Several things:

1) not proofing the mail before sending it. Recently I have gotten a large number of emails that have "you" when they meant to type "your." The spell check cannot catch it, and it makes them sound stupid, because I hear the email in my head as I read it.

2) Not using a complete signature -- name, address, phone, cell, website. I don't always recognize the email address and I know more than one Steve.

3) Using email abbreviations and emoticons in business mail. Keep it for the correspondence with your kids and grandkids.

Thanks for asking.

Nancy Kirk

posted August 22, 2008

Subject lines that don't reflect the content of the email (for ease of sorting when filed away later) or that start with the beginning of a sentence that should be in the body of the email, such as a subject line reading "Just wanted to ask you...", "Please give me your thoughts on...", etc. On the other side of that coin are emails where the entire message body is crammed into the subject line.

posted August 22, 2008

Where do I start? How about:

1) Oblique subject lines. In a business environment, it's sometimes necessary to prioritize, and a cryptic or missing subject line offers no help in this regard.
2) Excessive length. I think this one's self-explanatory.
3) Poor spelling or grammar. If it's not important enough to think through, take an extra minute and make sure it looks professional, it's not important enough for me to read. Then again, I'm a lot more nitpicky on this score than the average bear (curse of the copy editor), but personally, every error I spot drops my opinion of the message's value. Your mileage may vary.

Hope this helps!

posted August 22, 2008

My biggest pet peeve is people who seem to think the cap key is just for decoration. When I receive a business e-mail with no capitalization, it's difficult not to assume the person is either lazy or stupid. I understand that e-mail is "speed communication," and that the occasional error may slip by. But if it looks like it was written by a fifth grader (and a poorly educated one at that), it's hard to take the sender seriously.

I'm also not a fan of emoticons, text-style abbreviations, or company logos that read as attachments.

Finally, personal e-mails from colleagues who are also friends are delightful, but lately I've received several mass mailed e-mails sent from PR people I barely know with WAY too much personal information (i.e., "Well, I'm ready to pop at any time..." followed by intimate details about an upcoming pregnancy from someone I've never met).

The rules for business e-mail are the same as for any professional dealings -- act professional, and people will see you as professional.

posted August 22, 2008

Well, since you asked nicely...

I'm not a big fan of folks not being able to distinguish between the "reply" and "reply all" buttons. We should not respond to a message sent to a distribution list with "I can't make it to a meeting because I have scheduled a colonoscopy."

Again, with distribution lists. My organization is spread over three or four buildings. And I am NOT in the one where meetings seem to always have "leftover food in the fridge -- please feel free to help yourself."

Again, with distribution lists. There's no excuse for your co-workers to pass on Internet chain letters, running jokes, and even notices for special events *happening that very night*, but guess what? We all have people we work with who do it.

Most of your responders are complaining about what happens in one-to-one correspondence. I feel the one-to-group stuff is so much more embarrassing and has so much more potential to interrupt the work of many that it really overshadows much of what you see here.

posted August 22, 2008

All the given answers are wonderful. Might I add one?

It's really annoying reading a reply to your mail from a person who hasn't even read what you had written in the previous mail. And that reply makes it all the more obvious.

posted August 22, 2008

The previous answers are rich in email best practices recommendations.
When working internationally, a few other pet peeves come to mind, such as:
1. Writing clearly -- particularly if those reading emails are not native speakers of the language in which the email is written.
2. Precise information - say a global team report is due Thursday afternoon, in which time zone?
3. Forgetting to invite questions and comments from foreign colleagues, who may be culturally hesitant to respond otherwise.

HTH,

Patricia Lane

posted August 23, 2008

The thing that annoys me most is when the email is sent to their whole email list and they don't use the BCC feature.

I may not want my email known to everyone on their email list.

You would never expect an executive to hand over their Outlook database or Rolodex, but they don't seem to think twice about emailing you their whole contact list.

posted August 23, 2008

txtspk - someone tried saying it's worth it for the speed increase. Someone argued it's faster, so let me do a worked example:

"u b in ur office 2moro?"
"Will you be in your office tomorrow?"

That's a difference of 13 characters. Assuming a competent typist capable of 40 words a minute (if you can't hit 40 words a minute, I'd strongly suggest practice), say an average of 5 characters per word, that's 200 characters per minute (excluding spaces), or 3.3 characters per second. Total saving, about 4 seconds.

When I get a message written like that, my brain tries to read it and stalls. I need to stop, and break it down into the individual parts to try deciphering it. If I'm really lucky, I might not lose more time reading it than you saved writing it. Now think if you CC that e-mail to a few people; they each have that extra reading cost. I've frequently had to reply to e-mails and go "That made no sense, want to try again?" - that's a massive waste of everyone's time, particularly yours while you re-write the e-mail and wait for me to reply a second time.

