Strategies for Better Email Communications
Whether you are a student emailing potential employers, a professor communicating with a colleague, or an MCNY staff member conducting business online, good email etiquette is imperative. Appropriate, business language in your electronic communications conveys a professional image and assures that your communication is responded to in a favorable way.
Here are some tips to note before you hit the “send” button:
- Be concise and to the point.
Reading online is actually more difficult than reading “hard copy” and because the volume of emails is ever-increasing, it is very important to keep your communications as direct and brief as possible. It’s especially important to avoid long, complex sentences.
- Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Typos and misspelled words reflect poorly on you and whatever organization you are affiliated with. Don’t just rely on spellcheck, print out important emails and give them a thorough read-through before sending.
- Do not write in all CAPS.
Writing in all upper-case letters is the equivalent of “screaming”!
- Create a relevant subject line.
Subject lines are extremely important; readers use them to determine the importance of a given email and they serve as a reference over time of the history of communication regarding a specific subject. Vague or overly general subject lines are useless. Take the time to come up with ones that reflect the content of your communication. Because so much unsolicited spam ends up in our mailboxes it is of the utmost importance to let recipients know why the email you are sending is important.
- Use “reply all” with caution.
In many work environments it is necessary to keep a number of people “in the loop” with regards to a particular initiative or project. Sometimes however, if “reply all” is used indiscriminately, individuals in the group end up getting emails that are really not relevant to them. Only use “reply all” if you really need your message to be seen by each and every person who received the original message.
- Include all pertinent message threads.
Threads refer to prior communications and they give context to your email. Basically, so long as you click "Reply", or "Forward" instead of "New Mail" you will include the thread. However, review threads carefully because sometimes it is not appropriate for everyone to see all the information.
- Use "bcc" instead of "To" or "cc"for
larger group mailings.
When sending an email mailing, some people place all the email addresses in the To: field. Here's the problems when you do this...1) the recipient knows that you have sent the same message to a large number of recipients, 2) you are publicizing someone else's email address without that person's permission, and 3) if there are a lot of names it can take up so much room that readers will actually need to scroll down the page to see anything but email addresses and read your actual message.
- Do not use email to discuss confidential information.
Once you release a comment into cyberspace there is no telling where it could end up. Furthermore, if you are using a work computer, be it MCNY’s or another organization’s, everything you do on the computer, including the emails you write, are the property of the organization. It is especially important to never make any libelous, sexist or racially discriminating comments in emails, even if they are meant to be a joke. Emails can be recovered from computers and even subpoenaed.
- Let the reader know what action(s) you’d like
taken.
If you want to send an email “fyi” that’s fine…but most often, we have a specific purpose for sending an electronic communication, such as “please approve,” “please review,” “I’d like your thoughts,” etc. Don’t bury what you need to have happen – come right out and ask for it.
What Exactly is a Blog?
The term "blog" has been chosen as the “2004 Word of the Year” by US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. Not sure what a blog is? Find out...
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. Merriam-Webster defines a blog as, "A Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks." The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger."
Blogs are typically updated daily or on a regular basis using software that enables people with little or no technical background to do so. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.
Blogs played an important role in the past election, Americans flocked to the Web last year to read political coverage and commentary on the campaigns. In fact, buoyed by political blog readership, overall blog readership shot up by 58% in the past year.
Professor Cockerl, an MCNY business school professor and member of the MCNY Internet Marketing & Development team, has been requiring her students for the past year to use blogs. She explains, “It allows me get a peak inside the student’s head – what information is being retained and where are they going with it.” Professor Cockerl says that the primary use is as a reflective or writing journal, but blogs also function as a dialogue for group work, and as a means to measure a student’s progress through a project. In addition, blogs can function as a student’s e-portfolio and as a forum to share course-related resources.
Here is an example of a social-action related blog and a business-related blog that are worth checking out:
Blog writing tools:
Ready to “take the plunge”? What follows are some sites that can help you get started with your own blog.