Informal e-mail

In today's class we will be looking at how to write an informal e-mail to someone. You will be using your school mail account to do this activity.

Like letters there are a number of parts to an informal e-mail. The first part of an e-mail is the greeting. This is normally followed by a brief introduction. The second part, which contains most of what you want to say is called the body and the last part is the closing or conclusion. We will be looking at each of these parts of the e-mail.

Some people start the greeting with just “Hi” or “Hello” and the person’s’ name. However, some people prefer to use a salutation like they do in a letter and write ‘Dear’ followed by their friend’s first name. “Dear” is slightly more formal or polite, but you probably don’t need to use it with a friend. After the name you usually put a comma “,” and then you start a new line.

The introduction of a spoken e-mail is very like the start of an English conversation. You would normally ask how the person you are writing to is and thank them for any previous e-mail. The introduction would normally explain what your e-mail is going to be about. Normally the introduction would be a separate paragraph.

The main part of the e-mail is the body. This can be one or more paragraphs. The main differences between the body of a formal letter or mail and an informal one are the type of words and expressions used. Also informal mail will use symbols such as the smiley :-) to show you are joking or happy, the frown :-( to show that the person is sad or unhappy. Informal mail also uses abbreviations, such as IMHO, which is used to give an opinion or FYI which is used when you give someone information. There are others as well such as LOL and BTW. Do you know what these mean?

The conclusion of the mail usually includes some closing expression such as, “that’s all for now” or “bye for now.” It will also often contain some kind of encouragement for the person to respond to your e-mail, such as “hope to hear from you soon.” The last thing in the mail is normally the signature, that is the writer’s first name. This may be preceded by an expression such as “best wishes” or “love” if it is a very close friend.