Jeff Dyke

SLM521

Elective 6

 

 

Email

 

* This list on effective email communication is intended for middle school students grades 6 through 8.

 

  1. Use useful subject lines. Subject lines should be short and should contain a clue to the contents of the message. Subject lines should not be a complete sentence and should not be long, because many users will skip over them. A good example of a useful subject line would be the ones we are using for this class. Ex. SLM521-Dyke-Email. That subject line tells you it is for this class it is my work and which assignment it is.

 

  1. If your email is in response to another email, your software will most likely add RE: into the subject line. If your software does not do this, you should put RE: in yourself so the person knows that this is a reply to something he or she has written already.

 

  1. If your message is time critical you should put the Word Urgent: in the subject line. For requests you should start your subject line with REQ: this will signal that action is needed. Finally if you are sending information that is not urgent and that does not require a response it would be nice to put FYI: in the subject line. All these subject line headings will help you to write efficient email and communicate effectively.

 

  1. If you are responding to a previous email, you should quote the document to provide context. Quoting the document is another way to effectively communicate using email. When quoting the document > sign. The > sign is the most conventional way to quote someone else’s mail words. Once you have quoted the document you can reply to the mail and it will be much easier for the receiver to read and comprehend.

 

  1. Another way to communicate effectively on the internet is to remove pronouns from your response. If the pronoun doesn’t relate to something explicit in the email change them to something more concrete. This will make you a more effective email communicator.

 

  1. When using different types of text in your email, keep in mind the receiver’s capabilities. You man want to use bold lettering, italics, etc, but some computer programs only understand plain text so keep that in mind when you are writing your emails.

 

  1. Web documents are difficult to read with some older email programs. If you have the choice of sending the web page as text or html, keep the receivers capabilities in mind.

 

  1. Another tip for effective email is to type in http:// before your URL’s. Almost all software recognized the http:// at the front so if there is a URL in your email it is a safe bet to include the http:// before it.

 

  1. It is almost always better to post large documents on the Web and email the URL instead of the file. If you don't have that option, please email your correspondents first and ask them if they can handle a large attachment of that format.

 

  1. Eliminate the word “information” from your subject line. Just writing the word information gives the receiver no idea as to what the contents of the email are. If you are to use the word information make sure you put in some clues as to what the content of the email is so the receiver will easily be able to make sense of the information.