Beyond that, vagueness ("It's broken"), and unhelpful subject lines.

posted August 23, 2008

As with everyone else, plus a couple of extras:

1. No SMS language - I think it is rude and lazy (and I won't even use it on the phone)

2. Spelling, grammar and punctuation - there is no excuse for it.

3. Overly long emails with no real point - if you have something useful and long, save it as a Word document and put it in a directory where all your company can view it (or as an attachment if it is going elsewhere so people can save it)

4. Useful and short subject lines

5. When forwarding messages remove all those awful disclaimers from the bottom - you'd be amazed how many more KB they add to the size of an email, and they are really annoying.

6. Don't put images or fancy fonts in your message or signature - not everyone uses Outlook or even Internet Explorer and you need to make sure everyone can read it.

posted August 23, 2008

1. Spelling and grammatical errors. Misspellings and bad grammar drive me nuts, regardless of whether it is a business or personal E-mail. I judge people by the quality of their writing, and bad writing makes me look down on them, even though I might respect them otherwise. (I once wrote back to a purported model who sent me a "come-hither" message on MySpace to tell her that she had misspelled "gorgeous" in the banner on her slideshow and to correct her for several misspellings in her message.)

2. Using the wrong word. I have two friends who, if I exchanged their use of "your" and "you're" in their E-mails, would both be using the words correctly. There is no excuse for confusing "than" for "then" or "conscience" for "conscious."

3. Use of all capital letters or all lowercase. All capital letters reads like the person is shouting, and I don't care to be shouted at. All lowercase reads like the person thinks he or she is e.e. cummings or nikki giovanni. If I want to see something in all lowercase, I'll read their poetry. (In a similar vein, I've had people E-mail me who only capitalized the first word in a paragraph. I also had someone who replied to my E-mail regarding scheduling a job interview by capitalizing the first word in each line of the E-mail, regardless of whether it began the sentence or not, claiming she was too busy. In the latter case, I was ready to write the parent company, forwarding them her E-mail, and demand she be fired.)

4. Using "textspeak" or excessive chat-room lingo in E-mails. I consider this nothing more than laziness designed as an attempt to be cute.

5. E-mails too short to the point of being cryptic. One of my former bosses at infoUSA wrote this way. Although his ancestors were from India, he was actually born in California. Overly short E-mails also come across as making the sender sound imperious, particularly when phrasing a request.

6. Long, rambling E-mails. I'm guilty of writing long E-mails on occasion, but I know how to organize my thoughts and will go back and rewrite previous paragraphs when necessary to make my text flow logically. Doing so also lets me determine what is really important. I wish more people would do the same.

7. Confusing when to use "Reply" and "Reply All." Unlike most people who've written in so far, I get more people using "Reply" to reply only to me when they should "Reply All" so that other people are kept in the loop who need to be. This requires me to take the time to either add their names to my reply or forward the E-mail to those other people, both of which take time I could use for something else.

8. Not paying attention to who the reply is going to. I've had people give personal replies on list-serves (newsgroups), unaware that everyone else is reading them. I've also had people attach their replies to the wrong E-mails; in one case, someone sent me a reply attached to a rant directed at someone else.

9. Improper or missing subject line. In several of the list-serves I belong to, the thread of the discussion changes, sometimes several times, but the subject line never does. (I'm guilty of perpetrating this myself, at times.) A good subject line requires the writer to summarize the E-mail topic, something a lot of people still aren't good at, which accounts for this problem.

10. Affecting an artificial "style" for E-mails. This goes back to points 3 and 4. Many times, the people who write in all lowercase or use textspeak in E-mails write with proper English in their other writing. My own feeling is that I'm the same person whether I'm writing a book, an article, a song parody, a letter, or an E-mail; there's no reason for writing E-mails any differently than anything else.

(I've probably violated Point 6 here, but when I have something to say, I say it.)

posted August 23, 2008

1. Forgetting that an email is supposed to be the modern day form of a letter and making it look like a hastily written note!
2. No subject, no acknowledgement of the individual the email is directed towards.
3. No niceties to start off with before delving straight into favours/requests. 4. No pleases or thank you's. No ending it with a regards, sincerely or any one of those words.
5. emoticons, shortened forms of words that reflect laziness, the wrong "your/you're".
6. No paragraphs. Some emails look like the never-ending sentence!

posted August 23, 2008

Well, certainly adding to this is going to be difficult to pick out a new beef... but as I read, I was disturbed at some of the things said here.

