As the dependence on written letters has diminished and as the graph of the e-mail usage was heading straight towards the skies, people still seem to be ignoring some basic rules that might make their mail much perfect and formal as a written one. Some factors that might portray our mail in an effective manner are as follows…

Never forget the subject:

People often write a huge emotional mail, but forget to mention the subject for it. Even though our mail services warn us of adding a subject before sending the mail, we hurry to click the ‘send’ button ignoring the caution. People in high profiles often get numerous mails in their inbox; they might not have enough time and patience to go through each and every mail. A blank left in the space of subject might be left unattended.  A subject is important not just for the receiver but also for the sender. It would be confusing to look at a page of sent mails without any subject written over them. They would serve as the key words for the mail sent by us.  A subject in fact is the face of our mail, so never miss it!

The Language:

A mail can be electronic, but still can be polite while we are formal and poetic while being informal. Drafting a mail is in fact nothing less than an art. Even a legal notice can be written in the most polite manner.  And don’t forget to spell check your mail by the end. Silly mistakes like ‘soul’ instead of ‘sole’ might prove disastrous.

Technicalities:

Be aware of the technical words and the menu options associated with the mail. For example the ‘CC’ in the mail means just a carbon copy and ‘BCC’ would mean a blind carbon copy. If you wish to send a mail to multiple addresses without letting them know that it’s a bulk message… you should use the BCC method for sending the mail.  Be accustomed about the utilities like font change, adding signature etc.

The spam:

People often ignore the spam mail. It might not be harmful to overlook the spam, but often some mails which are genuine might stuck up in it. So if you are a regular user, it’s better to open the spam folder once in a while and verify the contents. But never click a link or download a file in the spam mail, when you are not sure.

As a record:

A mail is not just a medium to send and receive letters. It is in fact a form of record for your communication. You may not have a computer or an external hard disk, but can certainly store huge data in your mail. The Gmail for instance provides 15 GB of data to be stored in formats such as mails and attachments. So never delete a record unless you are sure of its futility. And you can save data such as photos and e-books as mere drafts. In such a way you can access your data anyway and anytime. But be assured of having  a backup of the data in your mail, so that you may not face an adverse situation if something goes wrong with your mail account.

--Nirjara