Email Etiquette

Javid HamdardChief Operating Officer

Introduction

• Please Remember! your electronic/printed words are yourwords and represent you and your personality the same wayas if you are representing yourself in-person. Every e-mail yousend adds to, or detracts from your reputation

• The only difference is that your electronic/printed words caneasily be misinterpreted and you may not have theopportunity to correct/justify/explain yourself to yourreader/s.

• Therefore it is Very-Important that we know and practicesome of the following basic electronic/email correspondenceetiquette because it is as important as developing otheraspects of our professional personality!

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Subject

• As one of the most important elements of an email, pleaseunderstand that the Subject line in your email is the firstaspect of your email that your recipients will see and read.Therefore, it is very important to first have a Subject line andmake sure it is Meaningful, Relevant, Concise and Catchy.

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Professional Email Address

• If available, always use your official/company email addressfor all your professional/official electronic correspondences;when available never use your personal email address forofficial communication, it looks very unprofessional !

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You, Who, Whom

• Please make sure you know the difference between To, CC, and BCCand make sure you put the right person/s at the right sections:

• To: in the “To” Only put the contacts of the person/s in the “To”section whom your email and it’s contents address directly.

• CC: in the “CC” (Carbon Copy) put the contacts of the person/s thatyou do not expect to respond/reply to the email but need to beinformed and in the loop.

• BCC: “BCC” (Blind Carbon Copy) is usually used in group-emails,where you do not want to reveal the recipients of an email anddon’t want a responder to spam the entire group. Use “BCC”carefully in other contexts as it can be considered Unprincipled insome occasions.

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You, Who, Whom

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Reply-All, Really?

• Please make sure you understand the difference and thinkTwice before clicking the Reply-All button. When it comes toEmailing Etiquettes, there is nothing more frustrating andunprofessional than spamming a group of people withirrelevant email messages that were supposed to beaddressed to single recipient!

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Reply-All, Really?

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Greetings

• Always make sure to start your email by greeting your recipient/s. Please useprofessional and respectful greetings such as:

• Dear, Greetings, Hi, or Hello, Sir, Ma’am, followed by the recipient/s’ First or preferably Last-Name,Ladies or Gentlemen respectively and as per your relationship with the recipients, such as:

• Dear Mr. Ahmad, Greetings Ms. Ahamd, Hello Mr. Ahmad, Hello Ladies and Gentlemen.

• Wishing good times such as: Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening or Good Night beforeor after your initial salutation is considered a friendly ice-breaker and polite, such as:

• ‘Good morning Mr. Ahmad’, ‘Dear Mr. Ahmad, Good morning’

• Regardless of what your relationship might be with the recipients ! as a recorded medium ofcommunication, avoid using lay information greetings in your formal emails, such as:

• Hey, Yo, Bro, Buddy, Buddy Gak, Jan, Janem etc !

• Avoid using third language greetings if you are writing your emails in English, it could be confusingand misinterpreted by the your recipients, especially non-English speaking recipients, for instance:

• Sob Ba Khair, Salaam, Chitori, Khob Asti, Dega Che Gapa.

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Keep it Short and Simple

• Well, it is pretty self-explanatory – Keep it Short and Simple !

• Don't write a book! Just as emails are sent quickly, they'reskimmed through just as fast.

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Spelling and Grammar

• While enabling the auto spelling and grammar check in youremail application/client, please make sure that you always doa final and through spelling and grammar check of your emailmessages before hitting the ‘Send’ button.

• The best idea is to always thoroughly read your emails beforesending them, this will not only give you a chance to reviewyour spelling and grammar but also the general structure,working and coherence of your emails.

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Spelling and Grammar

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Punctuation Saves Lives !

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• Punctuation is really important and if not used and/ormisused it can change the whole meaning and purpose ofyour sentences and therefore intentions, plus bad and/or lackof punctuation sends a very bad impression about yourprofessional/business writing skills.

