What should I know about e-mail netiquette?
All UW Oshkosh faculty, staff, and students have email accounts. With the UW Oshkosh network, it is possible to send email to individuals on campus and around the world. Although this resource should be used responsibly and professionally, it is possible to make mistakes. To locate an individual's email address, look in the UW Oshkosh Directory first.
An important note about email attachments: If you ever receive an email with an attachment from someone you do not know very well, do not open the attachment. This is especially true if the attachment has an .exe (executable) extension. These are very often viruses that can seriously damage your computer's operating system and files.
Email writing tips
Are you new to the world of electronic communication? A word to the wise: think before you send. Like any correspondence, email messages should be composed carefully to convey the intended message. The reader of the message does not have access to the normal visual or auditory cues of a conversation. A tongue-in-cheek message or a joke may be easily misinterpreted in an electronic format.
Here are some email writing tips:
- Never use ALL CAPS. It is the electronic equivalent of SHOUTING.
- Grammar. The accepted rules relating to grammar and spelling still prevail. Use the spell checker in your email application or maybe compose your email in Word first and use the grammar checker as well.
- Salutations (the dying art in email). You may consider it a memo; others may consider it a personal communication, so try to use Dear Nick or Dear Mr. Fyooreeno unless you are emailing your friends or close family.
- The Subject box (getting your message read). Most people get lots of email every day, and many tend to skim their inboxes quickly. If you want your email to be read, try to highlight its importance with a subject line that will pique curiosity. Try to avoid ALL CAPS as it is seen as SHOUTING and is often interpreted as spam (unwanted solicitations or junk email).
- The message (short but sweet). Two or three short paragraphs is usually the maximum most people can (or want to) digest at one sitting. (Unless this is a personal email, of course.) Mimic the tried-but-true Who What Where When and Why - this makes a message easy to read and digest.
- Attachments (less is more). Try to remember that not everyone has a super fast connection. There are many folks still putting along the Internet on a 56k modem connection. If you send someone a huge attachment it could take a long time to download - a source of great frustration. So unless it is vital to your communication, try to avoid attachments.
- Little things (that mean a lot). Always include a phone number and Web address, if you have one, at the bottom of your email. Many people have a signature that automatically appears at the bottom of every email.
- Other tips. Break up your email into smaller paragraphs and use asterisks for bolding (not every email program accepts traditional bolding, so to be *sure*, you can use asterisks).
