How many e-mails did you send out today? You probably lost count at some point shortly after lunch. The odds are you sent over a dozen of these messages out to family members, friends, clients and co-workers. Here’s the important question: Were any of these e-mail messages rude? Were any overly brief? Would any one of the messages you sent today make their recipients ponder whether they had done something to offend you? Yes, there exists such a thing as e-mail etiquette. Here’s a short primer on how to mind your manners when sending e-mail.
Brevity could be off-putting
How frequently have you received an extremely brief e-mail message? You can easily think that the sender is angry with you for reasons uknown. However, let’s suppose the sender was sending your message via an iPhone or iPad? It isn’t a simple task to type on small mobile devices. And consequently, the majority of us keep our messages short when typing on those irritatingly constraining pop-up keyboards. To let recipients understand that this is the reason for your brevity, come up with a specific signature for any e-mail accounts that you use on smartphones and tablets. As per the Web site Mashable, this signature should tell people that you’re e-mailing from a mobile device, and that’s why your message is so short. Something similar to “Excuse my brevity; I’m typing this on my iPhone” will do the trick.
Don’t ignore messages
CBS News reminds you to definitely respond when you receive an e-mail message. Our inboxes are often flooded with e-mails. It can feel like a challenge to answer them all. But disregarding an e-mail message is rude, CBS News says, and may turn people off. CBS News states that sometimes a simple response of “Thanks” is all that senders need to feel confident that you’ve received and are thinking about their message.
Be careful
We receive a lot of e-mails each day, it’s tempting to pound out responses and send them back without proofreading and editing them. After all, that takes away at least some of your e-mail mess. But this can also result in messages filled with typos, something that’s more than a bit off-putting. And if you don’t proof your messages, you could unintentionally forget to attach that report or photo you are promising. That’s annoying for recipients.
No shouting, please
You wouldn’t shout during a normal conversation. Don’t do it in an e-mail message, either. If you don’t know, shouting in e-mail means typing your reply in all capital letters. This is glaring to the eye, and a big e-mail no-no. So follow the normal rules of capitalization when penning your e-mail messages.