Using Conversational Language

The most effective tone for electronic business correspondence is professional, yet conversational. How do you achieve that tone? Take the colleague, customer, and competitor test. Imagine that you are in an elevator crowded with colleagues, customers, and competitors. What tone would you use? What would you say? What information would you reveal, and what would you keep under wraps? If you wouldn’t say it aloud while sharing close quarters with the people you work for, with, and against, don’t write it in an instant message, which might be retained and later revealed publicly—to the embarrassment of you and your employer. ^[18]

^[18]Ibid.