Emails, being bereft of many important aspects of communication, can pave the way to plenty of misunderstandings. As such, it’s important to treat this form of electronic correspondence with utmost care to avoid coming across in a less-than-desirable manner.
Believe it or not, there are ways to fashion your emails so that they sound friendly and personable, all of which you can start applying right now.
Your Tone. In person or even on the phone, people’s voice tone can sub-communicate plenty of things that lie beneath the surface of the words being uttered. Profanity that’s spoken in an upbeat tone, for instance, can be taken as a joke or a friendly ribbing. Unfortunately, the same thing doesn’t hold as true on email, where different readers can interpret the same words in dozens of ways, not all of them positively. As such, watch the tone of your words and make sure it doesn’t open itself up to misinterpretation.
Avoid Outbursts. Stay away from using aggressive-sounding outbursts (especially ones punctuated with exclamations), as they can be easily construed in a negative manner. Catch a reader in the wrong frame of mind and they may end up thinking the worst imaginable scenario.
Keep It Light. Discussing heavy subjects on email often gets very difficult. If approaching a touchy or sensitive issue, it’s usually best to just call.
Review Everything. Make sure to review the email before you send it in. If you’re prone to making English mistakes, use a good grammar software to guarantee your text doesn’t include errors that can lend the email a very different meaning than you intend.
