How Formal Should My Email Correspondence Be?

By: Kandice Thorn

Not so long ago, in my first office job working at a travel agency in Tigard, Oregon, I sat at a large desk with a very clunky computer.  I used the computer primarily for searching for and booking flights and hotel reservations (Expedia did not yet exist).  We also had a large printer that was only used for printing airline tickets, which we would deliver to our clients all over Portland (paperless tickets also did not yet exist).  And before delivering those tickets, I would frequently turn to another machine on my desk to produce a cover letter: a typewriter. 


Before loading up the paper, I would carefully compose the letter in my head, thinking through word choices and perhaps even jotting down notes on paper before beginning.  Then I would begin typing very slowly, to ensure there were no mistakes.  Although the typewriter had a whiteout function that would erase small errors, the whiteout made the letter look a bit messy and you had to catch errors immediately after typing in order to avoid having to white out an entire line.  Typos frequently meant discarding the entire letter and starting over.  Accuracy was extremely important and I didn't have the luxury of writing and rewriting, so these little letters became precious works of art--the result of intense planning and concentration.  I wrote perhaps ten letters each day, each one carefully crafted to meticulous perfection.

Informal correspondence almost always took place over the phone, through lots of little conversations over the course of the day.  The phone was the only way to communicate little messages, so our phones were ringing constantly.  Phone conversations were quick, lacking in formality, and usually impromptu.  Context was conveyed via tone of voice. 

Back then, there was mail and there was phone, and the two couldn't have been more different in nature.  While I was still at this job I got my first personal email account.  And within a handful of years everything would change...

Today, by contrast, I spend virtually no time drafting formal letters and very little time on the phone.  Email, for better or worse, has usurped both mail and phone.  The clear divide between formal and informal correspondence is forever blurred.  There is a lot of middle ground and it's hard to figure out how formal or informal your tone should be in any given email.

Here are a few tips to help you strike the right tone no matter the situation:

1.  Always start formal.  The first time you engage in professional correspondence with someone, the email should be drafted like a formal letter in the days of yore.  Your letter should begin "Dear Ms./Mr. [____]," and should close with something like "Kind regards," followed by your full name.  The email should be well-composed, and carefully proofread.  Your correspondence with the person may eventually turn more casual, but when you don't know somebody or don't know them well, you are always better off opting for more formal.

2.  Take your tone from the other person.  Once you have developed a bit of back and forth, you will start to get a sense of the formality of your correspondant's tone.  Take a cue from that and adopt a similar tone.  If the person you are corresponding with is senior to you or holds a position of power (for example, a junior person who is a recruiter for a company you are applying to), you should keep your tone a bit more formal than theirs.  Seniority or power gives a person some comfort in adopting a more informal tone, but they may still expect you to be more formal. 

3.  If the person signs an email using only their first name, it's generally okay to respond using their first name.  There are exceptions in cases where the person is very senior to you, but for the most part, if the person signs his email "Best, John" you can begin your next email "Dear John." 

4.  There are some things you should never use in professional correspondance, even if the person you are writing to uses them.  Never abbreviate "you" to "u."  Never change "want to" to "wanna" or "going to" to "gonna."  Never type in all lower case or all upper case letters.

5.  Always proofread.  Informality is one thing, but typos are another.  Do not send any email without giving it a quick read first.  Typos are never professional, no matter the situation!