Email Etiquette

To try and guess accurately how many people around the world use email would be an impossible task. Some with internet connectivity don't use email, but most of us have at least one email address and many have several. This often includes an email address for home, work, and one that is used when registering with a website in order to avoid spam should that particular business sell the information it receives. With all of that email flying around in cyberspace, proper etiquette is important for several reasons: The following sections will explain proper email etiquette to reduce risks and increase professionalism. To begin with, we will start with the "Top 10" mistakes commonly made when writing and sending emails. Some of these topics are also touch upon in the "Spam Protection" and "Phishing Protection" areas of this site.

Top Ten Email Mistakes

Here is a list of what we would call the top ten and most common mistakes made when composing, replying and forwarding email.
  1. Poor grammar and misspelled words leading to confusion or incomplete thoughts.
  2. Tone of the email. When you talk face to face, the other person can read your body language and the tone in your voice. With email, there is no body language or voice. Choose your words carefully.
  3. Rambling on and on. Formulate your thought and keep it short. You don't want to write the e-mail equivalent of a novel. Get to the point as quickly as possible without appearing curt. Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  4. SHOUTING!!! DO NOT COMPOSE EMAIL USING ALL CAPS. Some people like to type with the caps button locked not realizing that it is the equivalent of shouting.
  5. A vague or omitted subject line. Sum up your email in a few words and use that as the subject line.
  6. Failing to respond promptly to important emails. If you will be unable to respond in a reasonable time, use your e-mail client's auto-reply function to let people know when you'll respond to them.
  7. Forwarding e-mail without permission. Too often confidential or embarrassing information has gone global because of someone’s lack of judgment. Unless you are asked or request permission, do not forward anything that was sent just to you.
  8. Sending email to the wrong person. Filling out the TO: line should be the very last thing you do. Check over your message first. Make sure you haven't left anything off. Then fill out the TO: line. This helps prevent incomplete emails from accidently being sent, gives you a chance to double check it and then choose only the recipients you want to send it to. Remember, once you hit that send button, it's too late to get it back.
  9. Continuing endless e-mail correspondence and attachments. You do not need to include the full text of an e-mail thread. Remove everything that is not needed but the text of the most recent message. It helps to replace the removed text with <snip> so that others know it was removed and can refer to a previous email if necessary. It also makes e-mail much easier to read and deal with. Remove attachments if they are not needed. Do not open an attachment from anyone you don't know, unless you've been told to expect the attachment. When sending an attachment, say what the attachment is in the body of the e-mail. Unless you're sending something in plain text, do not assume the recipient has the software to view your attachment. Find out ahead of time.
  10. Exposing everyone’s email address. If you are sending an email to several people, list them in the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) field. It protects their email address from being harvested by spammers, keeps their email address private, and prevents forwarded emails from containing everyone’s address.

The Long Version

When composing an email take your time as this is a reflection of yourself and often, a first impression. With this in mind, you want to make sure that you make the right impression, especially if you are representing your employer. Take the time to check your spelling, grammar and punctuation. Be careful not to over punctuate, for example, adding several exclamation points at the end of a sentence. Read over the email before sending it. Make sure that it will be easily understood, does not create confusion and that your points are clear. Remember however to be polite. The use of the words "please" and "thank you" can go a long way towards setting the tone of the email.

Keep the email as short as possible. Be careful when using abbreviations in emails. The recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in business emails these are not generally considered appropriate. People are easily bored with emails that ramble on and often those emails create confusion. Separate your thoughts into paragraphs. This makes the email easier to read.

Avoid typing all in caps. THIS IS REFERRED TO AS SHOUTING. Often these emails go unread and are deleted. Other times, it changes the mood of the reader who may respond in like or not at all. It also changes the tone of the email and makes the composer appear as hostile.

The subject line is the headline of your email. Sum up your message in a few words for use in the subject line. You want to avoid using a vague subject line or omitting it all together. Often emails without a subject line are picked up by spam filters and deleted. The subject line should be meaningful and summarize the main point of the email in just a few words.

When sending an email, don't expect the recipient(s) to respond immediately. Most people do not sit by their computers just waiting for an email to arrive. When they do receive emails, it is usually more than just a few. If you need a response, ask for one in the email. Perhaps flag the email as high priority however, be careful not to over use this option. You don't want to appear as the boy who cried wolf by using it all the time. If you are going to be out of the office or out of town, you can use the auto reply feature of some email clients however using this feature may also respond to spam. Each situation will need to be weighed on its own merits.

