In the second of an ongoing series of posts, Id like to share with you, dear reader (singular), what boils my blood, what grinds my gears, what gets my goat. Some may think Im easy going but there are many things that get on my nerves. And this is one of them.
I send and receive a number of emails over the run of the week. Work email, IEEE email, social emails, responding to emails telling me how to enlarge things and get money from a dead guy’s Swiss bank account. It’s all good. I’m a big fan of email over actually talking to people. But not all emails are created equally. Not even emails written by the same person on the same day. And some email habits really drive me nuts. Maybe I’m old-school. Let me share with you some of my email driven angst:
Emails sent without subjects. I cringe everytime Gmail says (no subject) for the subject to an email I’ve received. I don’t CARE if the email is a one-liner asking me about my weekend plans. Or if you only email me on one topic, therefore there’s no need to explicitly state the subject. I don’t care if you forgot. The subject line is there to be filled in. I like to know what’s inside. I like to look back on the subject and determine what your email was about. And usually, if I’m replying to a no-subject email, I fill one in. You may not notice, but it makes me a little happier.
Emails with more than one topic. I’m a bit… OCD about filing my email. I love Gmail and how it allows me to tag one email with multiple labels. But I’d prefer not to have to do that. Personally, I’d prefer two separate emails with well-crafted subject lines.
Emails not written coherently. It’s a informal form of communication, but it’s only communication if both parties are communicating. If I can’t understand you, it’s not really communicating. I’m not talking good grammar, or full sentences. Re-read your email from the point of view of one who did not write it… can you understand what you are trying to get across?
SPAM from myself. Do you get this? It’s happening a lot on my school account. And I’m not seeing a damn cent from it. Argh.
That is all.