Most Important Rules of Email Etiquette

1) With email, what can be misunderstood will be misunderstood. That's why you should be double careful with everything you write.

Take Another Look Before You Send a Message

One strategy to avoid misinterpretations is to

• allow every message at least some minutes of rest after you have finished it but
• before you press the "Send" button.

Reread and reconsider the whole message when you return to it, possibly from the recipient's perspective.

It never fails to amaze me how many ambiguities I manage to work into short and simple emails.

2) If it's good to reply, it should be better to reply to all; right?

Yes, it is — but only if the reply is really important to all the recipients. How often is that the case? Have you, conversely, ever seen somebody reply to all by embarrassing mistake?

That's why it's best to use Reply to All cautiously.

Do Not Default to "Reply All"

Use your email program's Reply to All feature only when

• your reply will be necessary to know for the original sender and all people in the original email's To: and Cc: field.

Do not use Reply to All when

• only the original sender needs to know your reply,
• your comments will be crucial to know for the original sender and a few other recipients,
  • (Use Reply in this case and add the select other recipients manually. You can copy their addresses from the original email, of course.)
• you have been a Bcc: recipient in the original message or
  • The Bcc: field should only be used to distribute emails while keeping the recipients' addresses confidential or to copy somebody internally, as proof, when delivering an email to the outside, for example.
    If you reply to all as a Bcc: recipient, you reveal yourself as a recipient.
• your message says "Thanks!" or "Me too!".
  • Personally, I like thank-you notices. Make thanking everybody via a group mail the exception, though. Do send personal emails expressing your gratitude instead.

3) Long emails can look intimidating, and a long sequence of long paragraphs, possibly including long run-on sentences that do not seem to stop but do not seem to go anywhere either — sentences filled with extraneous words that add little to the meaning but serve to confuse with multifaceted and sometimes conflicting possible interpretations —, can make the recipient read less than if the message had been only, uh, about 3 sentences — three witty, concise and precise sentences — long.

(If you did not read the preceding paragraph, don't worry.)

Keep Emails Short

That is why it is usually a good idea to

• keep emails as short as possible.

Of course, this is not to mean that you should cut your messages at any price.

Write as Much as Necessary

Write as long and as much as is necessary and appropriate. It is more important for business emails to be succinct.

Personal emails can be flowery and long-winded. For clarity, fewer and simpler words are still better.

Use Bullet Points

If you do have much to write:

• Break your message into bullet points.
• Begin each point with a concise summary or the action you want taken.
• Make sure important information is not hidden in your message's or any bullet point's meat.

One Action per Message

Do not lump together anything you need or want to tell a recipient into one message. In particular:

• Start a new message for each major action you request from the recipient.

This makes it easier for the recipient to get their email handled and the necessary actions done. By setting a precedent, chances are they'll adopt the same method for messages to you — and you'll have an easier time ticking off emails, too.