Saturday, May 2, 2009
Week 5, Chapter 5: Email and memorandums
Read this article about tips for writing email in the workplace: http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_tips.htm The author provides seven tips. Describe an email you have received that broke one or more of this tips. Be specific. Explain what the email said, which tip(s) it violated, and suggest how it could be improved.
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I have seen every one of those rules broken, but the one that causes the most problems is having the right tone. It is difficult to write in the correct tone and easy to misinterpret the writers meaning. At our office there have been numerous messages sent which give the feeling that the writer is angry. The message is strongly worded with a negative tone. People who interpret a negative tone become negative as well and escalate the problem. To avoid this, I've learned to proof read everything I send. I will have another person proof any especially long messages before I send them. Also, don't write if you are feeling strong emotions. Business requires logic and thought, emotions need to be carefully used. Wait and think about what to say and at all times, even if you are angry, keep a positive tone.
As my emails at work really only consist vendor invoices and statements, I will use an example from one my my son's teachers while we conversed about his grades in school.
With some concern about one of my son's classes, I chose to use the online family access to communicate via email with this teacher. The tone this teacher chose to use with me was far from what I felt to be acceptable. This teacher was very unprofessional and disrespectful, continually putting the blame on everyoneelse. I feel that any teacher's tone should be much more concerning while giving the parent the impression that he/she is there to help resolve these types of situations as they arise.
The rule I have seen broken most recently is tone. The reason why this one stands out most to me is because the wrong tone can be really offensive. The email I received was to a large group of people that had a negative tone and ended up making quite a few people angry. The person writing the email had a important message to pass along but did it in a negative way. The most negative part was in the very last paragraph, which was what the recipients of the email remembered the most. This issue could have been avoided by knowing the audience a little better and easing into the main point of the message. Using the indirect strategy would have worked well. The sender needed to calm down and gather his thoughts before sending the email. Frank also summed up this rule very well.
Recently in the e-mails I have been sent have had a problem with tone. Most of the time the reason for the e-mail is serious but comes out in a humerous tone. This mistake I believe is made the most in e-mails.
Recently I have seen just about all of these email rules broken. I recently recieved a email from a student here at Globe. She told wanted to buy my books from me and I think she broke just about every rule. One of the biggest problems was the tone and how she worded everything. The only reason that I could understand the sarcasim was becouse I knew her. I know if any one else would have read this email they would not have understood what she was talking about. I also realize that their is differnt ways you email friends and the way you email at the work place.
I get a lot of e-mails that have lots of mistakes in spelling and grammar. I get a lot of e-mails from my friends that are full of spelling errors. I think that in a lot of cases, people just want to send the messages as quickly as they can without looking at the details and the grammar in them. Some of the e-mails that sent to me are in bold letters indicating that the tone of the message is loud and urgent. If more proofreading were done in the e-mails that have been sent to me, the messages would be sent with the proper tone and have limited spelling errors.
I remember writing to Charter Communications about not being able to hook up my internet. The person who replied to my e-mail, only gave me four steps to follow. It did seem easy to follow but it did not work since I did not know which cord they were talking about. They had explained in the e-mail also that they were going to send an attachment to me, but I could not open it because I did not have the correct program. Therefore, I eventually had to call Charter Communications and have them come hook it up for me, and when they were finished hooking it up, they decided to show me which cord was which and also showed me how to hook up the internet if I had the same problem again.
You should inform people before sending attachments. I received an insights e-mail that provided my profile as an attachment. No one informed me that an attachment would be sent. I didn't mind but my computer virus protection did. The attachment was blocked; therefore, I couldn't view my profile. I didn't need to view it because I received it in class, but it works for an example.
One email that comes to mind is one that was recently sent to me about our family reunion comming up this summer. The email regarded the types of t-shirts we wanted to wear for the reunion. Although, this email was just a reminder telling me who wanted what shirts, there still was no real beginning, body, or ending. All it seemed like was a part of an unfinished email they sent before.