When concluding your email, your signature is just as important as it completes the tone of the email. Use words like "respectfully", "sincerely" or even a simple, "thanks" with your name. If the emails you send are coming from a company, it is also a good idea to add disclaimers to your internal and external emails. This can help protect your company from liability. An example would be: Notice: This e-mail message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. Please virus check all attachments to prevent widespread contamination and corruption of files and operating systems. The unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or distribution of this email may constitute a violation of the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and similar state laws.

Also, know that sending the email using html or rich text formats may be wasted if the recipient can only read is plain text.

When replying to email, make sure to answer all of the questions. Read your reply carefully so that you don't create further unanswered questions. This will prevent further unnecessary emails and frustration. Be sure to include the most recent thread in your reply but cut and delete unnecessary information out of the reply like footers added by free email services, a lengthy list of email addresses in the header and body of the email and long lists of other replies to the thread. This will also reduce harvesting of email addresses thus reducing the possibility of spam. Don't over use the "reply to all" function. Only reply to those who need to be in the loop.

Do not request delivery or read receipts. A lot of software does not support this function, or it may be disabled in that software and in any case, it is annoying to the recipient.

DON'T REPLY TO SPAM! The email has likely been spoofed and is not coming from a valid email address or the spammers address. If the email is coming from a legitimate address, responding to it will confirm that your email address is valid, possibly resulting in more spam. If the email was sent using someone else's email address, by responding to it, you are spamming others. Our email systems are already overloaded with spam and replying to it simply increases the load on servers further slowing down the networks and will not be effective.

When forwarding emails, follow these simple rules: first be careful about which emails you forward. Again, too often confidential or embarrassing information has gone global because of someone’s lack of judgment. Unless you are asked or request permission, do not forward just anything that was sent to you. Check out the validity of the email before you forward it. More than one person has looked silly because they took the email at its face value instead of checking out the facts.

If you receive an email message warning you of a new unstoppable virus that immediately deletes everything from your computer, this is most probably a hoax. By forwarding hoaxes you use valuable bandwidth and sometimes virus hoaxes contain viruses themselves. The same goes for chain letters that promise incredible riches or ask your help for a charitable cause. Even if the content seems to be credible, the senders are usually not. Just delete it.

Filling out the TO: line should be the very last thing you do. Check over your message first. Make sure you haven't left anything off. Again check spelling and grammar. Then fill out the TO: line. This helps prevent incomplete emails from accidently being sent, gives you a chance to double check it and then choose only the recipients you want to send it to. In corporate settings where you may have the option, you do not want to recall a message. There is a good chance that it was already read. In that case a recall request would look silly and unprofessional. Remember, once you hit that send button, it's too late to get it back. Filling out the TO: line last prevents the email from being sent due to an errant keystroke or being sent to the wrong person.

The TO: CC: and BCC: fields have specific functions. Usually, the TO: field is used as a direct communication often requiring a response unless being sent only to one or two recipients or in a FYI fashion. The CC: field often does not require a response but is a way to keep others in the loop such as a supervisor so that they are aware of a situation they may later be asked about. The BCC: field has two great functions. First it keeps others in the loop without identifying such communication to the main recipients of the message. The second function it serves is to protect email addresses of a mass of recipients.

Be careful about sending confidential information via company email. Administrators can read the emails as easily as a postman reads a postcard. If you don't want your email to be displayed on a bulletin board, don't send it. Moreover, never make any libelous, sexist or racially discriminating comments in emails, even if they are meant to be a joke. It can come back to haunt you. When sending any email, don't say anything you wouldn't want the world to know. Even with disclaimers, the email could someday end up in the public forum. Even if a disgruntled employee or recipient broke the rules, the fact is, the message still went public.

Avoid "flaming" or participating in "flames". A flame is an e-mail sent to a person that has caused that person to respond in many, not-so-nice words. It is a verbal attack in electronic form. Sometimes the reason for a flame is obvious, but in other cases you just never know. You might send what you think is a harmless e-mail to a dozen people. Most respond rationally while others send you a flame. Remember, everyone sees the world differently.

So how do you respond to flame? The best answer is to ignore it and go with your life as a logical and rational human being. Remember, "You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time". If you do choose to respond you may possibly end up in what is known as a "flame war". This is where two or more people end up exchanging flames for an extended period of time. This is extremely unprofessional, usually ends up destroying relationships (if there were any to begin with), and winds up using a ridiculous amount of time and network traffic firing emails back and forth. If you did make an error that resulted in a flame, the best course of action is to acknowledge it, apologize, correct it if possible and move on. Here is a common list of causes which start flames:

Lastly, never give out someone elses email address in the form of a "subscription request", to a service such as Classmates, Facebook or MySpace without the recipients permission. It creates nagging spam messages that are sent out over and over again until the person joins. Not only does this anger people but it then reminds them of that anger everytime they get spammed.
Back To The Top