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Check the tips on email and email attachments Email EtiquetteIntroductionSome people get upset with the abrupt exchanges in emails. This document is intended to offer guidance to new users of electronic mail (email) systems, who may have been used to all the subtle messages of the phone or face-to-face meetings. This guide is designed to help them over this emotional hurdle.BrevityKeep lines short. Emails are scanned rather than studied. Short sentences are easier to understand. Also, some email software does not perform word wrap, so your lines vanish off the right hand side of the receiver's screen. Email was designed for the old Teletype terminals which handled text from the 80-character-wide punch cards.Keep layout simple.Messages lose fancy fonts, colours or graphics when they are sent. At best your mails will contain meaningless characters. At worst, the inserted characters could freeze the receiver's system. Emails are for words. If you have a more complex document then attach it to the email.The Formalities: There aren't any but……SalutationsIn a non-business situation, skip the formalities. At most, include the person's name. In business, address a person in the form you would normally employ in a letter, such as: Dear Sir'. The other formalities such as their address and date are omitted in email.SignaturesYou do not sign an email. In business, it is advisable to include your name, address and phone number at the bottom of the message. If you represent an organisation, this is your signature block. Most software allows you to store this 'signature' information to save you time. Some people include what they regard as a witty quote or profound statement as part of their signature. Be careful, philosophy and humour do not travel well. Always keep the number of signature lines to three or less.SubjectThe subject line is important. It helps to prioritise the receiver's work. When replying most software adds 're' to the subject so it is clear that it is a reply to their original mail, but changes it when you change the subject.ThreadsIf you reply to a message in a newsgroup it becomes part of a thread. If you decide to change the title in the subject you start a new thread. This breaks the link between the original message, which makes it difficult for users to follow the sequence of messages. This becomes a big problem when you are dealing with newsgroups where several people may be replying to a message. The correct etiquette is to reply using the same title as this does not break the thread.And there are a few conventions……Too Much Punctuation!!!???Avoid excessive exclamation and question marks, 'bangs' in computer jargon. They are just another way to end a sentence. One is enough.Use of UPPER-CASE.Upper-case is the equivalent of shouting so be careful who you are emailing before resorting to capitals.Grammar and SpellingEnglish spelling is a nightmare but if the person you are mailing expects you to be literate, let the spell-checker go through it before you send it. At the very least, it will get rid of the typos. However, many emailers have a relaxed attitude to syntax and spelling.QuotesThe '>' in front of the text indicates to the recipient that the text is quoted from the original email so any line starting with a > was not written by the author. So the reply can quote the question and follow it with a brief response such as 'OK' or 'I agree'. The software often adds the quotes all by itself which can lead to a blizzard of >s if you are not careful. You can of course still use conventional 'quote marks'.AbbreviationsIn the quest to save keystrokes, users have traded clarity for confusion. Familiar abbreviations are used between friends. You risk confusing other recipients Here are some common abbreviations. Mobile phone text-messaging is increasing their use once again.
SmileysFacial expressions are an important part of conversation. As there are no visual cues with email, users have developed "smileys". They are put at the end of the sentence . They are simple strings of characters. You can find most of the punctuation marks to compose a smiley on most mobile phones!
And don't forget…..PrivacyThere is no such thing as a private email. In business the email administrator is legally entitled to read all messages. It is so easy to copy or forward emails to one or a group of friends that your little secret can be around the office in minutes and worldwide in hours. At home, friends and family can probably check your emails when they share the machine. Don't get dirty or devious in your emails, someone might publish them.Don't Be A NovelistNobody will win any literary prizes for email messages. They should be concise. Some people receive dozens of email messages each day. In business, long messages are ignored. Short messages can be scanned and dealt with and so they are effective. If you have several points to make try writing separate emails. A top tip would be to let your words lurk for a while before you send them. Lurking can prevent a lot of errors and dangerous overreaction.Flames'There is nowt so strange as folk'. You send a sensible email round a group of people and among the reasonable replies might be a 'flame' from someone who is offended. The best response is to ignore them and avoid a 'flame war'. Also avoid comments on spelling, punctuation, partners, looks, dress sense or sense of humour etc. Never use email to advertise. Most service providers have stopped outside 'spam' adverts so don't do an inside job to your little group.RememberYour email will reach its destination in moments, but don't expect an instant reply. The other person might not check their email for days. Email is designed for convenience, not for immediacy. If it's urgent, use your phone.Save a TreeOnly print emails if they have some contractual information such as booking details.And now the boring bits…Since you have made it this far, let's try some technical talk. Email is carried over a remarkable worldwide network of computers designed to survive Armageddon. Intranets work just like big brother but only work inside the organisation that created them. Many have a seamless link to the outside world but do not take this for granted.BBS, Newsgroups, Forums and the InternetThen along came bulletin boards which evolved into newsgroups, although some providers call their newsgroups 'forums'. Newsgroups allow people to share their thoughts on a particular topic with a wider community, as they collect related emails into topics called threads. At their peak there were perhaps 50,000 open and closed newsgroups. Next came the World Wide Web which allowed the sharing of much more than text. The web runs on the same, upgraded network as the old system. If you have access to the Internet, you should also have access to everything else that passes along the wires. Many newsgroups have evolved into websites but WAP phones might save newsgroups as they are an efficient way of sharing information. Check the FAQs and the other threads before you contribute to a newsgroup. You do this by downloading at least 100 old messages so that you can find out what is going on. It is just like joining a conversation. People can be blunt with their replies. RTFM is a frequent reply to a technical question so think before you post to the newsgroup. You might adopt an alias to protect your ego from the flames.Multiple emailsIt is one of the wonders of the Internet that you can not only download your mail wherever you are in the world, but you can also have lots of email addresses. You can choose which address you want to download and when. Once you have connected, you can access all of email accounts. The way to achieve this varies with the email software you use. You can download normal (POP3) email over any Internet connection, so you can inhabit numerous electronic identities as a serious business person, a harassed homemaker or an obsessive hobbyist. Just adopt 3 different email addresses.Good luck. © Charles Jones 2001 |
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