Seven Commandments For Writing a Business E-mail

Internet today has begun to govern most business areas in the present day. The extensive use of technology has made the globe one cyber colony. The barriers of distance have vanished with instantaneous modes of communication. E-mail or electronic mail has almost completely replaced the use of snail or traditional mailing. This holds true in the corporate or business sector as well.

Much simple as it may seem, yet e-mail writing is an art and it has certain rules and regulations to be followed. Especially when we are having a business correspondence it is pivotal that we follow proper decorum and exude a professional aura through our e-mails.

Given below are some tips which will aid you to send e-mails with a proper professional aura.

1. Watch your punctuation: It is a common practice to ignore punctuation and capitalization while writing e-mails. But a mail without appropriate punctuation is indicative of a casual attitude of the sender. Hence it should be carefully considered.
2. Watch your spellings: Much as they may lure you, informal short cuts, and miss-spelt words look out of place in business mails. Ensure that you have got your spellings right. It is also a good practice to run the spell checker option before hitting the Send button.
3. Use appropriate forms of addressing the receiver: don’t use slang or pet words such as dude, buddy, darling etc. They may not appeal to people in a professional context and is indicative of an immature person.
4. Don’t forget the subject line: Never leave the subject line blank. Rather put in an effort to ensure that the subject line reveals more about the content and is concise yet comprehensive.
5. Never type in capital letters: Capital letters according to net etiquettes (Etiquettes followed by people who use the Internet) indicates that the person is shouting, and shouting is definitely considered to be inappropriate in a business world.
6. Prefer to use the bcc option when mailing to a group of individuals rather than using the cc option. This is because in the bcc option the e-mail id of the recipients is hidden and therefore secure.
7. Use a signature which looks professional: Don’t use a funny quote as often it looks out of place in professional zones. Rather keep your signature simple and professional with your name, designation and contact number or address (if required).

Follow these seven commandments and be a successful e-mail writer.