Email Best Practice - Sending
# / Description / Explanation1 / Only send appropriate messages as email / There is no such thing as a private email so confidential or personal information that you would not want others to see should not be sent as an open email.
An email is also a legally "discoverable" document that will be recorded long after you "delete" it from your account.
These factors, along with the fact that any email sent through a Wallem.com address may be regarded as an official company communication, should guide your email usage to ensure neither you, nor the company, are put at risk by sending items that could be deemed illegal, offensive, racist or sexist.
2 / Don't assume email will be actioned immediately / Email is generally delivered in seconds, but on some occasions it can be delayed by hours.
Also, regardless of when it is delivered, the recipient may not read/action it immediately depending on their own priorities. So if you need an immediate response, use the telephone, or if it is a colleague, speak to them directly.
3 / Address email correctly / The correct use of "TO"; "CC" and "BC" can improve the chances of getting the desired response:
· TO: should be used for the person(s) to whom the email is actually directed – those requiring the information or those from whom you require a response.
· CC: should be used for those addressed indirectly – typically "for your information" type messages. Try to limit the usage here, as these are the messages which add the least value to the communication process and can often generate more unnecessary messages as a result.
· BC: This should be used sparingly, as the main recipients are not informed about these BC recipients and over-use can be interpreted as being underhand or unethical.
4 / Address email sparingly / Distribution Lists can simplify the task of addressing emails, but if over-used result in too many people receiving messages that are actually irrelevant.
Similarly, the Reply-to-All option typically generates far more messages than are actually required in most situations. Try to avoid it altogether.
5 / Include a strong subject line / Think of your subject line as the headline of an important news article. Make sure the subject line is short, informative & to-the-point.
6 / Ask for an action / Always specify what you want to happen as a result of the email – particularly if it is addressed TO: more than one person.
7 / Use the inverted pyramid form of writing / Your most important statements should appear in the first paragraph. Follow up with supporting details.
Especially if the message is lengthy, use sub-topic headings within your email message, and then refer to the subtopics in your first paragraph.
8 / Keep sentences and paragraphs short for easy reading / An email is not a novel so get straight to the point.
Be concise, including only relevant information and avoiding jargon and acronyms if they might confuse any recipients.
Remember, many recipients may not have English as their first, or even second language.
9 / Limit attachments / Keep attachment sizes to a minimum – otherwise they can be time-consuming and/or expensive to download.
Similarly, don't copy out an entire, long message just to add a line or two of text such as "I agree" or "Noted."
Remember to identify the type of files attached if they are not standard MS Office documents.
Most MS Office files can be "Zipped" to a much smaller size before being included as attachments, and photographs should be re-sized appropriately.
10 / Think about your writing style / As well as being concise, remember some key Do's:
· Do be polite. Terseness can be misinterpreted. In particular, it is a good rule of thumb never to reply to an email when you are angry.
· Do trim any quoted message down as much as possible.
· Do use humour sparingly. Remember that email has no visual clues about emotions, which can lead to problems with interpretation.
and Don'ts:
· Don't write ALL IN CAPITALS – it is usually interpreted as bad manners.
· Don't over-use punctuation ("!!"), especially if your email is quite formal.
· Don't use an over-elaborate signature on your email message (Name, Title, Dept, Company & Contact details are the standard signature).
· Don't mark things as urgent if they aren't.
· Don't request delivery & read receipts. This will almost always annoy your recipient before they have even read your message. For internal mail, GroupWise provides this function anyway, and for external users it is usually better just to ask the recipient to let you know if it was received in your message text.
11 / Use the spell check / Particularly for messages to outside parties, this shows a professional attitude and also ensures the message says exactly what you meant it to say.
In GroupWise: Tools > Options > Environment > General has a checkbox for "always check spelling before send" that will trigger the spell-checker each time you hit the Send button.
12 / Re-read your message one last time before you send / Apart from a final check on spelling and grammar, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.
Email_Best_Practice_v1-1.doc 1 of 4 Revised by WIS: 13-Oct-10
Email Best Practice - Receiving
Item / Description / Explanation1 / Don't print unnecessarily / One of the goals of email is to reduce the amount of paper in use. There will always be a percentage of documents that need to be held in hard-copy but, wherever possible, organize your personal workflow and filing to use the electronic copy rather than creating a paper copy.
In GroupWise, the "Checklist" folder allows you to create a "To-Do" list folder rather than print out messages as action reminders.
2 / Reply promptly / Once an email has been sent, the sender is waiting for a response so reply promptly, or if the full reply is complicated, consider sending a response just confirming that you have received their email and indicating when you expect to get back to them.
3 / Don't Forward unnecessarily / Spam, chain letters, pornography and other such unsolicited mail should just be deleted immediately.
If you receive unsolicited warnings about viruses etc., be aware that the vast majority of these are hoaxes and do not be tempted to forward them to other people. You may, if you believe they are genuine, forward them as an attachment to for further scrutiny, but usually a simple search on Google will quickly confirm the hoax.
4 / Don't keep messages in your email account too long / This is especially important for messages with large attachments.
If the attachment is the important content, then SAVE this to the file server and delete the email message.
Alternatively, the e-Filing system will allow both attachments and messages to be properly Filed for long term central storage and easy retrieval.
Email_Best_Practice_v1-1.doc 1 of 4 Revised by WIS: 13-Oct-10