Email evokes almost unprecedented
cultural and generational challenges. Email etiquette varies across the globe, especially in ways to address the receiver, the directness of
the message, and the closing. Here are some tips, techniques & etiquettes you should follow:-
- Always start your email message with a salutation and a closing. Based on your relationship, only you can decide whether deference dictates a "Dear Professor" or "Dr. John" or "Good Morning" or "Dear Mr. William". For your career's sake, make sure you get the name and title right.
- Avoid trendy abbreviations and be careful of emoticons. They may be misunderstood and thus not clearly convey your meaning.
- Use complete sentences, correct grammar, correct punctuation and capitalization. Yet subject lines should be as efficient as a tweet, concisely stating what is important and relevant.
- Make sure your subject lines distinguish you from a hacker or a scammer by being current and germane. If the subject changes, change the header! Be direct, clear and succinct. Respond in full sentences.
- If you have a long list of comments, put them in a single Word Document attachment, or number the points so that the recipient knows you got everything.
- If you have no time to respond fully to any mail, reply that you received the email and inform when you will be able to respond as nothing is more discouraging than feeling ignored.
- Patience is a virtue. Not every email gets delivered. This happens more frequently than we would like to admit. Offer people the same grace that you would like to receive on email responses.
- Always remember that the person reading your email has only the words on the screen. Now think about how much our tone of voice impacts our message. Beware of sarcasm.
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