When people first started sending email about 20 years ago, it was a very simple, short, casual form of communication. People still wrote letters, and they used letters to communicate something important or formal. Today, email is very, very different. People use email to communicate with very important people, about very important events, or for very important reasons. People also use email to say “yes,” or “thank you.”
What You Should Do, and Why
Be clear. Don’t assume that the recipient knows what you are talking about. You should always have a subject. You should keep the subject the same when you reply to a message or forward a message to somebody else.
Be appropriate. Don’t send something by email that you don’t want to the world to know. If someone other than the intended recipient gets your email, and it ends up on CNN or in the Austin American-Statesman, would you be embarassed? If you put your personal, private thoughts in writing, those words can be used against you in many ways.
Be brief. Most people are NOT going to read a long email, especially adults who are working. If you have a lot to tell someone, give them a call.
Be nice, but leave out the unnecessary pleasantries like “Hi,” “Hello,” or the recipients name. You are sending them an email which is addressed to them. They know it is for them. You don’t need to start an email with their name (“Joe,” or “Dear Joe”). You should never send an email with just “Thank you,” or “OK” unless that communication is necessary. If you want to be “nice” send them some flowers.
Sign your email. Sometimes your email address isn’t enough of a clue who is sending the email. Your nickname or ID for your email may not even have your name in it, in which case someone who is getting an email from you for the first time may not know who it is from. If it is the first time you have sent someone an email, and they might think it is SPAM (unwanted advertising), you might even want to put your name in the subject (for example, Subject: From John Roberts: Invitation to Awards Dinner). Most email systems allow you to automatically sign your email, often called an “Auto-Signature.” This is a great way to be sure that the recipient has your name, email and even your phone if that is relevant. Why would you include your email address in your signature? Because if your email is forwarded to someone else, your email address may not show up in the message that gets forwarded. In Yahoo mail, you go to settings, then signature. In Gmail, you go to settings, and Signature is on the General Tab.
What You Should NOT Do, and Why
Don’t send your own SPAM. Invitations from MySpace or other social networking sites, sent to your entire address book ARE SPAM!!! Everyone in your address book does NOT want to be invited, and many people don’t want email from you which serves as free advertising for a social networking site.
Don’t send an email without a subject or with gibberish as a subject. Many email systems, including Gmail and Yahoo will send your email to the SPAM folder if the system does not recognize your email address from its history. Don’t just hit random keys on your keyboard (asdfg) – your email will end up in the spam folder, and the recipient won’t even see it.
Never, ever, ever, ever use big fonts and big colored characters in your email. It is distracting and difficult to read. Reading an email with text that is so big that there are only two or three words on each line is annoying and a waste of time. An important thing that you need to know is from the history of email… When people first sending email, you could only send plain text. No colors, bold, or other emphasis was available, just letters. So, think about it, if you need to emphasize something with no bold or colors, you use capital letters. CAPITAL LETTERS ARE SEEN AS YELLING! You don’t want to yell at the recipient, so don’t use big letters or UPPER CASE letters. Have you ever been watching TV and an ad comes on and the volume is way louder than the other ads and your show? It’s the same thing. Don’t use upper case letters unless it is really, really important.
And, perhaps the most important guideline about email is: Don’t send an email when you are mad. Your emotional reaction to someone’s email will almost always sound angrier or more hurtful if you type a quick response and send it immediately. Stop, ask yourself if you really want to start an email fight with the sender. And then, even if you want to reply, write your response, then wait overnight and send it the next day.
Summary:
Do: Be clear (subject), be appropriate, be brief, be nice, and sign your email.
Don’t: Send SPAM, skip the subject, use big colored letters or CAPS, or send an email when you’re mad.
