Email Ettiquette for Professionals

1. Email Etiquette
Javid Hamdard
Chief Operating Officer

2. Introduction
• Please Remember! your electronic/printed words are your
words and represent you and your personality the same way
as if you are representing yourself in-person. Every e-mail you
send adds to, or detracts from your reputation
• The only difference is that your electronic/printed words can
easily be misinterpreted and you may not have the
opportunity to correct/justify/explain yourself to your
reader/s.
• Therefore it is Very-Important that we know and practice
some of the following basic electronic/email correspondence
etiquette because it is as important as developing other
aspects of our professional personality!
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3. Subject
• As one of the most important elements of an email, please
understand that the Subject line in your email is the first
aspect of your email that your recipients will see and read.
Therefore, it is very important to first have a Subject line and
make sure it is Meaningful, Relevant, Concise and Catchy.
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4. Professional Email Address
• If available, always use your official/company email address
for all your professional/official electronic correspondences;
when available never use your personal email address for
official communication, it looks very unprofessional !
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5. You, Who, Whom
• Please make sure you know the difference between To, CC, and BCC
and make sure you put the right person/s at the right sections:
• To: in the “To” Only put the contacts of the person/s in the “To”
section whom your email and it’s contents address directly.
• CC: in the “CC” (Carbon Copy) put the contacts of the person/s that
you do not expect to respond/reply to the email but need to be
informed and in the loop.
• BCC: “BCC” (Blind Carbon Copy) is usually used in group-emails,
where you do not want to reveal the recipients of an email and
don’t want a responder to spam the entire group. Use “BCC”
carefully in other contexts as it can be considered Unprincipled in
some occasions.
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6. You, Who, Whom
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7. Reply-All, Really?
• Please make sure you understand the difference and think
Twice before clicking the Reply-All button. When it comes to
Emailing Etiquettes, there is nothing more frustrating and
unprofessional than spamming a group of people with
irrelevant email messages that were supposed to be
addressed to single recipient!
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8. Reply-All, Really?
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9. Greetings
• Always make sure to start your email by greeting your recipient/s. Please use
professional and respectful greetings such as:
• Dear, Greetings, Hi, or Hello, Sir, Ma’am, followed by the recipient/s’ First or preferably Last-Name,
Ladies or Gentlemen respectively and as per your relationship with the recipients, such as:
• Dear Mr. Ahmad, Greetings Ms. Ahamd, Hello Mr. Ahmad, Hello Ladies and Gentlemen.
• Wishing good times such as: Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening or Good Night before
or after your initial salutation is considered a friendly ice-breaker and polite, such as:
• ‘Good morning Mr. Ahmad’, ‘Dear Mr. Ahmad, Good morning’
• Regardless of what your relationship might be with the recipients ! as a recorded medium of
communication, avoid using lay information greetings in your formal emails, such as:
• Hey, Yo, Bro, Buddy, Buddy Gak, Jan, Janem etc !
• Avoid using third language greetings if you are writing your emails in English, it could be confusing
and misinterpreted by the your recipients, especially non-English speaking recipients, for instance:
• Sob Ba Khair, Salaam, Chitori, Khob Asti, Dega Che Gapa.
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10. Keep it Short and Simple
• Well, it is pretty self-explanatory – Keep it Short and Simple !
• Don't write a book! Just as emails are sent quickly, they're
skimmed through just as fast.
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11. Spelling and Grammar
• While enabling the auto spelling and grammar check in your
email application/client, please make sure that you always do
a final and through spelling and grammar check of your email
messages before hitting the ‘Send’ button.
• The best idea is to always thoroughly read your emails before
sending them, this will not only give you a chance to review
your spelling and grammar but also the general structure,
working and coherence of your emails.
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12. Spelling and Grammar
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13. Punctuation Saves Lives !
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• Punctuation is really important and if not used and/or
misused it can change the whole meaning and purpose of
your sentences and therefore intentions, plus bad and/or lack
of punctuation sends a very bad impression about your
professional/business writing skills.
• Avoid using special characters (e.g. exclamation marks etc),
abbreviations (e.g. LOL, OMG) and visual Emojis. Also restrain
from using special fonts, coloring and especially writing in
Caps unless absolutely necessary and in a special context
where you are sure how and why to use them !

