You were working on a document and need to send it to your colleagues for feedback, before presenting it to the wider internal audience.

As you are a nice person and can work professionally, you aim to have your email to sound friendly and warm, but still convey the necessity for the receiver to get the job done before the deadline.

But the tone of the email still depends on whether you are sending it to your superiors or your close colleagues of equal status or at least a boss who you already have already established a friendly and relaxed working relationship. Below are some templates on how these emails could be written.

Since Anna and I are close colleagues with friendly relationship, it is fine to start the email on a more personal note and not jump immediately to talk about the tasks.

Now I talk business, describing the context (“as discussed”). Notice that since Julia and I are really close, and we have already agreed previously that she will look at the document, I could use the infinitive form “Können” in this initial part of the request.

The deadline wasn’t previously agreed upon, and even if it were, I don’t want to sound too pushy, even to a close friendly colleague, so I used the more polite Konjunktiv II (“wäre” and “könntest”).
And it is always easier to convince the others to stick to deadlines by listing out the reasons behind them.

This email is a variation of the same theme above. Many of the elements can be mixed and matched.

Yet this email has a slightly more formal tone than the previous one to Anna, as I am not as close to Barbara. In any case it is a group email, so less personal greetings are expected. I have already met and discussed with Anna and Barbara previously about the document that needs to be finished. Here I am just sending it out as planned. Nevertheless, the usual “Bitte” and (in the next sentence) “Wenn möglich” are used to soften the tone of the email.

It is always good to actively let others know you welcome questions.

The use of “Sehr geehrte” and “Liebe Frau Groß” has been explained in another post.

This is assuming that Herr Müller has previously sent me an email about the document.

Although you have addressed him formally, he still works in the same firm as you and the language doesn’t have to be completely rigidly formal. Phrases like „Einen Blick darauf werfen“ instead of „Bitte prüfen Sie“ can still be used. Nevertheless, mixing it with formal phrasing such as “Ich bitte um Ihre Eintragungen” will help raise the level of professionalism.

Again, although I am addressing him formally, elements of the text can still be friendly, such as adding “Vielen Dank im Voraus!” to soften the tone.