by Mark Dykeman

Created on: June 24, 2007   Last Updated: February 24, 2010

E-Mail is one of the most powerful business communication tools in the world, but with great power comes great responsibility.  Millions of E-Mails are exchanged within company networks every day. Many E-Mails, if not most, are poorly written, confusing, and serve no useful purpose. There can be a trade-off between the speed of communication and the quality of the written message, but done properly, good E-Mails are extremely valuable tools. Here is a set of etiquette standards that will help you send more effective E-Mails as internal business communication:

1. Clearly define the purpose of your E-Mail, including any desired actions for the recipient to do. If you want someone to make a decision, or support your action plan, make sure you tell them at the beginning of the message and ask for a response or confirmation.

2. Organize your message with an outline before writing and stick to the outline. Too many E-Mails wander from subject to subject for no apparent reason. If your message is too confusing, people may ignore it or misinterpret it, causing unintended consequences.

3. Make your message simple, clear, and appropriate to your audience. Write using simple, but complete sentences. Omit unnecessary words or descriptions. Also, write with your audience in mind. A company vice-president may not want to know about the details within your message, but they will want to understand the underlying logic of the message. People in different levels in the organizational hierarchy, by contrast, may need to see the details.

4. Have something meaningful to say if you are replying to someone else's E-Mail.  Don't just agree with or repeat what somewhat else has written: this only wastes space on your company's E-Mail servers.  Add something constructive to the conversation, whether it's agreement or disagreement.

5. Be civil - don't commit personal attacks in your E-Mail. In addition to being poor etiquette, it's unfair and it will alienate you from your colleagues.

6. Don't put unnecessary personal information in your E-Mail. You shouldn't assume that co-workers want to know about your personal problems or your daily activities.

7. Use humor with care:  we don't all share the same sense of humor. This is particularly important when communicating with people from different cultures and in general when contacting people that you don't know well.

8. Never write something in an E-Mail that you wouldn't want to see used as evidence in court. It can

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