Why do you need email etiquette?

A company needs to implement etiquette rules for the following three reasons: Professionalism: by using proper email language your company will convey a professional image. Efficiency: emails that get to the point are much more effective than poorly worded emails. Protection from liability: employee awareness of email risks will protect your company from costly law suits. Top

What are the etiquette rules?

There are many etiquette guides and many different etiquette rules. Some rules will differ according to the nature of your business and the corporate culture. Below we list what we consider as the 32 most important email etiquette rules that apply to nearly all companies. 32 most important email etiquette tips: 1. Be concise and to the point 2. Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions 3. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation 4. Make it personal 5. Use templates for frequently used responses 6. Answer swiftly 7. Do not attach unnecessary files 8. Use proper structure & layout 9. Do not overuse the high priority option 10. Do not write in CAPITALS 11. Don't leave out the message thread 12. Add disclaimers to your emails 13. Read the email before you send it 14. Do not overuse Reply to All 15. Mailings > use the bcc: field or do a mail merge 16. Take care with abbreviations and emoticons 17. Be careful with formatting 18. Take care with rich text and HTML messages 19. Do not forward chain letters 20. Do not request delivery and read receipts 21. Do not ask to recall a message. 22. Do not copy a message or attachment without permission 23. Do not use email to discuss confidential information 24. Use a meaningful subject

25. Use active instead of passive 26. Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT 27. Avoid long sentences 28. Don't send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks 29. Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters 30. Keep your language gender neutral 31. Don't reply to spam 32. Use cc: field sparingly

1. Be concise and to the point. Do not make an e-mail longer than it needs to be. Remember that reading an e-mail is harder than reading printed communications and a long e-mail can be very discouraging to read. Top 2. Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions. An email reply must answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions If you do not answer all the questions in the original email, you will receive further e-mails regarding the unanswered questions, which will not only waste your time and your customers time but also cause considerable frustration. Moreover, if you are able to pre-empt relevant questions, your customer will be grateful and impressed with your efficient and thoughtful customer service. Imagine for instance that a customer sends you an email asking which credit cards you accept. Instead of just listing the credit card types, you can guess that their next question will be about how they can order, so you also include some order information and a URL to your order page. Customers will definitely appreciate this. Top 3. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation. This is not only important because improper spelling, grammar and punctuation give a bad impression of your company, it is also important for conveying the message properly. E-mails with no full stops or commas are difficult to read and can sometimes even change the meaning of the text. And, if your program has a spell checking option, why not use it? Top 4. Make it personal.

Not only should the e-mail be personally addressed, it should also include personal i.e. customized content. For this reason auto replies are usually not very effective. However, templates can be used effectively in this way, see next tip. Top 5. Use templates for frequently used responses. Some questions you get over and over again, such as directions to your office or how to subscribe to your newsletter. Save these texts as response templates and paste these into your message when you need them. You can save your templates in a Word document, or use preformatted emails. Even better is a tool such as ReplyMate for Outlook (allows you to use 10 templates for free). Top 6. Answer swiftly. Customers send an e-mail because they wish to receive a quick response. If they did not want a quick response they would send a letter or a fax. Therefore, each e-mail should be replied to within at least 24 hours, and preferably within the same working day. If the email is complicated, just send an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them. This will put the customer's mind at rest and usually customers will then be very patient! Top 7. Do not attach unnecessary files. By sending large attachments you can annoy customers and even bring down their e-mail system. Wherever possible try to compress attachments and only send attachments when they are productive. Moreover, you need to have a good virus scanner in place since your customers will not be very happy if you send them documents full of viruses! Top 8. Use proper structure & layout. Since reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from paper, the structure and lay out is very important for e-mail messages. Use short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph. When making points, number them or mark each point as separate to keep the overview. Top 9. Do not overuse the high priority option.

