If email is new to you, it's easy to offend someone by breaking the *understood*
rules of appropriate behavior. Rules governing polite virtual conduct are usually
referred to as "Netiquette." The following are a few guidelines to help get you
off to a good start... Contact us if you have any questions.
In general:
- Remember that you're using a computer, not talking to one. You're writing to a person.
- Email is a conversation that does not require an immediate response (like a telephone does). With email, you send a message and wait for a response (which may come in 5 minutes or 5 days). You can answer it on your own time, which is nice. However, don't assume that the minute someone receives an email, they will immediately open it and read it. Email is not designed for immediacy, but convenience.
- Assume that the messages that you send and receive are permanent and public. Don't say anything in email that you would not want to be made public or forwarded to others (because it could happen).
- Be aware that email might not be as private as you would really like. If confidentiality and privacy are very important, it might be advisable and more appropriate to use other ways to communicate your message.
- Be mindful about who you forward messages to. Why? With email, it's so easy to send a copy of your message to 20 people with only a few keystrokes (often just out of habit). In general, this is rude. Before you send a copy of an email to someone, ask yourself if this is something they really need to know. If the answer is no, don't send it to them. That way, when you have something you really want them to see, they'll probably actually read it.
Always do the following:
- Always type a subject in the "Subject Line." Many people delete messages with no subject wthout even looking at them (they look too much like advertisements).
- Always use common courtesy. Be nice. Say hello at the start of the message and goodbye at the end (this guarantees that you'll get a better response).
- Always try to avoid trivial or unnecessary responses. As a receiver, it's not necessary to reply to every message.
- Always use punctuation and proper capitalization, but not too much!!!!!!!!!!!! You'll see lots of email where there are a dozen exclamation points at the end of a sentence for added emphasis (as above). Big deal. If something is important, it should be reflected in the words you use, not in your punctuation.
- Always include your email address at the close of your message, along with your name. Email programs generally have your email address in the header at the top of the message, but sometimes it gets hidden in a lot of the code. If you want someone to get back in touch with you, make it easy for them and you'll get better results.
- Always include your real name. If you can't put your name on the email, maybe you shouldn't be sending it anyway.
Never do the following:
- NEVER, EVER, write your message
in all uppercase letters. This is called "shouting" and it is considered very
rude! The only time uppercase should be used is to make a specific point and
then, only very sparingly.
- Never forward a "chain letter" email (regardless
of how "good natured" it sounds). This is nothing but a superstitious waste
of time and will cause people to start deleting your email without ever reading
it, if they start expecting these messages.
- Never email anyone an advertisement unless
you are good friends. This practice is known as "spamming" and will actually
get you kicked off of many networks.
- Never forward a message unless you know it
to be true! Forwarding someone a message about the latest virus that's going
to melt their computer may seem like a nice thing to do, but its really just
a waste of everyone's time (and the system's bandwidth). MANY of these turn
out to be false alarms anyway. Better to check a site like this
one and find out if it's real or not.
