It’s eerily easy to misuse email. Kristin
J. Arnold’s new book Email
Basics: Practical Tips to Improve Team Communication
($6.95), the second book in QPC Press’s Extraordinary
Team series, will prevent such email nightmares. Email
Basics covers all bases, from figuring out how
your team can most effectively use the technology, to writing,
editing and addressing messages, handling attachments and managing
your inbox.
Email Basics
is an ideal gift for any email beginner. All terminology is
clearly defined, and appendices include lists of acronyms and
emoticons (you know, those smiley faces – and you won’t
believe the variations). The author even added a handy and timesaving
index for quick reference.
But don’t think that this book is just
for the novice – far from it. Seasoned users will also
discover useful information. When was the last time you evaluated
your email communications’ effectiveness? For example,
are you sending out messages addressing more than one point?
Email Basics
explains why multiple messages are the best way to convey multiple
issues. Don’t pay much attention to your subject line?
You will after reading this book. And the DRAFS method will
make your inbox a lot less scary Monday morning. Finally, sometimes
email is not your best communication vehicle. This book helps
you figure out when another method works best.
Author Kristin J. Arnold writes in the preface
that the book itself began as an email she sent to clients and
friends soliciting email tips. The responses she received formed
the heart of the published book, and filled a void she learned
about: most business teams don’t establish ground rules
for how they will use email to communicate.
Kristin Arnold is the author of Team Basics:
Practical Strategies for the Team Success, an accomplished author
and editor of several professional articles and audiocassette
tapes, as well as a featured columnist in The Daily Press, a
Chicago Tribune newspaper. As a master facilitator, Kristin
has years of team-building and facilitation experience. Kristin
Arnold is regarded as an expert in team development, facilitation
and process improvement techniques.