We all know the story of the boy who cried wolf. If you overuse the high priority option, it will lose its function when you really need it. Moreover, even if a mail has high priority, your message will come across as slightly aggressive if you flag it as 'high priority'. Top 10. Do not write in CAPITALS. IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and might trigger an unwanted response in the form of a flame mail. Therefore, try not to send any email text in capitals. Top 11. Don't leave out the message thread. When you reply to an email, you must include the original mail in your reply, in other words click 'Reply', instead of 'New Mail'. Some people say that you must remove the previous message since this has already been sent and is therefore unnecessary. However, I could not agree less. If you receive many emails you obviously cannot remember each individual email. This means that a 'threadless email' will not provide enough information and you will have to spend a frustratingly long time to find out the context of the email in order to deal with it. Leaving the thread might take a fraction longer in download time, but it will save the recipient much more time and frustration in looking for the related emails in their inbox! Top 12. Add disclaimers to your emails. It is important to add disclaimers to your internal and external mails, since this can help protect your company from liability. Consider the following scenario: an employee accidentally forwards a virus to a customer by email. The customer decides to sue your company for damages. If you add a disclaimer at the bottom of every external mail, saying that the recipient must check each email for viruses and that it cannot be held liable for any transmitted viruses, this will surely be of help to you in court (read more about email disclaimers). Another example: an employee sues the company for allowing a racist email to circulate the office. If your company has an email policy in place and adds an email disclaimer to every mail that states that employees are expressly required not to make defamatory statements, you have a good case of proving that the company did everything it could to prevent offensive emails. Top 13. Read the email before you send it. A lot of people don't bother to read an email before they send it out, as can be seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained in emails. Apart from this, reading your email

through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments. Top 14. Do not overuse Reply to All. Only use Reply to All if you really need your message to be seen by each person who received the original message. Top 15. Mailings > use the Bcc: field or do a mail merge. When sending an email mailing, some people place all the email addresses in the To: field. There are two drawbacks to this practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the same message to a large number of recipients, and (2) you are publicizing someone else's email address without their permission. One way to get round this is to place all addresses in the Bcc: field. However, the recipient will only see the address from the To: field in their email, so if this was empty, the To: field will be blank and this might look like spamming. You could include the mailing list email address in the To: field, or even better, if you have Microsoft Outlook and Word you can do a mail merge and create one message for each recipient. A mail merge also allows you to use fields in the message so that you can for instance address each recipient personally. For more information on how to do a Word mail merge, consult the Help in Word. Top 16. Take care with abbreviations and emoticons. In business emails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in business emails these are generally not appropriate. The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley :-). If you are not sure whether your recipient knows what it means, it is better not to use it. Top 17. Be careful with formatting. Remember that when you use formatting in your emails, the sender might not be able to view formatting, or might see different fonts than you had intended. When using colors, use a color that is easy to read on the background. Top 18. Take care with rich text and HTML messages.

Be aware that when you send an email in rich text or HTML format, the sender might only be able to receive plain text emails. If this is the case, the recipient will receive your message as a .txt attachment. Most email clients however, including Microsoft Outlook, are able to receive HTML and rich text messages. Top 19. Do not forward chain letters. Do not forward chain letters. We can safely say that all of them are hoaxes. Just delete the letters as soon as you receive them. Top 20. Do not request delivery and read receipts. This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it, so what is the use of using it? If you want to know whether an email was received it is better to ask the recipient to let you know if it was received. Top 21. Do not ask to recall a message. Biggest chances are that your message has already been delivered and read. A recall request would look very silly in that case wouldn't it? It is better just to send an email to say that you have made a mistake. This will look much more honest than trying to recall a message. Top 22. Do not copy a message or attachment without permission. Do not copy a message or attachment belonging to another user without permission of the originator. If you do not ask permission first, you might be infringing on copyright laws. Top 23. Do not use email to discuss confidential information. Sending an email is like sending a postcard. If you don't want your email to be displayed on a bulletin board, don't send it. Moreover, never make any libelous, sexist or racially discriminating comments in emails, even if they are meant to be a joke. Top

