Crabby's top 10 e-mail crabs

I'm going to run through this list quickly, so please try and keep up. In fact, why don't you print this list, frame

it nicely, and hang it next to your computer.

Crab #1: Discretion is the greater part of replying

Imagine that you've received a piece of company-wide e-mail from someone in your very large organization.

If you feel the need to respond to the sender, rest assured that every member of your very large organization

does not want to have to read your reply, no matter how witty or urbane you may think it is. This goes the

same for personal e-mail (especially if it's an Internet joke or rumor).

For example, I'm fairly certain that Bill Gates doesn't need to know if I'll be attending the annual Microsoft

picnic with one child or twelve. Not that he doesn't care, mind you; he just has other types of e-mail that may

be more pressing. Shocking but true. So please, don't hit that Reply to All button.

Crab #2: Stop yelling at me

USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS NOT ONLY RUDE AND IRRITATING, IT'S ALSO HARD TO READ. Save

your caps for special occasions, such as those times when you want your recipient to know you're shouting.

GOT IT?

Gentle reader, if you use all caps and prefer that your senders use all caps too because you have limited

eyesight, note that you can adjust various settings for your entire computer to help with that. See Help in

Windows® for more information.

Crab #3: Save the stationery for snail mail

(For all of you who love to use background color and stationery for your personal e-mail, please disregard

this crab. This one is for you people at the office.)

I know it's important to you that everyone knows you're creative, arty, and colorful. Your cubicle fairly

screams kitsch; how could we not know? But we're at work here, and I don't want to have to hippity-hop

through your "bunnies 'n love" stationery just to figure out what your message is.

Crab #4: This is not a chain letter

If I send you a nice note and then get a response from you that, at first glance, appears to have only what I

wrote to you at the top of it, I'm going to assume you have nothing to say to me (and sent me an empty e-

mail message to tell me as much).

Let's put this another way: when you're replying to an e-mail message and you want to include what the

sender wrote, add your comments at the top of the mail, not the bottom. I know what I wrote — why would I

want to reread it?

That being said, I do see the logic in keeping all the notes and replies in order (my original message on top,

followed by your reply, followed by my reply to your reply, and so on). Well, it may be like that in the snail

mail world, but we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Adapt. Your reply on top, please — this isn't a chain

letter. (And if it is, don't send it to me. But that's a crab of a different color.)

Crab #5: Too many forwards is one step backward

Speaking of chain letters, if you're like me (and I know you are), you are fed up with receiving the same

jokes, Internet rumors, and chain letters promising free cases of champagne, $1000 from Bill Gates, and

miracle cream that erases all your fine lines and bad memories.

While you can cut some slack for those in your life who have just discovered that Great Oracle of

Misinformation we call the Internet, it's just not appropriate, considerate, professional, or even cool to

forward these useless things to coworkers. (And by the way: Mikey, the kid from a 1970s-era cereal

commercial, did not explode after drinking a popular cola laced with fizzy candy. I don't know where he is,

but he's probably going through a midlife crisis right about now.)

Crab #6: Don't be a cyber-coward

If you've got something to say to me that is:

 Highly personal

 Scary

 Sad

 Angry

 Tragic

 Vicious
  Shocking

 Any combination of the above…

…please do it in person. (Actually, I prefer you don't do it at all.) Sentient beings are filled with emotions (and

NOT emoticons). E-mail programs aren't the best translators of this.

Crab #7: I love you but not your 500 KB image file

As I see it, there are three main reason why you should refrain from sending really large files via e-mail:

1. It takes a long time to download a large file.

This is particularly true if you are on a dial-up connection. When your recipient is checking e-mail

because she's waiting for an important message from the President of the United States (POTUS),

it's just plain rude to make her sit there for 10 minutes to download the photo of your dog's birthday

party.

2. E-mail servers are like studio apartments: there's only so much space to keep everything.

If your huge file is taking up 3 megabytes (MB) of space on your recipient's 4 MB e-mail server, he

might ask you to move out, take your stuff, and never come back.

3. Sometimes you're at the mercy of the ISP

Some Internet service providers (ISPs) or free e-mail providers limit the size of a single piece of

mail coming through their servers. Sometimes this is because of security issues, and sometimes

these companies just want to annoy you. Whatever the reason, your recipient may never even

know you sent him something.

So please consider the size the file you're sending. If it's a large image, make it smaller. If it's large

document, zip it up using a file compression program.

Crab #8: The subject "Re: " means nothing to me

In other words, fill out the Subject line. I get hundreds of e-mail messages each day, and when I get one

without anything in the Subject line, I tend to skip over it. If the subject of the message wasn't important

enough for the sender to fill out the Subject line, then it's not important to me. Be gone!

