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Email Writing- Professional and Effective Etiquettes

Email Writing- Professional and Effective Etiquettes

The skill of Email writing is one of the most important skills required in all professional areas. It can be required in schools, colleges, universities, offices, businesses, etc. To start a career, one may write an email to apply for certain positions, later, to grow professionally, one may write emails for various purposes, even, one may need to write an email to resign from a certain position. All these situations required professional and effective email writing skills. Often target person does not even open and read an email if it lacks professional touch. Just writing the necessary words doesn't make any email effective, one needs to know how to compose an email to make it effective enough to achieve the desired goal of the writing itself.
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10 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Email Writing

Here are a few mistakes that can prevent the target person from opening the mail, hence should be avoided in all professional emails.
  • Wrong email address: One needs to be very careful while putting the recipients' email addresses as any mistake regardless small or big, will not deliver the email to the right persons. Also, in all professional organizations or businesses, emails mostly contain confidential messages, so sending such information to the wrong persons, even by mistake, will lead to serious escalations or even termination of employment.
  • Incorrect use of To, CC, and BCC: One must be aware of the correct purpose of the email sections such as To, CC, and BCC. Putting the wrong persons in all these sections or incorrect use of all these sections will definitely lead to serious problems.
  • Incorrect Subject: The subject is one of the most important parts of an email. Mostly email recipients decide if they should an email or not only after reading the subject. Only a good professional subject decides if it should be opened or not. An email without a subject, regardless of its importance, will not be opened by the recipients.
  • Reply or Reply All?: All emails need not to be replied or replied all. Improper use of these two options indicates the sender's lack of professionality.
  • Missing Attachments: It will be very unprofessional if one forgets to attach the files with the email if they are mentioning the same in the mail or if it is important to be added with the email.
  • Missing to Mentioning Attachments: If any file is attached to the email, forgetting to mention the same in the email body shows a lack of professional skills and also, and it may result in the files being left unopened.
  • Use of Emoticons: In any professional email, regardless of how excited one is for any reason, using any type of emoticons is a big NO.
  • Wrong Tone of Message: Professional email requires a proper professional and formal tone of the message. No matter how close one is with the recipients or how excited one is for the information they are mentioning in the email body, one always maintains a polite and professional or formal tone to writing the emails.
  • Grammatical Errors: Regardless of the urgency of the email, one should refrain from any type of spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. These type of errors immediately leaves a negative impact on the recipients.
  • Improper Email Signature: One must not forget to include a proper professional email signature and also, a professional email signature must not include any unnecessary or irrelevant details.

Most Important Sections of Email Writing

First, it is very important to understand the main purposes of the important sections of composing professional Emails.
  • To: This is for primary recipients. The receivers who are mainly addressed in the Email or supposed to take an action upon receiving the Email should be kept in this section. Multiple IDs can be kept in this section.
  • CC: CC stands for Carbon Copy. As the name suggests it helps one to send a copy of the email to secondary recipients. In other words, if one keeps Email IDs in CC, the recipients will also get the same Email. Multiple IDs can be kept in this section. The recipients of CC will be visible to other primary or secondary recipients of the email.
  • BCC: BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. Keeping the recipients in BCC will send copies to those secondary recipients, however, the recipients of BCC will not be visible to other primary or secondary recipients of the email.
  • Subject: The subject must be written in a simple, concise, and relevant manner. It must be short and to the point. It must reflect the main purpose of the email.
  • Mail Body: The white box after the section, Subject, is where one writes or composes the detailed body or messages for the email. In the mail body, one provides a proper and professional signature as well.

10 Most Important Etiquettes to Write Professional and Effective Email

Here are the most important Email etiquettes to write effective and professional Emails:
  • Check the email IDs twice or thrice to ensure those are correctly spelled. Also, ensure to check properly if an email needs to be replied to specific recipients or replied to all.
  • It's very important to ensure to put primary and secondary recipients are in their respective sections, TO, CC, or BCC. One must be extra careful with the section BCC, as usually it should not be used unless it's instructed or required to do so based on specific conditions.
  • Ensure writing a properly relevant concise Subject line that should reflect the main purpose of the email.
  • Start the mail with a proper formal greeting, e.g. Dear [First Name] or Respected Mr./Ms. [Last Name]
  • Follow the 7 Cs or principles of Effective Communication in writing the mail body: Completeness, Clarity, Conciseness, Courtesy, Correctness, Concreteness, and Coherent. Also, the body must be proofread at least twice to avoid misspellings or grammatical errors. One may use useful online or offline applications to check spelling or grammar.
  • One of the most useful etiquettes is to use bullets to list multiple actions or results or information. Also, one should highlight the important call of action in the mail body.
  • While writing the email body, one must ensure to mention the files attached to the mail. Similarly, if one is mentioning the attachments in the email body, one should not forget to attach the files before hitting the send button. Before attaching the files to the email body, one must rename the files properly.
  • The Email tone must be formal and professional. Use phrases like: "I request you to kindly...", "I would be grateful if you kindly...", "Sincerely thanking you for...", "I sincerely regret/apologize to inform..." and "Looking forward to a positive response", etc.
  • One must add proper and professional sign-off. A Few examples of formal sign-offs are "Regards", "Thank you", "Have a wonderful [day/weekend]", etc.
  • Email signature must include only relevant information, e.g. Full Name, Job Title & Department, and Contact info.

Related:

Check Cover Letter: Tips & Templates, Resume: Tips & Templates, CV: Tips & Templates to write a job-winning cover letter, resume, or cv, and Interview Tips & Preparation to ace interviews like a pro.
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