24. Use a meaningful subject. Try to use a subject that is meaningful to the recipient as well as yourself. For instance, when you send an email to a company requesting information about a product, it is better to mention the actual name of the product, e.g. 'Product A information' than to just say 'product information' or the company's name in the subject. Top 25. Use active instead of passive. Try to use the active voice of a verb wherever possible. For instance, 'We will process your order today', sounds better than 'Your order will be processed today'. The first sounds more personal, whereas the latter, especially when used frequently, sounds unnecessarily formal. Top 26. Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT. Even more so than the high-priority option, you must at all times try to avoid these types of words in an email or subject line. Only use this if it is a really, really urgent or important message. Top 27. Avoid long sentences. Try to keep your sentences to a maximum of 15-20 words. Email is meant to be a quick medium and requires a different kind of writing than letters. Also take care not to send emails that are too long. If a person receives an email that looks like a dissertation, chances are that they will not even attempt to read it! Top 28. Don't send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks. By sending or even just forwarding one libelous, or offensive remark in an email, you and your company can face court cases resulting in multi-million dollar penalties. Top 29. Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters. If you receive an email message warning you of a new unstoppable virus that will immediately delete everything from your computer, this is most probably a hoax. By forwarding hoaxes you

use valuable bandwidth and sometimes virus hoaxes contain viruses themselves, by attaching a so-called file that will stop the dangerous virus. The same goes for chain letters that promise incredible riches or ask your help for a charitable cause. Even if the content seems to be bona fide, the senders are usually not. Since it is impossible to find out whether a chain letter is real or not, the best place for it is the recycle bin. Top 30. Keep your language gender neutral. In this day and age, avoid using sexist language such as: 'The user should add a signature by configuring his email program'. Apart from using he/she, you can also use the neutral gender: ''The user should add a signature by configuring the email program'. Top 31. Don't reply to spam. By replying to spam or by unsubscribing, you are confirming that your email address is 'live'. Confirming this will only generate even more spam. Therefore, just hit the delete button or use email software to remove spam automatically. Top 32. Use cc: field sparingly. Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message. Using the cc: field can be confusing since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message. Also, when responding to a cc: message, should you include the other recipient in the cc: field as well? This will depend on the situation. In general, do not include the person in the cc: field unless you have a particular reason for wanting this person to see your response. Again, make sure that this person will know why they are receiving a copy. Top

How do you enforce email etiquette?

The first step is to create a written email policy. This email policy should include all the do's and don'ts concerning the use of the company's email system and should be distributed amongst all employees. Secondly, employees must be trained to fully understand the importance of email etiquette. Finally, implementation of the rules can be monitored by using email management software and email response tools.

101 Email Etiquette Tips

It is important that whether for business or personal use that you follow the basics of email etiquette. This document covers for you the top tips for email etiquette that everyone needs to be aware of and follow. By doing so you will be a joy to communicate with while being perceived as a caring and intelligent human being.