Crab #9: Plain text and HTML are not buddies

If someone sends you mail in plain text format, you can usually tell because: 1) it has no formatting, and 2)

the font it appears in is Courier. If you decide to reply to a plain-text sender using HTML format with special

fonts and formatting, the text that your recipient receives will look like indecipherable nonsense that needs a

Cold War code breaker to untangle its message. Do your recipients a favor: send your reply in the format it

came in.

 About message formats

Crab #10: Itchy trigger finger? Count to 10 before hitting the Send button

You're hot under the collar and everybody knows that (and sometimes loves that) about you. But before

sending your clever and scathing message out there to the world (with virtually no chance of retrieving it),

remember this: the pushing of the Send button lasts a moment; its effects can last a lifetime — or at least

until you're back on the streets, looking for another job.

If you use Outlook 2003, however, there is a way to delay that message — kind of like counting to ten before

exploding. Learn about how to delay delivery of a message.

Email Writing & Sending Tips

Who are the Stakeholders? – and what are their significance with regard to your e-
mail’s subject? If you’re writing an email at work to report an incident or to follow up on
a particular project deadline/ due date, then you’ll probably have the following set up:
To: Your actual main recipient (to whom this email is a must read)
Cc: (send a Carbon copy) of the email to your interested parties.
There are 2 famous perceptions for who to place in the Cc recipient section of your email
message.
One view point is to have your direct manager, and probably your recipient’s direct
manager. This copy is usually kept for reference and managers don’t usually refer to them
or read them unless they have extra time OR a problem concerning this email has risen.
The opposing view point (applied in some other places around the world) is to place the
people who are in the FYI (For your information) category in the Cc section. These
people need to know the information to perform the work better, but they need not
(necessarily) respond to the email. Advocates of this view point do not Cc their managers.
BCc: (send a Blind Carbon copy) of the email to some other party that you think needs to
know about the subject, without letting other parties (i.e. the To and Cc recipients) know
about this person’s knowledge.
Recipient’s Connection: if you go ahead and type a long email with attachments and
pictures and send it to someone whose Internet connection is a slow dial up, then he/she
might as well post pone reading it – if at all!

Recipient’s State:
Work Schedule – Busy? Keeping an email short and to the point is essential as he/she
might have hundreds of other emails to read.

Accepts HTML? You might as well check with your recipient prior to sending him/her
emails with HTML content as most people usually switch this option off to reduce the
size of their email messages.

Jargon: Try to avoid abbreviations and field-specific jargon so that your recipient may
understand you. More often than not, engineers – for example – tend to use their
abbreviations while addressing even their top management – who may have forgotten the
meaning of such technical lingo.

According to Nancy Flynn and Tom Flynn: ‘By requiring employees to use appropriate,
businesslike language in all electronic communications, employers can limit their liability
risks and improve the overall effectiveness of the organization’s e-mail and Internet copy
in the process’

Importance: Classifying your email in terms of Importance, Urgency and Confidentiality

also adds a taste of understanding for the recipient. You may even make it obvious for the
recipient to act upon by clearly identifying the e-mail’s properties in a table at the top of
your contents.

Try to make it easier for your recipient to understand the purpose of the email. You may
even define your email messages as “Requiring action”, “FYI – For Your Information”,
“Requires Reply”, “Time sensitive”, or other action, time, or sensitivity related key words
right at the beginning.

Moreover, spam controller programs often eliminate or rule as “Junk” email messages
without subjects or with ambiguous meaning.

Caps – Never use capital letters while typing and email message to anyone. For
starters, caps are considered impolite and resemble shouting in speech (Ellen Dowling).

Genre of Topic – Avoid mixing subjects in your email. Unless otherwise needed by your
superior or work culture, mixing subjects in one email message might confuse your
readers. At least, don’t mix the type of message; if you’re discussing work then stay
focused on work topics without straying to personal issues.

Proof read – Always proof read your email prior to sending it. It may take you a minute,
and it may take you 10, but after all you’ll be sure that the message you sent is free of
grammatical, vocabulary and appropriate usage errors.
Subject Line – what you write in the subject line is almost as important as the email
itself. In most cases, what your subject line is determines whether or not the recipient will
read your email, or even when he/she shall read it.

Good Email Manners - here are some simple yet effective tips for using email more
efficiently:

1. If you are sending an email to multiple people, put their email addresses in the
BCC field and your own email address in the To: field. No one likes to share their
private email address with strangers.

2. The email subject should be detailed enough to give the recipient an idea about
the email content without having to open it. Single words like "Hi" or "Hello" or
"Help" are a strict no-no. Think of meaningful but short titles.

3. Do not attach large attachments in your email since not everyone is on a

broadband connection. If you have to send a large file over email, upload it to
services like Yousendit and then pass on the link in the email.

4. If you have to email more than two documents as attachments, zip them in one
file. Doing so would ensure that your friend won't miss downloading any file.

5. Do not write an email while you are drunk or in a really bad mood. It would reflect
on the style of your writing.

6. Do not request a Read Notification Receipt.

7. Always reply to emails especially the ones specifically addressed to you. The
sender is still waiting to hear from you.

