Questions and Answers

What is Netiquette?

Netiquette means Net Etiquette, or “minding your manners on the Internet”. There are certain general rules that form the basis of courtesy and good behaviour when using electronic mail. By following these simple rules of Netiquette, you can avoid giving the wrong impression or accidentally offending or inconveniencing someone else.

Avoid being misunderstood!

The biggest problem with electronic mail is that, unlike personal meetings or conversations, the recipient cannot hear the tone of your voice. He/ she cannot judge whether you are joking, being humorous or being perfectly serious, except by reading your text.

Personal traits don’t translate very well into text. It's all too easy to give an impression that is completely different from the one you intended, especially if you dash off a quick E-mail without really thinking about how it could be interpreted by someone reading it for the first time.

How many times have you poked fun at someone or cracked a joke? In person, it’s easy to tell that you’re kidding. That twinkle in the eyes gives the game away! But send E-mail in the same style and all those visual clues are lost. Therefore you should avoid using a form of expression that could result in ambiguity or doubt arising in the mind of the recipient.

Sarcasm especially can very easily be taken the wrong way and should not to be used in routine E-mails to anyone except your friends (who hopefully understand your sense of humour!), because customers and others may not give you the benefit of the doubt. A lot of damage can be done with a careless choice of wording in E-mail.

Smileys

There are some ways in which you can “qualify” E-mails to let the recipient know that you are only joking. The use of emoticons or “smileys” can denote your feelings or expressions. They are usually avoided in formal communications unless you know the recipient quite well. You should use a thoughtful choice of wording instead, to ensure that no misunderstanding arise. Common smileys are:

:-) - I’m joking!

:o) - clownish grin

:-( - I’m unhappy

;-) – Wink

:-| - wry expression

:-/ - downbeat expression

What, that strange punctuation doesn’t make sense? Spin them 90 degrees to see a face! The appropriate use of a smiley can be the hallmark of a skilled E-mail professional. However some people just don't understand them and will be bemused if they read them in your E-mails, so use with caution. Examples of use:

Well it’s difficult at the best of times, especially when you’re expected to have three operating systems running on your computer like I am :-/

Sorry about my error. One day I’ll get a proper job :-)

This computer crashed yet again and all my work was lost :-(

Libel

It is essential that E-mail — even internal E-mail — contain no disparaging comments about others, especially competitors, as these can be constituted as damaging libel. Simply because the mail is “electronic” does not mean that a hard copy will not be produced, somewhere. Furthermore, legal precedents have now been set concerning the transmission of damaging E-mail on an internal network as well as on Usenet.

In fact, as people have discovered to their cost, private E-mails have a nasty habit of making public appearances, so be very careful what you say (and who you say it to).

THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT!

Other style tips: the use of capital letters in an E-mail is called “shouting” and can cause offence. It is difficult to read, causing the reader to stand back. So AVOID TYPING SENTENCES IN CAPITALS AS THIS MAY ANNOY THE RECIPIENT.

Presently the use of HTML text (marked-up text) is not universally liked and can be seen as inconsiderate. Depending on their software, the recipient may not be able to view HTML- so they will see all the mark-up code as well. Unless you know for sure that HTML has been “enabled”, use plain text instead. HTML is fine amongst friends though.

>> Quoting

When replying to an E-mail, most software enables the previous message to be re-quoted again in the reply. This helps to remind the recipient of what he/she wrote before. The re-quote is often preceded by a > mark. There is no need to requote lengthy messages, so be selective, and "snip" out any unnecessary parts.

>Assuming that you have now received the goods, I would be pleased if you would >arrange to ship them to our main distribution warehouse without further >delay. The payment for the Pro-Forma Invoice went through without problems so >as far as I know the shipping arrangements as previously agreed should still >enable them to be delivered by the month end.

Hi, we can confirm that the goods are on the way to you. Sorry for the delay.

Signatures

E-mails can usually be terminated in a signatures (or .sig for short) which should be in the format of

Dash dash space carriage-return

Followed by your name, E-mail address and any other information you are to include. Four or five lines is the norm. and it can contain a subtle advert:

--
Amaryllis Design www.amaryllis.co.uk
Providing a Total Internet Package
SME & Industry specialist
E-mail arw@amaryllis.co.uk

The dash-dash-space separator ensures that your signature is not requoted in a response.

Bold stress

If you want to emphasise text in an E-mail, there are several ways of doing so. Surround a word with asterisks if you want to write it in “bold”. For example, “the tax we pay on petrol is *outrageous*.”

Use underscores to underline or italicise a word or expression: “Follow these instructions _very carefully_ to avoid any further problems.”

However, emphases such as bold or underline are rarely seen in “professional” E-mails, which usually adopt a measured tone through a better choice of words. Think twice before emphasising text this way, as it sometimes also implies a tone of irritation, impatience, assertiveness or annoyance, which might not be what you really mean to say.

If you follow these generally-accepted rules of Netiquette you will help avoid any problems or misunderstandings arising when you send and receive E-mails to professional users as well as friends.

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