You may not realize it, but how you write your emails can tell other people a lot about you.
Believe it or not people have different email personalities.
According to an article in the Daily Mail, there are five types of email personalities.
Newswatch 16’s Ryan Leckey talked with an email guru from Wilkes University about those categories, and also got some advice on how we can all better communicate using emails.
With so many of us working remotely these days, emails are the way to keep in touch, especially with our co-workers.
"Everyone's inbox is so full, everyone's communicating a lot via email. It's the way we're communicating right now in the pandemic," said Sharon Castano from Wilkes University.
Castano is an email guru. Along with being the director of internships and parent programs at Wilkes University, Sharon has also taught classes on writing effective emails.
She added, "I used to teach Microsoft Outlook how to use it, in the professional setting and how to manage your inbox and how to communicate professionally."
Newswatch 16 talked with Sharon about the different email personalities listed in a Daily Mail article.
They are:
- The Black Hole
- The Over-Communicator
- The Rambler
- The Single Word Replier
- The LOLCats Sender
First, there's the Black Hole. The Black Hole is some who never answer emails. They are also known as ghosters; someone who just goes dark on people and disappears.
Second is the Over-Communicator. "The over-communicator gets a lot of frequent emails," explained Sharon. "They're emailing you all the time.”
The third is the Rambler. The dreaded Rambler is someone who writes super long emails. Something, Sharon says, we all should avoid, "Just think of it that you might send an eye roll along with that rambling email.”
The fourth category are those who reply to emails with a single word, like thanks! Sharon said, "it sounds curt sometimes, doesn't it."
The fifth and final email personality in The Daily Mail article is the LOLCat Sender who emails you everything from emojis to text abbreviations to the quote of the day.
"Right now, the inbox is so full of everything, let's not do that," said Sharon.
However, the five categories might not be enough. Sherry Cochran Hogan commented on Ryan Leckey's Facebook page saying that we should add "The Hinter."
"They hint that they want to say something, but don’t," said Sherry. "Such as "pray for me," "at the hospital," "near-death experience," please elaborate!"
Sheryl Vrabel wrote "I’m Always annoyed at the single word replier ...🤬"
Ann Davis Malysa, who admits to being an Over-Communicator, added "The Single Word Replier (really) annoys me!"
No matter what your email personality is, we wanted to know what can people do who are getting inundated with dozens of emails each day?
"Watch the 'reply all' right? So if an email is sent to a number of people and only you need to reply, just reply, don't reply all. Don't email like you text. Right. So, when you're replying to people, make sure your spelling is correct, your grammar is correct," added Sharon. "And if you're composing an email and you're not sure yet what verbiage you're using or how what tone you're setting, leave out the 'TO.' Don't send it to anyone just yet until you're done composing. Make sure the email is good to go and then put the person's name in that you're sending it to."
But judging by some of your comments on Ryan's Facebook page, some viewers would just rather not communicate by email at all.
As Chrissy Marie wrote, "Email? That’s so 1998! Text message is the way to go!"
Texting may be the way to go for many of us, but good old email is still high on the list of how we communicate these days.