I write about email pretty frequently because it is a major form—maybe the primary form—of business communication. And because it is, it’s important to do it right.
Micah Warren (@MicahLargeMedia) has posted an interesting piece, “Don’t let these bad habits infect your emails,” on Ragan’s PR Daily. His post offers four tips for improving your emails, to which I’ll add another.
Here goes:
- Don’t abbreviate. Warren is annoyed by “thx” instead of “Thanks.” So am I. As he puts it, “It’s not that I don’t understand what is being communicated. I get it. But it’s almost like saying, “I’m too busy and important to have the kind of time required in a day to type out the word ‘Thanks’.” I say, save “thx” for Twitter or texts.
- Answer all the questions. If an email has several questions, answer them all. At least acknowledge that you’ve read them, even if you don’t have answers. It would be even better to say when you think you can respond to questions you don’t have answers for. I correspond regularly with someone who answers maybe one or two questions and not the rest. (And no, I don’t bombard her with questions.) As Mr. Warren notes, “This is another email behavior that slows up the communication process and slows down everyone’s workflow.” I’ll add that it comes across—at least to me—as a way to delay addressing an issue.
- Don’t do naked forwards. Sounds provocative, eh? But what it really means is not forwarding an email that was not intended for anyone but you. With this suggestion, Mr. Warren includes an important corollary: “I’m very careful about what I say and try to only send emails that I assume the recipient will pass along unedited.” I say, forward if you feel you absolutely must, but always preface with an explanation.
- Remove the images in your signature line. Your logo or your company’s logo is fine. My signature line includes my logo, and I insist on the one about considering our natural resources when reprinting. (And, come to think of it, I do love my Clint Eastwood quotation—no, it is not “Make my day.”) Mr. Warren comments that people look at emails with attachments and assume you’ve included a file they need to pay attention to.
- Watch your writing. (My contribution) This means making sure that your grammar and spelling are as perfect as you can make them. A poorly written, ill-thought-out email can impact your reputation for professionalism. Just as with web content, your readers will be likely to pick up on typos, misspellings, and sloppy thinking even if they’re not great writers. So I recommend rereading a message before you send it. You’ll be surprised at the words that lack the “s” on the end that they need. (My bugaboo). And if you have time, I’d let a message sit in draft and revisit it in a couple of hours. That goes for really important responses, not routine ones. And here I’m assuming that even your routine responses are impeccable.
The readers of Mr. Warren’s post have included some of their email pet peeves: cryptic subject lines, reply all, forwarding a bcc, and “dangling emails,” which are messages that sound as though you started them in the middle of a thought and assumed your reader knew what you were talking about.
What bugs you about email?
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