FREE online courses on Electronic Mail Etiquette - Message Length Content
and Format
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Try to match your message length to the
tenor of the conversation: if you are only making a quick query, then keep it
short and to the point.
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In general, keep to the subject as much
as possible. If you need to branch off onto a totally new and different topic
then it's often better to send a new message, which allows the recipient the
option of filing it separately.
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Don't type your message in all
uppercase - it's extremely difficult to read (although a short stretch of
uppercase may serve to emphasize a point heavily). Try to break your message
into logical paragraphs and restrict your sentences to sensible lengths.
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Use correct grammar and spelling.
Electronic mail is all about communication - poorly worded and misspelt messages
are hard to read and potentially confusing. Just because electronic mail is fast
does not mean that it should be slipshod, yet the worst language mashing I have
ever seen has been done in e-mail messages. If your words are important enough
to write, then they're also important enough to write properly.
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Avoid public "flames" - messages sent
in anger. Messages sent in the heat of the moment generally only exacerbate the
situation and are usually regretted later. Settle down and think about it for a
while before starting a flame war. (Try going and making yourself a cup of
coffee - it's amazing how much you can cool down even in that short a time,
besides which a cup of good coffee is a great soother).
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If your mail program supports fancy
formatting (bold, italic and so on) in the mail messages it generates, make sure
that the recipient has a mail program that can display such messages. At the
time of writing, most Internet mail programs do not support anything other than
plain text in messages, although this will change over time.
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Be very careful about including credit
card numbers in electronic mail messages. Electronic mail can be intercepted in
transit and a valid credit card number is like money in the bank for someone
unscrupulous enough to use it.
