- 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.