Writing Effective Emails

1. Write a meaningful subject line.

Recipients scan the subject line in order to decide whether to open, forward, file, or trash a message. Remember -- your message is not the only one in your recipient's mailbox.

Subject: "Important! Read Immediately!!"           

What is important to you may not be important to your reader. Rather than brashly announcing that the secret contents of your message are important, write an informative headline that actually communicates at least the core of what you feel is so important: "Emergency: All Cars in the Lower Lot Will Be Towed in 1 Hour."Many have their e-mail filters set to trash e-mail messages with more than one exclamation mark in the subject line. These are considered ‘shouting’ and are construed as being abusive, trying to sell something, or both.

Subject: "Meeting"           

The purpose of this e-mail might be a routine request for a meeting, an announcement of a last-minute rescheduling, or a summary of something that has already happened. There's no way to know without opening the message, so this subject line is hardly useful.

Subject: "Follow-up about Meeting"           

Fractionally better -- provided that the recipient recognizes your name and remembers why a follow-up was necessary.

Subject: "Do we need a larger room for meeting next Fri?"           

Upon reading this revised, informative subject line, the recipient immediately starts thinking about the size of the room, not about whether it will be worth it to open the e-mail.

E-mail accounts get dozens of virus-bearing junk mails each day, often bearing a vague title such as "That file you requested," or no title at all. You'll get a faster response if your recipient can tell from the subject line that it's a real message from a real person.

2. Keep the message focused and readable. 

Often recipients only read partway through a long message, hit "reply" as soon as they have something to contribute, and forget to keep reading. This is human nature.If your e-mail contains multiple messages that are only loosely related, in order to avoid the risk that your reader will reply only to the first item that grabs his or her fancy, you could number your points to ensure they are all read (adding an introductory line that states how many parts there are to the message). If the points are substantial enough, split them up into separate messages so your recipient can delete, respond, file, or forward each item individually.

Keep your message readable.

• Use standard capitalization and spelling, especially when your message asks your recipient to do work for you.
• Skip lines between paragraphs. Make your text as easy to read as possible.
• Avoid fancy typefaces. Don't depend upon bold font, italics, colour or large size to add nuances - many people's e-mail readers only display plain text. In a pinch, use asterisks to show *emphasis*.
• Don't type in all-caps. Online, all-caps means shouting. Regardless of your intention, people will react as if you meant to be aggressive and immediately switch to the defensive.

3. Avoid attachments. 

• are increasingly dangerous carriers of viruses
• take time to download
• take up needless space on your recipient's computer, and 
• don't always translate correctly (especially for people who might read their e-mail on portable devices).

Instead of sending a whole word file, just copy and paste the relevant text into the e-mail (unless of course your recipient actually needs to view file in order to edit or archive it). The ideal, of course, is to upload your document to your website, then include a link to where they can download the full version. Sending a 1MB attachment to hundreds or thousands of employees is a huge waste of digital resources.

4. Identify yourself clearly. 

When contacting someone cold, always include your name, occupation, and any other important identification information in the first few sentences. If you are following up on a face-to-face contact, you might appear too timid if you assume your recipient doesn't remember you; but you can drop casual hints to jog their memory: "I enjoyed talking with you about PDAs in the office the other day."

5. Be kind, not abusive.

If you find yourself writing in anger, take a break. Take some time to cool off before you hit "send." Don't send without weighing the consequences. If you SHOUT at your boss, that message will probably surface someday when you're up for promotion or you want a letter of recommendation. If you abuse an underling (especially in public), then you damage that person's trust in your leadership, and you probably won't get that person's best work in the future.Praise in public, criticise in private. If you want to complain about someone, do it in person or by telephone, so there won't be a permanent record.

6. Proofread. 

If you are asking someone else to do work for you, take the time to make your message look professional. While your spell checker won't catch every grammatical mistake, at the very least it will catch a few typos. If you are sending a message that will be read by someone higher up on the chain of command or if you're about to mass-mail dozens or thousands of people, take an extra minute or two before you hit "send". Show a draft to a close colleague, in order to see whether it actually makes sense.

7. Don't assume privacy.

Unless you are Alan Sugar, praise in public, and criticize in private. Don't send anything over e-mail that you wouldn't want posted - with your name attached - in the staff room. E-mail is not secure. It is worth remembering that any curious hacker, a malicious criminal, or indeed the Government can easily intercept your e-mail. In some companies, the e-mail administrator has the ability to read any and all e-mail messages (and may well have the right to fire you if you write anything inappropriate).

8. Distinguish between formal and informal situations. 

When you are writing to a friend or a close colleague, it is OK to use "smilies" :-), abbreviations (BTW for “by the way”, IIRC for "if I recall correctly", LOL for "laughing out loud," etc.) and non-standard punctuation and spelling (like that found in instant messaging or chat rooms). By the same token, don't use formal language when your reader expects a more informal approach. Always know the situation, and write accordingly.

9. Respond Promptly. 

If you want to appear professional and courteous, make yourself available to your online correspondents. Even if your reply is, "Sorry, I'm too busy to help you now," at least your correspondent won't be waiting in vain for your reply.

10. Show Respect and Restraint

Many an office war has been started by someone who hit "reply all" instead of "reply." While most people know that e-mail is not private, it is good form to ask the sender before forwarding a personal message. If someone e-mails you a request, it is perfectly acceptable to forward the request to a person who can help - but forwarding a message in order to ridicule the sender is tacky.

Use BCC instead of CC when sending sensitive information to large groups. (For example, an employer telling unsuccessful applicants that a position is no longer open.) The name of everyone in the CC list goes out with the message, but the names of people on the BCC list ("blind carbon copy") are hidden. Put your own name in the "To" box if your mail editor doesn't like the blank space.

Be tolerant of other people's etiquette blunders. If you think you've been insulted, quote the line back to your sender and add a neutral comment such as, "I'm not sure how to interpret this... could you elaborate?" In summary, the most effective etiquette is to always consider what you would be prepared to say in print or in person before putting it in an e-mail. It may be a quick form of communication but it carries as much weight as any other so treat it, and your colleagues, with respect. 

Nikki Perry is the REC's Creative Media Manager