Creating Effective E-mail

An excellent document about creating effective E-mail is available from

Kaitlin Duck Sherwood Effective E-mail Web Page.

These pages are available locally.

Because of the lack of vocal inflection, gestures, and shared environment, E-mail is not as rich a communication method as a face-to-face or telephone conversation. Your correspondent may have difficulty telling if you are serious or kidding, happy or sad, frustrated or euphoric. (Sarcasm is particularly dangerous to use in E-mail.)

A brief summary of how these and other points can be made more effectively is given below.

• Provide your audience with adequate context:
  • Use meaningful subject lines -- NO BLANK SUBJECT HEADERS.
    • Your mailer should preface the subject line with ``Re:'' or ``RE:'' (for REgarding).
    • Use ``FYI:'' (For Your Information), ``URGENT:'' , ``REQ:'' in header. E.g:

          Subject: URGENT: Internet Lecture Cancelled.
      

  • Quote the E-mail to which you are responding

    If you are referring to previous E-mail, you should explicitly quote that document to provide context.

    Instead of sending E-mail that says:

       yes
    

    Say:

        > Are you going to Woodville 
        > for a drink after lectures?
    
          yes
    

    Most E-mailers let you include previous postings and insert a >

• Be aware of page layout issues.

  Be Succinct or even Terse.

  Try to use:

  • Short paragraphs
  • Lines under seventy-five characters
  • E-mail under twenty-five lines

• Find replacements for gestures and intonation:
  • Asterisks -- for light emphasis.

    Instead of:

       I said that I was going to go 
       last Thursday.
    

    Say:

       I *said* that I was going to go 
       last Thursday.
    

    Or:

       I said that I was going to go 
       last *Thursday*.
    

• Capital letters -- Stronger Emphasis

  Capital letter perceived to be Harsh. -- Mix up general text

   
    > Should I do my coursework? 
  
    yes, you should do your coursework.
  

  is not as striking as:

   
   > Should I do my coursework? 
  
   YES, you SHOULD do YOUR COURSEWORK.
  

• Creative punctuation -- Strong emphasis, pauses and other uses:

   
    > Should I do my coursework? 
  
    Err.... YES, you SHOULD do 
    YOUR COURSEWORK!!!!!.
  

   
    > Should I do my coursework? 
  
    YES, you SHOULD do YOUR 
    !!*&#?**!! COURSEWORK.
  

• Smileys -- an ASCII drawing of a facial expression

Common Smileys

• :-)    Your basic smiley -- inflects a sarcastic or joking statement.

   
  I really like my Internet Computing Lecturer :-)
  

• ;-)    Winking smiley -- inflects a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark.
• :-(    Frowning smiley -- User did not like that last statement or is upset or depressed about something.
• :-I    Indifferent smiley.
• :->    User just made a really biting sarcastic remark.
• :->    User just made a really devilish remark.
• ;->    Winking and devil combined -- A very lewd remark was just made.
• ;-P    Sticking you Tongue Out.

Click here for more smileys