- In this video, you'll learn how to format an email, including parts of the email, what to capitalize, where to leave spaces, and empty lines, and how to do the optional signature block at the end. Here's an example of an email that's formatted correctly. Let's look at the parts of this email.
First we have the subject, the subject is like a short title that tells your reader what your email is about. Then we have the salutation where you're saying hello to your recipient. In the body of the email, you write your message.
Then you have your closing where you sort of say goodbye. Then you have your electronic signature, which is your first and last name. And then at the bottom, sometimes there is an optional signature block.
You don't need a signature block, but many people use them. And you might also want to have one. Let's now talk about what to capitalize in your email.
First, let's talk about what to capitalize in your subject. We capitalize subjects like we capitalize a book title, but what do we capitalize in book titles? We capitalize the first word, the last word, and important words.
How do we know if a word in a title or an email subject line is important? Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are important words in a title and should be capitalized. Here's some examples.
People like teacher, boy, and parent. Of course, there are many, many hundreds of other words that could be people, places. Three examples are school, city, and library.
Things like book, homework, idea. Actions like run, ask, meet, or help. Adjectives like sick, easy, great.
And adverbs like not, very, and always. What about words that are not important and should not be capitalized? These include articles, conjunctions, or prepositions that are three letters or shorter like these.
And, but, by, for, or, in, if, out, of, off, so, on, a, an, and the. These are examples that are used often but, of course, there are many other words that are not important in titles and should not be capitalized. Now we've talked about what to capitalize in the subject, what about the salutation?
In a salutation, capitalize the first word plus all nouns. Let's look at some other examples of email salutations. Here we have, Dear Hiring Manager, Dear Professor Smith, Dear Board of Directors, Dear Mom and Dad, and Dear Sofia.
There are two types of email salutations. The first three examples that we see here are formal salutations. At the end of a formal salutation, the punctuation you use is called a colon, or the two dots that you see used at the end of our first three examples.
You need to use a formal email salutation when you're writing emails with job applications, emails to leaders in your company, school, or community, and emails to other people in higher positions. The other type of email salutation is an informal salutation. Like the last two that you see here.
At the end of an informal salutation, the punctuation you use is a comma. Informal salutations are used when you write to friends and family, people you see daily or often, and sometimes to teachers or professors. It depends on the culture and the relationship you have with the person, just as any email salutation does.
So we've covered what to capitalize in the email subject and salutation. Now let's talk about the closing. In the closing, you capitalize only the first word.
The second word in a closing should not be capitalized. Here's some examples of other email closings that are formal, professional, and will work in almost any situation. Best regards, Sincerely, Thank you, Best, Yours truly, and Respectfully.
Now we've reviewed capitalization, let's look at where we need to leave empty lines and spaces in your emails. First, leave an empty line after your salutation. Always leave empty lines between paragraphs, leave one empty line before your closing, and one empty line after your closing.
Notice you do not need an empty line or a comma after your electronic signature. Now let's talk about the optional signature block. The signature block contains contact information about the sender, as well as information like the sender's website, YouTube channel, or other professional contact information.
Here's example one with the name, email, website, and YouTube channel. Here's example two, you have the person's name, phone number, position, or job. Notice after the job, you have the company, and between those two, a comma.
Finally, after that, you have his mailing address at the bottom. Here we have example three, that's very similar to example two, except that the company name and the job or position appear on two different lines. So we don't need to separate them with a comma.
Here we have example for a signature block of a university student, where you have the person's name, phone number, position, which is student, and his university. So now we've concluded our video on how to format an email. I hope that this video helped you.
Thanks a lot for watching.
