Trick-E-Mails

One of the trickiest business writing tasks is the art of sending a good e-mail.

In the “good old days” before e-mail, much written business communication took the form of letters, if the correspondence was going outside the office, or memos, if it was an internal communication. Both letters and memos had their own special formatting requirements that visually identified the communication as either a letter or a memo. These correspondences had to be typed or printed out on the computer so both the process and the formatting gave the writing of these communications a sense of formality. It was easy to identify letters and memos as business correspondence. Not so with e-mail.

As the name implies, e-mail (short for electronic mail) is simply a faster way of sending a letter or memo. Not only do e-mails arrive at their destinations faster than postal or “snail mail,” but e-mail applications come with their own formatting making the production of the e-mail faster as well. E-mails become so easy to put together and the expectation of speed is so enticing, that writers often do not edit or proofread their messages before they send them. Similarly, the speed with which an e-mail can be sent, received, and responded to has led to the use of e-mail as an electronic conversation tool.

The same technology that makes e-mail such a fast way to communicate has led to newer forms of communication like chat rooms, instant messaging, and text messaging by cell phone or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). These additional technologies with roughly the same purpose have greatly blurred the line between formal business communications and informal personal communications. Text messaging, specifically, has led to the development of a number of acronyms and shortcuts because of the difficulty of typing on most cell phones. In combination, all of these factors have led to a more informal brand of communication.

Further complicating matters is the element of audience. I may be at work, but I may be sending an informal message to one of my colleagues, someone who might also be a friend. The message may even pertain to work, but because of my more informal relationship to my colleague, I may find that an informal e-mail is appropriate. In this type of communication, the standard rules of business writing and etiquette may well not apply. However, all of these factors may make it more difficult for me to shift gears when it comes time to send a more formal message to, say, my boss.

Without the traditional cues telling us that we are engaged in a business activity that requires a more formal writing approach, e-mail communications require business writers (which is almost anyone with a job) to be even more alert to the purpose of their writing and the intended audience. What makes the stakes even higher is that e-mail communication is easily duplicated and sent to a mass audience, many of whom may be people you don’t know or never intended to communicate with.

This situation happened to me recently. I had sent a colleague an e-mail about a proposed meeting. Since I was merely asking for information and since the colleague and I are friends, I included a stupid play on words in my e-mail inquiry. It wasn’t offensive or anything, but it wasn’t something I would have written for a mass audience. It was simply a silly, throw away comment that I knew my friend would find amusing because it was “so me.” To save time answering my question, my friend forwarded my inquiry to a group of colleagues with whom I did not have a close relationship. Since the request I was making was of a professional nature, I was appalled that my side comment to my friend was now being transmitted to other people to whom I would not have sent the comment had I contacted them myself.

The above example is not the only way in which an e-mail you might consider “private” can become public. E-mails may appear to be ethereal in nature, but each time you send one, a copy is made on the server that receives it. In other words, there may be numerous copies of your e-mail existing on your company’s e-mail server and the computers of people outside of the company as well. In a very real way, e-mail communication is not private communication.

The simple act of composing an e-mail is fraught with hidden consequences. This common and seemingly innocuous form of communication is one that requires a great deal of thought. It is important to be aware of the potential for public duplication and sharing of your communications.

In many ways, writing an e-mail is even more of a serious, professional and business writing task than business letters and memos used to be. Use care when composing your e-mails. Don’t merely think twice before sending it, think thrice.