The Basics of Emailing
By Graciela Sholander
Sending email in the business world is not the same as emailing your buddies when you're off work. Your business email messages must be professional. If they aren't, it'll be hard for the recipient to take you seriously. State what you have to say with clarity, and don't try to be cute. Keep your message brief, keep it upbeat, and remember to run the spell checker before hitting "send."
Steer Clear from Abbreviations And Acronyms
Maybe your manager's email made you LOL. That's fine, but refrain from telling her so. Perhaps you want to inform a co-worker that BTW, his report is due today. Better spell it out instead- "By the way, your report is due this afternoon by 3:00 PM." In business, specificity is essential. For several good reasons, don't give in to the temptation to use email abbreviations and acronyms.
First of all, not everyone is familiar with them. You could stump an associate or potential business partner, unintentionally confusing the other party or making them uncomfortable. Second, some people find email jargon downright annoying. Most of all, abbreviations or acronyms like TTYL (Talk To You Later) take away from the professional tone your message needs to maintain.
Only use abbreviations and acronyms that are generally accepted at your workplace, such as:
• Company names (AMD, IBM, KFC)
• College/university names (UCLA, BYU)
• Internal code words- a company-wide known abbreviation for a project, program, or product
• Standard abbreviations- U.S., MST, Ph.D.
Refrain from Copying the World
What happens to spam that ends up in your inbox? It gets promptly deleted. Likewise, if you "spam" your entire company (to you it may not be spamming, but to the recipients it probably is), expect most people to ignore and delete your messages.
Everyone likes to get a personalized, not generic, message. Typically you're writing to one person, or perhaps one group. If you take a moment to greet or address each recipient within the body of the email, chances are they'll not only read your message, they'll take a moment to reply, too. If you legitimately must copy others, keep the list short.
Careful with Reply Options
This scenario unfortunately gets repeated again and again at large and small companies alike. An angry, frustrated employee writes an email reply that speaks poorly about a particular co-worker or boss. The message is highly personal, not to mention inappropriate- a secret gripe intended to be read by one person only, perhaps a trusted friend who works at the same company.
The writer clicks "Reply," then recoils in horror. Instead of "Reply to Sender," the person accidentally chose "Reply
to Everyone," and within minutes everyone at work knows exactly how this person feels about so-and-so. Bad news...
Make sure this never happens to you! First of all, refrain from writing anything negative about another person at your company. Your email can easily get forwarded to the person you are complaining about. And second, always double-check who you're replying to so that your confidential message doesn't instantly end up in the wrong inbox. A few seconds of double-checking can save you a world of embarrassment.
