Email Essentials

Check out my seven deadly sins of email writing and count up how many apply to you.

This is a common question in all my email and business writing workshops. It always leads to a discussion about the difference between writing in academic settings, and the writing we do now in the world of work.

It's another day at work and you are busy going through your inbox. You open yet another email that looks like a chaotic, muddled-up mess. It looks so bad, you let out a sigh.

It seems that when we get to work, one of the first things we do is check our email. This seems an essential step in setting our pace for the rest of the day. However, even though email has become an integral part of most people's world, email messages can often be misinterpreted. Why is this?

Since my recent articles, the conversations about writing style are still continuing, and that’s a good thing. It means people are really thinking about the way you are writing emails and other business documents.

Respond to a message as soon as you receive it.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to stop wasting the reader’s time. So here are five habits you need to stop right now. Why? Because they make you look lazy and unprofessional.

The most important first step to managing your email is to change your mindset. Rather than seeing it as a necessary evil that's inevitably going to harm your productivity each day, treat email as a powerful communication tool that can improve your productivity.

Email is fast becoming one of our most essential and pervasive forms of professional communication. How we communicate with people electronically matters. Each word of your email is your representative in a space where you have no voice and are rarely allowed a chance to change a bad first impression.

Email doesn't only come to our desks. Many of us now carry email around with us on our mobile phones. This often results in being on call 24 hours a day, every day, even on weekends. Apart from never being free from the demands of work, this also leads to many more challenges.