Email Etiquettes to follow as a Software Engineer…
There is always beauty in a well-crafted email. It’s not only helping you, it does help the email recipient. It showcases your strong communication skills and at the same time, it saves the time of the reader by only surfacing the relevant information.
Write a Professional subject line
Instead of using subjects like `[Action Required] Please reply`, Include what you need the recipient to do. For a person who gets hundreds of emails a day the subject line is a must to filter emails.
Examples:
- [Urgent] A branch needs to be created in the app/tester repository
- [Important] Your appointment is confirmed
Proofread the email before sending
Before sending your email to the recipient go through it once again. Pay attention to the following points.
- Recipient names: Check whether you have added the correct list of recipients.
- Supporting Attachments: Check whether you have added the correct links or documents/Images as attachments.
- Message: Check whether you have addressed the person correctly and included everything you want to have in a clear manner.
- Grammer/Punctuations: Check for grammar and punctuation. You can have the Grammarly browser extension.
Finish Writing the email before entering the recipients
It’s good practice to write the whole email and check in once again before entering the recipient’s email address. There can be situations where you may send the email accidentally and cannot undo it.
Write the email clearly and to the point.
Don’t just “Reply All”
Although you have to reply to a mail where there are many participants included, think about the recipients who need to read your reply. No one wants to read emails that are not related to them. ‘Reply All’, only if everyone should get your response.
As an example, if the email is to get suggestions from the whole team regarding a new feature, there you can ‘Reply All’ as everyone has to see your suggestions.
Explain why you CC/Forward
- If you are forwarding an email :
Explain to the recipient why you are forwarding an email you receive from someone else and the benefit they can get from this. - If you CC someone:
Explain to the primary receiver why you are sending a carbon copy of the email to the other person.
Wisely use Acronyms
Try to use very few amounts of acronyms and only use very popular acronyms, if not the receiver would not get the message correctly. Here are a few Acronyms you can use:
- EOD -End of Day
- ASAP — As Soon as Possible
- BTW — By the Way
- IMO — In My Opinion
- FYI — For Your Information
- OOO — Out of Office
- AFK -Away from Keyboard
Be careful when using Humour 🤣 or Sarcasm
Including sarcasm or humor in professional emails is not a good practice. you don’t have an idea about the mood of the recipient and you even can’t send your facial expressions or voice tone in emails. it’s not good to express sarcasm with recipients you don’t know well.
Use a formal ending
Here are some examples you can use as a professional. Use a formal ending before putting your signature.
- Thanks and Best Regards.
- Thanks. : can be used in some one-to-one emails.
- Thank you for your time.
- Thank you!
Reply your emails
Check your emails frequently and send reply emails as soon as possible where necessary. because the sender may be waiting for your reply. Read it properly and let the sender know that you have received the email. Don’t reply to emails that has send to the team to inform something and in situations where you can see that the sender is not expecting a reply email.
Include proper signature
You should include a proper signature as a professional. Here is an example format.
Thank you,
Tisha.
Software Engineer | ABC company
(m)+94 71 xxx xxxx | (e) xyz@pqr.com
Thank you for reaching the end!!! 🙏
Hope you learn some good practices in sending emails.
