Court Reporters – Professionalism

Why is Email Etiquette Important?

Email Etiquette

Millions of people use email, and much of this correspondence involves business communication.  This blog pertains to business/professional email.  By that, I mean any email sent to your colleagues, clients or prospective employers.  The following are some helpful tips to consider when writing an email:

• Do not use shorthand; i.e., “can u plz send info on careers?”
• Avoid misspellings and poor grammar. 
• When possible, be direct; however, don’t leave out important details.
• Take a look at your email address.  Are you a sexymom@isp.com?  Use a more formal address.
• Use your spell checker.
• Do not use offensive language.
• Avoid using hypertext markup language or HTML.  Not every email program can interpret this, and it will not translate well.
• Avoid writing your message using all upper case letters.  It looks like you’re shouting.  Also, avoid using all lower case letters.  Some people will interpret this as mumbling.
• Use your email program’s “Reply To All” feature only when your reply will be necessary to know for the original sender and all people in the original email’s To: and CC: field.
• Do not use “Reply To All” when only the original sender needs to know your reply.
• Use AntiVirus Software on your emails.  Keep it up to date.  Scan your emails.
• Ask before you send huge attachments.
• Avoid “me too” responses.  Not enough content, but enough to annoy people with a large amount of emails.
• If your email is emotionally charged, walk away from the computer and wait to reply.
• Always acknowledge emails.
• Always end your emails with “thank you, best regards,” something.
• Many people overuse exclamation points in email.  Try to use only one exclamation point in an email message.  Remember, exclamation points can be interpreted as anger or frustration.  The recipient cannot hear the tone of your voice.

Jane M. Jones, RMR, CRR
Brown & Jones / Deposition Reporting
 

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Tags: Court Reporting, Deposition Reporting, Email Etiquette, Professionalism

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2012 at 8:00 am and is filed under Court Reporting, Professionalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.