Email Missteps Can Be Avoided; New Book Tells How [CIO Decisions, July 2007]
In Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, authors David Shipley and Will Schwalbe offer up a humor-filled, if also anxiety-inducing, guide to the use of email. Indeed, few of us haven't committed one of the

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register you’ll also receive the latest news, advice and technical tips designed specifically for midmarket IT leaders like yourself. Our award-winning editorial team will give you immediate access to emerging business and technology trends.

    Scot Petersen, Editorial Director, SearchCIO-Midmarket

    By submitting your registration information to SearchCIO-MidMarket.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchCIO-MidMarket.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

eight deadly sins.

These crimes, the authors warn, can signal unprofessionalism, inject tension into a collegial relationship, even invite jail time. The authors trot out numerous examples of email crimes, from the trigger-happy response that's vague or tone-deaf to use of the cc field without considering one's audience. Ill-chosen use of the cc can turn a private disagreement into a public conflagration in no time.

At root, the authors counsel us to think before we send. But they also offer a guide to good behavior in professional life, where multitasking at a breakneck pace has become standard fare. Send reminds us that the electronic communiqué is a sign of our good judgment, not to mention an indelible record of our conduct. This is a Strunk and White for the Internet age. (256 pages, $19.95).

Lauren Horwitz, former managing editor, production, for CIO Decisions, is now managing editor for TechTarget's Data Center Media Group. Write to her at lhorwitz@techtarget.com.

This was first published in July 2007