EMAIL ETIQUETTE

In the Business World

By
Mokshda Bhushan

WHY EMAILS?
More

and more business done over email

To eliminate (or greatly reduce) the shuffling
of paper- save environment
Economic & efficient
Easily storable
Professional
Convenient
Speedy

Adressees: To, Cc or Bcc?

'To - for people you are directly addressing.

'Cc' are for the people you want to keep

informed.

The 'To' and 'Cc' addresses are blind to the

'Bcc' addresses. As you can imagine, use of
the 'Bcc' is somewhat unethical and
therefore its use is discouraged.

7 email etiquette tips

Keep your emails concise and to the point

Reply swiftly
Attach only necessary files
Re-read the email before you send it
Keep formatting simple
Never use email to discuss confidential
information
If email is long, then make an elevator summary
+ a table of contents point-wise, with headings
for each major section. Most important in 1st
point.

Email Basics- Language

Keep it formal
Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation
Use active instead of passive voice
Subject must reflect your email content
Avoid using URGENT or IMPORTANT unless really
necessary
Avoid using long sentences- within the screen
Keep your language gender neutral
Never send emails containing defamatory, offensive,
racist or obscene remarks. Never give bad news over
emails.

Email Basics-Format
Give

a subject to your email

Keep it brief- one screen length
Keep line length short < 80 characters
Use caps when needed
Use a professional or neutral font
Check for grammatical, punctuation and
spelling mistake before you send that email.
Use attachments for longer emails

Attachments

When sending an attachment, make sure you tell

your recipient:

1)

The name of the file

The program in which it is saved
The version of the program

2)
3)

It is always better to request for receipt

acknowledgment.

Abbreviations [FYEO]
Do

not confuse with your abbreviations.

Use abbreviations that are already common
to the English language, such as 'FYI' and
'BTW'.

COMMON ABBREVIATIONS
This

Means This

BCNU

be seeing you

BTW

by the way

FWIW

for what it's worth

FYI

for your information

IMHO

in my humble opinion

OBO

or best offer

LOL

Laugh out loud

RTFM

read the funny manual

TNSTAAFL

there's no such thing as a free lunch

TTFN

ta ta for now

TTYL

talk to you later

SMILIES not to use in

official emails
Smilies are simple strings of characters that
are interspersed in the e-mail text to convey
the writer's emotions (cues).
The most common example is :-). Turn your
head to the left and you should see a happy
face (the colon are the eyes, the dash is the
nose and the parentheses is the mouth). Here
are some more examples:

MEANING OF SMILIES

This

Means This

:-)

Smiley face

;-)

Wink (light sarcasm)

:-|

Indifference

:->

Devilish grin (heavy sarcasm)

8-)

Eye-glasses

:-D

Shock or surprise

:-/

Perplexed

:-(

Frown (anger or displeasure)

:-P

Wry smile

;-}

Leer

:-Q

Smoker

:-e

Disappointment

:-@

Scream

:-O

Yell

:-*

Drunk

SALUTATIONS
Each situation will need to be evaluated on
its on, but in general, use the following as a
guide:
If you normally address a person as
Miss/Mrs./Ms./Mr Smith then that's the way to
initially address them in e-mail. If you are
unsure, stick to the formal salutation. It's the
safest bet.
If the person calls you by your first name, you
can do same.

EMAIL SIGNATURE

If signature is not possible, then write your name down.

Include your e-mail address, your title and company
name in the signature in this information. Sometimes it
can be very difficult to locate your e-mail address in the
information that's a part of transmission, especially if it's
going across the Internet.
Quotes- You will sometimes run across a user's
signature that contains a quote (as in "...the secret to life
is that there is no secret.") after the person's name. If
you choose this option I would recommend that the
quote be something that is a reflection of yourself. Keep
it short.

THREADS
Do not break email threads
Without the link, it can get difficult for the
users on each end to follow the sequence of
messages, especially after several exchanges.

QUOTES
Nothing

is more wasteful than to reply to an

e-mail by including a complete copy of the
original with the words "I agree", "Okay" or
"Ditto" at the bottom.
Best way to do it:
> And do you agree with the proposal to hire
Ms. Roy?
>>Yes. Please make the necessary
arrangements.

ISSUES OF
CONFIDENTIALITY
There

is no such thing as a private e-mail.

I don't care what anybody says, states,
swears or whatever, there is just no such
thing as private e-mail.
Who can read your office email anytime?

Privacy issues
The

systems administrator has the ability to

read any and all e-mail messages.
Monitoring of employee e-mail by
employer: The company management
wanting to make sure users are not wasting
time on frivolous messages to making sure
that company secrets are not being leaked to
unauthorized sources.

Privacy of emails? Are you

kidding?
Hackers
Somewhere

in the world there is a person

(usually a hacker) who is able to read your email if he/she tries hard enough.
Things can go wrong
Your confidential email can go to the wrong
person and get you fired.

So, where does this leave us?

1)First, there is no such thing as a private e-mail.

2) Second, don't send anything by e-mail that
you would not want posted on the company
bulletin board. If it's safe enough for the bulletin
board, it's safe enough for e-mail.
3) If you are debating whether or not to send
something personal by e-mail, either deliver it by
hand or send it by snail mail.
4) Finally,never discuss your private life over
email.

Email at work= evidence in

court
Under

all Information technology legislations

in the whole world, e-mails sent from the
office are regarded as official company
communications regardless of content and
could possibly expose you and your company
to unnecessary risk.
Scary, huh?
Look up:
http://www.ecommnet.co.uk/articles/email_as
_evidence.asp

FLAMES
A

Flame is basically a verbal attack in

electronic form. It creates a lot of conflict
within the work environment to vent out
frustrations or send inflammatory messages
via email.
Avoid flaming because you cannot take back
what is written. It can also spiral out of your
control.

RESPONDING TO FLAME
Before

you flame back, ask yourself: Would I

say this to this person on his face?
Calm down and ignore it if you can.
If not, then flaming back should be done:
Flame on
Your message
Flame off
Talk in person if it escalates too much

Email as blessing
Email

is a conversation where you can

respond in your own time.
If a hundred people send you e-mail in one
day, so what? You didn't have to talk with all
one hundred.

Email as a curse
When

there is something time-bound or

where it is urgent, never rely on emails.
You never know whether the recipient
actually reads your email or not.
So, if its urgent, call.

CONCLUSION

Communication between humans is:

approximately 90% body language,
8% tone of voice,
2% what you actually say.

With email, you remove the first 98%.

Be aware of this when you write emails.

Be very obvious with your meanings, since subtleties will be
lost or completely misunderstood.
Remember this too, when reading others' emails. Their grasp of
the language, or their haste in writing the email, may have
given it a "virtual tone" that may come off as derogatory or
aggressive. Reread it and see if you are simply misinterpreting
the words.

ANY QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU.