Email Etiquette: Do's and Don't's

Given the hundreds of emails you probably receive every day, you, like all of us here at Flyby, have probably noticed a disturbing trend. People suck at emailing. Too many emails these days are overly formal when addressed to a buddy, not formal enough for a professor, annoying, trite, or just downright rude. While we can’t even begin to fix all the things even you are (probably) doing wrong, we have come up with a few good places to start.

1. Excuses
Do not use them. Ever. Pretty simple, actually. Best case scenario, you look like you don’t care about the recipient enough; worst case scenario, they know that you’re lying (no, “I got held up at a Financial Analysts Club meeting” is not as clever as you think). Here’s a wild idea: just apologize like an adult for the late response and then get on with your email.

2. Signing Off
“Sincerely,” and “Truly,” are great ways to close an email… if you hate fun and individualism that is. Instead, try the much more interesting “Later,” “Peace,” or (for more formal emails) something like “’Til next time, prof.” Alternately, “xoxo” is always a safe bet. Grandma, your roommate, or N. Gregory Mankiw, it doesn’t matter. Everyone likes a little affection.

P.S. Definitely don’t have “A.B. Candidate in X” in your email closing. You’re better than that. Tell your recipient literally anything else about yourself.

3. Subject Lines
Subject lines are not nearly as necessary as you think. If your reader thinks that they learned everything about the email in that one line, what reason do they have to entertain the rest of it? Never use more than three words if a subject is necessary at all. Solid ground-rule: No verbs or articles. You get one or two nouns and one adjective. Do’s: “Quick Question,” “Naked Pics,” “Essay question”. Don’t's: “Professor, I just have a quick question about formatting for the essay”.

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Xoxo,

Chris Riley

Harvard College, Class of 2017

5’10”

173 lbs.

Blue/Green Eyes