Programmers Kit

There are some rules to remember when emailing.

Here’s a list of my pet peeves:

1. Writing in all caps: I am not going to read one more thing that is sent to me in all caps. I MEAN IT! See…I was shouting there. IT IS SO ANNOYING!

2. Emails without any white space, punctuations, or breaks: This is really hard to read because I am just going to type and type and never end this sentence well i dont know lol what do you think and i like to misspell can you help me with this but i am not sure with what and wow it looks like i wrote a lot here that is so funny lol ha man sorry this is so long but i haave a lot to say

3. Vague emails: ‘yeah’.'no’ ‘this isn’t working’ - I, like many others, get tons of email just in one day. If the email doesn’t keep the original thread or isn’t specific with the purpose of the email, I will have no recollection of what the heck we are talking about. Don’t make the recipient have to do a lot of work or digging just to answer you.  Without specific questions or details, my brain hurts and all of the emails get jumbled up into one giant mess.  I will then turn off my computer and go to bed, positive that I am never going to answer another email again.

4. Writing ‘I’ in lowercase: Mrs. Latona (second grade, Waterloo elementary - the best teacher ever) was right - this just isn’t cool: ‘i am writing you to see if you can help. i am having a really hard time and i just don’t understand.’

5. Like OMG! LOL!: This is fine if you are writing to a friend, but don’t use acronyms for business emails or when writing to your instructor. Or to your Mom.

Remember, the interpretation of an email is ultimately with the reader…emails can be taken a lot of different ways, and in ways that you may not have intended. It is much different than having a conversation. When in doubt, always go for super-polite and end your email appropriately:

Thank you,

Valerie

Filed under: General