Email and the art of not looking stupid
I use email. Alot. In my line of work nearly 70% of all my client communication is done through my Inbox. Because of this I make it a point that all of my emails, even the quick ones to say “thanks” are formatted properly, with a signature, and are written with care taken to grammar, and spelling. As someone who has made their living on being able to work with customers of all types (tech types to VP’s), I can honestly say that my email writing skills have played a role in my success in IT.
I can’t tell you how many emails I have seen come across that just made me say “huh?”. Here are some VERY experienced IT pro’s who can’t tell the difference between “there” and “their”. I’m not kidding, some of these engineers, doctors, and executives that I work with really look stupid in their emails. If an alien were to come and judge them by their emails they would definitely NOT take them on their mothership with them. So how do you avoid this, here are some really simple tips:
- Sentence fragments. Close them up! Use complete sentences, even if responding to a question from a previous email.
- Bda sepllign. Nearly every email application has a spell checker. Use Firefox’s built-in one for web-based email. It’s embarassing and makes you look stupid, so just be careful.
- Bad grammar. Take the time to read your email out loud, or at least in your head. If it sounds funky, it probably is (funky, that is).
- Address the person correctly. Take a look at this article.
- Make sure you have a signature with your current and correct contact information. It could be as simple as your name and your email address. If you want people to depend on you, you better be reachable.
These are just some tips for you. I am sure that there are countless other similar posts on the web, so look around and see what others have to say.
19 Aug 2008 Javier
Hey Javier! Do think this has anything to do with this? I think we get in such a hurry that we don’t stop to allow our minds to determine whether we should use there or their. You bring up a great point though. In the professional world it is very important to proof read so that we don’t sound stupid. It probably is a good idea to practice these tips in our non-professional lives as well so that it becomes habit-forming. What do you think?
I know of one person with whom I converse regularly through instant message and email and its a challenge to figure out what this person is saying. The messages are littered with misspelled words, run on sentences, and lack of punctuation.
I also think that email, texting, etc. are becoming more frequent methods of communication and people who are not accustomed to writing are having a bit of a problem expressing themselves properly.
So yes, I agree with you. We should do our best to make sure all of our communications are clear and concise, regardless of the audience. Good point!
Great advice. But why would one need a signature if it’s only going to contain a name and email address… that information is in the email header already, right?
Hey Blaise,
I work in the art department, of a supplier of custom imprinted promotional products, and you would be amazed at some of the e-mails I receive from distributors. Having a signature is a great idea, because I bet I get about 3 to 5 e-mails a day that I don’t know which company it belongs to. There actually is a standard practice for sending e-mails in our business, because so many folks were sending e-mails without anything in the body of the e-mail, poor subject titling, and all kinds of junk. Check out the Sm@rt Art & E-mail Guidelines.
Hey Cade_One,
I fully agree with everyone in those email guidelines. What didn’t make sense to me in the post was this part: “Make sure you have a signature with your current and correct contact information. It could be as simple as your name and your email address.”
If it’s as simple as your name and email address, why bother duplicating the information from the header without adding anything new? If there’s more important information, like company name or physical address, etc, then it makes perfect sense to have that in the signature.
I just don’t see the point of a signature that merely duplicates what’s in the email header. That seems redundant, clutter without purpose. But I’m willing to be convinced otherwise!
Blaise,
Okay, this is the only logic answer I could come up with. Let’s say you work for a company that has a main e-mail account that multiple people in the office are linked up to (info@company.net) and yet you have an individual e-mail address that directly comes to you (yourname@company.net). To make sure that different people aren’t responding to the same e-mail it is set up to delete once downloaded to one person’s pop3 account.
This would be the only thing I can think of, unless of course Javier mistyped and meant to say “physical address” instead of “e-mail address” (but then had he followed the advice he gave, he should have caught it while reading back over it).
Javier? : )
Good points, Josh.
I don’t know what happened to my last comment, but here are some examples to illustrate the point.
I got an email yesterday from quaquak@xyz.com. His name is Qian Qian Yak, but he goes by John. Had he put his signature at the end of the email I would have known known not to butcher his name during our conference call.
I got an email from an xoxo108@xyz.com two days ago, I had NO clue who it was because the person did not have a signature, and the header was completely useless.
Finally, having your name and just your email in the signature can be a marketing tool, especially if you want it get your email into people’s heads, such as when I include our feedback email in my Hands and Feet show signature.
Cool, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.