Subject: E-communication breakdown
shows where people need to be careful in treating email as their sole communication method. We list 5 main problem areas with email:
- email overload and assuming that people will read your message
- email favours the good writers not necessarily the good thinkers
- email allows you to lose your inhibitions and act irrationally
- email trails can be forwarded to and seen by the wrong people
- emails can leave the status of crucial decision-making ambiguous
Can you think of any others?
I think this is a great summary of the benefits and pitfalls of using email for communication and particularly support the issue raised over the lack of body language available. I've made the mistake of assuming I'd been clear in an email, only to find people had missed my (extremely pertinent) point!
One further tip I've found helpful is to make good use of subject line of an email - make sure it reflects the content of your message and includes a call to action if one is required - for example: Fundraising Strategy [response by 5 March please].
Good stuff though.
Linden
Yes! Subject lines are crucial - not just to give people warning about what they're about to read, but so that you can search through old emails more effectively.
I guess also some of the same rules for writing good web content apply to writing effective emails. I try to keep sentences short, chunk up information into easily digestible mini paragraphs, use bullets where appropriate, sub headers to introduce new issues if it's a lengthy email. I tend to use bold for keywords or calls to action and bold/underline if I mention someone's name and am addressing them specifically.
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