How to Write a Formal Email: Examples and Templates

The six parts

• Subject line. Specific and short, six to nine words. Mobile clients cut it off around the 37th character, so front-load the meaning: "Invoice 4417 overdue - payment by 8 August" rather than "Following up".
• Salutation. "Dear Mr. Osei," for a first approach or anything formal; "Hello Grace," once correspondence is running.
• Opening line. Who you are and why you are writing, inside the first two sentences. A reader who has to scroll to find the point is already annoyed.
• Body. One subject per email, short paragraphs, and the ask spelled out with a date.
• Close. A courteous line and a sign-off. "Best regards" is the safe default almost everywhere; "Yours sincerely" and "Yours faithfully" carry their letter meanings where the register is formal.
• Signature. Full name, title, organisation, and a second way to reach you.

Put the ask first, not last

Business letters build to a request. Email inverts that, because the reader is deciding in two seconds whether this needs action. State what you want and by when in the first paragraph, then give the background underneath for whoever needs it. If your email contains a deadline, it belongs in the subject line as well as the body.

One email, one subject. Two unrelated requests in a single message means one of them gets answered and the other disappears, and neither can be forwarded to the person who should handle it.

How formal, and where

Register is the part that travels badly. What reads as brisk and efficient in one market reads as rude in another.

• US and Canada. First names quickly, "Hi" or "Hello" once you are past the first exchange, short sentences, no honorifics after the opening message. Directness is read as respect for the reader's time.
• UK and Ireland. Similar, with more hedging: "I would be grateful if", "when you have a moment". Bluntness without a softener can land badly even between colleagues.
• Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, India, the Philippines. The letter conventions survive in email. "Dear Sir/Madam" is common for a first approach, "Kindly" does a lot of work, and "Yours faithfully" still closes a formal message. Titles matter: use Dr., Eng., Prof., or the person's official designation where they use it themselves.
• Germany. The subject line is treated as part of the document (Betreff), the formal "Sie" holds far longer than English-speakers expect, and "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" is standard. Writing in English does not exempt you from the formality.
• Japan. Expect a set opening formula and heavy use of company name plus title before the person's name. Getting the honorific order wrong is more noticeable than any grammar mistake.

The safe approach anywhere: mirror what your correspondent does. Match their salutation, their level of formality, and their sign-off from their second message onward.

Example: a formal enquiry

Both examples below, a reusable skeleton, and the register notes are in the .docx.

Example: a formal reply that says no

Declining is where tone matters most. Be clear that the answer is no, give one reason, and leave the relationship intact.

To, Cc, Bcc, and reply-all

• To is for the people who must act. If nobody in the To field has something to do, the email has no owner.
• Cc is for people who need to know and are not expected to reply. Adding someone's manager to a routine thread reads as escalation whether you meant it or not.
• Bcc has two legitimate uses: mailing a group whose addresses should not be shared, and dropping someone off a thread with a line saying you have done it. Using it to copy a third party secretly into a live disagreement is the thing people are fired for.
• Reply-all only when every recipient needs your answer. "Thanks" to fourteen people is not a reply-all.
• Forwarding a chain means the whole chain travels. Read down before you send, and delete what should not go further.

Attachments

Name files as the recipient will need them, not as they sit on your machine: "Invoice-4417-Bellhaven.pdf" rather than "scan_002 final FINAL.pdf". Say in the body what is attached and what to do with it. Send a PDF where layout or signature matters, and confirm the file is attached before you send, since the apology email costs more than the ten seconds.

Following up

A working expectation in business correspondence is a reply, or at least an acknowledgement, within one working day. When nothing comes back, wait two or three working days, then reply on your own thread so the history travels with it, quote the original date, and restate the ask and the deadline in one line. A second follow-up after another week can reasonably name the consequence: that you will assume the answer is no, escalate, or make the decision without them.

Before you send

• Read the first sentence as a stranger. Does it say who you are and what you want?
• Check the recipient field last. Autocomplete picks the wrong Grace at the worst time.
• Write angry emails, then leave them. Anything with heat in it can wait an hour, and it usually gets shorter.
• Assume it will be forwarded. If a line would embarrass you in front of the person's manager, or in a disclosure, rewrite it.
• Check the subject still matches after a thread has drifted, and start a new one when the topic changes.

Sources

• Formal email conventions for 2026: six-part structure; subject lines of roughly six to nine words with mobile truncation near 37 characters; "Dear [Name]" for formal first contact and "Best regards" as the default sign-off; a reply or acknowledgement expected within about one working day.