Top 10 Do’s & Don’ts of Email Etiquette.
To help guide you for corporate email writing
Do’s:
- Do use a meaningful subject to summaries the body of the email – ask yourself will the recipient(s) know what this e-mail is about.
- Do use cc sparingly, use the BCC field when sending bulk email; this will ensure the privacy of the recipients.
- Do be concise and to the point but not too short that it loses the meaning/sense of the content.
- Ensure that you do use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation with gender neutral language to prevent offending any of the recipients.
- Do use proper structure & layout to improve readability. Use spaces and breaks between paragraphs and try to avoid long sentences where possible to make it easier on the reader.
- Do add a disclaimer to your emails, this will indemnify the company from potential lawsuits.
- Do read the email before you send it, making sure that you avoid angry outbursts, if necessary delay responding until you have calmed down, once an email is sent it cannot be recalled. As a guide ask yourself would I say this to the person’s face?
- Do reply to email within 24hrs, if you cannot answer the email straight away ensure that you acknowledge receipt of the email. No response is a response and can be perceived as negative.
- Do try to quote from the original message where relevant. You can break the quoted message down into paragraphs and comment on them individually to make it clearer.
- Do include a brief signature on your email messages to help the recipient understand who it is from, especially if you are dealing with someone you do not know very well eg a new client or new staff member.
References: http://www.emailreplies.com/ http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~davidt/email_etiquette.htm http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/etiquette.htm http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012054101033.aspx
Tags: Communication, Email