Do's and don'ts for writing 'work emails' revealed

Sending emails has become a fashion, with people barely bothered to check the grammar or look at who the recipient is.

However, email, which are responsible for around one third of our time each day, are known to make or break careers, therefore it is important that we get our emails right.

News.com.au interviewed productivity expert Graham Allcott to know the cardinal sins of workplace email.

Allcott said that ‘email sign offs’ should be kept short sharp and authentic. If it is a part of your signature, you should keep them tailored to your recipient depending on whether it’s your boss, partner or colleague.

The expert advised employees to use emoticons depending upon their relationships with the recipient.

Talking about ‘reply all’ option, he said that generally people should use the ‘to’ bar to include people who need to directly do something about the email, while ‘cc’ is for those who can either take it or leave it. He warned that more you send to, the more you’re likely to receive, therefore to receive less ‘ccs’ avoid ‘reply all’ option.

Allcott asserted that cracking too much ‘office jokes’ online is just not good professionally, as by doing so you may gain a reputation as the office loon.

It was also advised that because it is tricky to convey emotion on email, it’s always better to clear up things on phone, when you feel that something is being misconstrued.