Sending Emails
1. Make sure your e-mail includes a courteous greeting and closing. Helps to make your e-mail not seem demanding or terse. 2. Address your contact with the appropriate level of formality and make sure you spelled their name correctly. 3. Spell check - emails with typos are simply not taken as seriously. 4. Read your email out loud to ensure the tone is that which you desire. Try to avoid relying on formatting for emphasis; rather choose the words that reflect your meaning instead. A few additions of the words "please" and "thank you" go a long way! 5. Be sure you are including all relevant details or information necessary to understand your request or point of view. Generalities can many times causing confusion and unnecessary back and forths. 6. Are you using proper sentence structure? First word capitalized with appropriate punctuation? Multiple instances of !!! or ??? are perceived as rude or condescending. 7. If your email is emotionally charged, walk away from the computer and wait to reply. Review the Sender's email again so that you are sure you are not reading anything into the email that simply isn't there. 8. If sending attachments, did you ask first when would be the best time to send? Did you check file size to make sure you don't fill the other side's inbox causing all subsequent e-mail to bounce? 9. Refrain from using the Reply to All feature to give your opinion to those who may not be interested. In most cases replying to the Sender alone is your best course of action. 10. Make one last check that the address or addresses in the To: field are those you wish to send your reply to. 11. Be sure your name is reflected properly in the From: field. Jane A. Doe (not jane, jane doe or JANE DOE). 12. Type in complete sentences. To type random phrases or cryptic thoughts does not lend to clear communication. 13. Never assume the intent of an email. If you are not sure -- ask so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. 14. Just because someone doesn't ask for a response doesn't mean you ignore them. Always acknowledge emails from those you know in a timely manner. 15. Be sure the Subject: field accurately reflects the content of your email. 16. Don't hesitate to say thank you, how are you, or appreciate your help! 17. Keep emails brief and to the point. Save long conversations for the old fashioned telephone. 18. Always end your emails with "Thank you," "Sincerely," "Take it easy," "Best regards" something!

Formatting Emails
19. Do not type in all caps. That's yelling or reflects shouting emphasis. 20. If you bold your type, know you are bolding your statement and it will be taken that way by the other side - X10! 21. Do not use patterned backgrounds. Makes your email harder to read. 22. Stay away from fancy-schmancy fonts -- only the standard fonts are on all computers.

23. Use emoticons sparingly to ensure your tone and intent are clear. 24. Typing your emails in all small case gives the perception of lack of education or laziness. 25. Refrain from using multiple font colors in one email. It makes your email harder to view and can add to your intent being misinterpreted. 26. Use formatting sparingly. Instead try to rely on choosing the most accurate words possible to reflect your tone and avoid misunderstandings in the process.

Email Attachments
27. When sending large attachments, always "zip" or compress them before sending. 28. Never send large attachments without notice! Always ask what would be the best time to send them first. 29. Learn how to resample or resize graphics to about 600 pixels in width before attaching them to an email. This will greatly reduce download time. 30. Never open an attachment from someone you don't know. 31. Be sure your virus, adware and spyware programs are up to date and include scanning of your emails and attachments both incoming and outgoing. 32. It is better to spread multiple attachments over several emails rather than attaching them all to one email to avoid clogging the pipeline. 33. Make sure the other side has the same software as you before sending attachments or they may not be able to open your attachment. Use PDF when possible.

To, From, CC, BCc, RR, Subject:

34. Only use Cc: when it is important for those you Cc: to know about the contents of the email. Overuse can cause your emails to be ignored. 35. Don't use Return Receipt (RR) on every single email. Doing so is viewed as intrusive, annoying and can be declined by the other side anyway. 36. Include addresses in the To: field for those who you would like a response from. 37. Include addresses in the Cc: field for those who you are just FYI'ing. 38. Make sure your name is displayed properly in the From: field. 39. Remove addresses from the To:, CC; and BCc: field that don't need to see your reply. 40. Always include a brief Subject. No subject can get your email flagged as spam. 41. Think about your motives when adding addresses to To:, CC:, BCc. Use your discretion. 42. Never expose your friend's or contact's email address to strangers by listing them all in the To: field. Use BCc:! 43. Make sure when using BCc: that your intentions are proper. To send BCc: copies to others as a way of talking behind someone's back is inconsiderate.

Email Forwarding
44. Don't forward emails that say to do so--no matter how noble the cause may be. Most are hoaxes or hooey and may not be appreciated by those you send to. 45. If someone asks you to refrain from forwarding emails they have that right and you shouldn't get mad or take it personally. 46. When forwarding email, if you cannot take the time to type a personal comment to the person

you are forwarding to--then don't bother. 47. Don't forward anything without editing out all the forwarding >>>>, other email addresses, headers and commentary from all the other forwarders. 48. If you must forward to more than one person, put your email address in the TO: field and all the others you are sending to in the BCc: field to protect their email address from being published to those they do not know. This is a serious privacy issue! 49. Be careful when forwarding email on political or controversial issues. The recipient may not appreciate your POV.

