Make your emails clear and easy to understand by properly organising them.

Organising your writing

The people you write to will understand well-organised emails much more easily.

Writer purpose

When you write an email, you need to make clear why you are writing. You can do this by using the phrase 'I am writing to (+ verb)' at the start of your email. Here are some examples:

I am writing to

ask for further details about ...
inform you that my new address is …
complain about your customer service.
say thank you very much for all your hard work.
apply for the job as Teacher of Maths at your school.

Paragraphs

Emails are easier to read if the writer uses paragraphs.
A paragraph in an email is often two or three sentences long.
Each paragraph starts on a new line.
When you start writing about a new topic, you can start a new paragraph.

Look at this example email to a friend.

Paragraph 1 Greeting	Hello Dmitri, How is life? I haven't seen you for a long time. How are your children?
Paragraph 2 Reason for writing	I'm writing with some good news – my wife is having a baby next month. We think it's going to be a girl, and we're very excited. But I also wanted to ask you something!
Paragraph 3 Request	You told me you have lots of baby clothes. Do you think I could borrow some for my baby? I've looked in the shops, and new baby clothes are so expensive … Could you let me know if this is OK?
Paragraph 4 Other news	By the way, I've also started a new job. It's going really well!
Paragraph 5 'look forward to' and ending	Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Give my best wishes to your wife and family. Regards, George

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Language level

Intermediate: B1

Thank you, I improved my email writing skills.

The message structure is very relevant.

Thanks this is help me a lot.

there were some difficulties

This unit helped me organize my email correctly.

Using this test, I learned how to organize my letters, thanks

Pretty obvious but useful information

The tasks were not difficult, I completed everything without mistakes

Very good tasks, I was able to correct my mistakes in letters

The task was interesting and useful, I did it quickly.

I have done it very quick, hope I will remember this lesson

I did everything from the first time, it was quite easy and interesting

That was easy and good unit! Kolovorotniy copmleted this one on November, 27th

thanks for organizators

It's really helpful.

Hello, In task 4, I see " we're getting married next February", is it the continuous present tense?. So could I write " we're going to marry next Feb" or " we will be married next Feb? Which correct? Could you please explain it to me? Thanks so much.

Hi Nancy,

The present continuous is often used to speak about arrange events in the future. Saying it this way implies that the wedding date has already been set, the place and reception already planned, etc.

'to marry' exists as a verb, but we don't use it as often and it's usually used transitively, for example, 'I married her when I was very young'. 'we will be married' is also possible, but when we use 'married' as an adjective, it tends to describe a state rather than a process. Instead of 'we're going to marry' or 'we will be married', most people would say 'we are getting married' to talk about the event. If the important thing was the fact that you will be a married couple in February, then 'we will be married' would be more appropriate.

If you follow the link above, you can see several example sentences which can help figure out how these words are used. If you have any more questions, please let us know.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

First of all, I would like to say "Thank you and your organization very much". I try to answer your task as i can but I enjoy it.

Such a useful website! Many thanks for your brilliant work!

When writing an email, if I want to add my resume or any other attachment to the email where should I mention it at the end of the email before the ending phrase or in between the mail??

Hello HariniJ96,

I think that the most common thing nowadays is to mention it inside the body of your email. Usually there is a sentence or paragraph where you talk about your work experience, so I would include it there.

With 'snail mail' (i.e. letters sent on paper), it is standard practice to put the words 'Enclosure: CV' or something similar, but that is not usually done in emails as far as I know.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hi, Harini, May be suitable to mention it before the ending phrase of email.

Hello, My name is Debasish Mohanty, and i am from india. i am glad that i found this website and get to learn this , it gives me confidence to write effective email . Through out my education i never got a chance to learn how a proper email should be written. Thanks a lot to your team for coming up with a course like this. I look forward to learn more easy and effective learning like this. with best wishes, Debasish Mohanty

Hello Debasish,

Welcome! Thanks for letting us know you find our site useful. I'd encourage you to take some time to look around the site, as there is an awful lot here that could potentially help you. If you're looking for something specific, please don't hesitate to let us know.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

this lesson is really useful for me to write an email that i have not done before, from now i know exactly how to write an email. thank u so much, hope u can load many lesson like this best regards, quyen

Hello Peter M, could you please help to check grammar for below email, thank you in advance. "Dear Lily, Hope everything good for you! Thanks so much for your small gift, I was very happy when had it. As we talked on the telephone on this morning, I would like to use some materials from your side for my new samples. Could you send me your material catalogues for reference if it possible? I very appreciate for your support! Look forward to hearing your feedback soon! Best Regards, Cindy Trinh"

Hello Cindy Trinh,

I'm afraid we don't provide a checking service like this. We are a small team here at LearnEnglish and if we tried to offer a service like this we would never end and have no time for our other work. We're happy to provide help regarding the material on our pages, of course, and to answer more general questions about English where we can.

Best wishes,

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

It is very interesting lesson.

Is it ok to write: ' I am looking forward to hear from you soon.' ?

Hello Nina79,

'to' in 'look forward to' is a preposition, and we use the -ing form of verbs when they come after prepositions. So if you change it to 'I am looking forward to hearing from you soon', it will be correct.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Unit 7: Organising your writing

Organising your writing

Writer purpose

Paragraphs

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Task 4

Language level