If you have read
Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat (you may buy the book from Amazon or from Flipkart if you are in India. I personally am a big FLIPKART fan.), or something else around similar theme, the post's title today would make a lot more sense. In case you have not, never mind, in essence, the idea explains that the world today operates in a 24*7 environment, with one geography taking over the previous time zone's workpiece in a transparent manner. While workflow software and VoIP phones are big flattening forces, who today, can fore go the importance of written communication, most of which happens over emails (well, yeah, we all know, over Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter too these days - thankfully, as of 2012, the office communication still happens over emails).
- Write the meat of the mail first in the main paragraph
- Decide on the tone of the email and chose your words around it. Weather its fun, strict, professional, indirect, diplomatic, salvaging - choose the tone carefully, and do not mix more than two in one email
- Chose your words carefully. Polite words in a strict tone work wonders
- Always end the mail with either a concluding moral or requiring an action from the audience.
- Begin and end with civilities. In a professional setting, beginning may be omitted to give your communication a more direct manner.
- Never, NEVER, I mean really never forget the subject line.