Email and Perception, Privacy, Copyright

50. Choose your email address wisely. It will determine, in part, how you are perceived. 51. Try not to make assumptions when it comes to email. Always ask for clarification before you react. 52. Posting or forwarding of private email is copyright infringement -- not to mention downright rude. You need permission from the author first! 53. Even though it isn't right; emails are forwarded to others. Keep this in mind when typing about emotional or controversial topics. 54. When there is a misunderstanding by email, don't hesitate to pick up the old fashioned telephone to work things out! 55. Know that how you type, and the efforts you make or don't make will indicate what is important to you and if you are an educated courteous person. 56. If you forward an email that turns out to be a hoax, have the maturity to send an apology follow up email to those you sent the misinformation to. 57. When filling out a contact form on a Web site, do so carefully and with clarity so your request is taken seriously. 58. If a friend puts your e-mail address in the To: field with others you do not know, ask them to no longer expose your address to strangers without your permission.

Business Email
59. Think of your business email as though it was on your business letterhead and you'll never go wrong! 60. If you cannot respond to an email promptly, at the very least email back confirming your receipt and when the sender can expect your response. 61. Emailing site owners about your product or service through the site form is still spam. Ask them if they want more info first! 62. When replying to emails always respond promptly and edit out unnecessary information from the post you are responding to. 63. Formality is in place as a courtesy and reflects respect. Assume the highest level of formality with new email contacts until the relationship dictates otherwise. Refrain from getting too informal too soon in your email communications. 64. Never send anyone an email they need to unsubscribe from when they didn't subscribe in the first place! 65. Be very careful how you use Reply to All and Cc: in a business environment. Doing so for CYA or to subtlety tattle can backfire and have your viewed as petty or insecure. 66. When replying to an email with multiple recipients noted in the To: or Cc: fields, remove the

addresses of those who your reply does not apply to. 67. Never send business attachments outside of business hours and confirm that the format in which you can send can be opened by the other side.

Chat, IM, Texting

68. Went Texting or participating in IM and Chat, try not to be overly cryptic or your meaning can be misread. 69. Use Instant Messaging (IM) for casual topics or informational briefs. IM is not the place for serious topics or confrontational issues. 70. Start by always asking if the person you are IMing is available and if it is a good time to chat. Refrain from IMing during meetings or when your attention is required. 71. Practice communicating briefly and succinctly. 72. Always consider if calling the other party on the phone is better when Texting about sensitive topics. 73. IMing is not an excuse to forget your grade school education. 74. If you are not a smooth multi-tasker, do not continue multiple IM sessions and leave folks hanging while you communicate with others. 75. Learn how to use the features of your IM program. Specifically your "busy" and "away" message features. 76. Never IM under an alias to take a peek at friends' or associates' activities. 77. Take into consideration who you are communicating with to determine the acronyms and emoticons that should be used - if at all.

Social Media, Blogs and Forums

78. Keep in mind when Tweeting, on Facebook or message boards that you are in a global arena. 79. When discussions get out of control; don't stoop to name-calling or profanities. You are better than that! 80. In forums, keep your signature file to no more than 2-3 lines. 81. Keep commercialism to no more than a link at the end of your comment or contribution. 82. Stay on topic and discuss issues only relative to the thread/topic in question. 83. If new to a group or forum, "lurk" for awhile to get a feel for the community and personalities of the regulars before you post. 84. Never give out personal information or specifics to your location on online -- nor should you give out the personal information of others! 85. Keep in mind there will always be differences of opinion. Try to remain objective and not personalize issues. 86. Don't fall for trolls. Trolls are folks who will post rude comments just to get a rise out of everyone. 87. Be sure to down edit, or remove any part of the post you are replying to that is no longer necessary to the ongoing conversation.

