Writing Effective E-Mails by Zarah Boyer

Writing an effective e-mail is paramount when trying to achieve success in a professional setting. If an e-mail is too informal or impersonal a person may feel slighted and reluctant to do business or interact with you. Because of the increasing technological environment of today's business world it is very important to know how to write and effective e-mail.

The first thing you want to address when writing an effective e-mail is thinking about your reader. If the e-mail is being addressed to a close colleague it may be written differently then if it is being addressed to your boss. You need to make sure that you are considering your audience while you are writing the e-mail. It is important to maintain a high level of professionalism. A message should always be grammatically correct and you must make sure all of your facts are stated correctly.

Another thing to consider when writing an e-mail is observing "netiquette." Netiquette is a set of rules that facilitate interaction over the Internet. One rule of thumb for netiquette is to use company e-mail only for appropriate business. You should also not send flames, e-mail messages that contain abusive, obscene, or derogatory language, and spams, e-mail messages that often promote projects and interests.

You also need to consider the design of your e-mail. An effective e-mail should break the text into brief paragraphs. An e-mail should not overwhelm your reader with lengthy paragraphs, if it is too long consider sending an attachment. Our text also offers some other suggestions:

• Be considerate of the technical capabilities of your recipient.


• Put your response to someone else's e-mail message at the beginning of the e-mail window.


• In quoting the message you're replying to, include only those parts relevant in your reply.


• Always fill the subject line with a concise phrase that describes the topic of your message.

You should always use a greeting or salutation. When e-mail functions as a memo you can often leave the greeting out because they integral information is used in the memo's fields. When an e-mail goes outside an organization to someone with whom you haven't spoken with you may use standard letter greetings. When e-mails are going to a work colleague or close friends the salutation can vary depending on the situation.

Citation:

Oliu, Walter E., Charles T. Brusaw, and Gerald J. Alred. Writing that Works Communicating Effectively on the Job. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.