EMAIL ETIQUETTE

Ten Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Communication via email has become a standard in both personal and business communication. It is important to distinguish between the two when the need arises to communicate on a professional level. The following list provides the top ten mistakes people make when sending messages electronically.

1. Sending large attachments
While many businesses connect to the Internet via broadband or high speed connections, users on dial-up will not be pleased when they are required to download a 2MB file. Consider breaking large files into multiple messages or compressing them with a tool such as WinZip. It is also considerate to notify recipients before sending large attachments.

2. Replying to everyone
Your boss sends out an email to your entire team but before hitting the "Reply All" option, carefully consider if you absolutely need to send everyone the email. If not, remove any unnecessary names from the recipient list. Many inboxes are full enough without getting additional email that does not concern them.

3. Giving away your friends, coworkers and families email addresses
Using a mass mailing to notify everyone of your new home address for example, is a swift way of communicating. However, it is unnecessary to reveal formerly unpublished email addresses of personal contacts. Address the email to yourself in the TO: field and use the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) function on your email to send a mass mailing with the recipients addresses hidden.

4. Forwarding hoaxes and frauds
This is one of the most widely abused email functions. Forwarding chain letters, hoaxes and jokes illegible from the ">>>>>" formatting marks within email is not only rude but entirely pointless. If you do decide to forward pictures of kitties, jokes that have been circulating the 'net since '96 or Nigerian email swindles at least remove the lines and lines of previous recipients. The least you can do is eliminate the scrolling for your recipient.

5. Typing exclusively in CAPITAL letters
TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING. Reserve the capital letters for when you are actually yelling, not when you are too lazy to use the "Shift" key. Conversely, typing entirely in lowercase letters should be avoided in professional communication as well.

6. Failing to respond in a timely manner
If your clients, customers or colleagues wanted a slow reply, they would have sent you a letter. Respond to emails in a timely manner, preferably within the same working day or at least within 24 hours. If you are unable to do so, at least send a brief message back to let the person know you have received their message and will answer shortly. If you are to be on vacation or away from the office, configure your email client to send an automatic "away" message to alert users that their email has been received and will be answered by a particular date.

7. Abusing the priority settings
Using the priority settings within your email client is a considerate way to notify the recipient to the urgency of your message. However, overusing the "High Priority" function is comparable to crying wolf. Save this function for emergencies or other critical matters.

8. Requesting "read receipts" for messages
If you want to know if your message has been received, it is best to ask. Having a message appear requesting a delivery receipt before the message has even been read is most likely to annoy the recipient.

9. Disregarding spelling and grammar rules
Personal emails to friends and family need not follow strict grammatical rules, however, business and professional communication should be checked for basic grammar and spelling mistakes. If your email program does not support this function, consider drafting your email in a word processing program and then cutting and pasting into the email message after it has been checked for errors.

10. Overusing emoticons and "smileys"
Due to the nature of email, many people use "emoticons" or emotional icons, a combination of keystrokes to represent a feeling or emotion. They are best understood by tilting your head to the left. For example, a smiley face :) or a :( can be used in place of explaining a feeling. While many of these are ingenious and helpful, they are not always interpreted by all and can possibly misrepresent a message or imply a particular tone to your messages. Save these characters for personal emails.

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