Unquestionably, effective communication is a key ingredient to delivering a successful project. I could rant on and on about avoidable day-to-day issues which exist only because of miscommunication, under-communication or (gasp!) over-communication, but I will save this for another day. Instead, today’s lesson hones in on the primary vehicle for poor communication — email. I am not an expert on the subject, but I do send and receive my fair share of email. I would like to think if everyone adhered to the following guidelines, projects could be delivered with less “drama.”

Do Spell and Grammar Check

This may be my # 1 pet peeve because it is so easily remedied. Nearly all programs provide a spell/grammar checking option so simply enable it. You wouldn’t do a crossword puzzle in pen, would you? We all make mistakes so make sure that proper spelling, grammar and punctuation is used before sending your next message.

Do Read Your Message Before Sending

Spell and grammar checker will bail you out the majority of the time, but it’s still a good idea to proof read a message before it is sent out. It is amazing how easily the context of an email can change due to simple mistakes. (Have you ever accidentally written don’t instead of do? I haven’t. Oops. I mean, I have.) Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments. And don’t be afraid to have someone review your message before sending — especially if you are upset with the intended recipient. It’s okay to let an email “sit” for a while until you count to ten.

Do Not Use Abbreviations and Emoticons

In business emails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). This is generally not appropriate. The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley : ). If you are not sure whether your recipient knows what it means, it is better not to use it.

Do Not Leave Out the Message Thread

There is nothing more frustrating then receiving an email to which you can’t immediately determine the context and you are forced to dig through your inbox (or archives) to get up to speed. This is another “mistake” which is easily corrected. When you reply to an email, always include the complete thread.

Do Not Send Confidential Information

If you aren’t comfortable having an email forwarded to your entire company, don’t send it. Emails have a funny way of landing into the most unlikely person’s inbox at the most inopportune time. A word to the wise: be particularly careful with discriminating comments and jokes. It could cost you your job.

Do Not Attach Unnecessary Files

Compress attachments and only send attachments when they are productive. There’s nothing more infuriating than receiving a message from the System Administrator stating “Your mailbox is over its size limit” just because you’ve been forwarded dozens of 6MB FSDs which could have been replaced with the link to their location in source control.

Do Not Overuse the High Priority Option

If you overuse the high priority option, it will lose its function when you really need it. Moreover, even if a mail has high priority, your message will come across as slightly aggressive if you flag it as ‘high priority’. And we all know the story of the boy who cried wolf…

Do Not Overuse Reply to All

Only use Reply to All if you really need your message to be seen by each person who received the original message. Odds are you will never need to use this option again.

Do Not Request Delivery and Read Receipts

This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. In fact, it probably annoys them enough that when prompted to send the receipt they will simply cancel the function! If you want to know whether an email was received it is better to politely follow up with the recipient. (Will an article on follow up etiquette be coming soon?)

Do Not Recall a Message

Assume that your message has already been delivered and read. In that case, a recall request would look very silly, wouldn’t it? It is better just to send an email to say that you have made a mistake. This will look much more honest (and call less attention) than trying to recall a message.