Top 8 Sentences That Reflect Poor Email Etiquette

So I was writing an email to my boss the other day and I came across an email that I had written for the first time in my career. That’s right, the first email that I had ever written and I came across so many sentences that I should not have used at all. That’s right. There are so many sentences, so many lines that should never ever feature in your professional emails. Well, that’s what we are going to talk about today, 8 Sentences That Reflect Poor Email Etiquette.

1 – It’s not a high priority

We are talking about eight lines that should absolutely never ever feature on your business emails. That’s right. So the first one on my list is, “it’s not a high priority but…” that’s right. Now imagine you are writing an email to your boss or to your colleague or to somebody who is in another company or in another firm and you start your email with, “it’s not a high priority but I request you to look into a certain matter.”

Now tell me one thing why would you be writing to somebody if it was not a priority or high priority? Right? I mean I understand there are priorities and there are high priorities and there are highest priorities. And every person is capable of deciding for himself or herself on what priority a certain task is.

So why would you want to write that down? I would suggest that instead of writing it’s not priority or it’s not high priority, you just begin your email with the regular greetings and continue to list out the task or the favor that you are requesting and leave it for the other person who is the reader to decide whether or not it is priority for them. And if it is priority make sure that you actually mention that at the end by saying, “I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible, thank you.”

2 – You’re probably too busy

Now another line that cannot be part of your business emails is, “you’re probably too busy but…” Now, why would you want to brand someone as too busy or too free or too whatever else? You just write your requirement or you just give out the information that you have to give out through your email and let the other person read and decide what course of action he or she wants to take.

Branding someone as too busy can come across as you being sarcastic of almost disrespectful in the present scenario which is considered very, very strict in terms of professional email etiquette.

3 – You don’t know me

Now another line that should absolutely never feature in your business emails is, “you don’t know me but….” I mean common that is hilarious, isn’t it?

This means reminds me of an email that I had received a long time back from someone that I didn’t know. and the email started with you don’t know me but I must tell you to take I work in the office adjacent to your office and I’m kind of looking to switch to your company, can you help me? And the end the person had written thanks and his name.

I thought that was hilarious and if you ever have to write to someone whom you don’t know from before, make sure you never write the line you don’t know me coz that would really, really put off the reader instead why don’t you take that opportunity to introduce yourself properly, your full name, your designation and your intention of writing the email.

That will make the reader sit up and take notice of why you are writing the email, who you are and make sure that the reader reads your email and then you will get your desired response. So make sure never use the line, you don’t know me, that’s a complete no-no.

4 – You can pass along this email to

Now another line that I’ve come across in emails which I find really funny and which should never be included in a business email is, “can you please pass along this email to so and so.” Isn’t that funny? Imagine you want to write to A regarding some work, you don’t know A.

So you write to B and request B to pass along your email to A. Trust me in the professional world this is considered absolutely rude and impolite and don’t ever do this. Don’t ever include the line, can you please pass along this email to so and so, XYZ in your email because that’s considered against the professional etiquette.

5 – This might not apply to you

Now imagine receiving an email that says, “This might not apply to you but I’d still like to share”, okay. That brings me to the question if this might not apply to me. Why are you sharing the information with me?. So make sure that whenever you are writing a business email it is relevant to the person you are writing it too.

You cannot write random information to a person. If it does not apply to that person and more so you cannot write the line which says. This might not apply to you coz I don’t think any person who is really busy in the corporate world is ever going to read your email beyond that line if you use the line. This might not apply to you.

6 – I’m not an expert

Well, another line that you must absolutely stay away from in business emails is, “I’m no expert but….”. Now if you are not an expert, your opinion is definitely not appreciated.

Now there are times you want to give an important opinion or you want to give some feedback and you may not be an expert on that subject for that matter. But you can just give your feedback anyway and leave it for the other person to decide whether or not they want to take your feedback.

But do not state that you are not an expert because then your opinion will not be taken seriously at all and if I were that person. Who you are writing to, promise you I wouldn’t even read your email after that.

7 – Please excuse any typos

So I had a colleague who was really funny and he used to write at the end of his emails, the very, very absolutely unacceptable line, please excuse any typos in there may be any in this email. And I was appalled at just reading that.

Why would you ever write such a line in your email? The only reason that you would do something like this is that you are too lazy to read your email after writing it. You are too lazy to spell check it, you are too lazy to correct the punctuation and grammar errors before hitting the send button.

Do not make this mistake coz it makes you come across as lazy and lax at your work. So do not write this line and better still read your email, check it properly and then send it.

8 – No response needed

Now one last line that I absolutely want to caution you about is the line, no response needed. I actually receive so many emails telling me that they like my videos; they like my work and at the end, people write no response needed.

Well, thank you very much for your compliments but I promise you if I feel like responding. I will and if I probably don’t have the time to respond, I may not. But you do not need to write this in your email at any point in time. Neither at the beginning nor at the end.

You must leave it for the reader to decide for himself or herself whether or not he finds it necessary to respond to your email. So definitely this is the line that you want to lose and that line is, no response needed. I’m telling you, this line not needed.