Fast Company: If you had to deliver a speech, would you knowingly choose the wrong title, bury your point, or say things that would get yourself in trouble with your colleagues and bosses? Of course not. But many of us unthinkingly do these things while writing work emails all the time. That’s not just sloppy, though–these common errors can sabotage your own credibility around the office. Here are seven of the most destructive email mistakes and how you can avoid them.
4 comments:
This article was illuminating because it brought up a few interesting points and mistakes that I know I personally have overlooked. The first one, for example - Adjusting Obsolete Subject Lines. So many times, I'll be in a thread with people and the responses make it look like Re: Re: Re: Re: in my inbox. The simple piece of advice to change the headline when it gets too long or the topic shifts is something I never thought about but, at the same time, will never forget now that I've done so. I also thought the second point is something I can struggle with, especially as a writer with a very descriptive style and a tendency to wax eloquent about nothing at all. The 'what’s the point' test will really help my emails become more succinct and clear, and aid my communication with others in the professional world. Overall, I think this a really helpful and eye-opening article, and something I wish people were taught more often as opposed to having to figure it out ourselves.
All the ideas in theis article seem like great ideas! It confounds me that in high school, where we learn the basics of composing our writing, email and other digital messaging is completely ignored. Though many conventions for email definitely derive from its analogue counterpart, letters don't usually come with a subject line ahead of opening the envelope. As such, knowing how to effectively subject an email can make all the difference. As the article explains, "When your subject line is 'Re: Re: Re: Tuesday?' your recipient isn’t going to know that you’ve hit upon a breakthrough marketing idea since initially scheduling a routine meeting for Tuesday." Another aspect of this article I like is that it follows its own advice. The last suggestion is to always follow up a critique with a suggestion for remediation. Each piece of advice follows this same pattern: The first paragraph points out a flaw in common email writing, and the second paragraph begins with "Here's how to fix it."
I really liked this article because it not only shows the common problems that are so easy to make when writing emails and then also gives good advice as to how to make it better. The one I think I forget the most is changing the subject like. I’m going to be honest, I faint think that was a possibility but of course you can change it. Part of me never wants to do that because people will forget why the email is going out, but if you’re at a point where you need to change the subject, the original point is probably lost anyway. But also, an original subject like of Tuesday? is really not good to begin with. The other one I fall to all the time is using too many words. I often worry that I’m not being clear enough, but really I should more often rethink completely restarting the email once I finally know what I’m actually trying to say. It’s interesting to think back on my education and realize that we really don’t talk about how to write emails well. It is something that you kind of just learn by trial and error and by reading enough email from other people. Which is not necessarily a good thing.
I know I have made all of these email mistakes at one point or another. I do like to think, however, that I am pretty decent at emailing. I have gotten jobs just off of emails and I have had great conversations through email. In fact, just the other day while working on a TD3 assignment, someone responded to an email saying “that was a really good email.” I am not saying this to be narcissistic, but rather to say I have no clue what I am doing that makes some people really like my emails. I constantly make the mistakes in this article, so maybe if I do less of that, I can a higher percentage of good emails. The one thing that always gets me is the too many words. Sometimes when I start writing I just have so much to say or ask that I have a hard time consolidating my thoughts.
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