A Handy-Dandy Guide to Email Etiquette

A Handy-Dandy Guide to Email EtiquetteA Handy-Dandy Guide to Email EtiquetteEver hit reply all on an schmelzglas you shouldnt have? Or vice versa? How do you write a formal email without sounding like you have no rolleality, or altogetzu sich too much personality? And what the heck are you supposed to put in the subject line? Well, Im not Emily Post- but in this guide to email etiquette, you can call me E-Post. (Get it?) Were going to take a deep dive on the multitudinous aspects of shooting off a quick email, which is rarely as simple as it sounds.Re Subject LinesHELLOThat is a super-weird subject line, and will essentially guarantee that no one will open a cold email from you. Even if they do know you, its still weird. Do you greet people that way in real life? I sure hope not.The subject line of an email should be clear and concise. If youre applying for a job, for example, Associate Law Editor Position is a perfectly acceptable subject line. If youre forwarding preliminary resear ch for a project, put Site Design Research- Photos and Notes so your recipient knows what theyre getting. Capitalize the subject line as you would a title- first, last, and important words. People receive lots of emails every day, and being able to scroll through their inbox and know approximately what each email contains is much more convenient than an oddly placed salutation or icebreaker.Salutations, Good Sir and/or MadamThat sub-header right there is quite possibly the worst way to start an email. I sincerely hope that, when youre reaching out to someone via email, you know the recipients name. If youve honigwein them in person, address them how you normally do. I once met someone at a networking function and, when he emailed to follow up, he referred to me as Dear Ms. Kaitlin McManus- which was weird, since he had been calling me just Kaitlin at the event.If you havent met your contact, things can get trickier. I stick with either Mr./Ms. Last Name (Mrs. only if I know for cert ain that shes married) or simply First Name Last Name. Then, when they respond, I check what they signed off as. If I call someone Mr. Smith, but he signs off as simply, John, Ill call him John in my next email. Erring on the side of formality when you dont know what to call someone is okay simply adjust if you need to as your correspondence continues.Also, personally, I dont put dear at the start of any email because this isnt the 18th century. While admittedly most people dont even register the address, to me, that invisibility makes it superfluous.Punctuation- the Building Blocks of Sounding IntelligentPunctuation affects the way in which we read a sentence- sentences with the saatkorn words but different punctuation can have vastly different meanings. (A classic example being the crucial distinction between Lets eat, Grandma, and Lets eat Grandma.) So its important to use punctuation correctly to strike your desired tone.F. Scott Fitzgerald said, An exclamation point is like lau ghing at your own joke. Hes not wrong. If I dont know someone well, I tend to use a lot of exclamation points. In the moment, I think they make me sound friendlier. In retrospect, they make me sound slightly manic. Not the professional image Im trying to cultivate. You should use exclamation points as often as you would laugh at your own jokes Hardly ever. If youre really trying to lay it on thick with the friendliness, Id give you a max of two per email- and not on the same sentence (See? Its too much.)Another thing to avoid are ellipses. (Otherwise known as a dot-dot-dot) Ellipses give the impression that you dont know how to finish your own thought- but this is an email. You have all the time in the world to finish your thought. This is professional correspondence, not a passive-aggressive Post-it left for your roommate Stick to one period at a time.If youre struggling with punctuating your emails on a nuts-and-bolts level, try downloading a grammar tool like Grammarly or ProWrit ingAid- they can catch some of the little nit-picky mistakes.This Is Me, Signing OffThe way you end an email is as important as the way you start it. You want to leave your reader with a good impression appreciative of their time and effort, but not overbearing or, on the flip-side, curt. When it comes to professional emails, I try to keep my sign-off semi-personal. Sincerely has the same effect on me as dear at the start- its a little old-fashioned, and a little invisible. Itll do the job, but the job can be done better.I tend to go with All the best, or Best- perhaps Thanks again, if Im asking for a favor (although usually I put that at the end of the email text itself). Ive received and appreciated comments like, Warmly, Many thanks, and Cheers, if Ive met the person before. Basically, your goal is to sound thermisch, kind, and professional rather than stiff.To Reply or To Reply AllOh, the drama that has been caused by using the reply-all function incorrectly. Not using it when y ou should causes almost as much trouble as using it when you shouldnt- almost. If you find yourself on a group email chain, heres my advice decide whether youre replying to just the sender or to everyone first. Before you even type the email. Configure your recipients before typing anything at all, because once youve made your point, its too easy to hit a button that says reply without looking for the all.One rather innocuous example of incorrect usage is the email introduction If someone has introduced you to another person via email, reply all- its the only way to get the new person on the email chain. But if the other person reaches out first and theyre the latest sender, then simply reply- dropping the introducer off the chain as you and your new pal correspond. The introducer doesnt need to see your entire email chain. Put yourself in the shoes of the other receivers. Would you want to receive your email? If not, just reply.CC vs. BCC vs. BC vs. BBC...CCing and/or BCCing someon e on an email is the B-side to reply vs. reply all. When youve CCed someone on an email (short for carbon copy), the email goes to that person- and everyone else on the email chain knows it. This is a function youd use if, say, you wanted to send an email to a client as well as her assistant, so they both have it. BCC (blind carbon copy) is when you add someone to an email, but the recipient doesnt see them on the email chain. For example, if you emailed a tough client and BCCed your boss to loop her in, then your boss would receive the email but the recipient would simply see themselves and you on the email chain. Feeling paranoid yet? BCCing has its uses, but mostly you should be using CC in a work setting.For something thats been around for essentially as long as Ive been alive, email can be a sticky trap to fall into. Really, the rules of email etiquette are the same as most rules of etiquette write the email youd like to receive Correctly addressed and spelled, warm but profess ional, and ideally brief. So long as you keep these rules in mind, you should be able to avoid most of the pitfalls email can present.