E-mail Tips

So as in any correspondence whether in print or electronic, there are always some general guidelines and I thought this week I would share some things that I have learned from using e-mail.

• Probably the most important is to not write all in CAPS unless you want to appear to be yelling at your reader. This is probably the quickest way to get a bunch of people to respond to an email. ;- ) A better way to emphasize something is with *asterisks*. All caps also makes the text extremely hard to read because of the resolution of computer screens.
• Put a blank line between paragraphs. It makes the message easier to read.
• Use asterisks (*), hyphens (-), or underscores (_text_) to emphasize text.
• Use angle brackets ( > ) to indicate you are quoting someone.
• Use emoticons sparingly, but they are great to give your message some personality. Writer smiling :-)
  Writer winking ;-)
  Writer frowning :-(
  Writer surprised :-0
• Acronyms are good, but don't get carried away.
  BTW (by the way); IMO (in my opinion), OTOH (on the other hand),
  LOL (laugh out loud), ROFL (rolling on floor laughing),
  TIA (thanks in advance), WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
• Remember once you push the send button (in most cases) it is gone. It's a good idea to check over your email for typos and are the right files attached. Also it is a good rule of thumb to only send info to those that have a need to know, not everyone you know.
• Use a clear subject line. The subject line is the only thing that gives your reader an idea of what the message is about and whether they should read it now, later, or put it in the trash. A lot of people also set their e-mail programs to segregate their mail based on the subject line, so you could end up in the wrong folder.
• Send a "Thanks, I got your message." This way folks know you got the e-mail. (IMO A little bit of courtesy goes a long way.)
• Use one subject for each e-mail. This allows your reader to act on the e-mail by filing it in an appropriate folder or deleting. It is hard to file e-mail with many subjects.
• Probably one of the best ideas: Avoid attachments. It is easier to cut and paste directly to an e-mail than make your reader open an attachment for which they may not have the program or risk infection from a virus.