If the writing that you're doing is informal, then most of those rules don't apply, but I sometimes wish they did. Those rules really clean up an email and make it easier to communicate. Most of the time why people don't follow those general rules, it's because they don't pay attention. They don't have time or simply don't care, but if people put a little time or thought into what their doing they wouldn't have to worry about those kinds of mistakes.
Many of the emails that I received are full of spelling errors. Apparently, a lot of people just don’t take the time to click on spell check. They probably feel that if you are opening up that particular email, then you will just have to read it the way that it has been written. Once it is sent you can’t do anything about what or how you might have really meant it to sound. I’m sure that I have been guilty of this in the past. I know that since I have been going to Globe University though, I have been more aware of wanting to watch for errors and punctuation when writing emails. I try to be more carefully about how I am saying something to someone too. Even though I might be upset about something that I have to tell someone, I try now to let that tone come across to others who are going to be reading the email. That has not always been the case when I have received emails from other people though. Their tone is there, when you are reading it. You can feel the tension from the way that they have written, and structured their words.
The last e-mail I wrote broke several rules. It was long and rambling, not professional, and I’m sure the spelling and grammar was horrible.
the e-mail because the first did not go through. I did not take the time to think about what I wanted to say. I just started writing. I was writing a second e-mail because the first did not go through. The person I was sending it to was being very impatient and wanted right away. I did not feel I had time to stop and think about what I wanted to say. I am sure if I had the receiver would not have had so many questions later.
As for it not being professional I was not worried about that at because it was a very personal e-mail. There was no need for it to be professional. I do not have any to write professional e-mails where I work now.
And grammar and spelling was not a concern either. I was just trying to get it done so the person would stop stressing me about it. I had made a promise to send it and they were waiting. Again I just wanted it done. I did use the spell check on my e-mail, but I’m sure it was still not very good.
Taking more time and working off line would have helped a lot. I would not have had anyone proofread it, but I’m sure that would have helped also.
At my last job we used email many times a day. During that time I would say that at least everyone of those rules were broke. Whether it was an email from a coworker to a coworker or a supervisor to a worker, there was always at least one rule broken. For example, I remember getting an email from a coworker that was sent out to the whole building which contained many spelling mistakes and in thier attempt to add humor to the email it just sound awkward.
They should have used spell check, and should have just made thier point instead of trying to put emotion into thier email.
I don't send or receive e-mails except for school purposes. However, I do send and receive text messages all the time. I believe these are very close in nature, and find that spelling, grammar, and tone are the problem areas. Besides shortened and changed spelling for faster typing, more often than not the messages contain spelling and grammar errors. In regards to tone, problems can often occur with how the message is taken. Jokes can be taken seriously, important messages can be taken lightly, degrees of urgency can be misinterpreted, and so on. I think taking the few minutes to make sure you're relaying your message correctly is key to improving these frequent errors.
I don't get a lot of emails,unless it from someone at school.Once in awhile I will receive an email from someone trying to sell me something.
The other day, I received a email from some company asking me to take out a loan. In this email I noticed that (3) of the email rules were broken:
1.Addressing me by my first name when they haven't even met me.
2.The tone was very pushy and demanding.
3.The company did not ask if they could send an attachment.
I think if the company had been a more professional in their approach I might have at least though about the loan. They should have sent a letter in the mail first,to find out if I was even in the need of a loan.Also they could have sounded more giving then demanding,and lastly I don't like someone addressing me by first when have never met. So to me their email was very unprofessional and not very effective.
I sent an email to my cousin asking about how he is doing in college. I wasn’t concise with the email because I was rambling on about how he should study and concentrate on school. I didn’t ask how he was doing until the end of the email. I also didn’t use correct grammar and spelling. I was in a hurry to get through all my emails so I quickly typed out the email and sent it to him without proofreading. Another mistake was that the first thing I did was fill in the “TO” Email Address. The email could have been improved if I were to take my time and put more care into proofreading it. I should have also asked him how he was doing in college first, before putting in my thoughts. A mistake I’ll never make again for sure is to fill in the “TO” Email Address first.
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