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I’ve never really thought about email etiquette. Or at least not for many, many years. So when asked to do a slot on the Dr Pam show tonight on that very subject, it was time to do a bit of hunting around. It’s all very well knowing instinctively what to do, but talking about it is something entirely different.

So, the ones I came across, in case I should need to refer to them again in the future:

• Be careful with irony or sarcasm, especially if you are emailing someone abroad. Your friendly nature might not be understood. Use smilies and frownies if you really really have to, but it would be better just to be clear in the first place.

• Don’t put lots of formatting in your email. It just makes them fatter and you can’t guarantee everyone will be able to read them. Stress words by putting a star on either side. eg ‘I *really* want you to be there’. In short, just use plain text.
• DON’T SHOUT BY TYPING YOUR WHOLE EMAIL IN CAPITAL LETTERS - it’s very rude.
• Always use a subject line so the recipient knows whether or not they want to open your mail (and so they can easily find it again at a later date).
• Be careful how you quote the emails to which you are replying. If you are commenting on just a little bit of the original email, then just quote that section, not the whole thing.
• Send a reply quickly - don’t keep your online friends waiting.
• If you are quoting from a web site and want to send a large chunk of a page, why not just send a link instead? It saves the recipient downloading an enormous email, and takes less of your time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 27th, 2003 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.