1) I understand that many professionals time is a premium investment. When you receive a long e-mail from anyone, unless it is painfully filled with mistake after mistake, take yourself off your pedestal and read the communication: You might learn something, gain insight or even realize that the plebeian in cube number 4 who wrote it is probably more valued to your operation than the six-figure-paid golf stroker in the office in front of him or her.

2) If any person expresses themselves sincerely, then the farewell "thank you for your time" is quite respectful of someone who spends that premium time reading it. If it annoys anyone, than they have some self-appreciation issues that carry over into a lack of empathy for others who look at them as valued individuals. They are just words of appreciation, nothing more, nothing less.

3) "Leetspeak" and emoticons should stay in text messages and off e-mail, especially in any professional setting; we had a guy doing that constantly (the emoticons), even two or three times a sentence. I wished in the worst way that someone would have just canned him. Related: Sending e-mail from your phone via text message? Perhaps reconsider the message's importance and decide if you shouldn't wait to get to a traditional terminal.

4) Command of the language is very important. I have noticed many in important positions over the years, who if interviewed for their positions based on written communication alone, would never have warmed their seats for a day. Be clear and speak in common terms if you are able.

5) Jargon is good. What needs to be understood is that its use or overuse is going to be based on the relationship of the participants of the thread. If someone doesn't know something based on the lexicon of the product, either take responsibility to educate them and edify their ability to participate or determine whether they should even be involved in the thread or not.

6) This will be a last point for now; I know I am getting a wind in the sail. All e-mail is, truly, is another form of communication. If it is the method that makes the most sense, knock yourself out. I really get annoyed when its use becomes abuse with spam. However, I can delete spam... read on:

What I may not be able to differentiate is the unnecessary insertions into an important thread by individuals who feel it is their "job" to add their opinion when it adds nothing to the conversation. It only makes for a longer thread and more work when editing the compilation for a documented record.

With respect, thanks for your time.

posted August 23, 2008

I am generally far more forgiving of bad spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and even grammar in emails than in other forms of writing, because I understand that they are often quickly written for efficiency. Plus I don't want anyone to hold my own emails to too close examination!

But if you want to make a good impression, you should proofread your email a couple of times before sending it out. Especially look for spelling errors that spell check won't catch -- my pet peeves are your vs. you're and its vs. it's. If you don't know which to use, look up the rule and learn it!

My other pet peeves are excessive use of business school acronyms and text message style acronyms that turn the email into hieroglyphics that take ten times as long to interpret as they took to write. I think the hidden implication of this kind of message is "my time is more valuable than yours, so I'm making you do all the work in this communication." Here's an actual example:

"I hv not bn abl to reg yt, bt plan to go. Btw, wd u like to tm w me to do brn bg forum on grn blg?"

Believe it or not, that was the entire email, except for the name of the person it was addressed to and a single letter indicating who the email was from. Can you guess what the message is about? I made the mistake of trying, guessed wrong, and a fair amount of confusion ensued!

posted August 23, 2008

Excellent question, thanks!

1) Most important by far are the missing, too-short, garbled or nonsensical subject lines. This is where the email rubber meets the road, and if you want your recipient(s) to be able to use and save your communication you should invest some thought in how the reader will receive it. First impressions count for a lot.

2) Sloppy, incomplete, and/or porrly written message body. Again, you are trying to communicate something of importance (hopefully) so take the time to check what you've written.

3) Too-informal, too-chatty, or missing closing information. Many emails get chained into a discussion, and it becomes important to know who said what. Take the time to make a signature file with your full name and contact info, then use it.

Thanks again for posting this question, email usage should be required training for most business organizations.

Ev Larsen
Senior Technical Writer at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
Rouses Point, NY

posted August 23, 2008

Most important on my list Sending an email when you should pick up the phone or talk face-to-face. We're all busy, but the phone or a face-to-face can avoid a huge misunderstanding caused by a poorly thought out e-mail.

