Quick Summary

• Read your mail every day
• Always send an answer to all Emails immediately
• Make the subject line useful and meaningful
• Summarise your message in the first sentence
• Keep it simple and avoid jargon and cyberspeak
• Always be polite and positive
• Avoid including documents, and minimise attachments
• Sign off with your name and optionally your URL

	Email is not secure Just watch your language
	Privacy How to keep your secrets

Addressing

• Addressee is already shown on the upper banner. It is also pleasant to start off the body of the message with the addressee's first name, example: Andrew, or if you are very familiar, perhap Hi Andrew.

• Subject must be meaningful. Words like Help, or Problem, are not useful. What is needed is the subject of the question. Many people will skip unread, any messages that are not obviously interesting to them, or where the subjects are not meaningful. Subjects should also be unique perhaps even with a date, so that the reader's Email reader will start a new thread for your message, not just glue it next to something with the same subject in the past.

• If you are responding to a previous message, be sparing when you quote from the original message, and make sure that the quote is identified as such, usually with << >> markers. A short header starting with Re: and identifying the topic is also acceptable.

• If there is more than one subject to discuss, consider sending separate messages; they are free and quick. And the reader may want to forward the message to another person.

• Don't crosspost the same message to the entire company, unless it is truly important. Target your messages carefully. In fact be very careful with multiple addresses; usually have the other addressees as blind copies, otherwise the reader's display is filled with addresses and the message is someplace out of sight down the bottom.

Formating the Text

• Summarise your message in the first sentence or the first paragraph.

• If you have an attachment, use the attach facility, not the include. If include is used then the text of the message may get garbled, and the included material may not be usable.

• Attachments should only be sent if essential and should be described clearly with the name of the software used to handle it.

• Take a separate Paragraph for each point. And if there are many points then have sub-headings. If it is very long, then have a list of contents.

• There should be a blank line space between paragraphs; just press Return twice.

• If you want to use single spacing and to start a new line, start that line with a space character or a fullstop .

  . thus
  . and thus
  

• Text should be allowed to word-wrap at the end of the line; do not press Return; let the system take you to the next line. The text will then reformat to a different margin setting when displayed or printed the other end.

• Do not indent or tab; the message is held in ASCII (DOS-Text) and if reformatted the format collapses.

• Avoid special characters, particular if your message will be read by someone not in your same country. UKP or USD are the usual currency conventions.

• If you use a wordprocessor to compose a message, save it to DOS/ASCII to remove the control characters. When you upload the file into your message, check it for things that have gone wrong in the formatting and correct them at that stage.
  Hint: You can highlight the text to be sent, copy it, then paste into the Email form. This is quick and accurate.

• Although this is not a published masterpiece, you must always read it through, correct the typos, and make sure that the reader is going to understand what you want to say.
  There is a school of thought that you should take as much care as if you were writing a letter.

Things Forbidden

• Temper your tone to suit the relationship and the purpose of the Email. Don't use Email to avoid issues; some things need to be said one-to-one.

• Email should not be used for invites or responses to formal events like weddings and funerals. It is fine for informal invitations and letters of thanks.

• Do not send a message written in CAPITAL LETTERS. It is the Email equivalent of shouting and I know you do not mean to do that.

• Avoid abusive or inflamatory language.

• As a contrast, try and say something nice in every message and get the reader on your side.

• Avoid Weblish/cyberspeak. There are a lot of very funny abbreviations like LOL, BTW, IMHO etc but the reader may not know what they mean. And certainly do not abbreviate unless it is perhaps for well known companies like IBM....

• Avoid jargon unless you are really sure all your readers are very familiar with it.

• Generally you should not use any Email format except boring old DOS Text. If you send HTML or pictures or Word Documents in many cases the reader will not be able to read them.

• Avoid transmitting confidential information

• Do not send licenced material, programs etc

• Never run any programs or macros received unless you are absolutely sure they are from a trusted source. And if possible scan the program for virus with an up-to-date virus checker. If in doubt, delete it. About this I am very serious.

• Don't post anything via E-mail which you wouldn't be prepared to say to the person's face.

• If you make any committments or promises by Email you are going to have to live with them.

• Before posting a response, re-read it carefully. Don't send "flame mail", in the heat of the moment.

• Do not send anything you could not defend in a court of law.

	Email is not secure Just watch your language
	Privacy How to keep your secrets

Finishing the Message

• Every message must be signed off, otherwise the reader cannot be sure that it all has been read or printed.

• Most Email packages will allow you to create a standard signature bloack that will be inserted automatically on all your messages. If you have a website, why not put your URL as part of your signature line.

• Finish a report by putting: END

• Read it all through before sending it. Small typing mistakes may entirely change the meaning. Example: Now is not the same as Not!

Off Line Readers

• Email (and forum messages) are much more conveniently and less expensively handled using an Off Line Reader.
  For suitable packages, Click Here

Reading incoming Mail

• You should read your mail at least once each day, preferebly two or three times.

• Always answer mail so that the sender knows that it has been received and read. If by chance someone has sent yhou money, always send an Email to thank them and acknowledge its safe arrival.

• Never answer spam; it only confirms that you exist, or will be fruitless since the return address is often fictitious. Do not worry about it, just hit return and ignore it.

Finding Email Addresses

InfoSpace: http://www.infospace.com/_1_4O3GUJV035TS9KF__info/email1.htm
My Email Address: http://my.email.address.is/
World Email: http://worldemail.com/
For UK/Eire: http://www.lookupuk.com/email.html
MESA: http://mesa.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/
WhoWhere: http://www.whowhere.lycos.com/
411 Locate: http://www.411locate.com/