Annexes - IFAD

Annexes
J Annex V
Tips for writing e-mails
E-mail is a useful tool for connecting and
communicating with others. Follow the guidelines
below to use it effectively:
Use the right tool for the right job. Before
drafting a message, consider if e-mail is
the best medium for communication. Avoid
sending an e-mail if a meeting or telephone
call would be more effective. Use other tools
such as Outlook Calendar or Doodle to set up
a meeting.
Be courteous and considerate. As your
recipient cannot ‘hear’ your tone in an e-mail
your message can easily be misunderstood.
Taking extra care to be courteous will reduce the
possibility of your message being misconstrued.
Never criticize or blame in e-mail. If the
subject is sensitive or you are annoyed, save
the message as a draft – come back to it later
and read it again before sending.
Carefully target your addressees. An e-mail
message must be appropriate and relevant to
every single recipient.
Use ‘to’ and ‘cc’ appropriately. Address the
message to the person who must take action.
The ‘cc’ line should only contain addresses of
people who need to be informed.
Do not send confidential information via
e-mail. You have no control over forwarding of
your message.
Begin with a precise subject. The subject
line should be as informative to the recipient
as it is to you. Never leave it blank. Change
the subject as required to keep it relevant –
for example, change automated subject lines
such as ‘Rank Xerox’ to something meaningful
before forwarding.
Never use e-mail for urgent matters. Use
the three-hour rule: if your message requires
a response within three hours, use a different
method to communicate, such as the telephone
or in person.
Do not hide behind e-mail. To convey a
sensitive message, use the telephone or meet
in person.
Send attachments that your recipients
can access.
––
If you are sending a document for review
in-house, send a link to the document on
the IFAD xdesk and be sure your recipient
has access rights.
––
If you send a document outside IFAD, keep
in mind that your recipient may have a slow
internet connection and find it difficult to
open a large attachment.
Guidelines for replying to and
forwarding e-mail
Use ‘reply to all’ sparingly. Avoid using ‘reply
to all’ unless all recipients need to receive the
information. Remove recipients from the ‘to’ and
‘cc’ lines if your response is not relevant to them.
Practise the rule of three replies. If a
message has cycled back and forth through
three or more messages, and the issue has
not been resolved, use another communication
method, such as meeting face to face.
Do not send one-word responses. Avoid
replying just to say ‘thanks!’ or ‘okay!’. If you
wish to confirm that you have received a
message, send a response only to the sender.
Give the recipient the full background at
the beginning of your reply. With e-mail
you should give the recipient some relevant
background at the start of your reply. For
example, state your location (and your time
zone) if you are not at headquarters.
Be careful about forwarding. Forward
messages only when the recipient needs to
know or have the information.
G - 6
Annex V