1. Subject lines that are too general
2. Unnecessary CC
3. E-mails longer than 250-300 words
4. BCC of any kind
5. Endless threads of emails in replies
6. Forwarding an email without reading the TO or CC list.
7. Calling to see if I received your email because I didn't respond in 30 seconds

Need more?

posted August 23, 2008

1. Lacks descriptive subject line.
2. No differentiation among direct primary addressees, cc's, bcc's. Sending to too many people. Put the person who needs to read and act on the message as the direct addressee. Cc only those who need to know, but from whom no action is expected. Bcc according to company policy but use sparingly and never embarrass the counterparty to the conversation.
3. Too long.
4. More than one subject per email.
5. Setting up expectation that "Thanks" types of emails should be sent - this is a cultural issue. Organizations should periodically remind staff that "thanks", "got it", "Did you get it" emails are not necessary.
6. Not realizing that a corporate email system belongs to the employer. The accounts and their contents should be used for work only, and employees should expect that their mail may be read by others in the company.
7. Related to 6 - Naming email accounts as personal accounts rather than position accounts. This is a judgement call but there are a number of generic positions in every company, and those should have "position" emails, e.g. "accountspayable @company.com". This prevents traffic from being lost when employees are absent, promoted, etc. It also looks professional.
8. Error to assume any email is ever confidential. Conversely, if you have a secretary or co-worker who routinely reads your email, all your correspondence should advise the other party of this. They may think they have a confidential conversation going, when they don't. It's the same etiquette as the speaker phone - always advise the person on the other end that this is not a private situation.

posted August 23, 2008

The worst characteristic is the complete lack of a subject line or a vague subject line; this causes unnecessary confusion and wastes time, as you have to open the e-mail each time you look at it, to be sure you're in the right e-mail, which is a pain when you have a line of e-mails to scroll through.

Another annoyance is when a business e-mail resembles a ransom note--with the entire text in wild colors (colors other than black, gray, or blue), in an unprofessional font.

The last business e-mail peeve is when such a missive has an overly long signature line, with a multi-line quote that's unrelated to the nature of the business or organization of the sendee.

posted August 25, 2008

Some studies have shown that reading text on a screen can reduce the clarity of the document by up to 20%. Computer culture has led to more people skimming text rather than reading it in full. This is a dangerous phenomenon when added to the pressures often created (often without purpose) in a hectic professional environment. I have suffered and been guilty of this, having seen recipients overlook essential content while I have missed a vital piece of information nestled in the depths of a paragraph. As emails are usually read on-screen it is important that they are brief and clear, and important information is highlighted so that it is not overlooked.

If you have a lot of information to pass on, it is preferable to write it as a separate document and attach it to the email, requesting that the recipients print out and read a hard copy. Though not friendly to the paperless office this will avoid such problems. As with other communication, it is also worth following up an email with a phone call to ensure understanding.

As much as the writer, it is imperative that recipients also treat the email with due diligence and respect. Executives in this fast-paced world need to create time to read communicate properly. It is a cop-out to quickly scan an email and fire off a response without proper thought, and over time it is more efficient to allocate time up front rathern than chase up problems due to a lack of diligence. If you're not the sort of person who would lightly brush off someone in conversation (and we would all hope that we wouldn't), you should not do it with other communcation.

Email is a communicating tool and can be very useful but it should be borne in mind that any lessons taken from other forms of communication - the value of brevity and clarity, attention to tone and manner - apply equally to electronic correspondence.

posted August 29, 2008

Textspeak. I realize your workshop is targeted at executives, but you wouldn't believe how many people don't use common sense when emailing: for example, writing to YOUR ENGLISH TEACHER with the subject line "u b in ur office 2moro?" I wish I were joking.

posted August 22, 2008

Capital letters and bold face used too much

posted August 22, 2008

General incoherence i.e. "What the hell are they are they saying"?

posted August 22, 2008

Normally e-mail users are advised not to use SMS language in their messages but I feel for executives and those in hurry is the best way to communicate. its fast and time saving . Everybody understands it these days. Why not change attitudes and introduce something new.
Regards.
-Anand Wagholikar

posted August 22, 2008

My biggest pet peeves with email are:
1) poor grammar, especially incorrect use of homophones such as "your" for "you're" and "its" in place of "it's". Mistakes like these will not be flagged by spellcheckers and undermine the writer's credibility, and
2) lack of contact information in the signature. I hate having to spend time scanning old messages or doing a web search to find someone's phone number.

posted August 22, 2008

1. Improper grammar
2. Misspelled words
3. To much rambling (get to the point!)
4. Text message lingo
5. Irrelevant/improper jargon

posted August 23, 2008

Susan

Can't emphasize enough that one must never, I repeat never, use SMS speak in an email. It is *so* insulting because it says: "I don't have time to give you."

Another is the salutation at the beginning of the email as well as at the end. There are times that "Hi" should not be used. Emailing an older person for example, or emailing an editor or publisher for whom one should show respect, or emailing to apply for a job.

As for the salutation at the end of the email. "Have a nice day" is a good one. Never, though, should one write, "Thank you for your time". Agents/editors say they hate it and I presume that so would anyone else.

Marilyn

posted August 23, 2008