STURGIS, S.D. -- E-mail used for
business correspondence demands
Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity - but
many workers simply do not know
their e-mail ABCs.
"Appalling" is just one of the colorful words used by Susan Silver, a
Los Angeles-based author and management consultant, to describe the
sloppy use of e-mail by so many workers.
"I am astounded at the grammar,
mechanics and spelling they use,"
Silver said. Any time you put anything in writing your credibility and
reputation are on the line, but people don't seem to realize that e-mail
sloppiness is bad public relations,
bad for their image."
Silver is president of the management consulting
firm Positively Organized! and author of
"Organized to be Your Best!" subtitled,
"Simplify and Improve How You Work"
(
Adams-Hall Publishing).
"Basically, we've become so informal, and work is performed at such
a frenetic pace, that accuracy goes
out the window" iq most business e-mail,
Silver explained.
"A" stands for "accuracy" but that
does not deter writers "who put
negatives where they don't belong
and actually end up saying the opposite of what they mean,"
Silver said. "They don't even bother to
reread what they've written."
"People absolutely must reread
their e-mail at least once before
tbey send it," she urged. Otherwise,
the message may be filled with
"poor spelling and lack of attention
to detail."
As for brevity, Silver said "stream
of consciousness may be fine for a
novel but it's not appropriate for
business writing.
"Basically, you want to use e-mail
sound bites. The way you do this is
to use subheads, numbers and bullets
to break up long messages
and to guide your reader
through the message," she said.
"Learn to write brief messages
in short paragraphs with the
main points up front that show
up on the screen before scrolling," she added. "Don't beat
around the bush."
Silver urged e-mail writers to
use block-style paragraphs separated by an extra line, with lots
of white space "so you make it
easy for people to read." And
use boldface type and color
"sparingly for highlighting key
points."
Writers should use e-mail subject lines the way newspapers
use headlines, the organization
expert said. "Good subject lines
tell immediately what the e-mail
is all about and catch people's
attention."
It's useful "to build into the
subject line some kind of action
or deadline that's required and
to reference a particular client,
subject or project immediately,"
she continued. "It needs to be
specific."
"And if you're going to change
the topic in your reply, change
the subject line!" she insisted. If
you don't, it will make it difficult
later on to search for an old
message "that has some ridiculous subject
line completely unrelated to the topic
you're looking for."
When replying to an e-mail
message, Silver said, "don't just
hit reply. For the sake of clarity,
first "copy the parts that you're
responding to and then reply to
each of your correspondent's
particular points."
She said the reply should
show where the writer's comments end and the recipient's
responses begin. This is simply
done by typing each response in
bold type or by capitalizing the
first few words of the response.
Silver said it is important to
limit your signature file to just
four or five lines, giving your
name, title, phone number and
street address.
When you finish writing important e-mail, Silver said, it's
best to mark it "send later." That
way, a writer can reread the correspondence for accuracy and
clarity and think about the content -- before mailing. More than
your image may be on the line.