8. Keep you email message short and to the point. Sentences like "I hope this email
finds you alive and well" look good only in letter correspondence.

9. Do not hit the Send button without doing a spell check. An email with spelling
mistakes or grammatical errors indicate that you have written the message in a non-
serious mood and may convey a bad impression. Always read the message before
broadcasting it to the world.

10. You may want to remove your personal mobile number and the home number
from the email signature if you are participating in a big mailing list. You never know
the kind of people who have subscribed to that list.

Sender Etiquette:

1. An effective Subject line is paramount. A good Subject line helps you and your message recipients
view, file, search, and prioritize messages efficiently. I hate having an inbox full of messages with
a Subject line starting with URGENT or FYI. Subjects should state exactly what the message is
about and nothing more—most recipients can prioritize messages for themselves.
 2. Be Succinct. Try to limit message text to one screen (this varies by client and resolution, of
course) so the reader can quickly peruse the message for highlights and main points. Also, stay on
topic and avoid long dialogs or discussions via email.

3. Use Reply All with caution. In some situations, this option is necessary because all recipients need
your response. However, a Reply All with the message body "Thanks" probably doesn't need to go
to everyone. Closely related to Reply All is the distribution list (DL). Make sure you use DLs with
care, and when you see that a large DL has been used, ask yourself whether everyone needs your
response before you click the Reply All button.

4. Limit the use and size of attachments. My pet peeve is dialing in via a 56K RAS connection,
replicating mail, and finding that some bloke has sent me a 20MB PowerPoint presentation that I
don't even need. Attachments aren't evil by nature—you just need to use them with care. When
you add an attachment to a message, consider whether there is an alternative. For example, can
you put the attachment on a server and provide a URL (http://server/file) or UNC (\\server\share)
instead?

5. Use Signatures—but for heaven's sake don't use the 10MB GIF file of your company logo

Here are some tips that will make your email communications more
professional.

 The font of mail should be Verdana and font size should be 9.5 or 10.

 The mail should have a Pyramid Structure i.e. it should contain:


o Situation : What’s the current situation is
o Action items : What you expect from the reader of the mail to-do
o Information : The information you want to give to the reader
o Conclusion : Conclude with a Thank You.

 For writing use only Black or Blue color. For highlighting purpose make the
word bold. Avoid using Red color as Red signifies danger, so use it when
urgent.

 For greetings in mail:


o For Americans : use Hi
o For Europeans : use Hello
o For Asians : use Dear

 To be more formal we could use Dear Mr. /Ms. followed by Last name or Full
name. We should not use Dear Mr. /Ms. followed by First name alone.

 We should not put ‘/’ in greetings like Hi X/Y. Instead we should say Hi X and
Y.We should not use ‘Thanks and Regards’. Instead we should say:
 Thank you
Regards
Your name

 For requesting something we should not use can, instead we should use
could.

 We should not write ‘Please find the attached file’ because the reader does
not have to find or search for the file in the mail it’s already there. So instead
we should write ‘The file has been attached for your reference’.

 We should not use sentences like ‘As per your mail’ because ‘per’ is used only
with units like per Kg etc. Instead we should write ‘According to your mail’.

 We should use parallel structure. Parallelism enables readers to read

documents more efficiently. For e.g. The analysis will include planning,
organizing, dividing and assessment (Instead assessment we should write
Assessing) of turnaround functions.

 In our mails we often write ‘Please revert back’. Instead we should only write
‘Please revert’.

 For the Signature in mail, if we are sending to people in our company only
then we should not write our company name in the signature because they
already know that we are part of the same company but if we are sending
mail to an external party like client etc then we should write our company
name in the signature because there we have to brand our company name in
front of others

#1- Include Subject Line

Remember to include the topic of your email message in the subject line .
Why?
1. An accurate, informative subject line helps people organize and prioritize their email
messages. With the ever increasing number of emails being sent, a recipient needs to make
decisions as to whether an email message is important within a short amount of time.
Which of the 2 subject lines below tells more about the content of an email message?
Subject: Inventory list due date
Subject: Classroom equipment inventory –due Jun 10th
2. Some email systems and malware* detection programs have filters which interpret blank
subject lines as SPAM or possible malware. Some email systems may return those messages as
“undeliverable”.
*malware-“malicious software”-viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, and any other type of program specifically designed to harm
computer systems/networks
3. When the subject line is blank, many people delete the email message.
#2- Use Proper Capitalization and Punctuation
In composing any professional email message, all rules of capitalization and punctuation
should be followed.

Please note that the following composing methods greatly increase the difficulty level of reading any email
message:
1. Typing a message in all capital letters (the online equivalent of “SHOUTING” or
“SCREAMING” at email recipients)
2. Typing a message in all lowercase letters
3. Over-using punctuation (!!!!!!!)
4. Lack of punctuation