1. Use Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines
Before you begin writing your e-mail, it is important to establish a strong subject line.
Bad Subject Lines
· “Read Immediately! Very Important!” – What is important to you may not be important to them, try and be more specific to grab their attention.
· “Follow-up About Monday” – Effective if you are positive the recipient knows what you are referring to
Good Subject Lines
· “Emergency: Cars in the Lower Lot Will be Towed Tuesday at 8 pm.” - When the recipients are skimming their e-mail it will be pretty hard to miss this subject line.
· “Meeting confirmed at 12 on Tuesday… will we need catering?” – The recipient will already be thinking about whether or not there should be food at the meeting rather than whether or not he/she should even open the e-mail.
2. Write Clearly
Keep your messages readable. Sentences like, “Thx 4 da help earlier. k ill c u l8ter” might be easier for you to type but it doesn’t look professional. Skip a line between paragraphs to keep things looking organized. Don’t use different fonts because some people’s email accounts only display plain text. If you need to you can use *asterisks* to show emphasis. Use proper capitalization and punctuation in your e-mails. If you use all caps it looks like you are yelling and if you don’t capitalize anything than it makes you look lazy, and regardless of your intent, people may get the wrong impression.
3. Proofread
Always make sure to proofread your work before clicking “send.” The spellchecker won’t always catch everything so make sure to re-read it yourself. If you are writing an e-mail to a superior or sending out a mass e-mail have a co-worker or associate to read it over before sending it out.
4. Don’t Assume Your E-mail is Private
Don’t send any e-mails that you wouldn’t want seen by wondering eyes. E-mail is not secure and you cannot assume that other people can’t or won’t see it. If you would be embarrassed to have it posted with your name on it in the break room than it would be best not to send it. In some work environments an administrator can view all e-mails sent in the office and you could get fired for sending inappropriate correspondence.
5. Respond Promptly
Be courteous and check your e-mails often so that you don’t leave anyone hanging. Be available to your online correspondents. If you don’t have time to answer or can’t answer their question be sure to let them know so they aren’t waiting for nothing.
Great post and i like how your advice was very succinct. I think email has become such "quick and dirty" way of communication that sometimes we forget that we are also communicating through this medium!
ReplyDeleteGood post! I liked how you incorporated specific examples into your points like the bad subject lines and writing clearly! I believe email can be a very effective way of communicating rapidly and efficiently with peers as long as the tips you provided are followed.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, very mathematical, extremly informative; great post. Althogh, next time I need you to include some time of visual aid for our readers. Pictures and movies draw more attention than words
ReplyDeleteI am getting some funny HTML code in this post. Is anyone else?
ReplyDeleteI got the cu l8ter but not the k ill (Is that okay, I'll)? IM language is a foreign language of its own and I can see why it is not encouraged in professional business writing.
I liked the ideas you presented in in this post. I liked them when I read them here, and I liked many of them several years ago, when I put them on my own website.
ReplyDeleteWhile my web page is listed in the "Works Cited" section, there's no link to my site, so it's not clear just how much of this blog posting was lifted from my site. Here, let me help your readers to see the similarities:
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/e-mail.htm
Again I apologize for my mistakes. The way this site reads HTML made it so that your link did not appear on my works sited it is now fixed and I will make sure to steer clear from using your website since you have made it apparent you don't want your wonderful information to be passed on to others.
ReplyDelete