This article originally started as one of the points in the email etiquette article I wrote. But I quickly realized this one point has a number of issues to address on its own. For that reason, I decided to give it it’s own deserved article.
First, to clear up the conversation, it is necesasry to define what each of the sending options is. I have found there are a considerable number of people who use email every day and do not know what these sending methods are or how to use them.
Every time a sender sends an email, they have the option to address the message in at least one of three ways…
TO: – this method sends the email directly to one or more recipients. The message is considered directly conversing with the recipient(s).
CC: – this method is meant to include a 3rd party to a conversation. The sender is not speaking directly to the 3rd party, but merely including them in the conversation.
BCC: – this method is used when the email sender wants to covertly include someone in the conversation without the knowledge or consent of anyone else in the email conversation. It is rarely appropriate to do so, but the most appropriate time to use this is mentioned below.
Now that we’ve established what the three methods of addressing are, here are the most common misuses of these tools…
BCCing – as mentioned above, it is rarely appropriate to blind carbon-copy someone in an email conversation. The other recipients in the conversation deserve to know who all is in the conversation. This equates to introducing everyone to a caller on speakerphone. A caller placed on speakerphone deserves to know who else is in the room and/or listening to the conversation. Anything less is just unprofessional.
Including a CC – The starter of an email conversation usually sets the stage for who is included in an email conversation. It is good email etiquette to get the permission of the original sender before including a new party to the conversation. It is generally unacceptable to simply reply to the sender including someone the sender did not initially include.
Exposing addresses in mailing lists – Addresses in the CC field are visible to everyone on the list. Therefore, it is almost never appropriate to include the addresses of recipients on a mailing list in the TO or CC fields. Those addresses should always be placed in the BCC field. The simple reason is to prevent disclosing those addresses to others on the list when not all recipients are known to the others. At the very least, sending an email where every recipient can see every other recipient’s address opens the door to spamming issues. It is equivalent to divulging someone’s personal information to complete strangers. Only small lists of close friends or acquaintances would be acceptable for CCing. Even then, it isn’t safe to assume a recipient wants their information displayed to others.
Sending to Self – although this technically isn’t a misuse, it is more of a point of not understanding how the medium works. No harm comes from not doing it correctly…this is more of an efficiency point. I find people sending to a mailing list correctly with the recipients in the BCC putting their own email address in the TO field, as if the email won’t send without something in the TO field. Emails will send normally with recipients in the BCC only, so there is no need to include oneself in the TO field. Also, I have noticed people copying themselves on an email so they have record of that email. This is also unnecessary because all email programs and systems by default record every outbound email and keep copies of those emails in the ‘Sent Items’ folder. Copying one’s self on an email is just extra clutter for the inbox.