DATE:
Make sure your computer is set to
the right date and time. Otherwise it may be put into someone else’s
inbox in order of what they think the date was. Your e-mail may
get lost in a list, if others don’t go through their inbox on a
regular basis. People like to be addressed properly.
ADDRESSING:
Sending to a Distribution List
Learn how to use your e-mail software.
Make sure that if you send a message to a distribution list,
recipients don't see everyone else’s e-mail address. If for no
other reason (and there are plenty) - than to protect their
privacy. Most of the e-mail programs have two carbon copy fields
"cc" and "bcc". Put the addresses in the
"bcc" field (blind carbon copy) - NOT in the
"cc" field. Go here for more information on
creating a Suppressed Recipient
List.
My Advice? Try to Avoid the
Forward Button.
Forward only important mail. Something
your *know* the other party will appreciate. Just because what you
got in the mail sounds very interesting to you, it doesn't mean
that it is worth to forward to everyone on your list. Most likely
it is not. This is the best way to avoid the
">>>>>>>" that occurs form on-going
forwarding.
SUBJECT:
Remember to put one in that refers
specifically to what is in the main message.
BODY:
A good impression is made in several ways, and in business, how you write,
communicates intelligence and professionalism.
Keep your lines short.
The shorter your message is, the better. Keep your writing concise and crisp: Don't feel the need to "liven" up your
writing or be overly descriptive.
Eliminate misspelled words and grammatical faux pas.
Use a spell checker certainly, BUT always reread what you have written.
A spell checker does not recognize the different meanings among words such as to, too, and two.
Use as few sentences as necessary. Get to the point,
put in your period and then close.
Layout
It is difficult enough to read from a
computer screen so you want to make it as easy as possible for
others. It is very important to ensure your messages wrap around
after about 60 – 70 characters. You can do this simply by
going into your mail preferences / options and programs. I
use 66 characters and it seems to work well.
You want your message to be read as you
intended it to be read otherwise your recipient might end up with
lines broken in the most unexpected places. You have probably
noticed how much of a pain this can be when you receive e-mails or
forwarded text that is broken up in weird places.
Even if your mail software does a
"word wrap", you may want to use the hard return key at
the end of each line to avoid the problem. I find this a pain to
do – but if it is important or messages I intend to use a
couple of times, I do use a hard return.
Sooner or later you will engage in e-mail
"conversation", exchanging message back and forth. Each
time you get an answer, a ">" mark or quotation mark will be added at the
beginning of the quoted line and the line width will grow
slightly. Usually
it breaks the lines of the message which makes difficult to see
who said what previously. With short lines and that extra space at
the end, your e-mail messages will always look clean and inviting
to read, even after several such exchanges.
