In a fast moving global economy, e-mail offers you the
convenience of being able to quickly get your message across to
your colleagues or clients at any hour of the day or night. The
Internet revolution has had the unintended effect of decreasing
the use of oral communication and increasing the importance of
text - particularly e-mails - as the primary means of business
communication. Employees are no longer writing memos to each
other; they are sending e-mails.
But are we taking e-mails as seriously as our other business
correspondence? Remember, your correspondence says a lot about
you, and E-mail etiquette (also called netiquette) not only
makes for effective professional communication, but also helps
you build a good professional image within your organisation and
with clients.
Mind Your Manners Be conversant with the fact that there are
some people who are very sensitive to being addressed by their
first names. When in doubt, use Mr., Ms., Sir, Madam or Dr. (if
appropriate). When you are replying to an e-mail and the sender
of the original message has used his or her first name only,
then you could safely assume it?s all right to use that person?s
first name as well.
Next, there are three words in the dictionary that are very
important to netiquette. People may not notice these words when
they?re there, but if you forget to use them, you?ll come across
looking disrespectful and ungrateful. These very powerful words
are ?Please? and ?Thank You?.
Don?t Use That Tone With Me Tone is a difficult thing to
explain. Remember when your parents would say ?Don?t use that
tone of voice with me, young lady (or young man)?? Your feelings
come across by the way you say something. It is easy to change
your tone when you?re speaking. When you?re writing it?s very
hard to do so. Whenever you write an e-mail, you should read
your message over several times before you hit send. Make sure
that you come across as respectful, friendly, and approachable.
And don?t sound curt or demanding. Sometimes just rearranging
your paragraphs will help.
If you?re writing to someone you?ve communicated with before,
you might want to begin by saying ?I hope you are well.? E-mail
writers often use emoticons to convey a certain tone. For those
of you who don?t know what these are, emoticons are little faces
made up by arranging parentheses, colons, and semi-colons. Use
good judgement here. If you are writing to someone frequently
and share an informal relationship, then emoticons are okay. If
you?re writing to a prospective client or your boss, stick to
words only. Avoid writing your message using all uppercase
letters. It looks like you?re shouting.
And Your Point Would Be...? When possible, don?t ramble. Be
concise and get to your point as quickly as you can. However,
don?t leave out necessary details. If providing a lot of
background information will help the recipient answer your
query, by all means, include it. You may even want to apologize
for being so verbose at the beginning of the message.
Plz Don?t Abbrvt. Never ever use U instead of you, 2 instead of
to or too, plz instead of please, and thanx instead of thanks.
It?s fine for personal e-mails. Business e-mails should be more
formal. Of course, frequently used abbreviations such as Mr. and
Ms., FYI (for your information), inc., and etc. are fine.
Spelling Counts... Grammar Too Use your spell checker. That?s
what it?s for. Don?t rely entirely on the spell checker though.
If you?re using the wrong spelling for a particular use of a
word, i.e. two vs. to vs. too, the spell checker won?t pick it
up. A minor typographical error in a lengthy e-mail will
generally go unnoticed, but a series of typographical, spelling,
and grammatical errors will indicate a lack of professionalism
and has the potential to cost you business or maybe even your
job.
Use A Descriptive Subject Line Always use a subject line in your
e-mails. Make sure the subject line is brief, but descriptive.
Make an effort to keep your subject line to six or fewer words.
The subject line is supposed to be brief and summarize the
message, and not become the whole e-mail content. You can
summarize the action item of e-mail in the subject line e.g.,
?Tues. meeting canceled.?
Keep Check On Numbers Be conservative about who you send your
e-mails to. Only send it to those who are directly affected by
the issue in question. Ask yourself, is this information useful
to this person? Is this level of detail appropriate for this
person, or should I send them a summary when everyone?s input is
gathered and we have come to a conclusion?
Send the e-mail ?To? the person or people that you are asking
for an answer or action, and be specific about what you are
asking of whom. Send a courtesy copy (cc) to those who need to
be aware of the request but are not asked to act upon it or
respond to it. Double check that you have properly attached
documents to avoid sending a second message.
Check messages frequently - at least three times a day.
Immediately respond, delete, forward, or save to a folder as
appropriate. The more you leave messages sitting in your Inbox,
the bigger the chore to gain control again. It is also easy to
lose track of an important action item, or message, if you do
not keep it organised.
Just like any other type of written message, be aware that it
could be forwarded to others or saved indefinitely. Be prudent
in what you decide to write in an e-mail.
Include a signature of no more than four lines. Your signature
should provide the recipient with a means to contact you other
than e-mail, and should mention your designation, company name
etc.
For internal communication, it is not necessary to always
produce highly organised and precisely worded e-mails. However,
etiquette is not totally abandoned in internal communication,
particularly when it comes to professional courtesy.
Make A Good First Impression Though e-mails are less intrusive
than a phone call and faster than a letter, first impressions
are as important here as any other business communication tool.
An e-mail may be your introduction to someone you never met
before like a prospective client or new boss or colleague or
even a prospective employer. Take your time putting together a
well-written message. Once you hit the send button you won?t
have another chance. For more information on email writing log
on to http://www.naukri.com/
About the author:
http://www.naukri.com
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