Writing Clear Subject Lines

B1 · Intermediate1 hr 7 minBusiness EnglishLesson 2 of 8 · Outline

Aims

Goal: write specific, action-ready subject lines that get your emails opened — and emails that keep the subject line's promise.

The lesson, stage by stage

  1. Warm up5 min

    Warm-up: Ten seconds to be opened

    2 warm-up questions

  1. Reading10 min

    Reading: The Power of a Good Subject Line

    Read a 187-word text about The Power of a Good Subject Line

  2. Vocabulary8 min

    Vocabulary: Subject Line Vocabulary

    7 items

  3. Reading10 min

    Reading: Three model emails

    Read a 228-word text about Three model emails

  4. Practice7 min

    Practice: Fix These Subject Lines

    Error-correction exercise, 5 items

  5. Practice7 min

    Practice: Match the Email to the Best Subject Line

    Matching exercise, 6 items

  6. Dialogue10 min

    Dialogue: Writing Subject Lines for Different Scenarios

    Role-play: Practice writing clear, effective subject lines for a variety of workplace situations. (4 lines)

  7. Discussion10 min

    Discussion: Your mission: subject lines for your real inbox

    3 discussion questions

Open the full lesson

The remaining 7 stages of this lesson, with the procedure, the examples and the exercises, are included with Starter, along with the interactive version you can teach from. Lesson 1 of this course is free: the full plan is on this site, and a free account opens it in the interactive player.

Target vocabulary

In a Tuton account these words become your student's vocabulary deck, so they come back in practice between lessons.

subject lineurgentFYI (for your information)actionableconcisere: (regarding)flag

This plan comes from the Professional Email Writing course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.