• Avoid using special characters (e.g. exclamation marks etc),abbreviations (e.g. LOL, OMG) and visual Emojis. Also restrainfrom using special fonts, coloring and especially writing inCaps unless absolutely necessary and in a special contextwhere you are sure how and why to use them !

Punctuation Saves Lives !

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Size Matters !

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• Always be mindful of your email size by being considerate of youremail attachments, the usual attachment size for normal emailsshould not exceed a couple hundred Kilobytes, especially if you areattaching standard Office suite documents.

• While some organizations including military organizations (e.g.NATO, ISAF, US-ARMY), UN, USAID, and more have email filters bySize and some other criteria (e.g. keywords, explicit material etc).Most of these organization block and bounce email messagesbigger than 5mb !

• While making sure your official/professional emails contain onlyofficial attachments (nobody likes official emails containingpersonal attachments like photographs, videos etc) when trying tosend attachments bigger than the standard size, it is always a goodidea to confirm with your recipients that you are planning to sendthem oversized attachments and if they are able to receive them !

Size Matters !

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Timely Response

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• As a professional you need to provide on-time feedback, responses,information and confirmation to your clients/customers -whomever they might be- ; Email is just another medium for doingso, therefore it is very important that you allocate regular plannedintervals for checking, reviewing, coordinating and responding toyour emails in a timely fashion (occasionally the tendency amongsome professionals is that they think Email/electroniccommunication/correspondence is secondary, That is an incorrectassumption !

• If in special cases you know that it will take you a while to respondto emails, at least let the senders/recipients know that you havereceived their email and that you need more time to respond.

Timely Response

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Closing Salutation

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• Always end your formal/official emails with a polite, professionaland friendly closing remarks ,like a formal business letter, which is areconfirmation of your professionalism and emailing etiquette andhelp your emails not look demanding and terse, some goodexamples are:

• “Best Regards”,

• “Regards”,

• “Best Wishes”,

• “Sincerely”,

• “Thank You”,

• “Respectfully”,

Closing Salutation

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Signature

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• Always use a standard professional email signature in yourformal/official emails. Please make sure your email signatureis according to the updated accepted email signature format(if not sure, contact the HR department and/or yoursupervisors/line-managers).

• The following is a standard NETLINKS email signature formatthat should be used by all employees filled with their personalinformation:

Signature (Continued)

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Name

-----

Full-NameDesignation

A: Shar-e-Naw, Street # 4, Lane # 3 (Phase A), House # 128, Kabul, Afghanistan.

E: example@netlinks.af | W: www.netlinks.af

Mobile : +93 (0)XXX XXXXXX | Office : +93 (0)XXX XXXXXX

Skype: Example | LinkedIn: af.linkedin.com/pub/example

-----

Confidentiality Disclaimer(Please contact the HR department and/or your supervisors for the text in this section)

-----

And…

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• Never prefer and/or use emails as an excuse to avoid personal contact (Remember personal contact makesus Human!).

• Be aware of cultural differences and sensitivities, especially if you are emailing people from othercultures/countries.

• Remember that Emails are not always the most private medium of communication, therefore maintainprivacy and be careful about sharing private and/or confidential company info by emails especially to largemailing groups.

• Restrain from Abruption, Anger and getting emotional on email; it is always a good idea to sleep on anAbrupt, Angry and Emotional email.

• It is always a good idea to use a polite and professional language in all your emails (even personal) for thesake of keeping a good written record (be warned that emails as a written legal evidence can be usedagainst you and can put you in trouble

• Avoid your emails being mistaken for Spam by refraining from using all CAPS, all lower-case, URLs/Linksand/or generic keywords (Great Deal, Good News, Contact Us etc).

• Do-Not forward emails with a confidential and/or private note unless you are allowed to do so !

Some Writing Resources

• IT Integration Project

• http://www4.caes.hku.hk/writingmachine/

• University of Sydney

• http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au/index.htm

• Purdue University

• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

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Thank You

Questions/ Comments

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