Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Reading/Speaking/Writing
Avoiding email misunderstandings
Aims
Tasks
misunderstandings.
Lead-in
Match the words and phrases in bold with the definitions below.
1 What information can you convey using your voice (i.e. face-to-face or over the phone) that you cant
convey by email?
2 Why is tone of voice important in spoken communication?
3 How can you change the tone of emails?
4 Have you ever been offended by the tone of an email from a colleague?
5 Has anyone ever taken offence at one of your emails?
6 Do you ever get the wrong end of the stick in email communication?
7 Can you think of any words or grammar structures which could be ambiguous?
8 When you write emails, do you expect the reader to read between the lines?
9 In your culture, do you often use black humour, irony or sarcasm? Why could this be a problem in email
writing?
10 In your culture, do you tend to make requests using blunt language, or is it necessary to use more subtle
language?
11 How can you avoid email misunderstandings?
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
Speaking
Now discuss the questions above with a partner. Use examples from real life, if you can. Try to use the
words in bold in your answers.
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Reading/Speaking/Writing
Avoiding email misunderstandings
Analysis
Look at the following extracts from emails. For each extract, decide (a) what the writer was trying to say, and
(b) why the reader might misunderstand the message.
Extract 1: I know how much you love staying late at the office, so youll be pleased to hear that the report
is now due on Tuesday, not Thursday as I told you last week.
Extract 2: The management team have rejected your request for a bonus after the work you did in the
takeover negotiations, which I thought was well justified.
Extract 3: Unless you fail to inform us in advance of your inability to attend the training event, you will not
be billed for those presentations which you cannot avoid missing.
Extract 4: Have I ever told you youre a terrible liar? At todays meeting, when you said youd be happy to
work as part of the project team, everyone could see it was the last thing you wanted to do!
Extract 5: Im not convinced that this is really the best approach to this problem. Also, Im a little
concerned about the budget for this project. It seems to be rather on the optimistic side.
Extract 6: Come to my office immediately. I want you to explain whats happening with the client accounts
youre responsible for.
Extract 7: Ive been thinking about new product launch. Why dont you try to find out what our competitors
spent to launch their products?
Extract 8: Ive heard many great explanations for missed targets, but yours is the best Ive ever seen. Would
you be kind enough to come to my office to discuss this, if you have time, of course?
Extract 9: Please give me your answer by the end of the week. It does matter whether I have it on Friday
afternoon or first thing Monday morning.
Extract 10: Im up to my eyes at the moment, drowning in a sea of deadlines. If theres anyone else who
can do it, itd be much appreciated. But if youre really stuck, Ill do my best to find the time.
Extract 11: Your contribution to this project has been outstanding, and you have been an absolutely critical
member of the team.
Extract 12: We need to sit down together to work out the details. Id rather meet by teleconference then
face to face, if at all possible.
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Reading/Speaking/Writing
Avoiding email misunderstandings
Review
Match the 12 extracts with the comments and advice below. With a partner, decide how to improve each
of the extracts.
a. You may think its funny to call people names face-to-face, but you always risk being misunderstood. A
simple joke can very easily become very unpleasant for both sides.
b. Emphatic do/does is a great technique in spoken English, but in written language, quick readers might
read it as a negative! If you want to use it, make it bold or underline it.
c. If you add a comment/opinion about a statement, make sure its clear which statement youre
commenting on! Be especially careful with relative clauses.
d. Check your spelling. A simple mistake like then/than could completely change your message.
e. Some words are ambiguous. Outstanding could mean excellent or late/overdue. Critical could mean
extremely important or full of negativity. Use simple words.
f. Be very careful with multiple negatives, including words with negative meanings like unless, avoid,
otherwise, etc. As a general rule, dont have more than one negative word per sentence.
g. Dont be too blunt! If you say I want you to explain XYZ, theres a power relationship between I
and you that many people consider unacceptable in modern business. Its better to say We need to
discuss XYZ.
h. Avoid black humour. If youre giving bad news, use simple, sympathetic language, like Im afraid
i. Some phrases are ambiguous. For example, Why dont you do XYZ? could be a way of making a
simple suggestion (like How about doing XYZ?), but it could also be a very direct request for an
explanation. In speech, they have different intonation. In writing, avoid them.
j. Sarcasm is not only extremely rude but also likely to be misunderstood. If you have a serious problem
to discuss with a colleague, tell them directly. Even better phone them.
k. If youre writing to other non-native speakers of English, your clever idioms are likely to be
misunderstood. And if you cant do a favour for someone, dont hide your answer in vague language.
Say Im really sorry, but I cant help you this time.
l. Sometimes we hide our criticisms in such delicate language that its difficult for the other person to
notice it. A simple phrase like Theres a problem with or a polite instruction like Could you
please? is much easier to understand.
Practice
In pairs, choose one of the extracts in exercise 3. Improve it and expand it into a full email (no more than
5 or 6 lines long). Then pass it on to another pair, who will write a reply. Use the techniques presented in
this worksheet.
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Reading/Speaking/Writing
Avoiding email misunderstandings
Level
B1/B2 (Intermediate to Upper intermediate) The
lesson should take about 60 minutes. The writing
may be done as homework to save time.
Lead-in (5 minutes)
Tell the class that, according to a recent survey,
around 1/3 of people are regularly offended by emails
(see this article from Management Today: Email is
an offensive business, http://www.managementtoday.
co.uk/channel/TechnologyInnovation/news/923463/
email-offensive-business/). Elicit some reasons,
but avoid going into all the discussion areas from
exercise 1. Students work in pairs to complete the
matching exercise. Point out that there are more
definitions than questions because some questions
have more than one bold term.
Answers
1h 2g 3l 4b 5a 6m 7n 8k 9c/f/j 10i/e 11d
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