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people are writing emails to supplement traditional forms of business communication, an established etiquette is required to help insure that good manners are the rule, rather than the exception in cyberspace. The simplest way of checking your email before you send it is to ask yourself, "How would I feel if I received this message?" As with letter writing, writing email correspondence is subject to misinterpretation since there is no tone of voice or body language for the reader to take cues from. With email one hundred percent of the tone comes from the words you use and how you use them. Below are the ten most common mistakes that are made when writing emails, and their solutions: Mistake 1: Thinking e-mail is good for everything Don't let convenience blind you, sensitive issues, confidential information, provocative subjects and areas of conflict are just a few of the messages that should be off-limits to email and dealt with via phone or face-to-face. Mistake 2: Not writing e-mail from the reader's perspective Could your message be misinterpreted? Could an innocent tongue-in-cheek remark be misconstrued? Re-read all your e-mails and become sensitive to their "tone" and how readers might interpret them. Mistake 3: Forgetting about the importance of etiquette It's always a good idea, no matter how rushed you are, to create a positive impression by using an opening and closing (for example, Dear Mr. Smith or Regards, Joe Black), correcting sloppy grammar and spelling, using a clear and descriptive subject line, and not using jargon and abbreviations that might mystify the reader. Mistake 4: CCing the world Often, people courtesy copy (cc) others as a means of cyber-gossip or to vent their frustrations. This leads not only to traffic jams in others' in-boxes, but in the worst case, defamation, and in the best case, hurt feelings. When writing e-mail, only cc those parties that are directly related to the situation or email message. Mistake 5: Believing that an erased e-mail is gone forever Even if you delete an e-mail message from your in-box, it is retrievable from the company's system, the recipient's computer, or from the recipient's company's network. With technical know how, e-mails can even be retrieved from your computer's hard drive. Learn to think of e-mail documents as permanent.
Mistake 6: Viewing instant messages as less 'formal' than e-mail The nature of IM or chat is similar to a conversation where both parties are responding to one another in real time. Living up to their name, IMs happen in the moment and, unlike e-mail, they are reactive. The next thing you type depends on the message you receive. With their rapid-fire speed it's easy to forego discipline and make silly mistakes - such as making assumptions that have little or no facts behind them, promises that can't be fulfilled or disclosing private company information.
Mistake 7: Assuming people have time to read your entire message To be most effective, whenever possible, e-mail messages should contain all the most pertinent and important data in the first paragraph. Most of us have a short attention span when reading from a computer screen and if we think we know where the message is going, it's easy to save time and move onto the next message without having read the nugget of information buried in the last paragraph.
Mistake 8: Mismatching the sender's tone One of the toughest aspects of writing e-mail is developing a feeling of rapport - especially if you don't know the person with whom you are corresponding. Writers with a formal, nononsense style usually like a similar response. For others who take a more chatty and expressive approach to their emails, respond in kind. Mistake 9: Lack of a clear request You know how frustrating it can be to read and reread an e-mail and not know what the sender really wants, "Is it an FYI or do I need to do something?" Email senders take note; specific requests are essential in email. Make sure yours are clearly defined, have a timeframe attached to them and include any necessary background information. If your email isn't a request label it an FYI. Mistake 10: Not re-reading before you hit 'send' As any contractor knows the rule is "measure twice, cut once." By reading your e-mail over before you send it you can catch and correct all sorts of mistakes before they get to the recipient and possibly create a bad impression or put you and/or your company in hot water.
Find the ten most common mistakes: To: actng@scgtraining.com From: jdoe@scgtraining.com CC: Jackie.colr@scgtraining.com, Steve.bldr@scgtraining.com, Molly.daut@scgtraining.com, Aron.sn@scgtraining.com Subject:Screw up! I submitted my expense report last week and I still don't have a check back :-/ I always have problems receving my chks on time! I know that you have cutoff times and I usually make them, so I don't know what is happening? Is there any way that you could notify people when you don't process thier reports on time? CAN YOU CLARIFY EXACTLY HOW YOUR PROCESS WORKS?- as well as review the policy that you have regarding cutting checks after the standard cut off times? I'd like to get my check Fedexed to me. I realize that TNSTAAFL but there might be a better way to handle this!!!!!! How do you process checks for dir.dep? Do you have the same cut off times? Can you process last week's expense report and get it into my Account as soon as possible? I really don't want to have to wait an extra week on this if at all possible. Please advise. Please don't just me the typical RTM accounting response !.using all capital letters 2.no opening or closing 3.unfriendly tone 4.sloppy grammar , spelling and punctuation mistakes 5.acronyms and abbreviation 6.no clear request 7.confusing 8.no background information 9.unnecessary CC of the posting 10.unclear subject line
Some professionals get scores of e-mails a day. Follow these tips in order to give your recipients the information they need in order to act on your message sooner rather than later. 1. Write a meaningful subject line. 2. Keep the message focused and readable. 3. Avoid attachments. 4. Identify yourself clearly. 5. Be kind -- don't flame. 6. Proofread. 7. Don't assume privacy. 8. Distinguish between formal and informal situations. 9. Respond Promptly. 10. Show Respect and Restraint.
