My Email Voice

Sawu bona (Zulu greeting which literally means, “I see you”)

Often when someone tells me a story about an email that they received from someone, they apply their interpretation of the inflections of the email voice of the writer. This is most prevalent when emails are terse and when the content is in opposition of the reader’s opinion. If email is abrupt, it can be interpreted as curt or demanding or abrasive.

There are some key best practices to ensuring that email voices are respectful and dialogic:

Always include a greeting: “Hi (name)” or “Hello”. Ockerman’s non-scientific study in 2000 indicated that including the recipient’s name in the greeting reduced a negative reaction by a large percent.

Standard email etiquette: no ALL CAPS, good use of short paragraphs for easy reading, inclusion of bullets.

And always include a closing salutation: “Regards”, “Warm regards”, “Respectfully”.

Re-read your email before you send it and think about it from the perspective of your reader. As the writer, you have the responsibility to create and reinforce professional respect. My mother used to say that I could win more with honey than with vinegar!

An after note: with the many users of Blackberries, emails become even briefer, and contain more typos. Next week’s Calibration Point will look at Blackberry email unique etiquette.