E-mail Etiquette 101

E-mail has become ubiquitous. Because it is so cheap and available for everyone, everyone uses it. Unfortunately, many of us misuse it, too. Here are some “rules of the road” for the Internet superhighway.

•           Assume the messages you send and receive are permanent and public. It might not be as private as you may wish.

•           When you receive a message intended for another person, forward it with a short explanation.

•           Don’t forward bogus virus warnings. Please don’t scare folks unnecessarily!

•           Don’t send unsolicited e-mail, putting the onus on the recipient to unsubscribe.

•           Offer a “thank you” when requesting/receiving assistance to an e-mail inquiry. It’s just polite!

•           Don’t forward jokes or e-mail without any comment from the forwarder. Don’t forget: All the addresses that you forwarded to are visible in the cc field!

•           Don’t forward or edit an e-mail message without the original sender’s consent, especially when the sender may consider the contents sensitive.

•           Don’t e-mail site owners without first checking to see if the information you seek is available there on the site.

•           Remember that writing styles may cause some messages to come across as sounding abrupt or even antagonistic. Sarcasm is read without inflection and comes across as hatred or anger.

•           Writing in all uppercase letters tends to convey anger or shouting.

•           Breaking up text using short lines and paragraphs with spaces between is helpful in keeping your message readable.

•           Using lists and indentation helps make your points stand out clearly.

•           Keep your message focused allows for better e-mail management.

•           Avoid the use of backgrounds making text easier to read.

•           Check the spelling.

By Paul Reklaitis