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Client communication · ABOUT 15 MINUTES · BEGINNER FRIENDLY

Draft a client email you can stand behind

A polished email can still be wrong. This exercise is about spotting invented facts, unclear requests and promises you never meant to make.

You’ll make: A short fictional client email, with your critique beside it.

STEP 01

Read the fictional brief

You support a fictional client, Northstar Studio. Their March expense summary is ready for review. Two receipts are missing: travel $180 and software $60. Ask the client to send copies when available. No deadline, tax treatment, payment or approval has been agreed.

STEP 02

Get a draft

Use an approved chat tool with the prompt below. If you already have Copilot in Outlook, open a new email and choose Copilot → Draft, then enter the brief. Access depends on your account and organisation. Keep the recipient field empty throughout this practice.
Try this prompt
Draft a client email under 100 words for this fictional practice brief: Northstar Studio’s March expense summary is ready for review. Missing receipts: travel $180 and software $60. Ask for copies when available. No deadline, tax treatment, payment or approval has been agreed. Include a subject. Do not add facts or commitments. After the draft, list anything that needs human verification.

Paste into your approved AI tool. This site does not call an AI model.

STEP 03

Critique before editing

Underline any invented deadline, claim that the accounts are complete, promise about tax deductibility, or implication that payment is due. Check that $180 and $60 have not been reversed. Remove jargon and blame.

STEP 04

Make a better version

Write a subject line and an email under 100 words. A good version says the summary is ready for review, names the two missing receipts and asks for copies without inventing a deadline. Compare your version with the AI draft.

STEP 05

Save, don’t send

Keep the fictional brief, draft and your three-point critique as a practice sample. Do not send this exercise to a real client.

PAUSE & CHECK

Does it hold up?

See the explanation

No deadline was supplied. A fluent draft does not give you permission to invent one.

ONLY AFTER YOU’VE DONE THE WORK

A truthful way to describe it

In a fictional client-email exercise, I used AI to draft a request for missing receipts, checked each factual detail and edited out unsupported commitments.

Use this only if it accurately describes your completed practice. Adapt it to the tool and checks you actually used. It is not a certificate or a claim of professional experience.

Sources & editorial notes

Microsoft: draft an email with Copilot →

Feature documentation checked 15 October 2026. The practice brief and teaching checks are original editorial exercises. Interfaces and account availability can change.

No sponsor funded this tutorial. No affiliate links. Our sponsorship policy.

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