Nearly everyone seems to have at least an email address. But do everyone know the the proper basics of email usage and email etiquette? Unfortunately many people just start using their first email by just following what everyone is doing without knowing the proper basics of email usage. And they continue to do so even during their working world.

Lets start identifying the components of an email:

From : The email address of a sender.

To : One or more email address of email recipient(s). Emails to people whom are supposed to take action on an email is listed in “To” section. “To” section can be seen by everyone who receives an email.

Cc : “Cc” is short for “carbon copy” which means a copy of the email for the recipient(s). “Cc” section is used to send an email copy to one or more recipients for their information and not for any action to be taken. “Cc” section can be seen by everyone who receives an email.

Bcc : “Bcc” is short for “blind carbon copy”. “Bcc” section is used to send copies of an email to recipients just like “Cc” section, but the difference is that “Bcc” cannot be seen by everyone who receives the email. The recipients in “Bcc” is hidden and allows you to send a copy of an email to people who prefers to be anonymous.

Subject : The title of an email. Use short and proper descriptive title. And never leave the “Subject” section blank.

Ok, now you have read an email, these are some of the actions that you might do:

Reply : When you click “Reply”, you will be sending reply to only the email address shown in the “From” section. So only 1 person receives your reply email.

Reply To All : When you click “Reply To All”, you will be sending reply to all the email address shown in the “From” and “Cc” section. So more than 1 person will receive your reply email.

Forward : When you click “Forward”, the email “To” section becomes blank. That means you are supposed to send the email copy to other email addresses, hence the name “Forward”.

I’ve seen many people click “Reply” when what they wanted to do is to forward an email.

Here are some tips when using email:

  1. Do not write in CAPITALS. Writing in CAPITALS seems like you are shouting and may be annoying to some people and you might get unwanted response.
  2. When you REPLY, the original message thread is included at the bottom so that you can write your response at the top. Never remove the original message thread as it is used as a reference in the whole email communication.
  3. Do not overuse REPLY TO ALL. Use it only when you really need to send your response to each one of the recipients. If you need to reply only to the email sender, just use REPLY.
  4. Don’t reply to spam. By replying to spam or by unsubscribing, you are confirming that your email address is ‘active’ and this will invite more spam.