Cut and Keep - 18
I GET, on the average, around 650 emails a week in response to the several articles and syndicated columns that are published on several days across the country and abroad. While there are some that are well written and well formatted, the sad though overwhelming majority show an alarming lack of care when it comes to the several politenesses that are expected in the conduct of an email correspondence. I am sure that the majority of those that write in this appalling manner do so more out of carelessness than from callousness, and no ill will is meant or intended. Unfortunately, technology has claimed another victim and that is the etiquette of communication. As it happens, there are several people like me who have taken umbrage at the blatant misuse of language and polite convention, that businesses across the globe have finally agreed on an acceptable guideline for polite and polished online communication.
Companies all over the world spend several hundreds of millions in their currency, training their employees in the finer nuances of polite email etiquette, but what about the countless millions who graduate from colleges all over the world who do not have the benefit of similar instruction? It is for this large and singularly inept majority that I write this in the hope that they make use of the inputs and allow success to come to them rather than find their online applications rejected out of hand simply because they did not bother to follow established etiquette.
Never send in your CV or résumé to somebody without a covering mail saying what it is and why you are sending it to the recipient. No one who is busy bothers to look at an attachment that has no covering or explanatory note couched in acceptable language
Your mail system always has a subject line. Please take the trouble of filling it in as indicatively as possible, since a blank subject line is an invitation for a finger to hit the {lt}Delete{gt} key
If you are applying for a job please send it only to the intended recipient and not to several recipients at the same time. If you do cram in as many names as possible, be certain that none of the recipients will bother to take a look - for one thing people do not like to have their email addresses displayed to total strangers
An email is not an SMS service and should not include `chat' jargon or abbreviations. Please expand everything and do not succumb to the temptation of saying things like {lt}plz{gt} for `please' and {lt}ur{gt} for `your'. Remember that there is nothing like `plz' and Ur is a city in ancient Mesopotamia. Save all these for when you chat with your friends
Never start your mail with an informal greeting like `Hi!' For one thing you have no idea whom you are writing to and were you to meet him (or her) you might discover that he (or she) is old enough to be your grandparent or is so senior that he can instruct his HR department to summarily reject any application received from you anytime now or in the future
Avoid using all lower case or all upper case sentences. The former indicates that you are plain lazy while the latter indicates that you are rudely `shouting'. Write as you would a formal letter. Do not ever take the liberty of addressing the recipient by his or her first name even if the name is part of the email address. If you must use a name then use the surname only with the appropriate honorific and title. You do not have the liberty of using a person's first name till he or she gives you the permission to do so
Try and stay with the conventional punctuation that is expected in formal letters. Exclamation marks, ampersands, emoticons and other electronic diacritics should be avoided at all cost unless, that is, the formal relationship develops into a personal one
When you receive a response from someone to whom you have written, open it at once and reply promptly. If you check you mail once a day and see the mail only a day or several days after it is sent, write back at once and explain your tardiness. Also make sure your mailbox is not so full that responses are bounced back to the sender. If for any reason you cannot check your mail every day, say when you will check it when you first write. If you are out of station and do not have access to your mail program, have an automated message alert the sender of the event and mention when you will be back to check the mail. Email is virtually instant so if you treat it like surface mail you will be the one at a disadvantage
The language you use should be professional, polite and in Standard English. Check for grammatical mistakes and construction confusions. Endearments are out and flippancy is fatal. Avoid them
Take care to see that you are not offending the recipient in any way. After all you are the one that is asking for a favour, and if put the recipient off in any way, there is no reason why he should help you. He is not there to provide a service and even if he is, unless you are paying for it, you have no right to expect any help or information or anything if you do not come in as a supplicant rather than Shylock demanding his pound of flesh Being considered with consideration can only happen if you are polite and observe the common decencies of behaviour. Remember that {lt}delete{gt} is only a stab away!
AA
Abhimanyu@india.com
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