When To Use CC And BCC on Email

The commonly use address when writing an email is ‘To’. We know exactly that the recipient’s email address or name should be written on the first address bar when you create a new message. Nevertheless, there are other two options below it, the CC or carbon copy and the BCC or blind carbon copy.

If you are sending an email to one person only, naturally you use the ‘To’ address option. When you are sending a mail to more than one, you have to know the best and proper way to address the other mail recipient.

When you receive an email from someone, what do you notice? As an email writing expert, I am so keen about the way the sender use the three address options. It is somewhat annoying when you receive a mail with lots of other addresses listed next to your name, people you do not know. I would say that this is a poor etiquette manner when it comes to email handling. Aside from that, it also invite undesirable uses to some when they forward the message, naturally those who are on the lists will also receive the forwarded messages, which is very unethical.

When someone gives you their email address, either by sending you a message or by directly giving you the email address, there is the understanding on the person that you will not expose or give his or her mail address to any one, just as you do not want yours to be given to people also.

We know exactly that in the internet world, privacy is always been a big issue. This concern will continue to grow if we won’t change our thinking towards using the email properly. Today the biggest concern is those spam messages we receive on our mails. My inbox folder for example has more or less 50 spam messages daily. This however can be avoided by simply using the proper addressing, such as proper use of To, CC and BCC.

So, as an internet mail user, what should we do? Let’s take a closer look on the use of BCC first. BCC or blind carbon copy is used to hide all the address lists from the ‘To’ recipient. It means that, if you are the first recipient on ‘To’, you will not know that there are other email recipient who is reading the conversation between you and the sender.

The use of CC or carbon copy however is different. Here, the ‘To’ recipient can see who else are reading the message sent to him or her. The CC is use when the first email recipient does not know the other person who is suppose to receive the same mail. That is giving respect to the person and at the same time avoid bulky address on the ‘To’ address option.

If you are the person who frequently sends a message to groups, it is advisable that you create a group list. This will save you time selecting all the mail addresses on your address book. You can use the BCC or blind carbon copy to send the message to the whole group.