While I could devote an entire post to proper comma usage (English major talking), here are the most important rules: One of the most common bloopers is adding commas where they don’t belong.
She can call me tomorrow she can give me an answer then. She can call me tomorrow, she can give me an answer then.
"What’s your status? Have you talked to your team yet? Are you free for a call tomorrow at noon so we can discuss any potential changes?" Semicolons ( )Ī semicolon can also connect two unique, but related, sentences. If you use too many question marks in one email, you’ll sound like you’re interrogating the recipient. I talked to Finance, and they approved the agreement. I talked to Finance, and they approved the agreement If you skip terminal punctuation, it’ll look like you never completed your thought. a period, question mark, or exclamation mark. Terminal PunctuationĮvery line should end with a terminal punctuation mark, i.e. Don’t make your recipients cringe - memorize these rules and follow them religiously. Punctuation is subtle when you use it correctly and obvious when you don’t. Sending long URLs is also an email etiquette no-no, the sign off is too casual, and the typos make it clear the person writing it either has very poor grammar or didn't take the time to read it through. The subject line of this email doesn't tell the prospect anything about the contents - so why would they open it? Also, the greeting is too casual, there's nothing personalized about the email itself, and no meeting confirmation has been included. Want to make sure your email etiquette meets modern standards? Check out the templates below. They help you avoid miscommunications and mistakes.
So, to avoid prospects coming to these conclusions about you, here are a few email etiquette tips every professional (especially client-facing ones) should know and follow.Įmail etiquette rules dictate what’s appropriate and what’s not when you’re sending a message to a prospect, business partner, coworker, manager, or acquaintance. Neither bodes well for your relationship. The sender didn’t care enough about this message to review it before sending.The sender doesn’t know basic spelling and grammar.If you read an email riddled with typos, you probably think one of two things: In a separate experiment, people who applied for funding were less likely to be funded and received less favorable terms when their loan requests had spelling mistakes. In one study, participants who read an email with grammatical errors thought the writer was less conscientious, intelligent, and trustworthy than those who read the same email without errors. Research shows making errors seriously impacts how people see you. You may have heard, “Don’t sweat the small stuff." That might be true in some aspects of life - but over email, sweating the small stuff is exactly what you should be doing.