10 Tips for Email Communications in the Workplace

Email makes it very easy to communicate with your partners and colleagues, whether they're in the same office or in a different country. Because it's so easy, you have to be careful before pressing send and delivering a message that many people might read. Your emails are a reflection of you and taking time to organize your thoughts will help guarantee the response you need.

Here are some tips for writing emails at work:

1. Keep your message to the point. If your content can't be viewed without scrolling, consider revising your email or including additional content as an attachment. Your co-workers will think more highly of you if you are concise.
2. Although you may be used to writing informally in emails outside of work, treat office emails like all of your professional communications. Pay appropriate attention to politeness and tone as well as punctuation and grammar. Because someone reading your email cannot see your expression or body language, he or she may take something you say in the wrong way, even though you don't intend any offense. Consider cultural differences when communicating with overseas colleagues.
3. Ask specific questions to trigger the feedback you want, but don't ask bog the reader down with too many. Set questions apart from other text through bolding, highlighting, or bullet points.
4. Remember that people generally perceive capitalization as shouting, so avoid this and don't use strange fonts and colors that might seem less than professional
5. Draft a subject line that immediately conveys the topic you want your reader to consider. Your email will more likely be opened and responded to. Include actions required and due dates. People often search emails by their subject lines so include easily searchable keywords in your subject lines.
6. Consider when signature lines and confidentiality statements are appropriate. Internal communications may or may not require these.
7. For god's sake, don't hit “reply all” to say “thanks.” Consider what sort of information should be shared in a group email response and use discretion.
8. Always ask yourself if the topic of the email should be expressed in a phone call or a face-to-face conversation. There is always the danger that a private email will be seen by more than just its recipient. A phone call or personal conversation provides more opportunity for immediate discussion, which may be invaluable in a given situation.
9. Ok, for the obvious tip, avoid sending personal emails at work and keep them very short (like, “call me”) if you do. You don't have an expectation of privacy in emails you send from a company computer.
10. Really annoyed at a co-worker? Take a deep breath and don't send that email response right away - the worst time to be firing off an email is when you're angry. You'll read it later and will probably be embarrassed and even if you're justified, odds are you won't come out looking good. Respond to any emailed questions concisely and without emotion and if you need action, engage your co-worker in a way that considers his or her motivations. The win-win strategy, where you try to get what you need while allowing your co-worker to get what he or she needs usually works out better in the long run.