Student E-Mail Tips

1. Check e-mail addresses carefully

When you are sending e-mail, check the recipient's e-mail address carefully. If you get even one letter, number or squiggle wrong, it will not work.

If you are unlucky, your e-mail could end up with the wrong person. You may just happen to match somebody else's e-mail address, or the mail may end up with an e-mail administrator somewhere. Be careful your e-mail does not contain potentially embarrassing information.

2. Use your e-mail address book

All modern e-mail software includes an "address book" facility, where you create shorthand names (called aliases or nicknames) for longer e-mail addresses. You add addresses to your address book manually or when you receive mail from somebody. Use this facility because it reduces the chance of you making a mistake when typing an e-mail address.

3. Add the e-mail address last

When you write an e-mail message, your e-mail software usually prompts you to type in the recipient's address first, followed by the message subject and text. But for important e-mail, leave the address blank while you write the message. This way, if you mistakenly click the "Send" button too soon, your e-mail software will complain because you have not provided the address yet. This gives you the chance to write, edit and review carefully what you write before sending it.

4. Check attachment file names

When you send an e-mail message with attachments, your e-mail software includes the name of each attachment as part of your message.

5. Don't put it in writing

E-mail is fast, convenient and efficient. Although it sometimes seems informal and chatty, remember that you are putting things in writing.

Avoid sarcasm, criticism or anything that you would not like to see quoted back at you by your worst enemy. Remember that anything you write can be published, saved, copied, forwarded, written to a backup tape, and used "in evidence against you"!

6. Check who is receiving your replies

When replying to e-mail from somebody else, check whether you are replying only to the original recipient or to all the original recipients. You need to check this every time because the original sender can nominate the reply address, which could be an entire list of people.

7. Send personal e-mail from home

Do not use the College e-mail system to send confidential personal e-mail, and urge your friends not to send confidential e-mail to you at College. Student and staff e-mail should not be considered as private.

8. Use Bcc to hide your recipient list

People do not like their e-mail addresses made public because it exposes them to junk mail. So if you are sending a message to an entire list of people, hide their addresses from everybody else by using your e-mail software's "Bcc" feature.

9. Don't argue

Do not get caught up in e-mail arguments, especially on public mailing lists. Ask yourself, "Would I say this face to face if I was in a room with all these people?" If not, then do not hide behind the false courage that e-mail appears to give.

10. Don't believe everything you read

Based on 10 Tips circulated by EdNA YakNet Project

01 May, 2000