English 420Y - Business Writing Online

Emailing has certainly become one of the largest means of communication in my life, both personal and professional. The reading from the text was extremely helpful to me. Most importantly the sections about the subject line, the greeting, and the signature. The hardest parts of an email for me have always been the subject and the greeting. Usually my subjects end up too vague and I never know how formal to make my greeting, although I usually play it safe and go more conservative rather than less. So I was relieved when I read that is the proper thing to do.

I think the CEO had good intentions but a very poor choice of delivery. E-mail is best used to share information and facts very quickly among one and other in a work place. It is not the best place to try to correct what you feel is a growing problem in your company. It is especially not a good idea to use such a harsh tone in your e-mal for many reasons. One as the CEO found out is that it leaves a firm trail that can be traced back to you. Another reason is that it is very hard to judge a persons tone and demeanor from an e-mail message.

Just a few weeks ago at my internship, a friend that works at the bank told me a funny story about accidentally sending an email. Sometimes during the week my friend and his coworkers joke around sending emails mocking everybody at work to make the day go faster. It kind of has turned into a routine, everybody at work always gets a laugh. My friend, called Luis, has this other friend called Lalo, which is also part of the funny emails. It turns out that Luis sent out a message to Lalo (with everybody else included in the email) just saying: Lalo is a homosexual.

My favorite of the Ten Habits of Successful Emailers is number 3, "Take some time to edit and revise your message before sending it". I rarely remember to do this and it can and probably will cause some negative results if I don't start revising my emails before I send them. I don't know if anyone else thinks like this but I feel since I'm just emailing a professor and not talking to them face to face I don't have to write in a certain manner.

When I was assistant manager, my boss had contact with one of the accountants in one of the most important supplier companies they had. They got along perfectly every time he came to Ecuador to visit. The problem started when he sent his first e-mail. My boss read it and he got really mad, it was a very rude and insulting e-mail. The second time a problem with work arose, he did the same thing and every time my boss would call him to ask what did he meant with those e-mails he would answer so nicely and explain everything in a polite way.

With email, text messaging, and instant messaging programs all gaining popularity in the last ten years, I have had my fair share of misunderstandings. For example, I have had friends email and IM me with long strings of letters that are supposed to stand for something. I have sat staring at the computer filled with acronyms ttyl, tmi, lmao, gtg, brb, a/s/l, lol, and even the classic such as AWGTHTGTTA (are we going to have to go through this again).

Emailing can be a very quick and easy way to contact people but can also lead to embarrassment if the writer is not careful. I personally have not sent out enough emails in formal situations where I would have had the opportunity to make a fool of myself. I have however, witnessed a huge mistake in an email. This email was sent to the entire club I was involved in by the president of the club. The email was suppose to have an attachment of the sign-up times for Spring fest and instead was an email from a vet school that had a ton of personal information.

I guess it was very well established by the chapter how important the content in the Email is, and still the people take it so lightly. Till now i didn't know how to address different people in a proper and appropriate manner myself. I think this chapter provided enough information which i can use in the future in writing effective Emails. The ' Boss's angry email' was a perfect example of how reckless the people can be when it comes to Emailing without realizing that the consequenses may be harsh.

I think that the “Ten Habits of Successful Emailers” is a great guideline for everyone. The first habit really stood out to me; I know that a prompt response can be a real problem in some of the classes I have taken. Advisors and professors are constantly asking students to check their email. A lot of times emails will be sent out last minute with important information and a prompt response is needed. I get frustrated when I have to work on a group project and it takes everyone a long time to respond.

I have one experience of making mistake in email. Taking one of my major classes, I had to attach my research report in the email which I was going to send to the professor. Since I didn't include an adeqate subject line, he regarded my email as a spam mail and discarded it. After a few weeks finding out I was the only one whose grade had not been posted yet, I had to send an email again to him to get mine graded. In this case, among the ten habits of successful emailers, including an informative subject line seemed to be missing.