Email has become the most preferred method of communication it seems these days. Because of how pervasive it is and as a form of written communication there are etiquette rules to follow so that you get your message across without raising feathers.
Write Right
You want to be perceived as a professional, right? In professional email communication make sure you carefully review your email for grammatical and spelling errors. You will be less likely to be taken seriously if your email is full of typos. Don’t use emoticons in professional correspondence. Save it for your BFF.
Seek the Right Tone
Tone is important in an email. Since you are communicating in writing and not in person the audience of your email cannot interpret facial expressions or body language. Your words need to convey the right tone and communicate on their own. Always maintain a calm and professional tone in your emails.
Dispassionate and Direct
If you are angry at someone and want to communicate this don’t do it by email. Pick up the phone or go to see this person face to face. You have to know when it appropriate to send an email and when it is more appropriate to communicate via phone or in person. Weigh and measure your communication carefully so you are most likely to get the appropriate reaction or response. Most importantly, DON’T USE ALL CAPS, because it means you are yelling at someone in email lingo.
The CC and the BCC
CC is a holdover from typewriter days and means Carbon Copy. Use the CC when you want to communicate the same message to more than one person to keep them in the loop. BCC means Blind Carbon Copy and that the recipient of your email doesn’t know the BCC recipient is being copied. Use BCC when you are keeping someone’s supervisor in the loop but you don’t want the other person to know. Usually the BCC is incorporated in a CYA kind of move meant to protect one’s own professional integrity. The BCC can also be seen as office tattling so use it sparingly unless you are Dwight Shrute.
Attachments
Keep in mind that most people’s email servers will choke on anything larger than 10MB and that many people’s email filters will assume that your email with an attachment is spam. (Most viruses are sent as attachments and therefore anything with an attachment is suspect.)
Timeliness
Answer emails the way you would any hand written correspondence. Try to respond to all emails within 24 hours. Even if you can't answer the email right away, send a message that says, "I got this. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Work on refining your email communication so you can be a more effective employee and worker.
