Email Etiquette

Netiquette (Internet etiquette)

Email suppresses the ability to rely on voice inflections, tone, verbal pauses, and facial expressions, often creating problems with email correspondence. While one would obviously want to avoid sarcasm and jokes within email correspondence, the following tips help with maintaining Internet etiquette:

• Avoid sloppiness: it's unprofessional and annoying
• Use proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure
• Capitalize the first letter in the beginning word of a sentence and in all proper nouns
• Avoid using all uppercase letters; it is equivalent to shouting and is abrasive
• Use abbreviations and acronyms sparingly (Don’t assume your reader knows the meaning of abbreviations and acronyms just because you do)
• Avoid using emoticons (emoticons are fine in casual texts, but not for business email correspondence)
• Answer your email (Replying to an email shows courteous behavior, even if it is a simple one-line message to indicate you received the email)
• Do not use "Reply all" unless it is crucial that all recipients view the reply

Many professionals find a lack of response one of the most annoying practices among business professionals. Make sure you always reply to an email unless directed to do otherwise. Remember to respond to emails within the same amount of time it would take you to return a telephone call.