Indiscreet, incomplete or incomprehensible:
email catastrophes are common place. The couple of lines you dashed
off to someone, almost without thinking, return to haunt you.
- But given that it is such
an integral part of both small talk and big business, how can
you ensure your email writing is on message?
- Include a subject heading – effective
subjects serve two purposes. Firstly, they give readers a reason
to open the message, something that can prove invaluable in a congested
inbox. Secondly, they are incredibly useful when you look to find
a mail at a later date. Blank subjects, or “Re: Your message”,
simply don’t help.
- Think about your tone – emails are
widely accepted as being less formal than printed letters. That
means that a number of niceties can be omitted. Nonetheless, it’s
vital that you remain professional. Perhaps the best guideline
is to think about the tone you would set if you were speaking
to the person in an interview conversation. Once you know the
person,
you can moderate your tone to reflect the relationship you
have with them.
- Include a powerful opening paragraph. Because
emails are so often skim read (particularly with the deluge
of spam around), you need to grab your audience here as much
as with
any other audience. Tell them up front in the subject. Then
tell them what you're going to tell them in the first paragraph.
Then
tell it to them.
- Use structural devices such as bullet
points, subheadings and frequent paragraph breaks to ensure
your message
is easily scanned – particularly in longer emails.
- Remember that email is recorded and anything
written down has greater strength than if said in passing.
It can even be admissible in court! So don’t write anything that
you wouldn’t be happy to have recalled at a later date,
or to have forwarded to someone else.
- Don’t press the send button until
you’ve read your message through. Nothing is more certain
to create misunderstanding or embarrassment than a typo here
or there.
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