Business E-mail and TANSTAAFL

When I first went online well over a decade ago, TANSTAAFL was the first acronym I ran into that I had no idea what it meant.

Most know about the commonly used acronyms like LOL (Laugh Online or Laugh Out Loud) and FYI (For Your Information). There are a ton of acronyms in existence that are not used as much (or used only within groups of folks who know what they mean) so to use them arbitrarily wouldn’t be a good idea.

When using acronyms in your business e-mail only do so sparingly. The “if you wouldn’t do it on business letterhead…” rule applies here too. Taking this approach helps to allow you stand out from the rest who take shortcuts thereby minimizing the professionalism and clarify of their business e-mails.

You also need to consider if the person other side will know what that acronym means. Otherwise what’s the point? Be very careful to not use acronyms with those you don’t know very well because you don’t know what they know and cannot assume they’ll understand your abbreviations. Acronyms are a very informal mode of communicating and when used in the wrong venue could be viewed as inappropriate or distract from the intent or meaning of your e-mail message.

A good rule of thumb is to use acronyms sparingly while always keeping in mind the intended party and situation. These are just a handful of acronyms I’ll use and only in less formal communications with those I’ve communicated with for some time:

BTW = By the way

TIA = Thanks in advance

HTH = Hope this helps

FWIW = For what it’s worth

LOL = Laugh out loud

If you are not sure of what an acronym stands for, use my favorite site:

AcronymFinder.com

HTH!

BTW, TANSTAAFL stands for “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch”. And boy does that apply to business success!

Some More Info for You:

1. NSFW = Not Safe For Work? What’s with that!?
2. E-mails Should Not be Manifestos
3. Business E-mail Replies: Take Time to Cool Off