Mục Lục

Email Etiquette and Shorthand

How should you behave in the realm of email? It’s simple: Follow the rules of etiquette and use initialisms and emojis only in informal communications, not official business.

Etiquette

Appropriate Use

Use email for group projects, announcements, routine messages, and immediate follow-up. Generally, avoid email for sensitive issues, serious topics, or bad news. As always, follow your company’s policies about email use.

Message Checking

Check your email several times a day. If you can’t respond immediately, send a short message to indicate that you received the message and that you will reply by a specific time.

Distribution

Instead of distributing emails too widely, send them only to those who need them. Otherwise readers may routinely delete your messages.

Emotion

Email is terrible at conveying emotion. Readers tend to assume a more negative emotion than the email writer intended. A neutral writer may sound annoyed. An annoyed writer may sound angry. As a result, when writing emails, raise your level of positivity by one notch. If you are neutral, try to sound positive. If you are annoyed, try to sound neutral. If you are angry, avoid email and seek a less volatile medium of communication.

Spamming

Avoid sending unsolicited ads by email.

Forwarding

Think carefully before forwarding messages. When in doubt, get permission from the original sender.

Ethics

Because companies are legally responsible for their computer network activity, email is company property. In addition, networks typically store messages for years. So only write messages you would not mind seeing in the company newsletter.

Formality Level

Use language appropriate for your reader, whether a coworker or a client. Distinguish between in-house email and messages to people outside your organization. Avoid emojis and initialisms in formal communication.

Emojis

As you are likely aware, emojis are little illustrations of facial expressions, conveying an emotion along with your text. Most social media applications provide numerous options, though emojis should not appear in formal business writing. Limit them to use in informal situations with close colleagues within your organization.

Emojis