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AI prompts for writing emails

Email is where most people first find an AI assistant useful. It is good at turning rough notes into a clear, polite message, and at shortening a message that rambles. It does not know your office, your reader or what was agreed last week, so the prompts below make you supply those facts.

Write your notes in any order, even in mixed Hindi and English. The assistant will sort them out. What it cannot do is guess a fact you left out.

The prompts

Turn rough notes into an email

Use this when you know what you want to say but not how to say it.

Write an email from my notes below.

To: [WHO THE READER IS AND HOW WELL I KNOW THEM]
Purpose: [WHAT I WANT THE READER TO DO OR KNOW]
Tone: polite and direct, plain English, no flattery.
Length: under 120 words, with a clear subject line.

My notes:
[PASTE YOUR NOTES]

Do not add facts, dates or promises that are not in my notes. If something important is missing, list your questions before writing.

Replace the parts in [CAPITALS] first, or after pasting.

A polite reminder

For a payment, a reply or a document that has not arrived. The second reminder can be firmer than the first, so say which one it is.

Write a reminder email. This is reminder number [1, 2 OR 3].

What I am waiting for: [THE REPLY, PAYMENT OR DOCUMENT]
First asked on: [DATE]
Needed by: [DATE AND WHY]
Reader: [THEIR ROLE, FOR EXAMPLE A CLIENT OR A COLLEAGUE]

Keep it under 80 words. Be courteous, assume they are busy and not careless, and make the next step easy for them. Give me a subject line too.

Replace the parts in [CAPITALS] first, or after pasting.

Reply to an unhappy customer or colleague

Paste the message you received. Remove names and account numbers first.

Here is a message I received. Help me reply.

[PASTE THE MESSAGE]

What actually happened: [THE FACTS FROM MY SIDE]
What I can offer: [REFUND, NEW DATE, CORRECTION, OR NOTHING]

Write a calm reply that acknowledges the problem in one sentence, states the facts without blaming, says exactly what I will do and by when, and does not promise anything beyond what I listed.

Replace the parts in [CAPITALS] first, or after pasting.

Make my email shorter and clearer

Rewrite this email so that it is half as long and easier to read. Put the request in the first two lines. Keep every fact, date and number exactly as written. Use short sentences. After the rewrite, list anything you removed.

[PASTE YOUR EMAIL]

Replace the parts in [CAPITALS] first, or after pasting.

Change the tone

Rewrite the email below in a [MORE FORMAL / WARMER / FIRMER] tone for [WHO THE READER IS]. Change the wording only. Do not change the meaning, the facts or the length by more than a few words.

[PASTE YOUR EMAIL]

Replace the parts in [CAPITALS] first, or after pasting.

Check before I send

Read this email as if you were the person receiving it: [WHO THE READER IS]. Tell me:
1. What you think I am asking for, in one sentence.
2. Anything unclear, missing or likely to be misunderstood.
3. Any sentence that sounds rude, vague or too long.
Do not rewrite it yet.

[PASTE YOUR EMAIL]

Replace the parts in [CAPITALS] first, or after pasting.

How to adapt these prompts

Say who the reader is. "My manager, whom I have worked with for two years" and "a government office I am writing to for the first time" need very different emails. This one line changes the result more than anything else.
Give a length. Without a limit, assistants write long. A figure such as "under 100 words" works better than "short".
Ask in your own English. Add "Use Indian English spellings" or "Keep it simple, the reader's first language is not English" if that suits your reader.
Ask for two versions when you are unsure of the tone, then pick lines from each.
Follow up. If the draft is close, reply with "Make the second paragraph shorter" or "Remove the apology". You do not need to start again.

Before you send

Read the whole draft yourself. Check every name, date, amount and promise against your own records, because an assistant sometimes fills a gap with something that sounds right. Remove phrases you would never say. The email goes out under your name, and the reader will hold you to it, not the assistant.

Do not paste confidential company information, customer details or passwords into a prompt. Describe the situation in general terms and add the real details yourself afterwards.

Related tasks

This is an independent site. It is not connected with any company that makes AI assistants. The prompts are plain text and can be used in any AI chat assistant. An AI assistant can give wrong or made-up answers: check anything important before you rely on it, and do not paste private details into a prompt.