Embedded Files
Audience, Purpose, & Style
Audience, Purpose, & Style
Audience
Audience
People you work with and for.
People internal and external to your organization.
Purpose
Purpose
Acknowledge a complaint
Ask or answer questions
Call Meetings
Create written records of actions or events
Explain new policies
Give instruction
Offer a service or product
Remind people about upcoming tasks or events
Request Information
Summarize decisions
As a "Thank you"
Style
Style
Most common type of written communication for managing construction projects
Not personal: Companies have the right to monitor their employees’ email
Can easily become public: Do NOT include private, sensitive, or confidential information and never use obscene or offensive language
Directed: Send messages only to those who need to see the information
Limited: Be observant of your phrasing as tone is not able to be portrayed in emails/texts. Use “Please” and “Thank You”
Do not use emoticons or smiley faces
Do not type in all caps
For email
Always include the subject in the subject line
End with an appropriate closing and signature
Checklist
Checklist
I. Analysis
Does it includes the information the reader should know after receiving the email or text message?
II. Evaluation
Content
Is the content closed to multiple interpretations?
Is the email/text correctly addressed and signed?
If there is an attachment, has it been attached?
Tone
Is the email/text courteous, professional, and tactful?
Style
Is the email/text written in language the reader will understand?
Are sentences short and direct?
Attitude
Does the email/text encourage the reader to take action (if needed)?
Does the email/text build goodwill?
Appearance
Is the email/text free of errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling?
Source: Betty Ricks and Kay F. Gow’s Business Communication: Systems and Applications (1987).
Attachments
Attachments
When attaching documents to email
Verify prior to sending that document is actually attached.
If sending attachments, ask first when the best time to send would be and let someone know what form the file is so that you make sure the other side has the same software.
Let the receiver know specifically where you want them to look on the attachment, e.g. if you send them a PowerPoint document and you need them to look specifically at slide 16, say so.
Use .pdf formatting when possible.
Avoid unnecessarily large file sizes—digital photos especially. Learn how to re-size your digital photographs.
Do not send an attachment to someone you don't know the first time you contact them (unless the contact has posted a job ad requesting a resume in a Word document, for example). Also, never open an attachment from someone you don't know.
Be thoughtful when titling documents. Don’t only use filing codes; include project name, author info, date, etc.
Legal Standing of Email
Legal Standing of Email
As with all questions of this type, specific circumstances may change the outcome in any given case, but here are some general principles for educational purposes.
Email Agreements
Generally, agreements made via email or through a website are valid and legally binding.
For example, Minnesota's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) provides, in part
A record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceable solely because it is in electronic form.
A contract may not be denied legal effect or enforceable solely because an electronic record was used in its formation.
If a law requires a record to be in writing, an electronic record satisfies the law.
If a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies the law.
Defining Electronic Signatures
An electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.
UETA and other similar statutes recognize that we are doing business electronically today, and that agreements made via electronic means are enforceable.
These types of statutes have been on the books since around 2000.
Admissibility of Email in Court
If there is a dispute, emails may be admissible in court, provided they can be authenticated, i.e. identified, usually by someone who wrote or received them. If one party denies sending an email and other people have access to the email account, then an email may be excluded from evidence. Generally, however, emails are treated like any other form of communication - if they can be authenticated by a writer or recipient or can otherwise be reliably identified, and provided they are not excluded under other rules of evidence, they can be used in court. In fact they are used all the time in court these days. A good rule of thumb is: if you put it in an email, be prepared to see it in court. Or, don't put anything in an email that you would not want to see in court.
Emails also need to be properly preserved under appropriate document retention policies.
Examples
Examples
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