📧
Year 8 • Lesson 3

Email Pro

Professional digital communication

How you write online creates an impression — make it a good one.

🎯 Learning Objectives

  • Write a formal email using correct structure, tone and etiquette
  • Identify what makes digital communication professional or unprofessional
  • Use collaboration tools (comments, shared docs) responsibly

📚 Key Vocabulary

CC / BCC
CC = others can see who got it; BCC = hidden recipients
Tone
The feeling conveyed by your word choices — formal vs informal
Digital etiquette
The unwritten rules of respectful online communication
Attachment
A file sent alongside an email

⏱️ Lesson Timing (50 mins)

🪝
Hook
5 mins

Show two emails asking a teacher for an extension. One is "hey can I have more time plz" and one is professional. Class votes on which gets the extension and WHY.

👨‍🏫
Teach
10 mins
  • Email structure: subject line, greeting, body (context → request → thank you), sign-off
  • Subject lines: specific and useful ("RE: History homework — extension request" not "hi")
  • Tone: formal for adults/institutions, semi-formal for classmates
  • CC vs BCC use cases
  • Replying vs. Reply All: the #1 office mistake
  • Word Online collaboration: comments, suggestions mode, @mentions
🛠️
Create
40 mins

Part 1: Students receive a badly written email and must rewrite it professionally (template provided). Part 2: Compose an original email to a fictional employer requesting work experience, with a CV attached (use a template). Part 3: Open a shared Word Online, leave two constructive comments and one suggestion using Suggesting mode.

Tools:
OutlookWord Online
📢
Share
5 mins

Peer review: swap emails with partner. Use the checklist (clear subject? right greeting? professional tone? correct sign-off?) and score 1-4 for each.

🔧 Tools & Resources

🤖 AI Angle

AI can draft emails — but you need to know what a good email looks like to judge whether the AI got it right.

📝 Evidence of Learning

Rewritten email + original professional email + annotated shared document

📚 Homework

Find a real job or apprenticeship that interests you. Write the email you'd send to request more information. Save to portfolio.

⏱️ 20 mins

♿ Differentiation

Support (for students who need help)

Email frame with sentence starters provided

Extension (for advanced learners)

Research "email marketing subject lines that work." Apply one technique to their work experience request email and explain why.