Tim Ratliff

SLM-521

Elective 12 – Email

June 21, 2006

ELECTIVE 12 – COMMUNICATION – EMAIL

TEN TIPS ON EMAIL USE FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND ADULTS

EMOTION:

Remember that email does not convey emotions, feelings, tone of voice, etc. When you are sending an email always remember to watch how your words “sound” by the font size, exclamations, etc that you use. Using the wrong emotion clues or none at all could completely alter the whole point of your message.

CONTEXT:

Always remember to make the context of your email clear. The best way to do this is to include some clue in your title. If it is urgent, needs response, etc, make sure the headline/title has some clue regarding that. Without a clue to the context, your message may not receive the attention that it deserves.

MEMORY:

If responding to a previous email, remember to add a small quote or portion of the original message to refresh the original senders memory. If you do not include this memory booster, the recipient may not understand your message and end up deleting it all together as junk.

PAPER TRAIL:

Be careful what you send in email! Emails leave a “paper” trail and could come back to help, or haunt, you. They may also be used in a court of law. An email that uses the wrong language or something like that could end up getting you in a lot of trouble with the law or with your school system.

FORMATTED TEXT:

Don’t use formatted texts because some email programs may have a hard time reading them and your message could become lost, deleted, or just not read because of the confusion. The simpler the better when it comes to your emails. If you don’t need to use a special format, you are advised not to.

ATTATCHMENTS:

When sending attachments, make sure they are clean of viruses and they are an appropriate size. As the article mentioned, people on the other end of an email will not be very happy to open a 200 MB file, no matter how funny or interesting it may be.

CONTACT SIGNATURE:

Try to include some of your basic contact information in the email. At work, we use Microsoft Outlook, which allows you to create a signature. If your email program does not allow you to create a signature, try and add the basics at the end of each email you send such as name, phone, email address, etc. Without the proper information, the recipient may not be able to respond to your message quckly.

MESSAGE LENGTH:

KEEP IT SHORT. Keep all your messages short and to the point. Email is supposed to be a fast and convenient way of communicating. Nobody wants to be sifting through a long letter when all they need is a few sentences about the subject.

TIMELINESS:

Try and check your email at least once a day so that you can respond to messages in an appropriate amount of time. This applies to work, school, or personal email. The whole point of email is to avoid the delays of snail mail or a phone call that could be missed, so take advantage.

AUDIENCE:

Craft all of your emails for the appropriate audience. If sending an email to a friend, coworker, etc, a smiley face may be appropriate. When sending an email to your boss or teacher, other forms of expression may be more appropriate such as font size or using exclamations, etc. Each email you write is unique and you need to make sure you understand you your audience is.