Email Etiquette Training

Email is increasingly being used and is gaining popularity as an effective tool of communication in the modern world. You can send and receive messages with lightning speed 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 email constitutes a major part of workplace communication. Workplace ethics says that emails should be written in an eloquent manner and that it is an art in itself. I have seen very few people who can write emails in a professional manner and convey the message to the point. The use of email for business communication makes it necessary for an individual to undergo a proper email etiquette training and have an understanding of the email etiquette rules.

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. You can go through an email etiquette training program that deals with many aspects of emails.

• 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 pertaining to it. This includes handling spam mails, information on email viruses and preventing transfer of information to some other unidentified address.
• Components of Email - This includes the actual structure of an email and the various components that constitute it.
• 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 application of punctuations in the content. It also teaches you the skill of writing emails in a professional manner and avoiding any emotional overtones while writing it.
• Organization of Email Accounts - Many times, email accounts are arranged in a haphazard manner. Lack of knowledge of proper organization of email accounts might lead priority mails to go somewhere at the bottom end and the not-so-important mails to come at the top. Such instances could result in miscommunication as important mails get overlooked. So to avoid it, organizing your emails becomes important. Arrange them in a proper order, with the priority ones placed in top of the order and the least important going down. The unwanted ones would get deleted in this process due to limitations of the email box capacity and 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 non-adherence to these laws could result in legal action on the sender. You therefore are supposed to follow email policies set by your organization. The email etiquette training program concludes with chapters on copyright issues, liability and email policies governing the usage of email.

Email Etiquette 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 helps in maintaining good professional relations with your clients and the ones you are corresponding with, through emails.
• Precise and Concise - Professional emails do not demand long informal messages. You need to understand the importance of your as well as your recipient's time. So, keep it short and sweet and convey your point through short sentences.
• Professionalism - You can add many emotional words with a lot of exclamations, smileys, etc. when you are emailing for personal reasons. But not with business emails. Here you have to ensure that your grammar is right, spellings are correct, the content is relevant and most importantly, the language sounds professional and not casual. 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 over 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 result in problems to both the parties.

From the above discussion, we have learned that email etiquette training is very much important for people who are frequently going to deal with emails in the future. I will sum up by saying that a brief session on email etiquette training is a must for effective communication and for maintaining good business relations.