Email Etiquette: Best Practices for Professional Email Writing

 
Businesspeople should not confuse the two uses. Writing and content appropriate for personal emails may not be appropriate for corporate emails. This article focuses on the appropriate uses for email and some conventions any writer should follow in an email message.

Email Etiquette Guideline 1:
Use email appropriately

The purpose of workplace email is to communicate ideas and information among departments and individuals. Email accomplishes business objectives. If a message is not limited to business activity, it becomes another message clogging an already overloaded system. Follow these guidelines:

1. Don’t send personal messages. Office email is the property of the company that pays for the email system and should be used for company business. If you want to meet for lunch, call.
2. Don’t send a message in an email that really should be spoken directly to the person. Email has become a convenient way of avoiding having to look someone in the eye when the writer delivers the bad news. If the content is about a personnel issue that is sensitive or likely will cause some negative feelings, talk on the phone, talk sitting with the person in the office setting, or talk over lunch–but talk. Leave email for non-personal business issues.
3. Don’t send confidential information by email. Email is more like a postcard than a private letter. Always assume that email may be misused, misdirected, or intentionally forwarded by others. If you must convey confidential information, send a letter or speak in person.
4. Don’t send unnecessary email. Remember that taking time out to read email is always a distraction that becomes worse as the amount of mail sent increases year by year.
5. Remember that your emails become your image, professional and otherwise, in the reader’s perception of you and your company.

 
You probably have received emails you’ve put off responding to or did not respond to at all. Perhaps these mails were unclear and wordy, or dealt with unpleasant or unnecessary subjects. Or perhaps you simply didn’t have enough information to respond at the time.

However, you should always respond to your emails. To ignore an email is unprofessional and rude. It also wastes everyone’s time, since the sender may have to contact you by phone or in person. Always respond to your emails, even if it’s only to acknowledge you can’t provide a meaningful response right away. An email saying “I can’t write much now” is far better than no response at all.

Email Etiquette Guideline 3:
Always Remain Courteous, Direct, and Professional

Always be courteous, direct, and professional. Remember that electronic transmissions are NOT private. They could be circulated around the customer’s company, a competitor’s company, or upper management in your own company. They have been and will continue to be used as evidence in court cases. If the topic of your communication is sensitive, use a more secure form of communication.

1. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in a face-face meeting in a business setting. Corporate email is not a place to vent frustration.
2. Don’t use irony or sarcasm. Because the subtleties of voice or body language are missing, your message may lead to misunderstandings. Be careful about humor when it could be misinterpreted.
3. Don’t put your anger into writing. It leaves a permanent record you may be sorry about later. Email can be a tempting forum for venting since it allows you to express anger without having to confront someone face to face. But it is an inappropriate medium. Use the real strength of email that allows you to cool down and consider what you say carefully to communicate messages that let the reader know your point, but don’t burn.

Email Etiquette Example: You receive the following email from someone in the company:

The writer should not have been abrasive. However, your response should be professional without being stiff, direct without being confrontational:

Reacting to someone else’s anger will only lead to more anger. Your best bet is to defuse the anger as much as possible. Make the buck stop with you.

Don’t Gossip

You lose your personal identity when you sit in the company’s chair at the company’s computer to respond to the company’s email. Remember that you are not buddies with the reader, even if you have been working with him or her for ten years. Reserve gossip for your time having coffee after work.

Email Writing Example:

You receive this email from a friend in the company:

You respond:

Email Etiquette Guideline 4:
Communicate Negative Messages Focusing on Issues, Not the Person

Always prefer to communicate about negative issues in person or on the phone rather than in an email. However, if you believe that the issue is not negative enough to require face-to-face communication, or if the circumstances are such that you are not able to communicate face-to-face or on the phone, follow these guidelines for writing emails containing content that the reader may receive negatively.

One unfortunate consequence of using email rather than the phone or face-to-face conversation is that emails have become an easy medium for venting anger. The person isn’t on the other end of the phone or standing before you. It becomes much easier to write things you wouldn’t say.

If it hasn’t happened to you, it will eventually. Someone will use harsh and blaming language to set you straight in an email rather than calling or speaking to you in person. After all, it’s a lot more comfortable to dash off an email so you don’t have to talk openly with someone. That makes it easier to be harsh because the person isn’t wincing in front of you when you write the words.

Be tactful and remember that you will have to work with this person. Make the issues clear, but focus on them without being harsh and blaming. The email medium makes it too easy to be abrasive. Consciously avoid it.

The strength of email is that you can consider carefully what you communicate before sending it. You can calm down and delete the harsh language but make sure the issue is clear. Use that strength to build the relationships you want in the company. Use emails to help people become more competent and to build your relationship so you can work together more easily.

Email Etiquette Example

You receive this email from a new intern in the mailroom:

You respond:

Remember that mistakes do happen and that the person reading your message is someone you work with on a regular basis. Don’t say anything in the email you wouldn’t say in person.

Email Etiquette Guideline 5:
Use a Businesslike Tone and Address the Reader Directly Using “I” and “You.”

Address the reader directly. You are writing to an individual, not a committee or the public. If you are writing to a group, you should still refer to the reader as “you.”

Maintain an informal business tone. Avoid being chatty and too informal. Your writing can be cordial and friendly without being overly loose and informal.

This email is too informal:

This revision uses the personal “I” and “you” stance, is cordial, but maintains a professional, business tone: