ON LINE ETIQUETTE

 

Electronic communications can often be a frustrating experience if you do not follow some simple rules of "On-line Etiquette." Listed below are several suggestions for users of e-mail and the Internet. Very often, your on-line messages reflect your electronic personality, so when sending electronic mail keep the following in mind: 1. All but very brief messages should be answered off-line (using word processing) to prevent tying up a busy phone/system. Get online and offline as quickly as possible.

2. Make your "Subject" as descriptive as possible. This is especially worthwhile when you have an on-going message on a certain subject. "Reply" is insufficient as a subject header since the reader may not know what it refers to.

3. Always include the "Addressee" in the message or subject line. This is especially useful when there are several teachers sharing the same e-mail box at a particular school. It makes it easier for the teacher receiving the message to forward it to the correct person.

4. Always sign your name and the location from where you send the message. Giving your electronic signature helps others to reach you at the correct e-mail address. (Most of the time your address will appear at the top of the message.)

5. When answering your e-mail, restate the question that you are answering. Because of turn-around time, it happens that the answer "Great idea! I am interested!" could be misinterpreted completely when the original message is forgotten. It is better to say "Your idea of having students share family stories is wonderful. Let's start ..."

6. Acknowledge receipt of messages or files. It is good manners and helpful to the sender as e-mail is still not fool proof.

          7. Check your e-mail at least twice a week and reply, even if it’s only a line or two. It is important to keep the communication going. It is very frustrating to agree to participate in a project and then never to receive another message.

8. Delete your e-mail once it has been read to avoid taking up space on your server/hard drive. You might want to save it to a disk to use later on in the project product (web page, manual, etc.)

9. Do not expect an answer back in less than 48 hours. Unless there is an emergency deadline to meet, people do not check their e-mail hourly, so give it a few days for the reply to be sent back.

  10. When sending a large file advise the receiver of this so that enough disk space can be anticipated and the length of time to "download."   1

11. Observe the normal courtesy in your use of language. Do not publicly criticize other users.

  

Prepared by Sheila O. Gersh, Ed.D.Ó sogcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu