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E-mail |
Faculty |
Good Email Etiquette
 | Do try
to think about the message content before you send it out.
| Do make
sure that the content is relevant to the recipients. (This is
especially important to consider prior to e-mailing the entire campus
with a message.)
| Do be
polite. Terseness can be misinterpreted.
| Do trim
any quoted message down as much as possible.
| Do try
to use humor and irony sparingly. You can use smileys
such as :) or :( to indicate facial expressions, but
make sure that the recipient understands what they mean. Communication
between humans is approximately 90% body language, 8% tone of voice,
and 2% what you say. With email, you remove the first 98%. Be aware of
this when you write emails. Be very obvious with your meanings, since
subtleties will be lost or completely misunderstood.
| Do ensure
that you have a relevant "Subject" line. Many
e-mails are deleted because the subject line was not clear, making
them seem like junk mail or spam.
| Do try
to quote from the original message where relevant. You can
break the quoted message down into paragraphs and comment on them
individually to make it clearer.
| Do be
patient, especially with inexperienced email users. Give people
the benefit of the doubt - just because you are familiar with email
etiquette, it doesn't mean that they are.
| Do include
a brief signature on your email messages to help the recipient
understand who it is from, especially if you are dealing with someone
you do not know very well.
| Do be
careful when replying to mailing list messages, or to messages
sent to many recipients. Are you sure you want to reply to the whole
list?
| Do remember
to delete anything that isn't needed or is trivial.
| Do remember
to tell people the format of any attachments you send if
they're anything other than basic Microsoft Office file types.
| Do tell
your correspondent if you forward
a message to somebody else to deal with, so they know who to expect a
reply from.
| Do use
emphasis where its
useful to do so. If your email system doesn't allow bold or italics
then a common convention is to use a *star* either side of the word
you want to stress.
| Do use
the person's name to begin your e-mail message. Launching right into
the content can be interpreted as rude. | Do use
the blind carbon copy field when
sending e-mail to a large group of people who don't all know one
another. This ensures that each person on the list will see only their
name, respecting the privacy of the different individuals to whom you
are sending the message. | Do proof
read and edit your message before sending it. | |
Bad Email Etiquette
| Don't reply
to an email message when angry , as you may regret it later.
Once the message has been sent, you will not be able to recover it.
| Don't
keep mail on your server longer than necessary, especially
large attachments.
| Don't copy
out an entire, long message just to add a line or two of
text such as "I agree".
| Don't
type in CAPITALS as this is considered to be SHOUTING.
This is one of the rudest things you can do.
| Don't
over-use punctuation such as exclamation
marks
("!") as these are meant to be for emphasis. In particular
avoid more than one exclamation mark ("!!"), especially if
your email is quite formal. Also, over-use of the full-stop (e.g.
"....") can make a message difficult to read.
| Don't
send irrelevant messages, especially to mailing lists or
newsgroups.
| Don't
send large attachments without checking with the recipient
first.
| Don't
send excessive multiple postings to people who
have no interest. This is known as "spamming" and is
considered to be ignorant, and may lead to serious trouble with your
Internet Service Provider (ISP) or IT department.
| Don't
send chain letters or "make money fast"
messages. There are several hoaxes about to do with viruses -
never pass these on without checking with your IT department first.
| Don't
criticize people's spelling, it is considered petty. Many
people have no way of running a spell check on their messages and will
make typos. Not all nationalities spell words in the same way.
| Don't
conduct arguments in public, for example on a mailing list.
| Don't
"flame" people by sending them abusive email
messages.
| Don't
make personal remarks about third parties. Email
messages can come back to haunt you.
| Don't
send unsuitable email or attachments, especially anything of a
sexual nature as they may well be found by a third party later.
| Don't
use an over-elaborate signature on your email message.
Never, ever, use scanned images in a signature as these tend to be
very large.
| Don't
mark things as urgent if
they aren't, because then when you really do have an urgent message it
may not be treated in the way it deserves.
| Don't
post your email address on web sites and other public parts of the
Internet unless you want to be deluged with spam. | |
Adapted from the following source:
Longmore, Conrad. Dymanoo.com. November 2004. July 2005. http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/etiquette.htm
.Roger Clarke’s Netethiquette Cases
Net-Ethiquette Mini Case Studies of Dysfunctional Human Behavior on the Net. A lengthy list of poor or abusive practices on the Internet which are to be avoided.
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/II/Netethiquettecases
Netiquette - Virginia Shea
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html
Net Etiquette
http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/netting/email/extras/netiquette.html
The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette, by
Arlene Rinaldi
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/netiquette.html
Chat Etiquette / Chat Protocol
http://dragon.minopher.net.au/WebEd/protocol.htm
Netiquette - Using the Internet
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/netiquet.htm
Open Directory - Computers: Internet: Etiquette
Provides guidance on how to use e-mail and the
Internet in various social situations.
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Etiquette/
About Internet for Beginners (netiquette and email
etiquette)
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/09netiqt.htm
Business Netiquette International with link to
International Addresses and Salutations
http://www.bspage.com/1netiq/Netiq.html
Sources for Emoticons and Acronyms:
Common Emoticons and Acronyms
http://www.pb.org/emoticon.htmlNetLingo Dictionary of Internet Words
http://www.netlingo.com/smiley.cfmCKNOW.COM
37 pages of Emoticons: Definitions / Acronyms / Abbreviations
http://www.cknow.com/ckinfo/emoticons.htmUseful Internet Emoticons - Dave Barry in Cyberspace
Contains the Emoticon Gallery - make your own emoticon
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/davebarry/emoticon.html
List taken from:
Faculty Technology Center. Southern Illinois University. WebCT Student Orientation Site. Sept. 9, 2003. July 2005. http://www.library.siue.edu/ftc/student/webct_etiquette.htm