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We receive and send emails daily. Do we need to follow special e-etiquette rules? Definitely, says Jack Schafer, a former FBI agent.
In cyberspace, it is just as useful to follow the rules as in face-to-face communication – although these rules themselves, of course, are different. “This will make your online experience more comfortable and safer for you and those around you, and increase your chances of making friends rather than making enemies.”1, emphasizes Jack Schafer, a former FBI agent whose job was to turn foreign agents and persuade criminals to confess guilt, and is now a University of Illinois professor and relationship manager. Here (with minor reductions) are the seven points that he proposes to pay attention to.
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1. Keep track of your style
Emails are somewhere between text messages and traditional emails in terms of formality. Obviously, e-mails to a potential employer or business partner should be formal, that is, written concisely and competently. E-mail correspondence should avoid text message abbreviations. Before sending an email, check for grammatical errors.
2. Choose the right treatment
Think carefully about what kind of address is acceptable to use in email correspondence. What is appropriate for communication between friends is completely inappropriate in a letter to a potential employer or the headmaster of your children’s school.
3. Write in lowercase
Do not write emails in CAPITAL LETTERS. This resembles a scream and can be regarded as unacceptable rudeness.
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4. Never email if you are angry or upset.
In this state, people are not able to think logically. Temporary insanity is very clearly reflected in the text of the message. If, nevertheless, for some reason you need to write, do not send the letter immediately, but postpone it for several hours. After you calm down and come to your senses, reread it again and consider whether it is worth sending it. If it is really necessary, make the required corrections to it. By sending a letter written in a temper, you run the risk of aggravating a conflict that could resolve itself if you just kept silent for a while. The hasty manifestation of aggression and anger excludes such a possibility.
5. Check who you are emailing to
Before sending, double-check that you are sending the letter to the recipient. Many embarrassing situations could be avoided if the sender made sure that he was sending the letter to the right person, and did not press the “Reply to all” button.
6. Remember: emails last forever
The letter is stored in cyberspace forever, or at least for months or even years. Once on the Web, it can take on a life of its own, being repeatedly shared, copied, and archived. Therefore, every time you send a message, think about what it will be like for you if it becomes available for viewing by everyone, and for a long time. You may not want to send it.
7. Be careful with attachments!
Never open email attachments unless you are sure you know who sent them. Email addresses are sometimes stolen from their rightful owners and used to send viruses to people on their contact list. Such an email seems to be quite safe, although it was actually sent from a hacked address. In general, for security reasons, you should not open messages if it is not necessary. It is recommended to use anti-virus and anti-spam protection systems; otherwise, using e-mail can be compared to sex without a condom.
1 For more details, see D. Schafer, M. Carlins, “Turning on the charm according to the methods of the special services” (Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2015).