Mind Your E-Mail Manners.
Most of us have done it in one way or another. Let our emotions get better of us in our e-mail. Perhaps emails should come with a disclaimer at the bottom? Caution: “May Inflict Injury or even “Sender might be loaded”. That’s because, even after years in which e-mail has been a common communications medium, many people still don’t seem to know how to use it.
Imagine getting an email of one page length from a customer in capitals? Or even the curt, insensitive and often downright rude e-mail messages that pop into my mailbox often regularly. I am far from being the sensitive type, but then again, the rate at which the emails come in, regularly, calls for questioning.
Well here are some suggestions on how to keep it less annoying.
Keep it clean:
Avoid vulgarity, slurs or other inappropriate content. Think: Would I want a minor to read it?
Feelings:
Avoid sending an e-mail with emotional charges messages. If you really need to let out those emotions, use the phone. E-mails can’t convey emphasis, and makes a poor medium for accurately conveying feelings.
Reflect:
At the point you have completed your message, take a moment to actually think about what you have actually written, before you clicking the Send Button. Once you have sent it, you won’t get it back. And as the Yoruba proverbs says which literally means “The speech is an egg, once it drops, it can’t be taken back”.
Chain Gang:
Please don’t forward those chain emails, at least not to me. These e-mails are so idiotic, but the again, sometimes we just want to forward them to cover our chain-letter karmic bases. Please save our Colleagues and friends the annoyance!
Avoid the unnecessary CAPS:
Do not, I mean never send an email with a message containing all caps. It is literally shouting, and nobody is deaf. We can all read.
Spell Check:
Use it every time, it works. I am guilty of this, but I am working on it, I would change.