Newsletter #5 – Don't panic

We continue talking in English about English. Last time Dima and Viacheslav discussed email. In the world of IT writing emails became an integral part of our business communication. Writing effective emails is a tricky thing, doing that in English is even more so.

One of the things that helps writing better emails is appropriate use of phrases often found in electronic messages. Here is good list of useful phrases to make your emails better looking for English-speaking recepients.

Click to see all Dos and Don'ts of email communication

Be it English or any other language there are certain rules, which in many situations can help keep the conversation focused. Friend of the show Andriy Kryvtsun shares great advice on effective use of email in a corporate setting.

If a letter is too short I will keep the email body empty and put all info into the letter subject with postfix "EOL" (end-of-letter). E.g. "Subject: Thanks for the info EOL" or "Subject: Already done EOL". It shows to recipient needed info in his Inbox letters list but lets him know he doesn't need to open the letter.

Do you know who to put in TO and who to put in CC? Do you use email as decisions trail by sending minutes after meetings? Check out Andriy’s comment.

Idiom of the week

Sometimes before sending out an important email you can be on pins and needles. Pretty much like Elon Musk before Tesla 3 unveiling. Well, we do not know that for sure, but Leo Laporte of TWiT thinks so:

Cambridge Dictionary defines that as: be nervously waiting to find out what is going to happen. And if you search Goolge for the definition much more interesting version will come up – “be in an agitated state of suspense”. How do you like that?

Up Next

Next time Dima and Viacheslav will discuss their favorite resources, which help them learn new things and improve English at the same time. No wonder Dima will talk about his podcast addiction and Viacheslav will bring useful things from his vast teaching exerience. One of the great resources he came across recently is Oxford 3000 – a list of the 3000 most important words to learn in English. The words are carefully selected and split into lists according to their importance and usefulness. It can greatly help to extend your vocabulary.

Tune in next week!