Let's start with an example: Here's an email I received in request for more information on our seminars.

From: [Sender's name eliminated to prevent embarrassment] 
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2000 2:40 AM
To: Educator@worldnet.att.net
Subject: thanks for replying

Hello sir,

How r u i need ur invitation card i want to attend ur seminar
i am to intrested plz send ur invitation card i hope ur sending me ur
invitation card thankss waiting ur reply
bye

First, let me assure any doubters that this is a real email: I get so many like it that I don't have to make a single one up for this article (that's why I'm writing it, in fact). Analyzing the above message, what can we say? First, that this person spends a lot of time in chat rooms, because the 'shorthand' employed in the message is similar to the letter-for-word substitution methods that many chatters employ to save keystrokes. While appropriate in informal chat, shorthand is absolutely not meant for email. Would this very same person, had they sent a printed letter on company letterhead, have typed this way? I seriously doubt it. Now can you imagine what a reply from him to a customer must look like? Sale lost, I suspect. Of course, we sent him a complimentary invitation to our Exceptional Email Skills class. 

Email is a very special form of communication; it's the instant version of the business correspondence letter that used to take hours (in the days of typewriters and secretaries) or at least many minutes (in the days of word processors and printing) to compose, fit on letterhead, spell-check and proofread. Although it is more "instant" than these previous methods, it nonetheless plays the same role that they did: representing your company image, style and content to customers. For all intents and purposes, your email message is your company to the same extent that marketing materials, business cards, office decor, your dress, any of the ways you conduct your services are likewise your company. Email correspondence says a lot about your company.

Let's try another: Imagine walking into a clothing store and asking for help finding a shirt. You locate a clerk and ask for the proper aisle. The clerk stares at you for 5 minutes without saying a word. You sense you are not going to get any help, so you walk away and look around the store yourself. When you find the shirts, you pick out two and proceed to checkout. As you are paying, the checkout clerk asks if anyone helped you locate those shirts (to allocate the sales commission) and you begin to say no, whereupon the sales clerk suddenly appears and starts babbling about all the fine shirts she can help you find and would be happy to be of service.... You leave the store.

Sounds weird? Then try this statistic: 85% of REALTORS® in an online sampling by the National Association of REALTORS® failed to reply to an initial inquiry about an online property listing within 48 hours. The metaphoric story above is the retail equivalent of the millions of business people who check their email maybe once a day, if not once a week. You can probably think of dozens of emails you have sent that have gone unanswered or, if replies did come, they were after you had completed your purchase somewhere else. These same people would never let their voice mail go unchecked for more than an hour or would gladly take a cell phone call in the middle of a crowded theater; yet they treat their online customers with a "when I get a chance" attitude. If you publish a street address, you check your mailbox, right? If you publish a phone number, you pick it up when it rings, no? It's just common sense. If you check your email only twice a week, to the customer, the message is clear: you just don't take your online business seriously, so caveat emptor. 

Consider this message:

From: Hahaha 
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 8:40 AM
To: Educator@worldnet.att.net
Subject: Snow White and Seven Dwarfs

Ok, I'm not going to copy in the full message text; you may recognize the header as the once-popular Hybris, or Snow White virus, which I got at least 7-10 times per week. Why, you might ask, did so many copies of this virus arrive in my Inbox more frequently than my phone bill? Simple: students I teach each week have entered my email address into hundreds of address books. And, sadly but evidently, many of them did not pay attention when I covered the purchase, installation and proper use of AntiVirus software! As a result, I have to be on my toes every day because business owners in my class don't take their email seriously.

While I'm diligent (ok, neurotic) about updating my antivirus definitions and knowledge, what worries me more are the countless prospects, clients and past clients who are also in the address book of these business people. They could be getting copies of viruses too! Imagine the effect on the consumer when the last thing they see as their computer is about to crash is the name of your company! Even if they recover their hard drive, you'll never recover their confidence.

One more email example should wrap this subject up. What ever happened to the days of actual "correspondence?" Business schools should start dusting off those old copies of the AMA Style Guide for Business Writing and reopen their remedial business skills courses. Little things like writing "Dear" and "Thank you" in the heading and closing of the message; checking spelling; using capital letters; and general writing skills. Certainly, business people do not have to become the Charles Dickens of correspondence but they should definitely look much less than e.e. cummings.

Example: 

From: [Sender's name eliminated to prevent embarrassment] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 7, 2001 5:57 PM
To: Educator@worldnet.att.net
Subject: top producer

matt, i met you at a trade show and want to hire you for some to producer
work, please email me and also leave a tel. no. that i can reach you day or 
nite, thanks.......... me   my tel. no. xxx-xxx-xxxx thanks
again.... me

Now, I can understand that some people still don't know there are two buttons on the mouse (yes, there are, look again) but come on: There are two shift keys and a caps lock key on the keyboard. Do you think you could capitalize a sentence or two? Sure, the sender's name was in the From line, so he could have left the message unsigned, but signing it "me" makes me wonder what his business card says on it. And while potentially acceptable on a sticky note, the word "nite" generally must be accompanied by "good" or "to-" to be useful in business correspondence. 

Need I go on? I hope not. To make a long story short, keep this in mind: How you write is almost as important as what you write. You don't have to be infallible but you do have to pay attention. As an educational article, better we laugh here at these stories and examples than the consumer laugh at your email before pressing the dreaded delete key.