Navigating email can be tricky, especially with the different address fields available. Here’s a clear breakdown of when to use each one, ensuring you communicate effectively and professionally.
To: When You Need a Direct Response
This is the primary address field for recipients who are the direct audience of your message. Use the To: field when:
- You are addressing someone who needs to take action.
- You expect a direct response.
- The email is sent to a small, related group where everyone is equally involved.
Cc: For Keeping Others in the Loop
The Cc: (carbon copy) field is for recipients who need to be aware of the email but are not the primary audience. Use Cc: when:
- You’re sending an email to a supervisor and want your team members to know about it.
- You are providing an update to a colleague who doesn’t need to take action.
- You want to maintain transparency in a group conversation.
Bcc: For Protecting Recipient Privacy
The Bcc: (blind carbon copy) field hides the addresses of its recipients from everyone else on the email. It’s an essential tool for protecting privacy and should be used when sending an email to a large, unrelated group of people.
- Protect privacy: When sending an email to a large list, such as a holiday greeting or a general announcement, put all the recipients in the Bcc: field. This prevents everyone’s email addresses from being shared with strangers and protects them from spam.
- Prevent “Reply All” storms: It also prevents recipients from accidentally hitting “Reply All,” which can cause inbox clutter for everyone involved.
The Polite Way to Forward an Email
Forwarding can be a great way to share information, but a messy, cluttered forwarded message is unprofessional and hard to read. Here’s how to clean up your emails before you send them.
1. Clean up the Header Information
Before you hit “Send,” delete all unnecessary header information. This includes:
- Previous recipients’ email addresses
- Old subject lines
- Previous comment threads
This makes the message cleaner and focuses the reader’s attention on the content you want to share.
2. Strip out the Forwarding Indents
Forwarded emails often have multiple layers of “greater than” symbols (“>”) that make the message hard to read.
- For Apple Mail: Highlight the entire message, go to the Format menu, and select Quote Level > Decrease.
- For Microsoft Entourage: Use Edit > Auto Text Cleanup > Remove Quoting.
- For other email clients: Check your formatting or editing menus for similar options. The ability to remove quoting or clean up formatting is a standard feature in most email applications.
