Tips for writing effective e-mail
Electronic mail has always been and still is the most popular Internet activity. E-mail has outpaced "snail mail" and threatens to overtake phone calls in volume as the most-used form of communication. Here are ways to make the most of e-mail.
1. Be concise and to the point. "Less is more." Keep your message no more than one page long.
2. For easier reading, break up your thoughts into shorter paragraphs consisting of a few sentences.
3. DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS. It's like shouting and very annoying. If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.
4. Unless you're e e cummings, don't type in all lower caps and without punctuation. Capitalization and punctuation have a good purpose: to make writing more understandable.
5. Don't "flame" (be angry or lose your temper) your readers. If you receive a message that angers you, wait a while to cool off before replying. Be polite and respectful, one of the important rules of netiquette.
6. Don't "spam" your readers with unnecessary or frivolous messages. People might not want to open a future message when it's truly important.
7. Yes, e-mail tends to be informal and conversational, but when writing business e-mail, don't stoop below the standards of propriety and good looks that you would use when writing a regular letter.
8. Use the subject line to get the reader's attention (don't leave them blank). Avoid vague, ambiguous subjects: be specific.
9. Keep in mind one of the great downsides of e-mail: very fragile privacy. Anything you write can easily be forwarded to many people. And your messages can potentially be monitored if sent from an employer's computer
10. Think before you write and click that send button. Once it's sent, it's too late to change the original message. Take time to proofread it with a spell checker and grammar checker and carefully review what you've actually said before sending it.
11. Sometimes it's better to save a message you're writing as a draft, then come back to it later when you have more time to give it your full attention.
12. Don't make a hasty response you might regret or have second thoughts about; if you don't have time to respond fully to a message, say so promptly with a brief reply, then follow up appropriately later.
13. When forwarding messages, delete unnecessary headers and other extra text before sending it.
14. Be judicious in passing on chain letters. Not everyone has time for jokes, images, sound and video files, cute stories and profound messages. Some people don't want to read more than they have to.
15. When replying to messages, sending back the original writer's full message can be annoying to some people and tantamount to saying they can't remember what they said to you (especially annoying might be a long message returned with a short comment).
16. When writing for distribution to a large group, protect the privacy of your recipients' addresses by entering them on the "BCC" (blind carbon copy) line, rather than the "CC" line. Addresses entered on the BCC line are not visible to recipients and cannot be forwarded to others. If you wish, include the full names of your intended recipients at the beginning of your message.
17. Beware of e-mail viruses. Admittedly, most virus scares are hoaxes. But you can get a virus from reading or even previewing e-mail, or by opening attachments. Attachments are executable programs ending with extensions such as .exe, but are sometimes disguised with phony extensions. Never open file attachments from strangers. Delete them. It is a good idea to scan all file attachments, regardless of the source, because even friends can unwittingly pass along an attachment with a virus. (A rule of thumb: don't open an attachment if you are not sure you need it, or you have not checked with a sender about its content.) Do not, under any circumstances, allow your e-mail program to automatically execute an attached file. For complete peace of mind, there is a new generation of anti-virus and content security software which scan for viruses in "real-time" before reaching your hard drive, and is automatically updated from the Internet: notably eScan and MailScan.
18. Use your e-mail program's filters (if available) to help block spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail, or junk mail).
19. Use an auto signature so you don't have to repeatedly type your contact information such as name, title, phone number, etc., at the end of each message.
20. If you are not sure if your recipient's e-mail program can read HTML-tagged or rich text e-mail (capable of fancy fonts and formatting), send it lean and simple as "plain text."
21. Heavy e-mailers need to defrag their hard drives monthly or more often, as deleted messages help cause fragmentation. If you cannot remember the last time the drive was defragged, it is time to do it. This will keep your computer running at peak performance.
22. Archive messages you need for your records; delete the rest.
23. Check your e-mail daily. It's as important as checking your phone messages.
copyright 2002 by Edward B. Sadowski. All rights reserved.
