Hot Tip - Email Etiquette - Tone Don’t be misled by the apparent informality of email - once you’ve clicked on the send button your email is a permanent record of what you have written. To be efficient with email you need to write well. In this bulletin Miss Spelt provides some further guidelines on email etiquette including how to write with the appropriate tone.
Write the way you speak using simple words and short sentences. This is natural and faster. It’s easier to read words and phrases if they are written the way they are spoken. For instance, we usually say “it’s”, or “there’s” instead of “it is” or “there is”. It’s acceptable to use these abbreviations in email messages. Pompous words and phrases like “it has come to my attention”; “please do not hesitate”; “please note that”; “I would remind you that”; or “with due respect” sound dated in normal correspondence and even more so in email communication. Email business messages should be treated with the same level of formality as written business correspondence. It’s fine to be chatty and informal with personal messages but business messages should be more formal. For example: cliches and colloquialisms may sound appropriate in a personal messages but not so in a business letter. Personal: “I’d bend over backwards to give you a hand but I’m as sick as a dog so I’ll have to give it the flick - Ok for tomorrow?” Business: “I’d like to assist you but I’m not feeling well. Is it acceptable to you if we postpone the meeting until tomorrow?”  It’s easy to
inadvertently include cliches and colloquialisms in your business emails. Read
your message before sending it and replace informal expressions with more
formal ones. |
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