I have to admit, I do most of my communication by e-mail anymore...much more than by phone and many days more than in person. It's so convenient...I don't have to worry about interrupting colleagues or friends while they're at dinner or grocery shopping; I have a written record of my comments or questions and of their replies; I can e-mail late at night in my pjs...
As mentioned in one of my earlier blogposts, most of our communication comes across from nonverbal cues such as tone of voice and body language. Obviously this is not available in e-mail. Thus, sending e-mails to communicate something takes a little more time and effort to make sure that the correct message is being sent. As noted by Marie Mayer, communications specialist at Iowa State University, "E-mail makes it possible to offend so many people at once with one e-mail."
WORKBYTES recently had some great reminders on the etiquette of using e-mail which we might want to pass on to our students.
Don't use all capitals as some people take this to mean you are YELLING AT THEM!
Use a subject line that describes the content of the message.
Be concise as many people do not want to read through a long e-mail.
Use a "signature" which should include your name and contact information.
If you need to send a large attachment, you might want to call or e-mail the recipient first to see if their computer will allow these.
Before sending an e-mail, be sure to read it over again before clicking "send" to make sure it does not contain typos and that it reads the way you want it to.
Comments