Basic email etiquette

To help you to make your emails more professional try to follow some general do's and don'ts.

For example, try to avoid emoticons as their meanings are not universally understood.

1. if your subject line isn't clear then the recipient might not open the email as quickly as you need them to.

2. Your signature should be a company-branded signature with your correct business contact details.

3. It is very important that your email only goes to the recipients that need to read it.

4. The misuse of punctuation will make your email look very unprofessional.

5. Don't use emoticons as they can mean different things to different people from different generations and cultures.

6. Capital letters should be used as correct punctuation only. Words in capital letters can be viewed as angry like you are shouting at someone.

7. We all make some spelling or typing mistakes so you should double-check your work before sharing it. Too many mistakes will make you look unprofessional.

8. Adding the email address and subject last means that you can't accidentally send the email before you have proof read it.

9. Emails need to be concise and easy to read so don't make them hard on the eye. Clear basic fonts are easier for people to read quickly. I'm sure you can appreciate that we all get a lot of emails and want to process them accurately the first time.

10. Tone is very important so much so I suggest you book a lesson with me to understand it fully.

Do you always follow these rules?
Let's meet in a Business English Pre-intermediate lesson to discuss your views on the questions below.