How to write formal emails

How to write a formal email on the listserve

Courtesy of C/Cox, posted with permission

WHO: AS100's
DATE: n/a
TIME: n/a
PLACE: n/a

DESCRIPTION:

1. Good evening cadets! As promised, this is going to be an email to basically teach you all on "How to write emails". As you probably already know, the main means of communication throughout the Wing is through email. And in reality, during Active Duty you can expect the amount of emails to double or triple depending on your job than compared to in ROTC. So to make it simpler and more organized, I will start explaining on how to write a formal email like this one. Next I will send out a less formal email which you would send to about 1-5 cadets for a quick reminder or message for something.

2. So first, I'll start with the Subject of the email. In a formal email like this, there are four different words that can be used before the colon. "SUSPSENSE" (For deadlines), "ACTIVITY" (Such as a Tri-Service event or a military ball.),"FYI"(for an informative email such as this one.), and "POLICY" (For example, if we had to knock on the door before coming into the NCO office or something to that nature.) Take note how these are all in caps and should be in the Subject line. After the colon you then put whatever it is your main topic of the email is going to be about.

3. Next comes the WHO,DATE,TIME, and PLACE. This is a great way to standardize emails so that a commander can look at something very quickly and know who the email is for, when and where it is, etc. Also take note that these are in caps also with a space before you actually type the date, time, and place.

4. Following that should be one space followed by "DESCRIPTION" which will lead into the body of the email. As you can already guess, this is where you actually explain what the email is about in detail. Sometimes if you don't have a set date for an activity, it is customary to put "See below" in the "DATE" section and explain the date in the body of the email. it is very good mannered and customary to begin with a good welcoming greeting. In the body of the email, you must number your paragraphs like I have done in this one and separate them by one space. When you are finished with what you have to say in the body of the email, make one extra paragraph stating "If you have any questions, contact me at (insert contact info here).

5. Now here comes the part where 70% of all mistakes come from when sending out emails, the signature block. Starting from the last paragraph in the body of your email, there should be 3 spaces until you start your signature. The format it should be in is like this://SIGNED//First Name, MI, Last Name, Rank, AFROTCThen you put your Wing position, or flight job. (Such as Flight Safety Officer or Standardization Officer etc.)

6. One thing I believe anyone cannot stress enough is to double check your email after you are ready to send it. Once you click the "send" button. You can't get it back. For example, I still make mistakes in emails sometimes. This might seem like a lot of things to remember but after a few emails it becomes second nature. Taking a look at how the POC send out their emails is what I always use as a guideline to make sure everything I have is correct. They've been doing it longer than us GMC, and VERY rarely make any mistakes. I hope you all enjoyed LLAB1 and are ready for even more exciting LLAB's in the future!

7. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at (#) or email.


//SIGNED//
NICHOLAS J.F. COX, C/3C, AFROTC
Joint Service Representative