Email Etiquette

Email Etiquette
In this day and age, some companies have still not realized how important their email communications. Many companies send email replies late or not at all, or send replies that do not actually answer the questions you asked. If your company is able to deal professionally with email, this will provide your company with that all important competitive edge. Moreover by educating employees as to what can and cannot be said in an email, you can protect your company from awkward liability issues.
- www.emailreplies.com
One problem with less formal email is missed signals - the written message doesn't come with facial expressions or gestures that you would get in a face-to-face meeting, and there's no tone of voice to interpret as you could over the telephone. A great deal of human communication comes from these non-verbal signals and traditionally they help to make the message clear.
For example, irony and humor can be difficult to express in a mail message - many people get round this by using smiley’s such as :) to indicate humor - but not everyone knows what these mean, so they are not foolproof.


Good Email Etiquette

• Do check to see what your organization’s email policy is. Many organizations have rules about the types of message that can be sent and also if your email is monitored or screened.
• Do try to think about the message content before you send it out.
• Do make sure that the content is relevant to the recipients. Nobody likes to receive junk email.
• Do be polite. Terseness can be misinterpreted.
• Do trim any quoted message down as much as possible.
• Do try to use humor and irony sparingly. You can use smileys such as :) or :( to indicate facial expressions, but make sure that the recipient understands what they mean.
• Do ensure that you have a relevant "Subject" line.
• Do try to quote from the original message where relevant. You can break the quoted message down into paragraphs and comment on them individually to make it clearer.
• Do be patient, especially with inexperienced email users. Give people the benefit of the doubt - just because you are familiar with email etiquette, it doesn't mean that they are.
• Do include a brief signature on your email messages to help the recipient understand who it is from, especially if you are dealing with someone you do not know very well.
• Do be careful when replying to mailing list messages, or to messages sent to many recipients. Are you sure you want to reply to the whole list?
• Do remember to delete anything that isn't needed or is trivial.
• Do remember to tell people the format of any attachments you send if they're anything other than basic Microsoft Office file types.
• Do tell your correspondent if you forward a message to somebody else to deal with, so they know who to expect a reply from.
• Do use emphasis where its useful to do so. If your email system doesn't allow bold or italics then a common convention is to use a *star* either side of the word you want to stress.
• Do understand that languages such as English differ in spelling between different countries. "Organization" and "humor" are the correct spelling in British English, but in American English it would be "organization" and "humor". Non-native speakers of English may use a variety of national spellings.

Bad Email Etiquette

• Don't reply to an email message when angry, as you may regret it later. Once the message has been sent, you will not be able to recover it.
• Don't keep mail on your server longer than necessary, especially large attachments.
• Don't copy out an entire, long message just to add a line or two of text such as "I agree".
• Don't type in CAPITALS as this is considered to be SHOUTING. This is one of the rudest things you can do.
• Don't over-use punctuation such as exclamation marks ("!") as these are meant to be for emphasis. In particular avoid more than one exclamation mark ("!!"), especially if your email is quite formal. Also, over-use of the full-stop (e.g. "....") can make a message difficult to read.
• Don't send irrelevant messages, especially to mailing lists or newsgroups.
• Don't send large attachments without checking with the recipient first.
• Don't send excessive multiple postings to people who have no interest. This is known as "spamming" and is considered to be ignorant, and may lead to serious trouble with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or IT department.
• Don't send chain letters or "make money fast" messages. There are several hoaxes about to do with viruses - never pass these on without checking with your IT department first.
• Don't criticize people's spelling, it is considered petty. Many people have no way of running a spell check on their messages and will make typos. Not all nationalities spell words in the same way.
• Don't conduct arguments in public, for example on a mailing list.
• Don't "flame" people by sending them abusive email messages.
• Don't make personal remarks about third parties. Email messages can come back to haunt you.
• Don't send unsuitable email or attachments, especially anything of a sexual nature as they may well be found by a third party later.
• Don't use an over-elaborate signature on your email message. Never, ever, use scanned images in a signature as these tend to be very large.
• Don't mark things as urgent if they aren't, because then when you really do have an urgent message it may not be treated in the way it deserves.
• Don't post your email address on web sites and other public parts of the Internet unless you want to be deluged with spam.
www.dynamoo.com/technical/etiquette.htm
Many people use email for business communications, which stresses the importance of knowing proper email etiquette. While a lot of people understand the importance of following certain rules when writing a business letter, they often forget these rules when composing an email message. Here's a refresher.
• Mind Your Manners: Think of the basic rules you learned growing up, like saying please and thank you. Address people you don't know as Mr., Mrs., or Dr. only address someone by first name if they imply it's okay to do so.
• Watch Your Tone: Merriam-Webster defines tone as an "accent or inflection expressive of a mood or emotion." It is very difficult to express tone in writing. You want to come across as respectful, friendly, and approachable. You don't want to sound curt or demanding.
• Be Concise: Get to the point of your email as quickly as possible, but don't leave out important details that will help your recipient answer your query.
• Be Professional: This means, stay away from abbreviations and don't use emoticons (those little smiley faces). Don't use a cute or suggestive email address for business communications.
• Use Correct Spelling and Proper Grammar: Use a dictionary or a spell checker — whichever works better for you. While you can write in a conversational tone (contractions are okay), pay attention to basic rules of grammar.
• Ask Before You Send an Attachment: Because of computer viruses, many people won't open attachments unless they know the sender. Even that can be a mistake because many viruses come disguised in email messages from someone you know. Before sending an attachment, ask the recipient if you may do so.
• Wait to Fill in the "TO" Email Address: Career Planning Site visitor Larry Bachelor says, "I never fill in the 'TO' email address until I am completely through proofing my email and I am sure that it is exactly the way that I want it. This will keep you from accidentally sending an email prematurely. In the past, I have accidentally clicked on the send icon, when I really meant to click on the attachment icon."

Chat etiquette

When chatting online, use the same etiquette you would use when chatting in person. Don't shout (using all caps) and don't ask for personal information. You wouldn't do it in person so don't do it when chatting online.