Emailing 101

Emailing effectively can be difficult due to a number of factors including proper formatting, structure, etiquette, and navigation. The goal of this page is to provide some basic insights for challenges that many professionals have in writing technical emails.

SUBJECT LINE

The subject line is typically the first thing people see when reading your email, and commonly what people will search for when trying to find an old email. It is best to keep subject lines clear and concise while including essential elements of the topic.

Subject lines should be clear about the email's intended content and easily searchable.
1 word subject lines are almost always too vague and rarely appropriate.
- - Getting 1,000 emails called "help" or "issue" throughout your career will mean you can never search for the one you need.
Recommended practice is a short clear subject line that starts specific and gets broader or supplies context for clarity separated by commas or semi-colons.

Bad Subject Line: Bolts

Better Subject Line: Bolts Needed; Flange Assembly; Exhaust Build

Bad Subject Line: Need Help

Better Subject Line: Need Help, Inspection Code Output Function

To, CC, & BCC

The address fields should be used properly, and mis-use can cause problem.

Include the people relevant to the conversation. Don't put everyone and their dad on there.
- - Distribution lists (single email addresses that send the email to multiple people) can be useful in this case, but be careful not to send an email about a specific thing to the whole department by accident using one of these or your colleagues will be forced to ridicule you.
Generally put the people you want a response from in the TO line and anyone else who should hear the answer or be aware in the CC line.
If you want an answer from someone specific, put their name in the text of the body. Don't assume they will review the TO line to figure out who your question is for.
If sending out broad information that you don't want people to respond to everyone on, put everyone in BCC so they can't "reply all" and spam everyone by accident.
Know that if you put someone in BCC to secretly show them an email, they may not realize and could respond.
- - BCC with care.

EMAIL BODY

The email body can come in many formats, but it is key to be clear and efficient so people will actually read it and gain the information you were trying to provide.

Structure your questions for easy reading. A common outline it technical emails is:
- - Optional: TLDR (too long didn't read) on-liner that people familiar with the problem already can jump the whole body and go straight to the questions/actions
  - Very short section that describes the problem or reason to email.
  - Expanded detail if necessary.
  - Specific asks of specific people you need something from.
    - - This can go at the top as well if the email is too long.
Try to keep emails short. People don't read long emails.
Bulleted lists and tables can help help keep info organized and easy to read.
Limit use of bold, underline, and italics to only the most important few pieces of information. Otherwise it gets messy and nothing gets paid attention to.
Use images and visuals for clarity.
- - They're worth 1000 words, and, like it or not, you are probably bad at describing things.
Avoid uncommon acronyms & abbreviations
- - Creating a fun acronym for something you are working on may save you a few key strokes, but it confuses everyone else. Make the sacrifice of a few key-strokes for the sake of your reader.
  - Common industry-standard abbreviations and acronyms that everyone knows are okay:
    - - NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration
      - US = United States
      - PC = Personal Computer
  - Obscure or vague acronyms are definitely not okay unless they're in software code:
    - - TV != Throttle Valve
      - TDS != Top Dead Center
  - Even if you think an acronym is common, it may mean a dozen other things that your reader may confuse it with.

REPLY & REPLY ALL

DO: Reply All to group conversations where everyone should be informed.

DO NOT: Reply All to large distribution chains and invitations unless actually critical to do so.

DO: Split an email chain if the whole group doesn't need to be a part of a new conversation (See Chain-Splitting/Branching).

DO NOT: Reply only to one person if the whole group needs to hear.

CHAIN-SPLITTING & BRANCHING

Chain-Splitting/Branching is when you reply only to a sub-group of people on a large email about a different/more specific aspect of the conversation than what the email started as.
When splitting, it can be good practice to change the email subject to better track the split.
Un-splitting (merging) is very painful for readers, so make sure you give a good summary if you bring other people back into the chain, so they don't have to read everything they missed.
Use common-sense when splitting. If you remove someone from a chain, it is wise to fill them in on what happened.
When removing someone from a chain, it is often a good practice to BCC them, so they know that the chain is ongoing and they don't wonder if anyone ever addressed the issue.
It is common to write in the body of the email "BCC [name(s)]" or "changing subject line" to make it clear that you are splitting/branching.
- - The same is common if adding someone new to the email by writing "+[name(s)]" in the body.

ATTACHMENTS

Check the size of your attachments. Typically your email platform will tell you how big an attachment is and it can indicate at a glance some common problems.
- - Very large attachments may not be able to send, but even if they do, they can fill up another persons inbox and cause them problems. Better to compress large files or use file sharing solutions in such cases if necessary.
  - Very small attachments may indicate that you haven't attached the correct file. Someone who intended to attach an analysis file but only sees a 1KB attachment may want to check that they actually got the right information attached.
Be cautious sending anything that could be confidential. There can be restrictions on the way that certain files can be transferred for security reasons, and email may not always be secure.
- - Best to check with your sponsor in cases like this.

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