Email & Etiquette

Email is a fact of life for most people today. You usually have to read and write Email at work and for many of us we read and write Email at home. The only problem is there are those who are not aware of how annoying their habits are, or, they just don't care. A few things to make your Emails a bit more readable and less annoying to the rest of the world.

• Don't capitalize everything. This is the electronic version of shouting.


• Try to avoid sending the complete email to everyone. Cut out the portions that are relevent to your reply. Remember not everyone has high speed internet.

• Don't do a 'Reply All' if you don't need too. Too often I get a 'I agree' type of message when I don't really need to know that.
  

• Fancy paper backgrounds are fine, but, it is sometimes hard for some of us to read the text. Remember the KISS principle.


• When composing an email to someone who really pissed you off. Save the message as a draft and walk away from the machine for a while. When you come back review the note and ask youself... Can I say this to the face of the person I am sending this to rather than an email?


• Double check the name(s) of the recipient(s). There is nothing more embarrasing than sending a less than nice email about someone and they are one of the recipients of that email.


• Chain letters.... My favourite subject for going postal. After reading it I normally delete them. If you send a chain letter just think of this, after 6 generations if no one breaks the chain there will be 1,000,000 (one million) emails sent out (assuming 10 people).


• If you have a large file to send, try to remember to ask the recipient before sending. Some ISPs put a limit on the size of a persons inbasket.


• Remember your email is not private. It goes from network to network and if the admin wants to they can read your message. If you want privacy use the telephone or write a letter.