How to Write Effective E-mails: Penguin Writer's Guide

by R.L. Trask

Many of us are spending more and more time using emails, especially at work. This practical guide steers you through all the basics and 'netiquette' of emailing strangers, business contacts and colleagues: from setting up an email account, presentation and formatting of your emails to how to avoid offensive blunders and the legal issues surrounding this kind of writing. It offers indispensable guidance for simple and direct writing—including cultural differences, appropriate language and common pitfalls—so that your emails give the best possible impression.

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2006

About the author

Robert Lawrence "Larry" Trask was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex in England. He was an authority on the Basque language: his book The History of Basque (1997) is an essential reference on diachronic Basque linguistics and probably the best introduction to Basque linguistics as a whole. He was also an authority on historical linguistics, and had written about the problem of the origin of language. He also published two introductory books to linguistics: Language: The basics (1995) and Introducing Linguistics (coauthored with Bill Mayblin) (2000), and several dictionaries on different topics of this science: A dictionary of grammatical terms in linguistics (1993), A dictionary of phonetics and phonology (1996), A student's dictionary of language and linguistics (1997), Key concepts in language and linguistics (1999), The dictionary of historical and comparative linguistics (2000) and The Penguin dictionary of English grammar (2000).

He was at work compiling an etymological dictionary of Basque when he died, posthumously published by Max W. Wheeler (Etymological Dictionary of Basque, 2008).

Reviews

[Rachael Avakian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this is bloody antiquated. Half of it's about which features to look for when deciding which offline mailer to buy (????) Highlights include learning to keep emails short because it costs the other person to receive them (??), not to use ANY formatting because other computers can't handle it, and discovering I can't forward emails without written permission because it infringes copyright. This has in no way helped me revise for my email writing exam.

[Niklas Pivic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very simple, this is no "The Elements of Style". Instead, it is a simple to understand, straightforward book written for people who have seldom used e-mail. Also, it is slightly outdated in 2013, for instance where it notes which characters can or cannot be used in "mailers" (=e-mail software).