How Not to Stick Your Foot in Your Mouth via E-Mail

E-mail is the most common form of business communication today; it’s among the most common forms of all communication. Yet many people communicate poorly with e-mail.

That’s the opinion of Janis Fisher Chan, and I agree. Chan is the co-founder of Write It Well (http://www.writeitwell.com), a publishing and training firm operating out of Oakland, Calif., that, since 1980, specializes in helping businesspeople write clearly and concisely in e-mail and elsewhere. She also authored the newly published book E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide, as well as eight other books on business writing and additional topics.

I talked with Chan about why we write poorly in e-mail, what consequences this can have, and how we can improve.

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9 Tips To Help You Write More Powerful Emails

By Suzan St Maur

1. Make the effort to learn about the etiquette (these days known as "netiquette") involved in writing emails. There are loads of good reference websites and books about the internet which will tell you the basics. I know it might seem a bit precious to attach so much importance to social niceties when the internet is basically very informal. However, whether we like it or not many people do take online etiquette very seriously. So if you're writing emails for business, you should assume that your recipient may well be one of those...

read on ...

Are you kidding me? This is serious!

Or, what psychologists have to say about writing e-mail An old college friend and accomplished writer, John Scalzi, recently posted a list of writing tips for non-professionals, which I'd highly recommend for professionals and non-professionals alike. One of his most unusual suggestions is to "speak what you write" -- literally, to read your writing out loud before publishing, whether in a blog post or just an e-mail to friends. This, he argues, will not only help catch spelling and other errors (each of which Scalzi says decreases the writer's apparent IQ by 5 to 10 points), but also help you see whether you're conveying the meaning you intend. So what does psychology research have to say about this notion? (No, not that typos decrease your IQ, but the larger idea that reading your words out loud will help you determine if your meaning is clear.) more ...

What are the biggest email mistakes?

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Have you done the fingers on eyelids test?

9 Tips To Help You Write More Powerful Emails

By Suzan St Maur 1. Make the effort to learn about the etiquette (these days known as "netiquette") involved in writing emails. There are loads of good reference websites and books about the internet which will tell you the basics. I know it might seem a bit precious to attach so much importance to social niceties when the internet is basically very informal. However, whether we like it or not many people do take online etiquette very seriously. So if you're writing emails for business, you should assume that your recipient may well be one of those... read on ...

Subject Lines: 15 Rules to Write Them Right

Fifty characters could be all that stands between you and success in your next email campaign. Fifty characters is all the space you have in a typical subject line to catch your reader's eye and entice him to open your email and take the action you want. How could something so small make or break an email's success? Because many recipients use the subject line to decide whether to open or delete an email. Subject lines are tricky devils, however. A good one can get your email opened in a flash, while a bad one could spell oblivion in the trash or junk file. Because so much is riding on your subject line, we came up with 15 rules for crafting a good one. Be sure to review them before you send your next email campaign. Read on ...