Is email easy?

Nowadays there are a large number of information technologies, and every year there are more of them. They are studied, developed and come up with new ones. There are those about whom everyone knows, there are those that only experts understand. And there are also such technologies that we use every day, many times a day. Even the language does not turn to call them technology - they have become so familiar and have simply grown into our life, into our daily existence. I would like to talk about one such technology now.

Email. Probably there is no computer user who does not have a postal address. Why are there a computer! Email clients are well established on smartphones, tablets, and even televisions. Is email easy? Yes, it is simple. Anyone can write a letter, anyone can read, everyone has a mailbox, many have several. It's so simple that users no longer know how to write a letter correctly. And this is especially true of business correspondence.

I (like many of you, probably) have to conduct business correspondence by e-mail. I regret to note the low level of culture of using e-mail in the post-Soviet space. The level is often so low that it is impossible to name us as savages. I am not talking about the use of various technologies, this is a separate topic. We are talking about the rules of good tone, about etiquette, respect for those with whom you correspond.
')
Below I have listed common mistakes that are quite common. Many of these mistakes make you smile, sometimes they just cheer and often annoy your addressees. These errors are easy to correct and prevent in the future. And, probably, it is necessary to do this in order to have the appearance of a cultured and well-educated interlocutor, even if in an e-mail.

First name and Last name

Each letter must have a sender. The sender is a first and last name and a mailing address. All this data is configured in the mail profile. Many have only one profile set up and the name is indicated in Latin characters. I do not think that is correct. It is much better to make at least two profiles: for communication with Russian-speaking interlocutors (with the name written in Cyrillic) and for communication with foreigners (name in Latin).

But this is not the only miss in such a small field as the sender. According to the old Russian tradition, it is customary for us to indicate first the last name and then the first name All progressive humanity is doing the opposite. In the same way (on the contrary) email clients are also configured. So correctly enter the name first. After all, you do not want to be answered by your letter “Hello, Ivanov!”, And not “Hello, Ivan!”. In the same way, your interlocutor also politely asks you. So why make him do extra work and replace your name with the name when you answer? Is he thinking about you at such moments? His thoughts may become even darker if you specify your nickname instead of your name.

Do not forget about the signature

Each letter must end with a signature. Unfortunately, not everyone knows about it. And among those who know about the signature, not all make it up correctly. The signature must be configured in the profile. Feel free to tell the other party that you respect him, and repeat your name and surname again. This will greatly help if the correspondence is long and someone else connects to it later, for example. Not to mention the rules of good tone.

The phrase "Regards" and your first and last name is the minimum of what you need to specify in the sub-letter. If the correspondence is business, do not forget to specify the name of your organization, you can specify the position, so that the interlocutor knows with whom he communicates. You can add contact information to the signature, for example, a work phone (with a city code, even if you are from Moscow), a mobile phone, a website, etc. But try not to overload the signature with a large amount of information. Sometimes it happens that a letter is 90% composed of a signature. It should be avoided.

Answer the letter, answer all

As soon as we do not respond to letters. The worst mistake bordering on the neglect of the interlocutor - instead of answering to write a new letter, so even with a new title. Thus, you inform your interlocutor that you consider him to be an absolute loafer who has nothing to do, except to search your letters in the archive and try to guess which correspondence is going on now.

In order not to look in the eyes of the interlocutor boor, be sure to respond to the letter. Answer with a copy to all participants of the correspondence, do not remove anyone from the copy without the urgent need for it. After all, do not just addressees appear in copies? You want all interested correspondents to receive your answer, and the letter itself neatly grouped with other letters into a discussion, and then all the correspondence could be easily re-read?

Quote letter

Once upon a time, at the dawn of the Internet, traffic was very expensive. I suspect that since those times there are users who delete all quoting when answering a letter. Sometimes they do not remove the entire quote, but only a part of it. I do not think that there are many such users, but it seems that they pass on their knowledge to younger generations, teach them to delete quoting. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint, the modern Internet access allows not only to pump gigabytes of torrents, but also to send 1-2 kilobytes (even 100) of your emails. Do not delete the quotation, it can help refresh the correspondence. Do not you think that your interlocutor communicates by mail only with you? Otherwise, he will not be of a better opinion about you.

Specify the title of the letter

If you want your letter to be read in a timely manner, and not later revealed in the “spammer”, then specify the title of the letter. If you want your letter to be properly understood and later found in the incoming mail, then specify the correct header, which reflects the essence and subject of the letter.

Use work mailing address

In a business correspondence, use a working mailing address. It is clear that the heavy legacy of the Soviet period still does not allow all organizations to have corporate mail. And sometimes your pathological employment does not allow you to set up work mail on your home computer. There are, of course, more compelling reasons that prevent the use of a work address. But none of these reasons can be an excuse when business correspondence uses addresses like killer666, zai4onok and fuck_off. It is not difficult to imagine how seriously your partners will treat you. There is a fairly large number of free mail services, many providers provide a mailbox. In the end, the box can even be paid for (what a blasphemy!).

Write a letter, and do not forward documents

It is often necessary to send a document in a letter. And e-mail for this is quite suitable. But do not try to lead all correspondence to this form. No need to write a letter in a word processor (for example, Word) and silently attach it to an empty letter. It looks at least strange. If you send a report or other document in this way, then do not be lazy to write what is contained in the attachment.

Forward archives

If you want to send a lot of files, it is best to pack them into one archive before sending. The same goes for large documents. Often, compression can reduce the size of the letter by 2-3 times. If you also want your attachment to be viewed, then use the well-known archiver, which everyone should have. This is currently a ZIP. A zipped archive will probably open in any system. Practically the same can be said about RAR, only in relation to Russia. Do not use ultranovyh archivers that "compress 10% stronger." Otherwise, you risk getting back what you can’t unpack yourself.

Compression compression, but try not to send large attachments. Especially several recipients at once. Especially if you do not want to block the recipient's mail server. Even a few megabytes can damage a weak server. If you doubt that the letter with the attachment will reach the addressee, then it is better to coordinate this issue with the recipient. Ultimately, files can be transferred via FTP or other means.

Use spell checker

It's clear that spelling errors are the last thing that is paying attention now. The general literacy rate is so low that you can safely write a letter without fear that a literate person will read it. Perhaps this is the problem of not using email. This is a common problem now. And one can only wonder how with such literacy (or rather, with its complete absence) one can graduate from a university. However, be that as it may, there are still such eccentrics who notice spelling errors and believe that it is necessary to write correctly, and not like it. Probably for them and came up with a spell check. Although I think that it needs to be set up by everyone.

Instead of an epilogue

I tried to talk about the most common mistakes in business correspondence via e-mail. In my experience, it is these errors that allow us to be considered uncultured Internet users. I have no doubt that there are many more mistakes, for sure there are those about which I do not even know, there are probably those that I myself commit day by day. So do not blame me for snobbery, just tell me what I'm wrong and I will try to fix it. Is e-mail easy?

PS: Do not think that I want to teach someone something. So, just thinking out loud . Suddenly, someone just does not know. And I have accumulated. :)