links

title

Pachter's Pointers:
Business Etiquette Tips & Career Suggestions


8.11.2015

6 Reasons You Make Mistakes in Email, and One Simple Solution

During a recent business-writing class, a young woman told me, “I don’t proof my emails until after I hit send. I just want the email off my desk. It’s too nerving-racking otherwise.”

I was startled. After I thought about her comment for a moment, however, I realized that she was not unique in this behavior.  Others in my writing classes have expressed similar sentiments, though they may not have phrased them quite so bluntly. “Proofing after sending” is a pointless exercise, but it’s only one of the reasons that people have mistakes in their writings that could be fixed easily. 

Others include these five:

1. Forgetting that you are writing an email, not a text. After a job interview, one woman wrote her thank-you note on her phone, but at some point she forgot it was an email and used text shortcuts. She was later told that she didn’t get the job as a result. In business, you generally do not want to use text shortcuts in email.

2. Typing and walking. If you don’t want to run into walls, people or traffic, you need to concentrate on your surroundings when walking. It is difficult to look where you are walking and type an email at the same time, so it’s tempting to skip any proofing.

3. Not paying attention to spelling and grammar suggestions provided when writing email. Spell-checkers and grammar guides available on your computer or phone do not replace your good brain, but they may catch many of your errors.

 4. Ignoring the corrections made by autocorrect. One man meant to say “Sorry for the inconvenience,” but autocorrect changed the sentence to “Sorry for the incontinence.” Big difference!

5. Not realizing the impact mistakes can have on your career or reputation. Just about everyone makes mistakes occasionally, but if your emails routinely contain errors, your reputation will suffer, and the professional consequences could be serious. One young man wrote to me that his project was taken away from him because he consistently had typos on his posts. He was shocked that the quality of his writing mattered.

One simple solution
To catch your errors, you should read your message out loud syll-a-ble by syll-a-ble. If you read the words slowly, you are more likely to notice any missing words, wrong words, misspellings and wrong tenses of verbs. The reading should be done slow-ly, so you really pay attention to each individual word. If you speak quickly, you may get caught up in the meaning of your words, and can miss the mistakes.  As one engineer in my class said, “Unless I read slowly, I am reading what is in my head, not what’s on the screen.”

This suggestion will add only seconds to the time you spend on an email. Isn’t your reputation worth those few moments? I think so. There are, of course, numerous additional ways to proofread, but this one suggestion will help you to catch many of your errors.

Additional information on business writing can be found in my book, The Essentials of Business Etiquette: How to Greet, Eat, and Tweet Your Way to Success. 

Pachter & Associates provides seminars and coaching on business writing. For additional information, please contact Joyce Hoff at  joyce@pachter.com or 856..751.6141.

28 comments:

  1. Great idea. I like it so much. it really wonderful post. Essay writing service reviews is making the writing papers for college student's studies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The post was so helpful in avoiding email mistakes.
    school prospectus

    ReplyDelete
  3. Blogging has evolved from a simple hobby to one of today's most effective internet marketing tools. People who are selling products and services online acknowledge the importance of content publishing. See more blog posting services

    ReplyDelete
  4. Waw information you provide very nice
    many new things that I got after reading this article you wrote
    Thank you so much for sharing this useful information.

    Cara Ampuh Mengobati Kanker Paru-Paru
    Gejala dan Penyebab Penyakit Radang Usus
    Perbedaan Gagal Ginjal Akut dan Kronis
    Gejala serta Penyebab Utama Penyakit Vitiligo
    Penyebab Penyakit Scabies

    ReplyDelete
  5. This afternoon so hot but we need to keep the spirit of doing activities especially served with a very nice website thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your article really helped me alot. I was quite happy while reading your article because i used to such mistakes and your article helped a lot. Essay writing service UK

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cara Mengobati Aritmia Jantung
    http://obattradisionalmigrenalami.apotektradisional.com/cara-mengobati-aritmia-jantung/
    obat tradisional rematik tulang
    http://obattradisionalmigrenalami.apotektradisional.com/obat-tradisional-rematik-tulang/
    Cara Cepat Menyembuhkan Mata Minus Secara Alami
    http://obattradisionalmigrenalami.apotektradisional.com/cara-cepat-menyembuhkan-mata-minus-secara-alami/
    Cara Mengobati Penyakit Rubella
    http://obattradisionalmigrenalami.apotektradisional.com/cara-mengobati-penyakit-rubella/
    Obat Tradisional Hepatoma
    http://obattradisionalmigrenalami.apotektradisional.com/obat-tradisional-hepatoma/
    Pengobatan Alternatif Kanker Penis
    http://obattradisionalmigrenalami.apotektradisional.com/pengobatan-alternatif-kanker-penis/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your mistakes covering idea helpful thanks for share it cv summary examples .

    ReplyDelete

  9. عزيزي عميل مدينه الخرج نوفر لك افضل خدمات التنظيف المختلفه من منازل ومجالس وغيرهما وايضا نوفر لك مكافحة الحشرات بالخرج لنوفر لك افضل سبل الحصول علي منزل نظيف وخالي من الحشرات وذلك بافضل الفنيين وامهرهم
    شركة مكافحة حشرات بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف منازل بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف فلل بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف مجالس بالخرج
    نستخدم افضل المكينات المخصصه في تنظيف الموكيت والسجاد الخاص بالمساجد والتي تعمل عن طريق تنظيف موكيت المساجد بالمنظفات الحديثه لكي نصل الي اعلي مستوي من التنظيف

    كما ان جودة التنظيف الخاص بتنظيف الموكيت تعتمد علي نوعيته مع استخدام المكينات الحديثه وبالاضافه الي الايدي العامله المدربه حديثا

    شركة تنظيف مساجد بالرياض


    ReplyDelete
  10. By the way, Thank you for sharing with us, and we sincerely hope you will continue to update or post other articles.
    pengobatan untuk sembuhkan saraf mata rusak

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ensure that you know how a graduated home buyback functions before you ask for your bank to support your application. Dissimilar to the conventional advances, you don't need to pay your month to month contract installment the length of you stay in the property and keep it as your main living place.payday loans

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your blog posts are more interesting and impressive. I think there are many people like and visit it regularly, including me.I actually appreciate your own position and I will be sure to come back here.
    temple run 2 l download temple run 2 l temple run 2 game l temple run 2 download l temple run 2 app

    ReplyDelete
  13. Reach Chase Bank's Loss Mitigation division at the main indications of dispossession. They will furnish you with every one of the prerequisites for credit change. Beginning early is enter in setting yourself up for the credit alteration prepare. payday loans san-diego

    ReplyDelete
  14. I like your all post. You have done really good work. Thank you for the information you provide, it helped me a lot. I hope to have many more entries or so from you.
    Very interesting blog.
    http://www.baixarfacebookgratis.com.br

    ReplyDelete
  15. This is also a very good post which I really enjoyed reading. It is not everyday that I have the possibility to see something

    catmario.games

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.