Etiquettes while sending official e mail. Hope will be useful to all of us.
Verdana can be used as font and size can be 9.5 or 10.
• Pick a subject that will draw the attention of the reader. Do not pick a random subject that has nothing to do with the reasons that you are e-mailing the person. This also makes it easier for the person to search for your e-mail if you call them in reference to your e-mail.
• 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 greetings in mail:
o For Americans: use Hi
o For Europeans: use Hello
o For Asians: use Dear
• We should not put '/' in greetings like Hi X/Y. Instead we should say Hi X and Y.
• Do not use capitals where not required. On the Internet, words in the upper case translate as shouting.
• Do not use unnecessary abbreviations in official e-mails.
• If you receive an e-mail marked to several people asking the status on certain project, ensure that you reply to all as everyone would want to know it.
• Maintain the 'thread of the conversation', that is, if someone has mailed you about something, use 'reply' instead of 'compose'. This will help you know the flow of the conversation.
• If you have to answer several questions or points, reply by answering under each question and using a different colour for your answers as this would be easy for the recipient to understand your reply.
• 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.
• Reply to the sender immediately after receiving an e-mail so the recipient would know that you have received his/her e-mail. If you cannot reply to the entire mail at that point of time, make sure you let them know that you will reply in detail at a certain time.
• Never ever use your official e-mail for personal correspondence or receiving/sending out personal details. Remember, your official e-mail is meant only for official use and is likely to be monitored.
• E-mail conversations have to be clear and there should not be any scope for misunderstanding. So, be careful about your language and be polite as all this also reflects your attitude.
• Do not use the chat mode, SMS language or short forms of any kind. Remember, this is an official mail and you are applying for a job.
• Avoid any symbols, images, icons, etc. They are a strict no-no for official e-mails. Also avoid any fancy or
• 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'. Instead we should write 'According to your mail'.
• In our mails we often write 'Please revert back'. Instead we should only write 'Please revert'.
• Don't forget to check for spelling and grammatical errors once you completed the message.
• animated signature. Just adding your name is enough.
• We should not use 'Thanks and Regards'. Instead we can say
o Thank you
Regards
• 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.
R K Sharma
From India, Jaipur
1Verdana can be used as font and size can be 9.5 or 10.
• Pick a subject that will draw the attention of the reader. Do not pick a random subject that has nothing to do with the reasons that you are e-mailing the person. This also makes it easier for the person to search for your e-mail if you call them in reference to your e-mail.
• 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 greetings in mail:
o For Americans: use Hi
o For Europeans: use Hello
o For Asians: use Dear
• We should not put '/' in greetings like Hi X/Y. Instead we should say Hi X and Y.
• Do not use capitals where not required. On the Internet, words in the upper case translate as shouting.
• Do not use unnecessary abbreviations in official e-mails.
• If you receive an e-mail marked to several people asking the status on certain project, ensure that you reply to all as everyone would want to know it.
• Maintain the 'thread of the conversation', that is, if someone has mailed you about something, use 'reply' instead of 'compose'. This will help you know the flow of the conversation.
• If you have to answer several questions or points, reply by answering under each question and using a different colour for your answers as this would be easy for the recipient to understand your reply.
• 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.
• Reply to the sender immediately after receiving an e-mail so the recipient would know that you have received his/her e-mail. If you cannot reply to the entire mail at that point of time, make sure you let them know that you will reply in detail at a certain time.
• Never ever use your official e-mail for personal correspondence or receiving/sending out personal details. Remember, your official e-mail is meant only for official use and is likely to be monitored.
• E-mail conversations have to be clear and there should not be any scope for misunderstanding. So, be careful about your language and be polite as all this also reflects your attitude.
• Do not use the chat mode, SMS language or short forms of any kind. Remember, this is an official mail and you are applying for a job.
• Avoid any symbols, images, icons, etc. They are a strict no-no for official e-mails. Also avoid any fancy or
• 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'. Instead we should write 'According to your mail'.
• In our mails we often write 'Please revert back'. Instead we should only write 'Please revert'.
• Don't forget to check for spelling and grammatical errors once you completed the message.
• animated signature. Just adding your name is enough.
• We should not use 'Thanks and Regards'. Instead we can say
o Thank you
Regards
• 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.
R K Sharma
From India, Jaipur
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