01/ 03/ 2008
by Reid Goldsborough
Despite the availability of video, at the high end, and texting, at the low end, e-mail remains the most common form of one-to-one Internet-based communication, particularly in business settings.
You might think that it's an old hat by now, but e-mail has been around since 1961, before the Internet was a gleam in the eyes of the technocrats at the U.S. Defense Department.
You might think that e-mail seems like child's play, but there are subtleties to all this e-mail business, and knowing what they are can make you look professional—or like an amateur.
A lot of people let down their hair when firing off an e-mail message, writing far more informally than in reports or even memos. E-mail has a conversational feel to it, a cross between a chatty phone conversation and a formal business letter.
It's generally OK to follow the tone dictated by the internal culture where you work, or play. If people don't capitalize the first letter of sentences or pay attention to spelling, don't sweat trying to dot all your Is and cross all your Ts.
But don't make the mistake of using the same informal tone with those outside your organization unless you're sure it wouldn't be misinterpreted. A lot of people get off on the wrong foot by addressing people they've never met by their first name and writing as if they never made it out of grade school.
The purpose of e-mail, like all writing, is to communicate. If you overemphasize speed at the expense of correctness, you'll make your recipient spend needless time trying to decipher what you're trying to say.
Think through all aspects of an e-mail message, starting with the salutation. Beginning an e-mail by using the quaint letter-writing convention of "Dear" can make you look outmoded. "Hello, Mr. Jones," when being formal, or "Hi, Sam," when being informal, looks better than either "Dear" or not using any salutation at all.
It's also generally OK to follow whatever convention is common in your organization when deciding how to quote the recipient's words in a reply to a message you received from them. But it's generally best to place your own words in some kind of context. If you don't use the automatic quoting feature offered by all modern e-mail programs, you should still remind your correspondent of any previous discussion and summarize the subject matter.
If you do use your e-mail program's automatic quoting feature, it's generally best to quote a relevant snippet of a message and place it in front of your response, or respond directly underneath multiple snippets when you're dealing with many quotes, and avoid quoting the entirety of a long message at the beginning of yours. Quoting your recipient's previous e-mail at the end of yours just records it without facilitating speed or convenience.
Gauge the e-mail experience of whomever you're communicating with in considering whether to use acronyms such as IMHO, which is short for "in my humble opinion," and "emoticons" such as
Match the length of your response to how eager you are to converse. A short, polite response indicates you've received the other person's message but need to move on. A longer, thoughtful response indicates a willingness to engage.
You have more options with e-mail closings than with openings. If you're making a request or filing a complaint, "Thank you" works well. "Best" is a good all-around closing. Some letter closings also work well with e-mail, including "Sincerely" and "Regards."
Some people choose to dispense with closings as they dispense with salutations, but both are quick nods to politeness or friendliness. At the very least, close with your name or initials. At the other extreme, you can engage the "sig" feature of your e-mail program, which will automatically end your message with your name, title, company name, or whatever other information you choose, which is particularly appropriate for formal e-mail.
If you're trying to be correct rather than going for a nonchalant style that shouts "I'm busy," don't forget to proofread the contents of your e-mail message. E-mail spell checkers—like all spell checkers—aren't foolproof, particularly when misspelling a word creates a different word that is spelled correctly.
Also, take a look at the headers of your e-mail. The last thing you want is for a flirty message intended for a single recipient a couple of cubicles down to go to a distribution list comprising your entire company.
Reid Goldsborough is a syndicated columnist and author of the book Straight Talk About the Information Superhighway. He can be reached at reidgold@comcast.net or www.reidgoldsborough.com.
