Email assignment

14 Email Errors to Avoid, and things to remember when writing Emails for the Business World Most of us rely on e-mail as one of our primary communication tools. And given the number of messages we send and receive, we do it with remarkable success. (Some better than others!)

Like most of your writing, audience is a vital concern. You would not write an email to your boss with the same tone, word choice, style, and content as you would if you were writing an email to your best friend or a family member.

Creating an appropriate business email is essential if you expect to write well and communicate with peers, employees, customers, suppliers, and others who will read your emails.

But as with anything, the more e-mails we send, the more likely we are to screw one up. And simple e-mail mistakes can be disastrous. They can cost us a raise, promotion--even a job.

Your e-mail is as much a part of your professional image as the clothes you wear, the postal letters you write (assuming you still do), the greeting on your voice mail and the handshake you offer. If you want to impress on every front and build positive business relationships, pay attention to your e-mail and steer clear of these e-mail mistakes:

This is the perfect time to go through some of the worst e-mail mistakes employees (and students) make and how to avoid them.

- Leaving Off Your Signature - WHY HAVE I LISTED THIS “LAST THING” FIRST? Because for some odd reason, I get emails from students who never include their name on the emails they send. How exactly am I supposed to answer your question, give you extra credit, help you with an assignment if I have no idea who you are???

Always close with your name, even if you include it at the top of the e-mail, also consider adding contact information such as your phone, fax and street address. The recipient may want to call you to talk further or send you documents that cannot be e- mailed. Creating a formal signature block with all that data is the most professional approach.

- Failing to include basic greetings. Simple pleasantries do the trick. Say "hi" at the start of the message and "thanks" at the end. Be sure to use the recipient's name. Be polite yet brief with your courtesy.

- Composing the note too quickly. Don't be careless; write every e-mail as if it will be read at Saint Peter's Square during the blessing of a new Pope. Be respectful with your words and take pride in every communication.

- Poor Grammar and Style. Email is an informal mode of communication compared to a printed letter, While a full “From,” “To” and “Date” as in printed letters is not required; business email writing still need to follow conventional grammar and style.

- Neglecting Common Courtesies. The email takes care of the senders name, signature, and date, allowing the users to skip these constants. Many users however tend to skip common courtesies like “Hi,” “Thank you” and “Regards” as well. This is a fatal mistake and sure to put off the reader of the email.

- Forgetting to Check for Spelling and Grammar In the early days of e-mail, someone created the notion that this form of communication did not have to be letter perfect. Wrong. It does. It is a representation of you. If you don’t check to be sure e-mail is correct, people will question the caliber of other work you do. Use proper capitalization and punctuation, and always check your spelling. Remember that your spellchecker will catch misspelled words, but not misused ones. It cannot tell whether you meant to say “from” or “form,” “for” or “fro”, “he” or “the.”

- Forgetting the attachment. If your e-mail includes an attachment, upload the file to the e-mail before composing it. This eliminates the embarrassing mistake of forgetting it before hitting "send," and having to send another e-mail saying you forgot to attach the document.

- Be sure you CHECK YOUR EMAIL OFTEN. What’s the point of having email - if you never check or respond to email’s other have sent you? You are a businessperson, right? Therefore, others will expect you to respond to their email requests. Here’s the rule: all business emails should receive some sort of reply FROM YOU within 24 hours.

- E-mailing when you're angry. Don't do it. Ever. Recall buttons are far from a perfect science, and sending a business e-mail tainted by emotion is often a catastrophic mistake. It sounds cliche, but sleep on it. Save the message as a draft and see if you still want to send it the next morning.

- Underestimating the importance of the subject line. The subject line is your headline. Make it interesting, and you'll increase the odds of getting the recipient's attention. Our inboxes are cluttered; you need to be creative and direct to help the recipient cut through the noise. You should consistently use meaningful and descriptive subject lines.

- Not putting an e-mail in context. Even if you were talking to someone an hour ago about something, remind them in the e-mail why you're writing. In this multi-tasking world of ours, it's easy for even the sharpest minds to forget what's going on.

- Not Accounting for Tone. When you communicate with another person face to face, 93% of the message is non-verbal. E-mail has no body language. The reader cannot see your face or hear your tone of voice so chose your words carefully and thoughtfully. Put yourself in the other person’s place and think how your words may come across in Cyberspace.

- Thinking that No One Else Will Ever See Your Email. Once it has left your mailbox, you have no idea where your e-mail will end up. Don’t use the Internet to send anything that you couldn’t stand to see on a billboard on your way to work the next day. Use other means to communicate personal or sensitive information. - I have used many student emails in my lecture notes to show you what to do and what NOT to do. These students never imagined their emails would be seen by you and used as an example. You never know what will happen to your emails and who might view them.