Use standard capitalization and spelling, especially when your message asks your recipient to do work for you. o If you are a teenager, writing a quick gushing "thx 4 ur help 2day ur gr8" may make a busy professional smile at your gratitude. o But there comes a time when the sweetness of the gesture isn't enough. u want ur prof r ur boss 2 think u cant spl? LOL ;-) Skip lines between paragraphs. Avoid fancy typefaces. Don't depend upon bold font or large size to add nuances. Many people's e-mail readers only display plain text. In a pinch, use asterisks to show *emphasis*. Use standard capitalization. All-caps comes across as shouting, and no caps invokes the image of a lazy teenager. Regardless of your intention, people will respond accordingly.
3. Avoid attachments.
To: All 1000 Employees From: Eager Edgar Subject: A helpful book everyone should read -------Hello, everyone. I've attached a PDF that I think you'll all find very useful. This is the third time I sent it the file -- the version I sent yesterday had a typo on page 207, so I've sent the whole thing again. Since some of you noted that the large file size makes it a bit awkward, I've also attached each chapter as a separate document. Let me know what you think! Attachments:
Big Honking File.pdf (356MB) BHF Cover.pdf (25MB) BHF Chapter 1.pdf (35MB) BHF Chapter 2.pdf (27MB)
[... ] Okay, raise your hands... how many of us would delete the above message immediately, without looking at *any* of those attachments?
To: Bessie Professional From: Morris Ponsybil Subject: E-mail tips -- a subject for an office workshop? -------Bessie, I came across a book that has lots of tips on streamlining professional communications. Has anyone volunteered to present at the office workshop next month? Let me know if you'd like me to run a little seminar (2o minutes?) on using email effectively. Below, I'll paste the table of contents from the book. Let me know if you want me send you the whole thing as a PDF. Table of Contents 1. Write a meaningful subject line. 2. Keep the message focused and readable. 3. Avoid attachments. 4. [...] E-mail works best when you just copy and paste the most relevant text into the body of the e-mail. Try to reduce the number of steps your recipient will need to take in order to act on your message. If your recipient actually needs to view the full file in order to edit or archive it, then of course sending an attachment is appropriate. In general, attachments
take time to download (and check for viruses) take up needless space on your recipient's computer, and don't always translate correctly for people who read their e-mail on portable devices.
2. refocuses the conversation on solutions (in this conversation, Ann has already dug herself into a hole, and Clair has nothing to gain by joining her there)
6. Proofread.
If you are asking someone else to do work for you, take the time to make your message look professional. While your spell checker won't catch every mistake, at the very least it will catch a few typos. If you are sending a message that will be read by someone higher up on the chain of command (a superior or professor, for instance), or if you're about to mass-mail dozens or thousands of people, take an extra minute or two before you hit "send". Show a draft to a close associate, in order to see whether it actually makes sense.
9. Respond Promptly.
If you want to appear professional and courteous, make yourself available to your online correspondents. Even if your reply is, "Sorry, I'm too busy to help you now," at least your correspondent won't be waiting in vain for your reply.
forward the request to a person who can help -- but forwarding a message in order to ridicule the sender is tacky. Use BCC instead of CC when sending sensitive information to large groups. (For example, a professor sending a bulk message to students who are in danger of failing, or an employer telling unsuccessful applicants that a position is no longer open.) The name of everyone in the CC list goes out with the message, but the names of people on the BCC list ("blind carbon copy") are hidden. Put your own name in the "To" box if your mail editor doesn't like the blank space. Be tolerant of other people's etiquette blunders. If you think you've been insulted, quote the line back to your sender and add a neutral comment such as, "I'm not sure how to interpret this... could you elaborate?" Sometimes E-Mail is Too Fast! A colleague once asked me for help, and then almost immediately sent a follow-up informing me she had solved the problem on her own. But before reading her second message, I replied at length to the first. Once I learned that there was no need for any reply, I worried that my response would seem pompous, so I followed up with a quick apology: "Should have paid closer attention to my e-mail." What I meant to say was "[I] should have looked more carefully at my [list of incoming] email [before replying]," but I could tell from my colleague's terse reply that she had interpreted it as if I was criticizing her. If I hadn't responded so quickly to the first message, I would have saved myself the time I spent writing a long answer to an obsolete question. If I hadn't responded so quickly to the second message, I might not have alienated the person I had been so eager to help. --DGJ