If you've got a white collar job, you are almost 100% likely to be drowning in a flood of E-Mails, attached documents, spam, you name it. It's increasingly rare to get a paper memo or letter (excluding bills, contests, and other junk mail) these days. E-Mail is fast and easy to send.
Fast and easy does not necessarily mean “good” or “better”. Many E-Mails are poorly written, confusing, and unnecessary. It may take you much longer to read and understand a badly written E-Mail than it took the sender to write the note! And while it's equally possible to write gibberish with a pencil or a typewriter, the ease and speed of writing an E-Mail can lead to lazy or sloppy work.
If you don't want your important messages to get lost in the shuffle or, worse still, read but misinterpreted, try these tips.
Have a purpose and a desired response
Many people quickly scan message headers or first sentences in order to decide if they need to read an E-Mail immediately. Your best bet for getting their attention is to clearly define the purpose of your E-Mail.
If you want the reader to make a decision, or support your action plan, make sure you tell them at the beginning of the message. If you need them to do some work, be clear about that! At the end of the message, ask them to respond or confirm that they understand what you want and that they'll do what you are asking.
Organize your thoughts
Organize your message before writing . Too many E-Mails wander from subject to subject for no apparent reason.
Like a good story, your E-Mail should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It should also have a clear purpose. If your message is too confusing, people might just ignore it or else do the wrong thing because they don't understand what you are saying.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Write the E-Mail using simple, but complete sentences. Omit unnecessary words, just like Strunk and White wrote many years ago.
Spelling and grammar count. I've seen far too many E-Mails with incorrect spelling and poor grammar, which looks sloppy and makes you question the competence of the writer. Don't just rely on your spell-checker, check the spelling yourself.
Write with your audience in mind
Generally speaking, you give fewer details to people at the upper levels of an organization than at lower levels. A company executive will want to understand the underlying logic of the message. People in different levels in the organizational hierarchy, by contrast, may need to see the details.
Try to give people exactly what they need and nothing unnecessary. Use technical terms, acronyms, or jargon sparingly and only when you know the entire reading audience will understand these terms.
One other warning: if you present something as being a fact, make sure you can prove it!
Predict how the message will be received and write accordingly
Do not commit personal attacks in your E-Mail. In addition to being poor etiquette, it's unfair and will generally create bad feelings.
Don't include personal information in your E-Mail unless absolutely necessary or you know that the reader won't mind. You shouldn't assume that co-workers want to know about your personal problems or your daily activities.
Use humor with care - we don't all share the same sense of humor. This is particularly important when communicating with people from different cultures.
Never write something in an E-Mail that you wouldn't want to see used as evidence in court. It happens.
Don't proofread on the screen; print out and proofread
The Millenials/Generation Y might be better at onscreen proofreading than I am, but I still recommend using paper. I cannot count the number of times that I've found mistakes on paper that my mind missed onscreen.
Yes, it can take longer to print, then read, but that's often a good thing. If your brain is still in the high speed communication mode that it was while you were writing, it helps to take a minute to switch gears for a more careful editing mode. It may help you to read the E-Mail out loud to see if the message makes sense. Better yet, get a trusted colleague to assist you in proofreading if the message is particularly important.
Ensure that you send the E-Mail correctly
Ensure names or E-Mail addresses are correct before sending: misspellings can cause E-Mails to be lost or sent to the wrong person, particular in an internal E-mail system where several people may share the last name.
Beware the "Reply All" function! Don't send a reply to a group of people unless it's necessary. Feel free to edit the number of people on the TO or CC lists if they don't need to see the information, including distribution lists. However, make sure that anyone who needs to see the E-Mail gets copied on the E-Mail.
Beware the "Forward" function! Someone else may forward your E-Mail to other readers. Take care to ensure your comments are clear, accurate, and well organized: you never know who might be reading them.
Finally, never send an E-Mail when angry or upset. You are more likely to make a mistake or upset the reader when you aren't thinking clearly. Take a breather if you need to before sending so you clearly understand what you're about to communicate. Better yet, wait until the next day, then proofread the E-Mail one more time before sending. You may prevent yourself from making serious mistakes.
E-Mail can still be quick, easy… and productive
Despite the warnings in this article, E-Mail can still live up to its purpose and it does on a daily basis. The tips in this article will give you an even better chance of getting the desired results from your E-Mail. Is it more work? Yes. Is it worthwhile? Definitely!
