I first became passionate about this topic a long time ago, after a presentation by Leslie O'Flahavan, owner of E-WRITE, at a conference in Connecticut. She made a great impact on me, not just with her points, but with her examples. She showed us examples of terrible, emails that mirrored ones that I was seeing at the office every day.
The conference was well over ten years ago and I no longer have the notes I took that day, but some of her messages still resonate with me. Below are the guidelines I've either kept with me since then or added to the list because they matter to me.
The Object of Email
Everyone receives more email than he or she could possibly read carefully. So, most emails are skimmed or even ignored. The object of sending email is to get your message across while making it unnecessary for people to actually read it all.
Subject up Front
Always put your subject first. Quite often, I get halfway thought composing an email before remembering this rule and as jarring as it sometimes seems to put it right out there - "I need twenty-five hundred dollars for a conference", it is good advice. Put the subject up front and then supporting details next. Nobody wants to read eight paragraphs before you get to the point.
Short and Direct
Get your point across in as few words as possible.
White Space and Bullets
Use white space and bullets to make your email look uncluttered. Nobody likes to read a long, thick paragraph. Use numbered lists for things that need to be ordered and use bullets for general lists.
Subject Line
Use a relevant subject line. Make sure your subject accurately reflects what the email is about. When forwarding, or responding on a different subject, change the subject, if necessary, to maintain accuracy. This also helps everyone on the thread when searching for the email by topic.
Reply vs. Reply to All
Use Reply to All sparingly. Consider if everyone on the thread needs to see your response. Try to reply only to the sender, or to as few people as necessary, whenever possible.
Use bcc
When addressing a large group, address the email to yourself and put everyone else in the bcc field. Using bcc prevents the readers from having to scroll through a long list of recipients before getting to the meat of the message. Outside of work, using bcc will protect the privacy of the recipients by hiding email addresses from other recipients.
Spelling and Punctuation
Use spell check and proofread.
Angry? Don't Send!
Never send email when you are angry or upset. Always save as draft and make the send decision later. More often than not, the decision to send will change when you're calm.
Details
Are all details included? Try to predict any further questions the reader will have and include them in the first email. You can reduce additional email volume by being thorough.
