E-MAIL ETIQUETTE

Electronic mail is informal--more like a telephone conversation than a memo. Conversations of single lines are quite common.

E-mail has no hard and fast rules about what may be said in a message. However, since this correspondence goes out over a shared resource, some general rules of etiquette should be observed.

Be brief and to the point.

A long e-mail message, just like a long letter, is hard to wade through. Most e-mail messages are short since the message turnaround time is generally short.

Abbreviations of common phrases may be used when the correspondents understand the "jargon":

IMHO (in my humble opinion)		BTW (by the way)

OTOH (on the other hand)		F2F (face-to-face)

FAQ (frequently asked questions)	FYI (for your information) 

Automatic quoting is a unique capability within e-mail that enables maintaining a record of conversations without retyping anything. This feature employs an angle bracket (>) which defines context included from previous messages to facilitate picking up the thread of the conversation:

sender's message 

From: steve@kci.com

To: bob@pub.com

Subject: rbw manual revision? 

What's the current status of the RBW manual revision? 

respondent's reply 

From: bob@pub.com

To: steve@kci.com

Subject: Re: rbw manual revision? 

>What's the current status of the RBW manual revision? 

It's done, except for the actual writing samples. I'll have a

final draft ready by Friday. 

Including context through the use of the automatic quoting feature is very helpful since replies can be misunderstood in the exchange of a great number of e-mail messages where context has not been included.

You can gently prod someone who does not include context by including your own context when you reply.

Restrict messages to those who "need to know."

Limit the recipients of an e-mail message. It's impolite to send a message to hundreds when only a few are directly affected. Sending junk mail to others without their prior approval is equally impolite. It also unnecessarily ties up network resources.

Use emphasis techniques to facilitate understanding.

Because e-mail is less formal than paper mail, we tend to be less careful about what we write. It's easy to be misunderstood, since words in an electronic message do not convey body language or speech inflection which provide valuable communication clues in a face-to-face conversation.

You must help the readers of your messages to "see your face" and "hear your voice" as they read your words.

A number of conventions may be employed to communicate our "mood" as we write:

• Because italicizing text is usually not possible in
  e-mail, use asterisks (*) to set off words that
  are emphasized:

I *must have* your report by Friday morning. 

• Use boldface or all capitals to communicate
  strong emotions, like anger or shouting. This
  technique can be effective only if it is not
  overused.

• Use emoticons to convey other moods.
  Emoticons are symbols put together to look
  like sideways smiley faces, sad faces, etc. The
  symbol : - ) means "just kidding" or the
  previous phrase or sentence was a joke. Other
  symbols in the same vein are:

;-)	winking smiley face

:-(	frowning face

:-)>	smiley face sticking its tongue out 

With e-mail, as it is with any communication, misunderstanding is the natural state of events. Always be sure to give correspondents the benefit of the doubt when unsure about their mood. If a message's meaning is ambiguous, ask for clarification before jumping to conclusions.