Email Etiquette Training

Email is increasingly being used and is gaining popularity as an effective tool for communication in the modern world. You can send and receive messages from anywhere in the world through email. The number of email users in the United States is extremely high. More than ninety percent of Internet users in the United States use email for personal purposes and workplace communication. Workplace ethics say that emails should be written in an eloquent way and that it is an art in itself. The use of email for business communication makes it necessary for an individual to undergo proper training for its use.

Email Etiquette Training Programs

There are many online and offline email etiquette training programs available today. You need not necessarily undergo a classroom training to learn the proper etiquette of email. Here are some useful pointers.

• Email Introduction - This acquaints you with the basic concept of email, its applications, importance of email in day-to-day life and how it works.
• Security Concerns of Email - Although emails are widely used and prove to be a handy tool for communication, there are some security concerns about it. This includes handling spam emails, information on email viruses and preventing transfer of information to some other unidentified address.
• Components of Email - This includes the structure of an email and its various components.
• Writing Skills - This is the most important part of the training program, as it imparts training on honing your writing skills, refreshing the grammar rules and the use of correct punctuations. It also teaches you the skill of writing emails in a professional way and avoiding any emotional overtones while writing it.
• Organization of Email Accounts - Many times, email accounts are arranged in a haphazard way. Lack of knowledge of proper organization of email accounts might lead the priority mails to go somewhere at the bottom and the not-so-important mails to come at the top. This could result in miscommunication as one may overlook the important mails. So to avoid it, organizing your email account is important. Arrange your mails in order of priority. The unwanted mails will get deleted in this process due to the email box capacity or for security reasons.
• Legal Issues Concerning Email - There have been many email scams in the past. Due to the growing misuse of emails, cyber laws have become strict and noncompliance to these laws could result in legal action. Therefore you have to follow the email policies set by your organization. The training program concludes with chapters on copyright issues, liabilities and email policies governing the usage of email.

Email Rules

• Mannerisms - Make sure that along with being polite, you make use of words such as 'Please' and 'Thank You' wherever necessary. The use of such words help in maintaining a good professional relation with your clients and the ones you are corresponding with, through emails.
• Precise and Concise - Professional emails do not demand long informal messages. So keep it short and simple.
• Professionalism - Avoid using emoticons and smileys when you are writing business emails. Rather make sure that the language sounds professional, with grammatically correct sentences, spellings and punctuations. Abusive words are a complete no-no! Also see that you avoid the use of abbreviations in your content unless necessary.
• Think before Sending - The proverb 'look before you leap' should be remembered here ('look' before your email 'leaps' to the recipient's inbox!). Check the content thoroughly, the attachments and the recipient's address before sending the email. Anything incorrect could be embarrassing and totally unprofessional.

From the above discussion, we have learned that email etiquette training is very important for people who often communicate through emails. I will sum up by saying that a brief training session is a must for effective communication and for maintaining good business relations.