Email Etiquette: Are you getting it right?

To be a good network citizen and to protect yourself and others, follow these guidelines when sending electronic mail.

What to Do

Write carefully. Once you send an email message, you cannot take it back or make it disappear. The reality is that your messages may be saved for a very long time. They may also be read inadvertently by others, or forwarded to others without your knowledge.

Use upper and lowercase text. Using all uppercase letters means SHOUTING. SEE WHAT I MEAN? Most people finding it annoying and harder to read.

Sign your messages with at least your name. It’s nice to add your email address, too, since some email programs make it difficult to see who the sender of the message was.

Address your messages carefully. Some addresses may belong to a group, even though the address appears to belong to just one person.

Use the To, Cc, and Bcc fields correctly. Here are a couple of simple guidelines:

1. When sending to several people who know each other, it’s okay to put their addresses in the To field.
   
2. When sending to many people who don’t know each other, put their addresses in the Bcc field instead. (Why? Addresses in the To field are visible to all recipients. Addresses in the Bcc field are not. Using the Bcc field means you’re protecting the email addresses, not sharing them broadly.)