Friendly Advice on Using Email

From AFSWiki

• There is a reason that the email header has a To: line and a CC: line.

Emails should be addressed TO: the person or group who need to respond or take some type of direct action. If you receive an email and you are on the TO: line, you should know that you are being asked to respond or take action. People for whom the email is simply a heads up, an FYl, etc. should be put on the CC: line and you should not expect a response from them. If you are on the CC: line of an email, you should be aware that you are simply being informed of something and not being asked to respond or take action.

• Email is not the best way to give someone feedback

Unless it is good and even then it might mean more to a person if you picked up the phone and took the time to call them to tell them something good. Sending angry emails is frankly cowardly and does not tend to resolve the issue but often inflames it. If you need to send someone an email to ask them to do something differently or to stop doing something, you can, but keep the anger out of it. If you are angry or upset with the person talk to them about that separately and give them your feedback. One should especially not write someone an angry email and copy the rest of the world. Again, communicate what you need to communicate to get the job done and copy who you need to copy, but keep your feedback about how you "feel" about what your colleague is doing or not doing for a time when you can give it to them face to face or on the phone.

• Be clear on why you are BCC'ing rather than CC'ing someone.

When you put someone on the BCC line this means that the person to whom you are writing does not know that another person is also seeing the email. If the other person is going to need to become involved more directly in the situation at some point later, it might be awkward to have to explain after the fact that you were BCC'ing them all along. There are times when BCC'ing others is appropriate, just think it through.

• Subject Lines Please!!

A subject line that pertains clearly to the email body will help people mentally shift to the proper context before they read your message.

• • At AFS-USA when communicating about participants we all agree to use the participant code which contains the participant's name, program, year, home country and host country. This can be followed by a short descriptor - support issue, travel waiver, emergency, etc.
  • If you need a response to the email it is a good idea to begin or end the subject line with "response needed". If you need something done by a certain day, you should include this either in the subject line if your subject isn't too long, or in the text of the email, preferably somewhere where it will be clearly seen.
  • If the email is urgent - it is a good idea to put urgent in the subject line. Of course if the situation is truly urgent, you might ask yourself if a phone call might not be better.
• CAPITALIZATION

Avoid typing in all capitals. In e-mail, using all caps is the equivalent of yelling. Save your use of caps for when you REALLY need to make a point.

• Blind carbon copies

When sending mail to large groups of people - particularly people who may not all know each other - type your own e-mail address in the To field and list the recipients in the BCC field. This prevents recipients from seeing (and having access to) the email addresses of the other recipients.

• Replying to all

Before you hit Send, look at the recipient list. Think about whether you really need to copy all those people on your reply or whether the content of your message is appropriate for all those people. Many an embarrassing moment has occurred due to overuse of the reply all button.

• Replying

Once you have made your email available to others or belong to a long distance group that uses email as a means of communication, you have signed on to the idea of an electronic conversation. If someone asks you a question and you don’t reply, it is no different from turning your back on them in a face to face conversation. In the time it takes to hit the delete button, you can type “No” “Yes” “I don’t know”.

• Think about the tone of your email

When you talk to someone face to face, your communication has the benefit of tone of voice, facial expressions and body language. Not so with your email. Something meant in jest could be taken as rude or as a criticism. Re-read your email and imagine how your words will be taken without gestures and tone. One perceived nasty or rude email may be the end of a volunteer. And volunteer to volunteer, even though you may have volunteered longer and you may believe your role is more important, each has a different responsibility and skill, we are all peers. Be polite to each other, you can’t do it all yourself.

• Forwarding

When forwarding an e-mail message that someone else has written, whether the writer is an employee, client or partner, get the author's permission first. If that's not possible, restate the original contents in your own words, noting the source of the information. Never paste someone else's text into a message and send it off as if you've written it.

• Read over what you have written

Spelling, grammar, errors of omission, and using the wrong word are very common. While your friends might not care, people in the workplace might. Taking a moment to reread your message before you hit send is an easy way to make a better impression.

• Other modes of communication do still exist!

The world has become increasingly impersonal in recent years. People in the workplace are e-mailing colleagues who are sitting just 15 or 20 feet away. Even if people are not siting next to you, they might like to actually hear your voice once in awhile and actual conversations really help build and maintain relationships much better than email along. Don't replace all human contact with e-mail.