the following sentences using an appropriate word.
1. We must follow the ……………… of our elders. (advice / advise)
2. My parents were ……………….. happy with my performance. (quiet /
quite)
3. Prolonged use of powerful drugs will ……………….. our health. (affect
/ effect)
4. Nobody wants to live in a locality ……………… with criminals. (infested
/ infected)
5. The police ………………. him because he was found guilty. (arrested /
released)
6. He walked ………….. foot. (bear / bare)
7. The master sent the boy to the ………………. shop to buy some paper.
(stationery / stationary)
8. 10 miles ……………… a long way to walk. (is / am)
9. You must not ……………….. important facts about your health from
your doctor. (conceal / console)
10. They live in a small house ………………. the river. (beside / besides)
11. After finishing his work, he …………….. down to rest. (lay / lied)
12. As they had no children of their own, they ……………… a baby.
(adopted / adapted)
26. Keep writing.
That is true. Your writing skills improve with practice.
Therefore, make it a habit to write at least 200 words a day.
Keep a diary. In this digital age, blogging is perhaps better than
writing a diary. Participate in online forums where people
express their ideas in English.
28. Correct mail
Dear Mr. Blankship ,
The invoice we received yesterday from your office was dated 25 February.
The date mentioned is incorrect .The original invoice is attached herewith which
bears the date as 28 February. Please correct the date and resend the invoice.
This will help us to send the funds promptly by the end of the day.
Let me know if you need anything else.
Regards,
Isabelle
30. visited - restaurant-weekend-friend from Bangalore-
reservation- wait-half an hour-bad service- waiters-
rude- long time- food arrive-cold- bill -late- surprised-
act immediately- good reputation
31. Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to complain about the unacceptable treatment that we
received when we visited your restaurant last weekend with one of
my friend from Bangalore. We had made reservation for the tables
still we had to wait for half an hour to be served. The incompetence
of the bad service needs a mention here as waiters were rude and
took long time to serve us.
Lastly when food arrived it was cold. To add to our woes the bill was
served late which surprised us with unnecessary charges.
I very much hope that in future you will take care of these mistakes
and act immediately so that restaurant’s good reputation does not go
at stake.
Warm Regards
XYZ
32. inform - project delivery- delayed- key team member-
sick-food poisoning- last minute- unexpected- trying -
substitute- required skill set- lost time- delay by one
week- apologies
33. Dear Sir/Madam
With utmost regret I would like to inform you that the project
delivery will be delayed. This is due to one of our key team
member has fallen sick due to food poisoning at the last
minute. This was unexpected. We are trying for a substitute
with the required skill set but it would take some time.
The lost time might lead to delivery of project delay by one
week.
We have our sincere apologies but we would like to be given
one week more for the completion of the project.
Thanks & Regards
XYZ
35. Dear Sir/Madam
I am Nidhi Pandey working in the capacity of a programmer in the
department of IT in this organization. I would like to recommend my
friend Ram for the vacant post of Programmer analyst in the
company. I have known Ram personally for over ten years, and have
always known him to be an organized, responsible, and a pleasant
person to work with.
I believe that his skills and experience will be a good addition to our
team. I am attaching his resume for further perusal.
I would be happy to provide further information if required.
Thanks & Regards
XYZ
