Business English lesson 5 : You’ve got an email
Reading

Read the following text

Writing subject lines in business like situations or more formal situations.

If your email inbox is like most people’s today, you’re probably getting 60 to 100 emails a day. Now, if you’re a manager, you’re getting about 200 to 300 emails a day, and high-level executives are getting 500 to 700 emails a day.

Here’s a simple system you can follow to write more effective subject lines — I like to call it the “SIS Principle”. Why “SIS”? Because it’ should be Short, Informative, and Specific.

Example : Cancelling a meeting. So, first, Short: What’s the key message? What’s the key word, here? What’s it all about?”: a meeting.

Then make it Informative :  Give them some more information about the meeting. Which meeting? Where? What?” June Seventh Meeting. Now, you’ve made it informative. Next, make it Specific : What about that meeting? Why are you writing about the June seventh meeting?” Tell them: “Cancelled”.

Now, even if somebody’s really in a hurry, you will have conveyed a very important message to them.

This is so much better than just saying: “Hi”, or “Good Morning”, or “Dear John”.

So let’s pretend you’re applying for a job. You can follow the SIS principle to help you to write an effective subject line. Again, start with the word “Job”, in terms of your thinking, then “Teaching Job”, and then “French Teaching Job Number 52”. That’s the way to do it.

Now, let’s suppose again, another business scenario regarding a conference. That’s the basic subject: “Conference” — short. Get a little more informative: which conference? The Marketing Conference”. Then get specific. You could say, for example: “Confirming Attendance: Marketing Conference”.

USEFUL VOCABULARY FOR SUBJECT LINES: 
(Here are some verbs and some nouns that you can use, and that will save you time when you’re trying to write that very effective subject line: 

“Cancelled” means called of.
“postponed” means delayed.
“Confirmed”, “booked” mean the same as reserved.
“Shipped” means the same as sent. 
“Delivered” means your package arrived.
“Requested” means you’re asking for something.
“Rescheduled” means the timing of something change approved” means somebody gave their okay.
Here are some nouns:
“Arrival”, “interview”, “introduction.
“Referral”. you’re referring somebody or recommending somebody for a position or for a job.
“Follow-up work/ interview”.
“Inquiry” in case you’re asking information about something, or “proposal”, in case you’re making a proposal to a company regarding something).