Email Etiquette: The Art of Electronic Communication November 23rd, 2011 by Lalit Kumar Email is almost like a lifeline in today’s world. This facility of sending electronic messages instantly anywhere in the world has totally changed the way the world used to communicate. With such a sea-change of course the etiquette of writing messages have also undergone great changes. Let’s have a look at few of the dos and don’ts of emailing. * Don’t use capital letters to write email. Use of capital letters is equivalent to shouting in electronic form. You may use a few words in capital if you want to put emphasis on them. Another way to emphasize words is to enclose them between asterisks. * Don’t forward chain emails. 99.9% of such emails are spam and do not have any connection with the stated purpose. Spammers often target our weak emotional points like religion, poverty, cruelty against animals to create unnecessary traffic on Internet. * Unless you have a very good reason to do so, do not send an email with lots of receivers in “To” field. By putting everyone’s addresses in “To” field you are actually exposing everyone’s address to everyone else. This is not acceptable. You should rather put your own email address in “To” field and everyone else’s addresses in “BCC” field to hide their email IDs. * Try to use gender neutral language if the target of your email are both men and women. Most people tend to use masculine language (i.e. use of he, him, his etc.) – but in today’s world it is better to avoid it. * Although it is convenient to include “Thanks and Regards” in your signature – but it is better not done. Signature text appears on ALL the emails that you send and there could be certain situations where such automatically included lines may not fit the context. Signature text should ideally include only your contact information. * Avoid using multiple punctuation marks. A number of people tend to use repeated instances of “!” and “?”. Repetition causes show of emphasis and that in turn might sound rude or insulting. * It is important that you don’t make spelling mistakes. Also don’t use abbreviations or shortened SMS like words (e.g. writing “u” for “you”) * It is better not to send too many attachments. First zip all the files and then attach the zip file as one attachment. Do not send executable (.exe) files. * Before pressing “Reply All” button – think twice. Use this facility only if it is really required. People don’t appreciate emails that are useless to them. * DO NOT send advertisements in emails. For example, do not send invitation to read your blog post by email. Instead allow willing people to subscribe to you blog and get updates by email. * Do not assume that your email shall be read quickly by the receiving person. Because of being instant communication method a lot of people assume that their email shall be read as soon as they will send it. This is wrong. The receiver will read email at convenience –just like s/he reads postal mail. * Has somebody written an “inflammatory” email? Well, such emails are called “flames” and these contain insulting, derogatory words and accusations towards you. If you have been “flamed” the best way is to ignore such emails. But if you really want to reply –make sure you don’t send a flame back! Be logical, rational and composed in your replies. * Remember, subject line is very important. Always try to give a logical subject line to each new message you send. A subject line helps in: * Separating your message from other forwarded spam * Decision making by the receiver about when to read your message * Searching of your message at a later date * Do not send emails without a subject line. Also don’t use a vague subject line * If sending out a newsletter – send only to those who have subscribed to it and always provide an “unsubscribe” link. * Never make emails written by others public. It is not only extremely rude but also an infringement of copyright. Always ask for writer’s permission before making email public or sharing it with select people. * Try to keep official emails to-the-pointand short. People nowadays don’t have time to read verbose text * While replying, write your message right at the top and NOT under the message that you are replying to. Such a practice sometimes makes the receiver think that you have not written anything from your side because they might not scroll down. Make sure, your signatures come between your reply and sender’s message. This would clearly indicate where your message is ending. * If your reply needs only to be a mere “yes” or “no” – it’s better to repeat the question you are answering to. Instead of just writing “No” – say something like “No, sorry but I cannot come to the tea party today”. This evaporates the possibility of a confusion. * Do not use “High priority” option is it is not really a high priority email. * Read your email before you send it out. You will find that this practice is very useful as you would change many things when you would read the email again. This makes your text more appropriate and clear * In business emails, never use abbreviations (like FYI, BTW) or emoticons (like smiley) * It is better to send plain text emails rather than rich text ones. If the receiver’s email client is only capable of reading plain text –your rich text email might not be read properly. * If you are forwarding an email to someone, you should mention why you think this email would be of receiver’s interest * Always give email a proper ending with “Thank you”, “Sincerely”, “Best wishes” etc. * Use small (15-20 words) sentences. Email is used for speedy communication –long sentences might become confusing and nullify the sense of quickness! * Include addresses in the “To” field for those who you would like a response from. Include addresses in the “Cc” field for those who just want to keep in the loop. * If you, by mistake, forward an email that turns out to be a hoax, send an apology to the receiver(s) for spreading wrong information. * Before sending an emotionally charged email, sleep over it. Read it again the next morning and see if you still want to send what you had written the previous day. * As I said before, spammers target weak points in our psyche. Don’t be moved by emails of a dying child or something like that. You should first ascertain authenticity of such emails. One good way is to use snoops to verify truthfulness of such emails. * Give a cursory look at the Spam/Bulk folder before emptying it. Sometimes non-spam emails also land up being filtered.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 16:00:16 +0000
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