Writing the Right Kind of E-mail

There’s nothing more troubling than receiving an e-mail from a writer who uses poor grammar—except maybe for having an elephant step on your pinky toe. Employers, publishers and even some of us common-folk have used e-mail as a method of communication that has become much more common than writing a letter, placing a stamp on it and putting it in the mailbox.

“Why send a letter through the postal mail,” you ask, “when you have the person’s e-mail address?” Well, a handwritten letter, sometimes, is a bit more intimate. However, if you feel the need to write an e-mail to a potential employer, publisher, editor, or even an acquaintance, there are a few differences from handwritten letters that you should keep in mind.

1. Especially when writing to a potential employer or publisher, do not use the common internet abbreviations for words and phrases, (TTYL= talk to you later; BFN=bye for now; TIA=thanks in advance; WYSIWYG=what you see is what you get, etc.). Using these abbreviations, in the eyes of many employers, is a proven lack of seriousness and above all—laziness. Why abbreviate when you can elaborate?

2. Similarly, emoticons such as the smiley face :-) and emotes such as *laugh* come across as silly and unprofessional.

3. Remember that you are not just sending your e-mail to another computer, but to a person. A person with feelings. So, in that sense, be nice. Review your message to make sure that what you say in an e-mail is something that you’d say to that person’s face, and happily accept the consequences.

4. Send short e-mails. People want to read e-mails because they are similar to memos. Tell the reader what you need to tell them and then shut up. People have no time for on-screen writing. Keep in mind, just as you send an e-mail because it is faster and easier to write, it should also be faster and easier for your recipient to read.

5. Try to write your e-mail and hold it to about 40 lines or less. Make the Subject line what you would normally use as your memo title.

6. Write the way you speak. Since you are not handwriting a letter there needs to be something personal about the message. So my suggestion is to use the appropriate language (whatever that could be) with which you speak to your acquaintance, employer, etc.

7. As always, proofread! Proofreading allows you to make sure there are no mistakes in your grammar and punctuation.

8. If the e-mail is of real importance, try sending yourself the e-mail first. Read over it, and discover if it says what you truly intended. If it does, just copy and paste it into a new e-mail addressed to the appropriate person.

E-mail is such a new communications tool that there really are not yet any set standards of etiquette for its use, as there are with more established methods of communication. These tips, though, are a good place to start. Follow them, and you will be helping to make e-mail more and more the clear conveyor of ideas which it was meant to be.

Stephen E. Jordan, II is Editor/Publisher of OutStretch Publications; Financial Editor in Manhattan; and Poet. Article is available for reprint. Please notify the author. Copyright © 2001. www.OutStretch.net, Editor@OutStretch.net