Email Considerations...
88. Before getting upset because you perceive someone didn't respond, check to see if their reply

was inadvertently deleted or sent to your Trash or Junk folder. 89. With emotionally charged emails, wait until the next morning to see if you feel the same before clicking Send. 90. Feel free to modify the Subject: field to more accurately reflect a conversation's direction. 91. When it comes to your email communications, know who you can trust; trust only those you know. 92. Take the time to review each email before clicking Send to ensure your message is clear and you are relaying the tone that you desire. 93. Never use an old email to hit reply and start typing about an entirely new topic. 94. Regardless of how noble a forwarded email may be, don't just forward without investigating its authenticity @ Snopes.com. 95. Always add the email addresses of Web sites and new contacts immediately to your approved senders or address book so they get through Spam filters. 96. Before completing a Web site's Contact form; make an effort to review the site to be sure the information you seek is not already available. 97. Take a quick look at the e-mails in your Trash before you delete them just in case a good e-mail landed there by mistake. 98. If any email states to forward to all your friends, or just 5 people -- do everyone a favor and just hit delete! 99. Don't mass e-mail people who didn't ask to be on your personal "mailing list". 100. Double check that your adware, spyware and virus programs are set to automatically update at least once each week so the software knows what to protect you from. 101. And finally... Type unto others as you would have them type unto you!

_____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

12 tips for better e-mail etiquette

By Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, The Productivity Pro

I remember opening my first e-mail account and thinking how much fun it was to send a message to a friend. However, most people now no longer find e-mail simple or fun. E-mail messaging now exceeds telephone traffic and is the dominant form of business communication. Some workers tell me that handling e-mail consumes half of their day. A recent Wall Street Journal report indicates that soon employees will spend three to four hours a day on e-mail. Don't you wish that every person who received a new e-mail account had to agree to follow certain rules to use it? There are certain professional standards expected for e-mail use. Here are some things to keep in mind regarding professional e-mail conduct:
1. Be informal, not sloppy. Your colleagues may use commonly accepted abbreviations in e-mail, but when communicating with external customers, everyone should follow standard writing protocol. Your e-mail message reflects you and your company, so traditional spelling, grammar, and punctuation rules apply.