14. Punctuation Saves Lives !
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15. Size Matters !
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• Always be mindful of your email size by being considerate of your
email attachments, the usual attachment size for normal emails
should not exceed a couple hundred Kilobytes, especially if you are
attaching standard Office suite documents.
• While some organizations including military organizations (e.g.
NATO, ISAF, US-ARMY), UN, USAID, and more have email filters by
Size and some other criteria (e.g. keywords, explicit material etc).
Most of these organization block and bounce email messages
bigger than 5mb !
• While making sure your official/professional emails contain only
official attachments (nobody likes official emails containing
personal attachments like photographs, videos etc) when trying to
send attachments bigger than the standard size, it is always a good
idea to confirm with your recipients that you are planning to send
them oversized attachments and if they are able to receive them !

16. Size Matters !
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17. Timely Response
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• As a professional you need to provide on-time feedback, responses,
information and confirmation to your clients/customers -
whomever they might be- ; Email is just another medium for doing
so, therefore it is very important that you allocate regular planned
intervals for checking, reviewing, coordinating and responding to
your emails in a timely fashion (occasionally the tendency among
some professionals is that they think Email/electronic
communication/correspondence is secondary, That is an incorrect
assumption !
• If in special cases you know that it will take you a while to respond
to emails, at least let the senders/recipients know that you have
received their email and that you need more time to respond.

18. Timely Response
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19. Closing Salutation
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• Always end your formal/official emails with a polite, professional
and friendly closing remarks ,like a formal business letter, which is a
reconfirmation of your professionalism and emailing etiquette and
help your emails not look demanding and terse, some good
examples are:
• “Best Regards”,
• “Regards”,
• “Best Wishes”,
• “Sincerely”,
• “Thank You”,
• “Respectfully”,

20. Closing Salutation
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21. Signature
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• Always use a standard professional email signature in your
formal/official emails. Please make sure your email signature
is according to the updated accepted email signature format
(if not sure, contact the HR department and/or your
supervisors/line-managers).
• The following is a standard NETLINKS email signature format
that should be used by all employees filled with their personal
information:

22. Signature (Continued)
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Name
-----
Full-Name
Designation
A: Shar-e-Naw, Street # 4, Lane # 3 (Phase A), House # 128, Kabul, Afghanistan.
E: example@netlinks.af | W: www.netlinks.af
Mobile : +93 (0)XXX XXXXXX | Office : +93 (0)XXX XXXXXX
Skype: Example | LinkedIn: af.linkedin.com/pub/example
-----
Confidentiality Disclaimer
(Please contact the HR department and/or your supervisors for the text in this section)
-----

23. And…
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• Never prefer and/or use emails as an excuse to avoid personal contact (Remember personal contact makes
us Human!).
• Be aware of cultural differences and sensitivities, especially if you are emailing people from other
cultures/countries.
• Remember that Emails are not always the most private medium of communication, therefore maintain
privacy and be careful about sharing private and/or confidential company info by emails especially to large
mailing groups.
• Restrain from Abruption, Anger and getting emotional on email; it is always a good idea to sleep on an
Abrupt, Angry and Emotional email.
• It is always a good idea to use a polite and professional language in all your emails (even personal) for the
sake of keeping a good written record (be warned that emails as a written legal evidence can be used
against you and can put you in trouble
• Avoid your emails being mistaken for Spam by refraining from using all CAPS, all lower-case, URLs/Links
and/or generic keywords (Great Deal, Good News, Contact Us etc).
• Do-Not forward emails with a confidential and/or private note unless you are allowed to do so !

24. Some Writing Resources
• IT Integration Project
• http://www4.caes.hku.hk/writingmachine/
• University of Sydney
• http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au/index.htm
• Purdue University
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
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25. Thank You
Questions/ Comments
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