In e-mail etiquette, the catchphrase should be: Keep it simple, stupid
On the subject of e-mail etiquette, last issue's column discussed the advisability of keeping messages brief and in plain ASCII text. It's getting to the point that agencies need to establish strict policies to keep government e-mail from getting out of hand, as it has in private-sector organizations.
On the subject of e-mail etiquette, last issues column discussed the advisability Its getting to the point that agencies need to establish strict policies to keep Im not talking about an occasional joke or birthday greeting to an individual, Rarely should you have to read more than the subject line or the first sentence to know Unfortunately, too many people insist on writing paragraphs of filler before they get Attachments are fine if the addressee wants and can handle them. Otherwise they are a Whenever I get a .pdf in the mail, Im tempted to reply in the same fashion by If everybody put Adobe Acrobat files in their messages, mail servers would Internal e-mail in any organization with more than about 20 employees floods in boxes How many important notices get missed because of junk e-mail employees have to wade We put up with the nuisance because e-mail, properly used, improves everyones Good e-mail takes less time to convey useful information than a letter or the Faxing is so far behind e-mail that I dont do it any more. Too many people suffer E-mail that comes in plain text is easy to file, search and archive. Agencies are busy finding convenient new ways to archive their official records via That does not apply, of course, to attachments or messages that are gussied up with so Here are a few rules you might want to consider in developing internal policies on John McCormick, a free-lance writer and computer consultant, has been working with
of keeping messages brief and in plain ASCII text.
government e-mail from getting out of hand, as it has in private-sector organizations.
but about sending things, frequently, to a whole mail list. It borders on spam.
whether to delete the message or what reply to send.
to the point. That makes e-mail a lot like staff meetings.
pain in the hard driveattachments can shelter viruses. Why would any sane user want
a Hypertext Markup Language or Adobe Portable Document Format file in e-mail from a
stranger?
attaching an enormous nonsense file. I often wonder whether it would produce a nasty
response asking why I wasted the other persons time and bandwidth.
simultaneously crash around the world.
with everything from Little League scores (complete with yearly stats in attachments) to
new puppy announcements. These are often general mailings, not even targeted to people who
might be interested.
through every day?
productivity. It eliminates the game of phone tag. It lets us get messages at our
convenience from around the world at any hour of day or night. Unlike voice mail, it can
travel with us almost anywhere.
occasional phone call that actually gets through to a human instead of voice mail.
from the delusion that scanning and faxing a barely readable document will somehow
magically make it clear and legible at the receiving end.
e-mail without messing around with paper, printers or warehouses.
many colors and special fonts that they are difficult to read.
e-mail:
computers since the early 1960s. E-mail him at powerusr@penn.com.
NEXT STORY: Commerce site lists resources for IT training