2. Keep messages brief and to the point. Just because your writing is grammatically correct does not mean that it has to be long. Nothing is more frustrating than wading through an e-mail message that is twice as long as necessary. Concentrate on one subject per message whenever possible. 3. Use sentence case. USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING. Using all lowercase letters looks lazy. For emphasis, use asterisks or bold formatting to emphasize important words. Do not, however, use a lot of colors or graphics embedded in your message, because not everyone uses an e-mail program that can display them. 4. Use the blind copy and courtesy copy appropriately. Don't use BCC to keep others from seeing who you copied; it shows confidence when you directly CC anyone receiving a copy. Do use BCC, however, when sending to a large distribution list, so recipients won't have to see a huge list of names. Be cautious with your use of CC; overuse simply clutters inboxes. Copy only people who are directly involved. 5. Don't use e-mail as an excuse to avoid personal contact. Don't forget the value of face-to-face or even voice-to-voice communication. E-mail communication isn't appropriate when sending confusing or emotional messages. Think of the times you've heard someone in the office indignantly say, "Well, I sent you e-mail." If you have a problem with someone, speak with that person directly. Don't use e-mail to avoid an uncomfortable situation or to cover up a mistake. 6. Remember that e-mail isn't private. I've seen people fired for using e-mail inappropriately. Email is considered company property and can be retrieved, examined, and used in a court of law. Unless you are using an encryption device (hardware or software), you should assume that e-mail over the Internet is not secure. Never put in an e-mail message anything that you wouldn't put on a postcard. Remember that e-mail can be forwarded, so unintended audiences may see what you've written. You might also inadvertently send something to the wrong party, so always keep the content professional to avoid embarrassment. 7. Be sparing with group e-mail. Send group e-mail only when it's useful to every recipient. Use the "reply all" button only when compiling results requiring collective input and only if you have something to add. Recipients get quite annoyed to open an e-mail that says only "Me too!" 8. Use the subject field to indicate content and purpose. Don't just say, "Hi!" or "From Laura." Agree on acronyms to use that quickly identify actions. For example, your team could use <AR> to mean "Action Required" or <MSR> for the Monthly Status Report. It's also a good practice to include the word "Long" in the subject field, if necessary, so that the recipient knows that the message will take time to read. 9. Don't send chain letters, virus warnings, or junk mail. Always check a reputable antivirus Web site or your IT department before sending out an alarm. If a constant stream of jokes from a friend annoys you, be honest and ask to be removed from the list. Direct personal e-mail to your home e-mail account. 10. Remember that your tone can't be heard in e-mail. Have you ever attempted sarcasm in an email, and the recipient took it the wrong way? E-mail communication can't convey the nuances of verbal communication. In an attempt to infer tone of voice, some people use emoticons, but use them sparingly so that you don't appear unprofessional. Also, don't assume that using a smiley will diffuse a difficult message. 11. Use a signature that includes contact information. To ensure that people know who you are, include a signature that has your contact information, including your mailing address, Web site, and phone numbers. 12. Summarize long discussions. Scrolling through pages of replies to understand a discussion is annoying. Instead of continuing to forward a message string, take a minute to summarize it for

your reader. You could even highlight or quote the relevant passage, then include your response. Some words of caution: If you are forwarding or reposting a message you've received, do not change the wording. If you want to repost to a group a message that you received individually, ask the author for permission first. Give proper attribution.

Use these suggestions as a starting point to create e-mail etiquette rules that will help your team stay efficient and professional. About the author Laura Stack is the president of The Productivity Pro, Inc., an international consulting firm in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. Laura holds an MBA in Organizational Management (University of Colorado, 1991) and is an expert on integrating advances in business productivity with the retention of key employees. Laura is the author of the best-selling book Leave the Office Earlier (Broadway Books, 2004).

Email Etiquette: 10 Tips for Better Email Communication

Ads by Google Technical Writing Tools www.tecwriter.com Alternatives to Frame, Robo and More. Free Reviews and Articles.

Good Email Manners - here are some simple yet effective tips for using email more efficiently: 1. If you are sending an email to multiple people, put their email addresses in the BCC field and your own email address in the To: field. No one likes to share their private email address with strangers. 2. The email subject should be detailed enough to give the recipient an idea about the email content without having to open it. Single words like "Hi" or "Hello" or "Help" are a strict no-no. Think of meaningful but short titles. 3. Do not attach large attachments in your email since not everyone is on a broadband connection. If you have to send a large file over email, upload it to services like Yousendit and then pass on the link in the email.

4. If you have to email more than two documents as attachments, zip them in one file. Doing so would ensure that your friend won't miss downloading any file. 5. Do not write an email while you are drunk or in a really bad mood. It would reflect on the style of your writing. 6. Do not request a Read Notification Receipt. 7. Always reply to emails especially the ones specifically addressed to you. The sender is still waiting to hear from you. 8. Keep you email message short and to the point. Sentences like "I hope this email finds you alive and well" look good only in letter correspondence. 9. Do not hit the Send button without doing a spell check. An email with spelling mistakes or grammatical errors indicate that you have written the message in a non-serious mood and may convey a bad impression. Always read the message before broadcasting it to the world. 10. You may want to remove your personal mobile number and the home number from the email signature if you are participating in a big mailing list. You never know the kind of people who have subscribed to that list.

Link :