EMAIL WRITING SKILLS

Part 1: HOW TO INFORM USING SIMPLE ENGLISH

{INFORM = give (someone) facts or information}
Here are some helpful sentence starters

Im writing to inform you about

Im writing to let you know that
Id like you to know that
I need you to know that
Youd be happy to know that
It gives me great pleasure to inform you about
 It makes me very happy to be the one to inform you about
Im happy to be the one to let you know that
Its with a profound sense of loss that Im writing to inform you about
Its with a sense of disappointment that Im writing to inform you
about
Its with a sense of relief that Im writing to inform you about
Its with a sense of joy that Im writing to inform you about
Its with a sense of great urgency that Im writing to inform you
about
Here are some of the words we can use to convey the content of our
email

event : a planned public or social occasion

E.g. Im writing to inform you about an event.

development : an event constituting a new stage in a changing

situation
E.g. Im writing to inform you about a development at my end.

occurrence : an incident or event

E.g. Im writing to inform you about an occurrence at my end.
 change : make or become different
E.g. Im writing to inform you about a change at my end.

crisis : a time of intense difficulty or danger

E.g. Im writing to inform you about a crisis at my end.

problem : a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and

needing to be dealt with and overcome
E.g. Im writing to inform you about a problem at my end.
Here are some examples of how we can write the opening lines of
an email (that seeks to inform the recipient)

> Im writing to inform you about an event. We will be celebrating

the festival of lights on 15th October. It would be wonderful if you
could join us.

> Im writing to inform you about an event. We will be celebrating

the annual day of our company on 15 th October. You are cordially
invited to grace this important occasion with your presence.
Please notice the difference between

It would be wonderful if you could join us which is for an informal

event

and

You are cordially invited to grace the occasion with your presence
which is for a formal event.
Here are some more sets of opening lines

> Im writing to inform you about a development at my end. We have

recruited two new project managers. This development will help us
become more efficient.

> Im writing to inform you about a development at my end. Two of our

project managers had to go on leave all of a sudden because of urgent
personal matters. This will cause a delay. I deeply regret the
inconvenience. When theyre back, well try and make up for lost time.
> Im writing to inform you about an occurrence at my end. Our office is
being renovated on 15th October. We will have better infrastructure after
the renovation is completed. This is great for our project.

> Im writing to inform you about an occurrence at my end. We will be

shifting to a smaller office on 15th October. Our company is going
through a rough patch. There will be a delay. I deeply regret the
inconvenience.
> Im writing to inform you about a change at my end. We are re-
configuring the two teams who are working on our project. Our objective
is to improve efficiency and we hope to succeed.

> Im writing to inform you about a change at my end. We will be

reverting to the old configuration of the two teams working on our
project. The new configuration didnt work as intended. I deeply regret
the inconvenience caused.
> Im writing to inform you about a minor crisis at our end. There was an
unscheduled power outage in our office which lasted 4 hours. This has
caused an unforeseen delay. I deeply regret the inconvenience caused.
Hopefully, we will be able to make up for lost time in a few days or
sooner.

> Im writing to inform you about a major crisis at my end. There was an
unscheduled power outage in our office which lasted 16 hours. This has
caused an unforeseen delay. I deeply regret the inconvenience caused.
Hopefully, we will be able to make up for lost time in a week or sooner.
> Im writing to inform you about a minor problem at my end. One of
the members of our team had to proceed on unscheduled leave for
personal reasons. However, we have a resource from another team who
will be filling in for her/him.

> Im writing to inform you about a major problem at my end. One of

the members of our team had to proceed on unscheduled leave for
personal reasons. This will cause a delay. I deeply regret the
inconvenience caused. Hopefully, we will be able to make up for lost
time once he/she is back.
Further, some of the sentence starters listed right at the beginning
of this presentation relay the following emotions explicitly

happiness
great pleasure
profound sadness
sense of disappointment
sense of relief
sense of joy
sense of great urgency
Here are some examples that use sentence starters which express
emotions explicitly

It makes me very happy to inform you that we will be visiting you in

December.
It gives me great pleasure to inform you that our project has been
completed.
It is with a profound sense of loss that Im informing you about the
unfortunate demise of one of our team members.
Here are some examples that use sentence starters which express
emotions

It is with a sense of disappointment that I am informing you about a

further delay in our project. Weve encountered unforeseen issues and
we need to spend time on fixing them.
It is with a sense of relief that Im informing you about the end of the
crisis we were facing.
It is with a sense of joy that Im informing you about the birth of my
first child.
It is with a sense of urgency that Im informing you that we cannot
proceed without more resources from you.
The purpose behind sharing these examples is to illustrate the
following

We can use words like development, occurrence or change

depending upon what we want to convey and our personal preferences.
Before we write an email, we need to think and decide if we want our
sentence starters to communicate some emotion explicitly.
We need to express regret whenever necessary.
We should also communicate follow up action if required.

These thoughts bring us to the end of this presentation.

The objective behind this presentation was to provide anyone who is
reading with some grammatically correct sentences in English which
can help in writing emails that inform the recipient about something.

I hope this presentation was able to provide you with some helpful
sentences which can be used to inform the recipient of your email
about some event, change, occurrence, development, crisis or problem.

Thank you and happy emailing!

~ just another trainer